Kirby by Mark Evanier

Author:Mark Evanier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2017-03-29T04:00:00+00:00

TALES OF SUSPENSE

no. 39

March 1963

Art: Jack Kirby and Don Heck

Marvel Comics

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS

no. 1

May 1963

Art: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

Marvel Comics

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS

no. 7

May 1964

Art: Jack Kirby and “Geo. Bell”

(George Roussos)

Marvel Comics

THE AVENGERS

no. 4

March 1964

Art: Jack Kirby and George Roussos

Marvel Comics

Goodman still wanted a book like DC’s Justice League of America, so Stan and Jack gave him The Avengers. They gathered together (originally) the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the Wasp, and Ant-Man (soon to be Giant-Man) in his various sizes, forming a team of disparate, often bickering heroes. As with Sgt. Fury and other strips, Kirby drew the early issues before handing them off to another artist—in this case, Don Heck.

The most memorable early issue of The Avengers resurrected Captain America and placed him into the pantheon of Marvel super heroes. The star-spangled defender had endured the loss of Simon and Kirby back in the early forties, lasting until an industry-wide trend away from action heroes in the late forties. A brief revival attempt in the fifties had floundered—it wasn’t time for the super heroes to return.

Now that it was, back he came. Another resurrected Golden Age character, Bill Everett’s Sub-Mariner, ventured into chilly arctic waters and came across a block of ice containing the long-frozen form of the “real” Captain America. The Sub-Mariner ripped the frozen crypt free from the iceberg, and it was set adrift toward warmer waters. The Avengers chanced to find it, just as the hero was thawing out.

The science was ridiculous—Stan and Jack would each later blame the other for it—but the character’s impact was undeniable: Captain America was back in all his patriotic glory—and drawn by Jack Kirby! The hero quickly came to dominate the Avengers comic, and soon received his own strip in Tales of Suspense (1964).

Goodman asked for two more titles: a team that might replicate the sales success of Fantastic Four, and another acrobatic hero who might sell as well as Spider-Man. (“Martin was making progress,” Kirby remarked. “He went from imitating others’ successes to imitating his own.”)

For the former, Lee and Kirby came up with The X-Men in 1963, which introduced the concept of mutants into the Marvel repertoire, eventually to great advantage. It was another franchise—a simple premise through which dozens of new characters could be introduced and hit the ground running. The two central themes of Marvel superherodom converged once again: Having great powers could create great problems, and it was occasionally hard to tell the heroes from the villains. Some mutants were good, some were bad, many weren’t certain.

Again, the recollections of the two men would diverge as to how the strip came about, Stan claiming the concept originated with him, Kirby saying he had the idea. By now, that was the norm. So was Jack starting a book, drawing it until it had worked up a good momentum, then handing it off. X-Men would pass through many hands after it left his—some able, some not so able. The comic was

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