Sometimes in comic history, creators that have left behind their original creations, due to cancellation, quitting the company, or just being shifted to other projects, manage to find their way back home. Heck, even Jerry Siegel found himself writing Superman stories in the 50's and 60's, despite having departed his authorship of the character rather VIGOROUSLY in the 1940's. Such is the case with today's entry, detailing the "King of Comics" himself, Jack Kirby, and his third stint working on Captain America!
This, by no means, will be a comprehensive history of Jack Kirby's 70's tenure at Marvel Comics, because there are many resources for you to find out more about that period of Kirby's life... that are FAR better written than a man writing this blog entry on five hours of sleep can offer. But I will give you a fast and furious history of Jack Kirby and Captain America. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the character of famed super-soldier Steve Rogers as early as 1940, but it wasn't until 1941 that the first issue of "Captain America" was released. This partnership continued until Simon and Jack were drafted into service in World War Two. Afterward their tours of duty, they left Timely Comics to work on their own projects. Fast forward to the burgeoning "Marvel Universe" that was launched when Jack Kirby and Stan Lee collaborated with the creation of "Fantastic Four #1". The new characters were introduced with regularity, but Stan and Jack decided to relaunch Cap into the 1960's, first as a fake-out teaser in a Human Torch "Strange Tales" issue, but OFFICIALLY in the well-famed "Avengers #4". This man-out-of-time had a decent run with Lee and Kirby behind the helm, but with Jack Kirby's growing dissatisfaction with his Marvel credits and creative limitations, he departed for the shores of DC Comics in 1970. I'll discuss more about Kirby's achievements at DC at a latter entry, but despite enhanced creative freedom, the sales pressure on Kirby made him return back to Marvel in 1975, and among MANY varied self-created properties, Jack found his way back to the Star-Spangled Avenger.
The series took on a distinctly 70's Kirby tone, with Cap and Falcon having an extended storyline dealing with a struggle against a homegrown terrorist group that was dedicated to creating a "Pure America". There was plenty of crazy Kirby-Tech introduced, such as the "Madbomb", which when detonated, would make the unwashed masses of America turn into raving lunatics from a subliminal signal. (A gimmick I'm sure MANY political pundits on the radio would KILL to have as their own copyright...) And Kirby did reintroduce the threat of Red Skull as only his delectable pen could provide us with, but there were some truly unique highlights in this period.
For example, how fitting is it that Jack Kirby arrived on the title to time with "Captain America #200"... AND in time for the Bicentennial of America?!? Which led to a rather unique tabloid collector's issue...
It basically involved Cap interacting with a juvenile Buddha-type character that managed to thrust Cap into various time periods, searching for the nobility of the American spirit in the darkest of times. You want to see Captain America beat down some "Redcoats"? You got it? Want to see Captain America in the middle of the Civil War... a time where America was split? Hey, have at it! Want to see Captain America in a musical number BEFORE it was even done in the Chris Evans film? ... Not counting the cheat I posted for the picture a few text blocks before, it can be found in this book! You also get a lot of killer pin-ups at the end of the tabloid. While the story is rather... unusual... you can't deny the power that Jack Kirby instilled behind the art, and the sincerity of the scripting.
As if that wasn't cool enough, he took the time to introduce a BRAND NEW threat to the Marvel Universe! You saw him in both Captain America films, played by "Truman Capote"... Yeah, I used his best-known other role as reference because I'm just too lazy to look up the actual actor's name. But you haven't seen the character UNTIL you first met him in Jack Kirby's tenure. Say hello to former Nazi geneticist turned biological nightmare maker... Arnim Zola!
I have one last memory to leave you with for my Jack Kirby 70's Captain America period. This was a book that I spent a handful of years trying to find, because there was a time I was completely obsessive about finding every Magneto appearance in comics. I believe this was inspired by the awesome "Encyclopedia of Super-Villains" written by Jeff Rovin. I noticed mention of a second "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" between Maggy's first run in the "Uncanny X-Men" book, and the team headed by Mystique introduced in the 1980's. And it listed for their first appearance "Captain America Annual #4". Well, I can't quite remember how it came onto my person... it was either long searching before a JACKPOT at a local comic book shop, or my parents found it for me for a birthday... but I finally possessed that magical Annual.
Now to begin with, Magneto's new "Brotherhood"... Eh, they left a bit to be desired. Okay, you had Burner, who could control flames... that's useful. You had Lifter... not an original name, but if you can lift heavy stuff, alright. Slither... I guess a giant snake-man is pretty handy. Shocker... Spider-Man already had one of those, and a man with lobster claw hands that generate electric shocks is rather goofy. Finally, you have Peeper. A mutant that's short and mostly useless, with the ability to see very far with his oversized ocular organs. Sigh... Magneto is usually capable of more effective recruitment drives.
But the gist of the issue revolves around Magneto and Captain America battling over a mutant duo known as Mister One and Mister Two. Mister One can be stored in a wristwatch-sized container, and his ability is to control Mister Two, a behemoth version of the teeny-tiny shriveled Mister One. Magneto wishes to use the duo for his quest of domination of Homo Sapiens. Captain America just wants the little... and big... guys to be free to make their own choices. Let's just say that you know how things ended up when you not heard about Misters One OR Two ever again... But one of the best things about this Annual? CAPTAIN AMERICA VS MAGNETO: ONE-ON-ONE.
And the best thing for you as a person curious about this time period for Captain America and Jack Kirby? You are not lacking in resources for tracking them down! If you're not picky about coloration being absent, all of Kirby's 70's Cap material is reprinted in "Essential Captain America Volume 5". But if you want things all nice, shiny, and hardbound, Marvel did publish a Jack Kirby Captain America omnibus containing all this material. Crazy as some of it got, to me, it was definitely a wild ride that Kirby took us on around the time of America's birthday!
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