In 1975, at Marvelcon 75, during a Fantastic Four panel, Stan Lee announced that Kirby was coming back! Fans were buzzing at the thought of Kirby returning to the company that he helped lift from the brink of extinction into the market leader. Kirby back of the FF and Thor, Kirby doing Captain America; the mind boggled. However, Kirby was never one to look back. He didn't want to go back and do the FF or Thor; he wanted to do new things. However, like at DC, Jack had to make compromises. For him to do new material, he had to return to some old characters. Fans would also be disappointed that he wasn't returning to work with Stan; Kirby still felt that he wanted to work on his own and he would write his own stories. So, Kirby returned and took over Captain America, in time for America's Bicentennial. He returned to do the Black Panther. These would prove to be puzzling for fans. Kirby's Cap was infused with ideas he had explored in comics like OMAC and the 4th World, not the Cap of the war or upon his awakening by the Avengers. The Black Panther wasn't complex hero that Don McGregor had been writing, protecting his native country and fighting racism and oppression in America. Kirby returned to the idea of the Panther as the leader of a scientifically advanced hidden kingdom, with more sci-fi oriented tales.
Kirby had a new idea, though. A popular, if ridiculous, book of the time was Eric Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods, which claimed that aliens had visited the Earth and created the advanced civilizations of Egypt, the Incas, the Aztecs, and others. The book made massive leaps in logic and ignored tons of archeology and history to support its thesis. Kirby latched onto the idea of "gods from space" and created a civilization that had been artificially advanced in evolution, who were the basis for the myths of gods and monsters: The Eternals and the Deviants. These space gods were returning and their children were getting ready to face them, and Earth was caught in the middle. It touched upon Kirby's work with the Inhumans and the 4th World, on Thor and the FF; but, it too those past ideas on a new journey. Unfortunately, history would repeat itself and that journey would end abruptly.
Come join us as we look at Kirby back at Marvel, in the mid-70s.
I will come along for this ride.
It's sad to here how some fans, and comics professionals as well, treated Kirby upon his return.
IMO, time has proven to be on Kirby's side with these Bronze Age creations and tales and have been more well-regarded now than they were at the time.
I'm in. I've read his entire Black Panther series as well as a handful of his return to Captain America and Devil Dinosaur issues. Never had the slightest interest in The Eternals or Machine Man however, although I am still on the lookout for an inexpensive copy of MM #19, which features the first appearance of one of my favorite D-List villains in Jack O'Lantern.
So true hondobrode, I felt some of his late DC work looked a little tired. But the Eternals and 2001 were singing.
Do yourself the pleasure of reading the Eternals and 2001/MM those are my favorites from that Kirby period. His creative juices were really flowing.
Funny you say that, as I've actually had most, if not all, of The Eternals' issues in my hands at one point or another, most of them from the $1 bins, but I've never pulled the trigger on them. I don't know what's kept me from doing it, but they never grabbed me in a serious way.
Honestly, and I'll bet berkley will agree, Kirby's Eternals was the best title to come out of this period IMO.
During that time, I did liked his Captain America and Machine Man and jet somehow in some unknown reasons - I completely lost touch and stopped altogether. I just don't why, I stopped but did and at one time - I had Machine Man's first dozen issues and foolishly gave them away for nothing. I regretted that decision and that's one of my most stupidest decision that I made in my life.
The return of Kirby to Marvel was my run of buying the King straight off the shelf. Every other series of his was before my time or ability to find but the late 70's during high school began my purchasing days. Kirby was already KING to me in every way so i sought out and bought every single new Marvel Kirby during this time. Eternals, 2001, Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur being the highlights for me. Captain America and Black Panther while quite odd and different from current Marvel at the time still was pure Kirby gold in all of his execution. Writing and art wise to me it felt like Marvel was leaving Kirby alone to do his own thing playing in the corner of the sandbox. Where of course any smart kid would notice his stuff and gradually slide over to enjoying what Kirby was doing and leaving the kitty litter in the other corner of the sand box because the King's stuff was so good.
I'd guess sales. They didn't usually just cancel books at that time because a creator left. Everyone I knew who was reading comics at the time (admittedly a small number) thought the book was a joke.
How dare they! All my high school pals and i were enjoying the fun of it. An actual dinosaur comic book adventure series with cave monkey's and aliens. Insanely crazy silly fun. EXACTLY what comic books used to be and do so well. Different tastes i guess.
In 1975, at Marvelcon 75, during a Fantastic Four panel, Stan Lee announced that Kirby was coming back! Fans were buzzing at the thought of Kirby returning to the company that he helped lift from the brink of extinction into the market leader.
I was in the room when Stan made that announcement. I recall it being a "Keynote address" rather than an FF panel, but it was certainly electrifying!
And sometimes only the creator could make the concept work. Without Kirby this idea wouldn't work.