Another of Kirby’s many 1970s covers from various Marvel books, the first of his three GHOST RIDER covers, which marked the transition of the character to more of a super-hero from his horror/fantasy roots. Pretty busy cover, but a nice dynamic pose for the main characters. Al Milgrom inks.

Published 1976

Man, Giant-Man had some of the sorriest villains ever. El Toro, with these little tiny horns on his head? Sad.

Still a lot to like on this Kirby/Ayers cover, from Giant-Man’s pose to the details on the various buildings.

Published 1964

In “Where Dwell the Demons” Thor, while searching for Sif in New York, comes across the time funnel surrounding the Atomic Research Center where she vanished. He’s drawn into it as well, where he finds himself battling trollish mutates in a cataclysmic future.

After freeing Sif, he finds out that all a part of a scheme of old nemesis Pluto, while inside the Center a mysterious being in a cocoon awakes. And setting up future stories in Asgard, Odin is still curious about the origin of Galactus.

Fun stuff, I thought the splash pages in this one were especially well done, including the one of the ruined future landscape.

Colletta inks the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1969

An early Daredevil cover by Kirby. I like the Owl’s henchmen on this one, more than I like the Owl himself. And gotta love the classic trapdoor trick. Only a blind man would fall for that.

Inked by Colletta.

Published 1964

It’s Mjolnir mania on this Kirby/Ayers cover, with no less than three enchanted hammers. This is a year after Thor was introduced in the title, a few months before Kirby took over drawing the feature full-time. Great buildings on this cover, and that foreground figure of Thor is really nice.

Published 1963

I dunno, if that’s supposed to be the Washington Monument, the proportions and perspective seem to be a bit screwed up. On the other hand, Ultimo looks pretty cool, and Iron Man never looks better than when he’s covered in Kirby squiggles.

Al Milgrom inks.

Published 1977

A nice Kirby/Brodsky cover introducing the Hulk to the title, first through this guest shot leading to his solo run beginning next issue. There are a lot of great Kirby Hulk images on this run of covers, and this is one of my favourites. Just a very powerful and kinetic image, the movement is so clear you can see this as a storyboard for a movie.

Published 1964

A Kirby/Ayers reprint from STRANGE TALES #102 (1962) in this issue, the second solo Torch story, where we meet the Wizard, a brilliant inventor who for some reason decides that defeating the Human Torch will be his greatest triumph. Just because he’s a genius, doesn’t mean he’s not stupid…

He fakes an accident that only the Torch can rescue him from, and then lures the Torch to his futuristic home and douses the Torch’s flame (this is during that brief period when Johnny had a secret identity, so the flames on his head conveniently stay).

The Wizard then duplicates the Torch’s powers and goes on a crime spree to frame our hero. Fortunately Johnny gets free and then does what he does best, goes running to his big sister for help (and it’s just sad when you get a solo feature and have to go to your sister for help on the second story).

One interesting thing in this story is the depiction of the Wizard’s escape artist routine, which could be dropped in panel-for-panel in a Mister Miracle story from a decade later.

Dick Ayers inks the 13-page story.

Published 1974

From the middle of Kirby’s run of covers for the FF during his mid-1970s stint at Marvel, this has a nice image of Ben with one of his last great sparring partners from the original run on the book. I also like that dragon the Torch is fighting a lot.

Inks by Frank Giacoia (with minor modifications by Marie Severin).

Published 1976

A reprint of X-MEN #5 (1964) in this issue, the 24-page Kirby/Reinman story “Trapped: One X-Man”, with the second round of the ongoing battle with Magneto’s Evil Mutants. As we begin, they’re recovering from their last encounter, which has left Professor X without his powers. A few odd scenes follow, with a visit from Jean’s parents and Cyclops accidentally left in the Danger Room to provide an action sequence.

Shortly thereafter, Magneto has the Toad pose as a competitor in a track meet showing mutant powers in order to lure in the X-Men, hoping to reveal their headquarters.

They unmask him in time, leading to a battle on the subway, and then the Angel is taken prisoner aboard Magneto’s Asteroid M headquarters. The X-Men follow, and are able to prevail and escape thanks to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch being reluctant to follow Magneto’s commands to the point of murdering the X-Men. I wonder at what point it was decided they would join the Avengers? Anyway, the X-Men return home and find out that, among other things, Professor X is a jerk.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of Reinman’s inks compared to some of the other inkers of the era, but he does preserve most of the interesting things in Kirby’s art.

Published 1994