Category Archives: Weapons & Devices

Day 21: The Z-Ray!

Like kids grabbing a handful of candy while trick-or-treating Apokoliptian agent Simyan snags a fistful of mini-clones while his partner Mokkari zaps the tiny human replicas with the tranquilizing Z-Ray, which they hope will be as effective with (ahem) larger, more aggressive duplicates.

Yeah, Jack used just about every letter of the alphabet — English and Greek! — to name his myriad devices, whether weapons or whatnot. No doubt his criteria was: As long as it sounds cool and futuristic, it works!

If I may make an aside here, I need to confess I pondered over whether to include such apparently superfluous items as the Z-Ray in this ongoing chronological catalogue of Kirby Fourth World creations. First I considered (self-servingly) I might need to get pretty darn minute to fill 365 daily entries… I mean, c’mon, three hundred and sixty-five!… but then it occurred to me, it’s only proper and respectful of Jack’s creative output to put it all down, to begin to establish an encyclopedia, if you will, down to the nitty-gritty details of his imagination. You may say, “Really, Cooke: A ‘Green K Paralysis Ray’?” But I contend it speaks not only of his ceaseless fertile mind, but also to the actual value of his work. Super-hero accessories are potential merchandising; just ask George “The Source, I mean, Force” Lucas. So maybe, by being exact and as precise as can be, this can be a resource for multiple use — as scholarship, as testament, as inventory — all fit for a King.

Day 17: Alpha-Bomb!

The Hairies use “sensitive indicators” to locate a hidden explosive — an Alpha-Bomb, set to decimate the “new, mobile scientific society,” mayhap an Apokolipian-built weapon of mass destruction? — hidden in the Whiz Wagon. And we begin to sense GBS Morgan “Smiling Cobra” Edge has sent Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion to the Wild Area on a suicide mission as unwitting delivery men of said killer device.

(Looking at these panels, despite Jimmy and Supes’ faces altered by the DC home office (longtime Man of Steel artist Al Plastino did the thankless art chore), Kirby dynamism abounds in Superman’s figure, reminding us that Jack’s version of the publishing house’s flagship character was glorious indeed… unfortunately, too often, as seen notoriously in Forever People #1, the super-hero’s head and body were completely redrawn, Plastino’s finishing erasing all evidence of the King’s verve and energy, no doubt evident in the original pencils, now lost to the sands of time.)

Day 10: Green K Paralysis Ray!

Trigger-happy Yango the Outsider zonks Supes not once, but twice, with the Hairie-built Green K Paralysis Ray Gun, in the first two issues of Kirby’s JO run. How fortuitous that it contain green Kryptonite, which is lethal to Superman (until the events of Jan. ’71’s Superman #233, natch)… But if the Man of Steel is familiar with The Project and a friend to the Hairies, why have they prepared a weapon to be used against him (or Supergirl, I presume)? Must be that Yango is just a mean person, eh?