Tode, leader of the Deviants, has decided that that big Celestial mothership out in orbit has to go, and sends up a giant bomb ship on a suicide mission. Meanwhile, NASA is also curious and sends up a shuttle to take photos of the ship. Meanwhile, the rest of the Eternals are busy in the Uni-Mind ritual, so Sprite is left to detect the danger and decides to enlist the help of the Forgotten One, a nameless Eternal exiled by Zuras for his pride and meddling in human affairs (and implied to be the source of various hero myths, I think he was made to be explicitly the source of the Gilgamesh story in later non-Kirby stories).

Sprite creates a space-suit and ship for the Forgotten One and then the representatives of the three races of Earth converge on the ship of the One Above All, who acts quickly and efficiently by switching the crews of the three ships, letting them each fulfill their missions after a fashion.

I think these side-stories in this series are often better than the main action with Ikaris and the others. Kirby clearly had a vast mythology that he only started to explore, and this issue has a nice sense of wonder and discovery.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 17-page story.

Published 1977

This issue reprints FANTASTIC FOUR #67 (1967), the second half of the storyline that introduces Him. It was mentioned in the KIRBY COLLECTOR a while back that this was a bit of a turning point on Kirby’s silver age run at Marvel, as his concept for this story was turned on its head when the first half was scripted, and after this point he created very few memorable new characters for Marvel in the next three years (while of course doing the concept art that would form the basis of the Fourth World).

Despite being a bit of a mid-course correction it’s still an entertaining story, as the FF work on how to follow the mysterious scientists who have kidnapped Alicia in order to use her blindness and artistic ability to study the mysterious creation in the “cocoon”.

That’s a great four-panel zoom on Alicia there. And of course Reed with his “working hard” beard growth.

Reed’s able to duplicate the wristband of the scientists (interestingly using technology that is pretty clearly nanotechnology, I believe several years before the expression existed) and the boys journey to the Citadel of Science and manage to rescue Alicia just as the cocoon opens and a golden figure who departs from a world not ready for him, destroying the Citadel in the process.

Joe Sinnott inks the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1974

Kirby begins another story in this issue, although one he wouldn’t be around to finish. T’Challa has been having dreams of an impending menace, as he seems to have new ESP powers following his exposure to the vibranium mound the previous issue, from which he’s still recovering.

Another of the royal family, Khanata, is captured by the mysterious Kiber, forcing T’Challa to go against medical advice and again don the costume of the Panther to rescue him.

This last bit of the Panther’s saga at Kirby’s hand isn’t my favourite, mostly because I know we never got Kirby’s ending to it. Kirby does still show a lot of enthusiasm in parts, though, so the art is nice.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story and Joe Sinnott inks the cover.

Published 1978

Reprints of the Inhumans backup get to the tale of Black Bolt in this story from THOR #148 (1968). First it’s established that he’s a beloved ruler who keeps his people safe. Then we look back in time on the Historikon and find out that when he was an infant his ability to manipulate energy and matter was even greater than it is now, but he had a scream outside the sonic range that brings the house down.

Of course his own powers protect him, but obviously something is going to have to be done to protect everyone else from him.

I always thought the ideas behind the origin of Black Bolt were intriguing, but we really didn’t get more than a hint of them in these little 5-page snippits. A shame, as he’s a great character.

Joe Sinnott inks the 5-page story.

Published 1981

Anyway, as their second issue opens, the Forever People find themselves attracting attention as the Super-Cycle is blocking traffic. They phase-out to another area where they meet a young boy and his uncle, who Beautiful Dreamer pacifies by making them seem like clean-cut kids, and set up with them for a while. However, an attack from Apokolips in the form of the power vampire Mantis, who Darkseid hopes will generate enough fear to bring out the Anti-Life Equation (and thus introducing the very creepy DeSaad), forces the kids to bring in the Infinity Man to defeat Mantis.

It’s a good story, although once the Infinity Man stuff starts it’s like a whole different thing, and you want to see more of the Forever People and their story, so I guess it’s not surprising that Kirby wrote him out after a few issues.

Colletta inks the 22-page story and the cover, which has a photo collage background.

Published 1971