By Busiek, Ross & Herbert
Published by Dynamite
ISBN: 978-1-60690-342-1
If you've ever read the epic Marvel tale Marvels, delighted in DC's Justice, or lost yourself amongst the pages of the many Astro City tales, then you'll fully appreciate the amazing multi-layered, multi-threaded, multi-character stories that the likes of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross excel in. They've teamed up again, this time to immerse us in the world of Jack Kirby, one of the most important figures in comics.
Kirby is responsible for some of the most iconic characters in superhero comics, including Captain America, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and New Gods, so his influence and his legacy are hugely important. But this book is not about the most famous of Kirby's creations, but is instead about the lesser known characters, some of which were no more than pencil sketches. Busiek and Ross have brought all of these elements together to create a new comic universe, but rather than have it develop over the years that Marvel and DC's universes span they are using the creation of this superhero pantheon as the backbone of the story.
It is a grand undertaking, but one Busiek and Ross are masters at, so Busiek's tight plotting and strong character-driven stories and Ross's astounding artistic vision bring about a tale with drama, scale and heaps of imagination. They're helped in this task by the artistic ability of Jack Herbert, working to Ross's layouts, and the skilful colouring of Vinicius Andrade, and all with a hearty nod to the distinctive illustrative style of Kirby himself.
To be fair, there are no real stand out superheroes here, no grand new discovery once the dust has been blown off and fresh life breathed in to them. They're more interesting takes on what have become fairly standard templates, but that's OK. It's their execution that makes it readable, and like with Marvels and Astro City, the heroes are the incidental characters that exist around the ordinary folk at the centre of the story.
I had my doubts as to whether or not this was a cynical attempt to exploit a name rather than a worthy creative endeavour, but I have to say that I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would. I'm sure Kirby would approve.
And if you enjoyed that: Grab Marvels in trade paperback
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