Jack Kirby did everything in comics, staying with comics in its darkest days and brightest nights. He covered every genre, including romance, which he co-invented. He developed new…
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Thor and the Mighty Thor
In Melbourne there was a nursing home which was the premier residence for holocaust survivors. The home understood their issues, these people who feared their nightmares: not the…
They Can Only Fly
There are writers who complain all Hawkman can do is fly. They say that makes him boring. If you could fly in real life, you would not sulk…
The Coming of the Kid Heroes
Costumed kid heroes sort of begin with Robin, who first appeared in April 1940. Super-powered sidekicks sort of begin with Toro, who appeared in “Autumn 1940,” though with…
Defenders of the Earth
I confess a certain sympathy for the smaller superhero universes. Whether Dell’s THUNDER Agents and UNDERSEA Agents (if they’d have lasted, SPACE Agents were probably next), Gold Key’s…
The Real Reason
There are things in comics which we talk about and take sides on, and yet this very attention makes us miss some obvious points. We get so caught…
Hating Captain America
There have been about 50 red-white-and-blue superheroes (RWBs). They came thick and fast in World War II, but from the Silver Age on they have mostly been…
So You Want To Be Hawkeye
So you want to be Hawkeye. You want to take a bow and arrows and fight crime. Fair enough. But is it really possible? And if it’s possible, can you afford it? Being Hawkeye might not be as expensive as being Batman or Iron Man, but it’s not cheap. Let’s assume you have the fitness, […]
Legacy
When comic books began, they were for children at home and soldiers at the front. For the first group they were aspirational, for the second group they were…
Oliver Queen, Family Man?
We have all seen the discomfort comic book editors have with family. Spider-Man never was married after Joe Quesada did a deal with Mephisto and blamed Peter Parker…
The First Black Superhero, the First Black Comic Book Hero, and the First Lobo
It took over half a century between the Black Panther’s first appearance (Fantastic Four July 1966) and the movie. In the meantime he has appeared in various comics…
An Avengers Secret
If you haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War, your bucket list isn’t done. But the movies have missed a theme of the Avengers and its spin-offs in the comics….
Jack Kirby and The Kid
Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko are the comic-book artists best known for “other” worlds. But where Steve Ditko’s “other” was strange (pun intended), Kirby’s was overwhelming. Ditko’s…