For a brief period a few years back, Marvel had a format they called the “100 Page Monster”, where they’d back up a regular monthly book with a whole lot of reprints. In this example, they included a reprint of AVENGERS #150, which in turn reprinted part of AVENGERS #16 from 1965 (I expect in 20 years we’ll get a reprint of AVENGERS v3#27 in AVENGERS v5#32, and so the cycle of life continues).

This story is of course “The Old Order Changeth”, the first major change in the team line-up, with all the founding members taking a break, leaving Captain America to lead the team with three reformed villains, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. While the departing members do the recruiting (which involved going through the mail to select two of the members. I wonder who else wrote in and didn’t make the cut), Cap and Rick Jones make their way back from foiling Zemo’s plans in the Amazon.

This scene always cracks me up, as they have Cap rush ahead as an excuse for a few action panels, and then it turns out he decided to wait for Rick anyway.

This reprints 12 of the original 20 pages, with the first few pages (wrapping up the battle with the Masters of Evil) cut, as well as some later pages/panels. This issue was Dick Ayers doing finishes over Kirby layouts.

Published 2000

For their big 400th issue, SUPERMAN featured many artists doing short stories and pin-ups. Jack Kirby was among them, doing a pin-up of Superman outracing a space shuttle. Terry Austin inked the piece.

It’s a very nice piece, a good mix of Kirby’s style with the classic Superman look, unlike what we got when Kirby was drawing an actual Superman book in the 1970s.

Published 1984

The original FF villain, the Mole Man, returns for a third go-round, this time sinking whole city blocks out of New York to his subterranean domain. While the rest of the FF go to investigate, Sue sees a photo of an escaped convict and goes to the police station. The block she’s on is sunk by the Mole Man and she’s taken hostage, and the rest of the team have to rescue her, including a brief side-track of having to keep the Avengers from interfering (as the “Marvel Universe” concept became more common in this era).

The FF escape, only Sue somehow gets injured in an explosion, and only one doctor can save her. It turns out to be the fugitive whose photo Sue was looking at earlier, who it turns out is Franklin Storm, father of Sue and Johnny, believed by most people to be dead. He’s able to save Sue, and we’re promised more on him next issue.

FF was a pretty good book at this point, just on the verge of a big leap in quality to the peak material. I especially like how Kirby was drawing the tech stuff at this time, like the scooters the Mole Man’s army uses, and Reed’s various devices.

Chic Stone inks the cover and story, a few issues into his run as FF inker. While I love Stone’s Thor and X-Men work of the period, his FF didn’t quite work for me (although he was better than the regular inkers right before and after him). For some reason his FF just doesn’t seem as bold as those other book. The big problem is how Ben Grimm looks in here. Seems a bit sparse, cartoony, without the texture that Sinnott would be bringing a year later. Actually, ignoring how he inks Ben, most of the rest looks pretty decent.

Published 1964

MARVEL SUPER ACTION launched to carry the reprints of the CAPTAIN AMERICA series, beginning with this reprint of 1968’s #100. It’s an edited reprint, with one splash page in the middle missing and parts of the last two pages.

Following a recap of his classic return from hibernation in the pages of AVENGERS, we catch up with Cap and the Black Panther captured by Baron Zemo and agent, Irma Kruhl (in reality Agent 13, still otherwise unnamed) cleverly disguised with glasses and a beret, which seems to fool Cap easily enough). She manages to destroy the control panel to Zemo’s space ray, then flees with Cap and the Panther.

After a brief encounter with Zemo’s bodyguard Destruction (remember Kirby wasn’t really creating interesting new characters for Marvel at this point), Cap unmasks Zemo as an imposter, Zemo’s former pilot, who is killed by his own men, who are very picky about which Nazi they serve. They surrender at this point, and our heroes leave, with Cap offering the Panther a spot on the Avengers.

It’s kind of a weak story, but some nice action scenes and machinery.

Syd Shores, who had inked some of the 1940s Cap artwork, inks the story. I didn’t really like it too much in this issue, with a bit too much feathering, but it had its moments, and I like his stuff a few issues later more. Shores also inked the cover, although it was heavily modified prior to its original publication (especially a lot of the shading on the Cap figure and the details on his face), and that’s the version used here. The unaltered version can be seen in the ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA reprint and it’s been shown in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR.

Published 1977

In 1982, after numerous format changes, DC revived ADVENTURE COMICS as a (mostly) reprint digest for a year beginning with this issue, including several S&K Sandman stories in the run (the same ones previously reprinted in the back pages of FOREVER PEOPLE). Because of the format of the digest, the artwork was modified throughout (golden age pages were wider, so parts of the art were taken out or expanded to fit the digest pages). And of course they’re tiny. But they were a good place to read some stuff you hadn’t seen before.

“The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep” was from ADVENTURE COMICS #80 (1942). In this 10-page story, Sandman and Sandy have to deal with Felix Black, a rich man who has been driven crazy by his long-time inability to sleep. He uses his copious free-time at nights to become an expert and crime and recruits some henchmen to commit some robberies while keeping everyone else awake. Also involved is a struggling detective friend of Wes Dodds, who has trouble staying awake.

Eventually the detective gets kidnapped, and Sandman and Sandy trail the car through the city and rescue him. Great fight scene.

In the end Black finds his condition cured and renounces his life of crime, while the detective has more work than he can handle by taking credit for the arrest. While the format leaves something to be desired, and doesn’t really show off the S&K linework which was really sharp at this point, you can see the power in the storytelling and the fast-moving plot. You’re still better off getting the FOREVER PEOPLE issues for these stories (#7 in this case).

Published 1982

In this issue, Thena of the Eternals is sent by Zuras to confront the Deviant Zakka, who is behind the sudden appearances of various creatures from the past into human cities. Thena takes along Karkas and the Reject, the recently rescued Deviant mutates from the regular series. Thena uses her powers to disguise Karkas and they’re off. Thena and the Reject quickly encounter Jack the Ripper pulled forward in time, and stop him from killing before he vanishes. Meanwhile, Karkas is attacked by Atilla the Hun and one of his men, forcing him to reveal his true appearance.

He defeats them but terrifies everyone else, yet he still turns down Zakka’s offer to join him, just as Thena and the Reject return. Tracking down Zakka, they face a final battle with Tutanix, an ancient Deviant mutate brought forward in time who first turns on Zakka and then battles Karkas and the Reject.

As you can see, Kirby’s just tossing out concepts all over the place in this one, with a full 34-pages (then considered double size) to work with. It’s a fun story, although it does point up how much wound up unexplored in THE ETERNALS, even with 19 issues and this annual. I’m sure Kirby could have done a lot more with Karkas in particular, but I think this is the only time he appeared outside of his introductory story.

Mike Royer inks the story, Frank Giacoia inks the cover.

Published 1977

Just before Kirby left Marvel, they launched a new pair of books giving solo features to some supporting characters, with Kirby doing a feature in each. ASTONISHING TALES featured Kirby drawing Ka-Zar. Sam Grainger inks the 10-page story, I think the only time he inked Kirby. Interesting look, very smooth and dark, I liked it.

Anyway, Kraven is brought in from Spider-Man as a villain for Ka-Zar, which is appropriate (and Kirby wasn’t creating too many new characters for Marvel at the time). Kraven decides that his most challenging hunt would be Ka-Zar’s pal, Zabu the sabretooth tiger. So he heads down to the Savage Land, manages to trap Ka-Zar in a pit and takes off with Zabu. Ka-Zar pursues and battles Kraven on his ship.

Despite his best efforts, Ka-Zar is defeated by a tranquilizer spray and tossed overboard. He quickly finds his way up to New York to rescue Zabu.

While a bit weak, especially compared to some of the work he’d soon be doing for DC, this was an interesting start, even though Kirby only lasted two half-issues on this feature. I thought his drawing of the Ditko designed Kraven worked surprisingly well, and I liked the various beasts and backgrounds he drew in the Savage Land in this issue.

Published 1970

Only one Kirby entry in this issue, Steppenwolf, uncle of Darkseid. I think the main figure is mostly based on a re-design of the character for the toyline or SUPER POWERS series, but still looks nice. The classic Steppenwolf can be seen in the background images, including a scene from “The Pact”.

Terry Austin handles the inking chores this time around, so that looks sharp.

Published 1986