For a Fourth of July special, I’m going to be posting a number of Kirby covers with star-spangled, patriotic or US armed forces themes (couldn’t find anything for Canada Day…). Quite a bit of Captain America, as you can imagine. Stay tuned later in the day for more.

Let’s start with an INVADERS cover, inked by Frank Giacoia, which features the sentinel of Liberty up against the nazi vampire.

Published 1976

Big issue this time, even the cover says it’s a “King-Size Kirby Blockbuster” (although not one they wanted to put a Kirby cover on…). The whole cloning thing kicks off into high-gear this issue, with a look at villains Mokkari and Simyan and their theft of genetic technology from the Project, twisting it to their own ends. Of course, you have to wonder about the Project in general and their cloning of Jimmy Olsen, without informing him, into an army of Olsen clones.

In the Project we meet the original Newsboy Legion, as well as the Olsen clones, finding out some of them have been stolen. Mokkari and Simyan report to Darkseid, with one of those great brief Darkseid moments. “Death can eclipse life! A great lie can smash truth!”

Their most powerful clone, laced with kryptonite, breaks out and attacks the Project, where Superman finds out that it’s a giant Jimmy Olsen clone. The elder Newsboys unleash their own secret weapon in response, a clone of the recently deceased in the line of duty Jim Harper, their old Guardian.

Kirby throws a bunch of ideas out in this issue, some of which were probably considered even stranger 35 years ago. It’s nice stuff, very bold and in-your-face, although I thought some of his expository dialogue fell flat (the elder Newsboys introducing themselves (“I, Scrapper, became a social worker — but I’m needed here, too”).

Inking on this 22-page story is officially Vince Colletta, but as usual that’s only part of the story. Mark Evanier’s introduction to the tradepaperback reprint of these stories says that this issue was a bit different from the others, as the Superman and Jimmy Olsen figures were adjusted in the pencils by Al Plastino, Murphy Anderson and others, then inked by Colletta (and with Colletta’s frequent background assistant Art Cappello doing more than usual on this story). It does look a little more cohesive than some of the others (which involved paste-ups over the finished art or Anderson penciling and inking the adjusted art), although of course far less than it should have been with a single decent inker following Kirby’s pencils.

Kirby also wrote one of his odd essays in this issue, “The Hairies – Super-Race or Man’s Second Chance”, about his odd little DNAlien biker/hippie community. That’s one of those things I just assume he had bigger plans for that he never got around to.

Published 1971

This is my favourite of Kirby’s DAREDEVIL covers. A pretty girl, an “in your face” action scene, a classic Kirby outstretched hand.

Really good detailing on the building, too. I’m surprised Colletta kept all that in. Hey, come on, I haven’t made a cheap shot at Colletta in ages…

Published 1964

In “Lest Mankind Fall”, Thor and Sif continue their battle with the hordes of Pluto while in the time funnel surrounding the Atomic Research Center, where a mysterious being of power is found within a cocoon.

I like Thor’s indignant “Thy words blaspheme” at the suggestion that anyone claim to have powers to match Odin. He’s such a daddy’s boy.

Speaking of Odin, he sends Balder, heartsick over his feelings about the Norn Queen Karnilla, down to Earth to fetch Odin and Sif, so he’s on hand, with the army, when Thor finally breaks them out of the time funnel, and great battles ensue until Zeus decides to pay attention and enforce the covenant eternal that keeps Pluto in the netherworld. Meanwhile, the cocoon opens.

Action filled issue, very heavy on the big images (four full page splashes), with a few interesting moments. It’s one of those issues where you get a bit of a feeling that the plot was somewhat altered, as was the case for many THOR issues of this period, though I don’t recall any specific examples of unused pages from this story. Still a lot of fun. One thing I noticed was that, rather oddly for such an action filled 1960s Marvel, there were almost no sound effects in the issue. Kind of weird how back then one issue could go overboard on the sound effects and another could not have them at all.

Vince Colletta inked the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1969

The beginning of the story has the end of the big fight against the cosmic powered Hulk robot of the last two issues. That whole thing kind of fizzles out, I think it’s safe to say that Kirby’s heart wasn’t in this plotline as much as most.

The battle does bring the Eternals into a long hidden underground lair, where an ancient enemy has been awakened. Ikaris is pulled under first, and Makarri follows. After Zuras stops a fire with his powers he follows.

He recognizes the enemy as Dromedan the Brain-Snatcher, who is forcing Ikaris and Makarri to fight each other. Zuras frees them of Dromedan’s control and faces off against his old foe.

As I said, the Hulk robot thing ended weak, but the rest of the issue is stronger, especially the bits of Zuras’ character. While obviously sharing some characteristics with previous Kirby god/rulers (Highfather/Odin/Zeus), he’s a very different character in some fundamental ways.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story and Frank Giacoia inks the cover (where “Ikaris” is spelled wrong).

Published 1977

A nice Kirby/Ayers cover, the Avengers facing off against Doctor Doom. I especially like the posing of this cover, with the Avengers getting ready for action and Doom just standing up to them in the foreground, supremely confident.

Published 1966

Another of Marvel’s facsimile reprints of the early 1990s. You know the story, scientist Bruce Banner gets caught in a gamma bomb explosion trying to rescue trespassing teen Rick Jones. In the aftermath Banner finds he turns into a large grey monster at nights and is pursued by the army. Later he’s taken prisoner by the Russian scientist the Gargoyle and manages, as Banner, to defeat him.

While there would be much meddling in the exact direction of the Hulk over the years, a surprisingly large amount of the most essential stuff is laid out in this story, “The Coming of the Hulk”.

The sequence below has been repeated, referenced, traced and referred to countless times in the comics since, but never gets old for me. The transition from panel 1 to 2 is great, with Banner racing towards Jones and then dragging him behind. Panel 4 with Banner just at the edge of the trench when the bomb goes off, a true classic. The hours long scream from panel 6 to 7. That’s some storytelling going on here.

This issue also has an ad for FANTASTIC FOUR with an original early image of the team in their uniforms by Kirby.

Paul Reinman inked the 24 page story. There seems to be some disagreement on the cover, as various sources list Reinman, Roussos and Ayers. Hard for me to tell at the best of times, moreso with just a reprint, but I’m leaning to Reinman.

Published 1991

An excellent Fourth World story, “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin”, as Kalibak runs wild in the streets, attacking the home of Dave Lincoln in his search for Orion. The police respond, led by Dan “Terrible” Turpin, who’s got no time for those “Super Weirdos” taking their war to his streets. I love Turpin in this issue, taking on Kalibak one-on-one.

Eventually Orion and Lightray arrive, having seen the battle on TV, and Orion takes on Kalibak, showing his true face and giving some allusions to their relationship.

The Lightray/Orion interaction is great in this issue, too.

“You saw my face!!”
“I saw scars — both old and new — taken in the cause of New Genesis!”
“You’re a good friend, Lightray.”

Don’t tell me Kirby can’t write.

A 3-page Young Gods story has Fastbak racing the Black Racer trying to rescue Esak from the Para-Demons. Esak has always fascinated me since he has a few odd bits like this in the original comics, and then Kirby brought him in a key role in THE HUNGER DOGS, so I’m sure he had a lot more planned for him if he’d been able to explore it originally.

Reprint backup is “The Stone of Vengeance”, a 9-page S&K Manhunter story from ADVENTURE #77 (1942). Great splash page, with that dark S&K signature inking. The story follows a reportedly cursed stone as it moves from owner to owner, with each new one killing the previous owners, with a great sequence showing that. When it gets to the States, it ends up with a shoeshine boy who is taken prisoner by the Rajah just as Paul Kirk pursues the Rajah’s men from another jewel theft. Of coure it all works out in the end as the bad guys are undone by their own greed.

Mike Royer inks the cover and lead story, Colletta inks the Young Gods story, but it looks pretty good anyway. This issue also has one of the full page ads for KIRBY UNLEASHED.

Published 1972

This is an edited reprint of FF #92 (1969), continuing the Ben Grimm enslaved story. In space, Ben continues to be trained in combat by the faux-gangsters who have captured him. Some of the other slaves are pretty lame (Magno-Man, with a horseshoe magnet for a head, alien species like Rhinogons, Primoids and Cat-Men, which I think you can figure out) so this is clearly at the point where Kirby was saving his better designs for a better outlet. Still a lot of good action with Ben and the aliens, and some of the aliens in the background are kind of cool.

Eventually the training ends, and the games begin, and Ben finds out that the reason the other slaves don’t rebel is that their home planets are threatened if they do.

Meanwhile on Earth, Reed figures out what has happened and sets up the old captured Skrull ship from FF #2, and takes Johnny and Crystal to the rescue (Sue of course being left behind, being a new mother and all).

Two pages edited out, so it’s now an 18-page story. The cover is a modified version of the original, flipped left-to-right and with a few other small changes. Inks by Joe Sinnott.

Published 1977