Another of Marvel’s series of cover-to-cover reprints, this one of course the debut of the X-Men and their main villain, Magneto. It’s a pretty compact first issue, with the characters first showing off their powers in a practice session, then introducing themselves to their newest member, Jean Grey. Soon after the first mutant menace that Professor X gathered them to defend mankind against makes his presence known.

I always liked Magneto, I thought Kirby hit the ground running with him and Professor X, while the actual X-Men I thought took a few issues to get both their characters and body language right. Anyway, they manage to drive off Magneto, winning the admiration of the army. That wouldn’t last…

Paul Reinman inks the 23-page story, and Sol Brodsky is usually credited with the inks on the cover, though that’s hardly a consensus. This issue also includes two house-ads, one for a Spider-Man issue and one for SGT. FURY #3, interesting in that it promotes the book as having “the same inimitable style, by the same writer and artist” as the FF, without actually naming the writer or artist.

Published 1991

Kirby concludes the series in this issue, where Darius Drumm first destroys his own world and his followers, and then flies off in his demonic form to scour the Earth.

Brute force on the part of both Silver Star and the army fail to stop Drumm, but Silver Star is ultimately able to use a psychological attack.

This is a really mixed issue, with a few really good scenes but ultimately the climax is just too short, and falls right at the end so we never get to find out what happens next. The art is also kind of variable, it’s almost hard to believe that Kirby drew it all around the same time, with some strong bits and other parts having all the flaws associated with Kirby’s later work.

D. Bruce Berry inks the 20-page story and Mike Thibodeaux inks the cover.

Published 1984

Remember, this and more will be reprinted in the upcoming SILVER STAR GRAPHITE EDITION from TwoMorrows, with part of the proceeds going to the Kirby Museum.

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