Ooops, haven't re-read this one yet! But I do remember the story. Wait, I'm getting it mixed up. This is the one where Reed decides to make a stand for Sue's love, but the story ends with him in personal turmoil. When all's said and done, when the FF have stormed Atlantis to rescue Sue, she chooses to leave with Reed---but he worries about her ulterior motive to simply end the violence. What I almost started telling about was Submariner's movie studio, but that's an earlier adventure! Of course, his film roles double as traps for the male members of the Fantastic Four, while he woos Sue. I would tie it in happily with the Hollywood push at Comic Con. Prince Namor, the Submariner, and Reed and Sue were Marvel's best love triangle in the Silver Age. The super-strong Lord of Atlantis and the smartest man in the world had some great fights (doesn't it sound ridiculous for the smartest man in the world to fight anyone? But hey, who said you couldn...

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/07/comic_con_2011.html Comic Con's the big news in San Diego downtown. But at the core of all its Hollywood spectacle and major product release frenzy, amidst the swirling robes of wizards and the sound of clanking Storm Troopers, San Diego International Comic Con was a celebration of fans of comic books, and easily, one of the most iconic, the most representative, of all super hero comics, it's Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's two issue battle featuring the Hulk and the Thing, as presented in early 1964! Yep, before the Beatles were even off the plane, Marvel's greatest monster men were smacking each other through a hapless New York City! After a decidedly offbeat issue before (following a classic struggle with Doctor Doom), now we get to the place where the modern world of super hero comics evolves. Not only does the Hulk react in anger to a newspaper announcing Captain America joining the Avengers, but in the brutal revenge sch...

Remus Sharptooth attempts his escape in a Gnomlin-built craft---it lifts vertically for take-off, as the Defenders attempt to strike it from the air. The creature Anomaly watches from behind a smoking data base; standing at the precipice, Corpse Flower wonders if Sharptooth’s decision is influenced by the Viking Captain, Ray Awen, who still makes up his subconscious mind. Hulk’s skips, powered by his mighty legs, give him velocity to match the launching craft. The fleeing sorcerer-wolf turns to hurl bolts of blood-red lightning at the clutching emerald behemoth, whose bulk is nearly half that of the escape craft! As all the heroes pursue Remus Sharptooth, abruptly, they observe what he has forgotten about all crafts built by Gnomlins: in the end, they stop and they explode!!! Just before this explosion, the Wolf Oversoul appears to Remus Sharptooth. He promises the sorcerer another existence to come, an incarnation in the world of Semeicardia. Thus he achieves a strange peace as...

http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/12/alpha-flights-target-machine-man.html has my quick take on Machine Man 18. Here, I'm going to conduct a thought experiment: if I were working with Jack Kirby, starting with issue ten, could I help him as a writer? Well, we'll just put aside personal conflicts a minute, imagine he's made it over that with the help of a little friendship and the advice not to take crap personally, and, having won his trust, he's listening, as I put down the first story arc: So, our MM starts off teamed next with Captain America, two generations of Super Soldier. They face a machine man named X-Tinction that was the grand daddy prototype of the X models before the military built them. X-Tinction became sentient, went insane, and arises like some kind of Sixth Sleeper. Next: MM needs to face some kind of Dinosaur Man. I am trying to think of a name for something that sounds like it could eat a puny Machine Man like a drum of thanksgiving turkey. Car...

I always read the letters column first, each time I get an old comic. I always loved trying to recreate what the issue must've been like when I'd read the comments; sometimes a writer makes suggestions that are fun to imagine, too. Names like Ed Via and T.M. Maple and "Uncle Elvis" Orton used to pop up from time to time in many of the l.c.s, always sharing honest opinions and insights. You sometimes find Marvel luminaries such as Ralph Macchio or J.M. DeMatteis. One of these fans-turned-pros is Kurt Busiek. If you haven't heard of him, you haven't been reading any super hero comics in the past couple of years; I particularly recommend his "Astro City" and its various series. Here, Kurt wrote to praise the return of Kirby's very last red-headed step child for Marvel, and I can't complete my Machine Man series without mentioning his letter. He pointed out that Marv and Steve Ditko had addressed what he perceived to be the biggest problem ...

Here you see two different products inspired by Jack Kirby's Machine Man comics published by Marvel Comics between 1977 and 1978. One is Marvel's professional continuation of the science fiction hero in more of a straight super hero treatment, and the action is as close to Spider-Man as possible. Marv Wolfman is also writer and editor of the Amazing Spider-Man at this point in time. His partner here, Steve Ditko, is credited with having created the idea behind many issues of Amazing Spider-Man, and drew the wall-crawler from his first appearance in 1963 until 1966. This is the second time Steve Ditko followed Jack Kirby on a title, counting the Hulk during 1962 to 1965. This character is solely created by Jack Kirby, who deliberately chose to work on titles mostly of his own creation, after stints on a revival of the Black Panther and a run as writer/editor/ artist on his old creation with Joe Simon in 1941, Captain America, and just in time for America's bicentennial. S...

After nine issues writing, editing and drawing his last work at Marvel, Machine Man, Jack Kirby, co-creator with Stan Lee of blamed near the entire early Marvel Universe, left the comics field for animation. Funny thing is, when the title came back the next year, the artist was now Stan's co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, i.e., the rest of the early Marvel Universe! Marv Wolfman was going for a pure literary tone mixed in beneath the images of an adventure, so while he wasn’t sure where to take MM maybe, he could focus on one and done stories with some philosophy adults might appreciate, since it’s science fiction in origin. It was the fact that it wasn’t more of a “super hero” comic and didn’t have any guest appearances by other Marvel denizens ‘till the book was nearly through that contributed to MM remaining a bimonthly B-lister in sales until its cancellation with #19. Whereas Kirby tended towards larger panels and splash pages spread throughout, Ditko's alway...

Machine Man fought against his captors, the Corporation, attempting a last minute super escape. MM's friends find his location, just as an atomic explosion decimates the area. MACHINE MAN, THE LIVING ROBOT # 9 Edited, written and drawn by Jack “King” Kirby; Inked and lettered by Mike Royers “He’s BACK!” exclaims a sonic rifle-armed soldier. “Machine Man should be a tin ghost!” So why has a truck driven up with him to Security Corps. “The reports of my destruction were a little premature!” he says, McQueen coolness evoking awe in the soldiers. He’d be happy to relate, once they drop the mechanism-shattering guns. “After all, I’ve just spent time as a hostage under threat of a variety of nasty weapons.” (He can’t help taking issue personally at times!) Now he spills it: He hops outside to demonstrate, takes the soldier into the minute. Computing “ten times faster than you can react!” the captive Machine Man calculated his distance from the atomic bomb outside the mountain...

Have a need for speed? Try this technique: draw a figure best you can in 20 minutes! My 20 minute challenge is over! I do cheat and erase just a little. Then I hand letter a message for my friend's birthday!

The military that hounded Machine Man was, after all, under orders. Here in Machine Man #9, Kirby thought it'd be fun to portray the now-exonerated Living Robot walking up to the call "Batter Up!" during an on-base baseball game. Myebook - D'n'A Comics #1 As promised: the online version of DNA #1!!! Fielding goes a little better than batting---but a Machine Man's just a bit too much an advantage for a fair game!

MACHINE MAN #5 “Non-Hero” Jack Kirby Edits, Writes, Draws Mike Royer Letters ‘n’ inks Petra Goldberg, Color Consulting Editor, Jim Shooter The powerful signal emanating from Ten-For’s hand array antenna calls the intergalactic Autocron Fleet to Earth. Machine Man stands ready to shove that plan down Ten-For’s steel gullet. What of the innocent bystanders, frozen by Ten-For into status? Machine Man’s magnetized boots prove irresistible in their molecular call, yanking Ten-For across the street to him. A blast mostly misses Machine Man’s head, as he kicks Ten-For head first into the pavement. The Autocron’s chest generates a ray nearly as explosive as the one behind his hinging face plate. Now he presses the stunned hero, grappling, wrenching a light post, constricting, kicking, damaging Machine Man’s body to prevent transfer long enough for the fleet---“and that may come tomorrow ‘mister obsolete!’”. They battle on, the floored Autocron holding Machine Man back with an ...

Dr. Spalding: “I’ve drawn back your brain unit, Machine Man! Have I done it correctly?”---this is exactly why I love Jack Kirby’s stories. That the speaker is a psychiatrist is just pop culture excellence. Unique! “Would you fight for those who fear and hate you? It’s a very tough decision to make---especially when you have more in common with the enemy than those you must defend! Here is a Heavy question, to be resolved in cosmic fury!”---opening caption from Jack Kirby. [IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/2md06k2.jpg[/IMG] Aaron’s face Ten For face [IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/54doi0.jpg[/IMG] “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” MM 4 continues: The injured soldiers found in Ten-For’s wake subvert any poetic justice Machine Man feels over the Army’s dust-up with the machine man from another galaxy. Yet the hatred in Kragg’s voice for Machine Man’s existence---for the entire conception of his being---floods him with despair. He’s overheard the alarm to the big brass to act; Kragg’s advis...

MACHINE MAN , THE LIVING ROBOT #2 1978 X-51's strange life continues as we see for ourselves his symbolic fear. Meanwhile, Doctor Spalding, who had met X-51 hitchhiking in #1, orders sedation of a patient, who cries out repeatedly in technical language, despite his apparent eight-grade education. Dr. Spalding deduces his delusion involves a space-ship falling into a sun. As Cragg and his men move in, MM bursts out of the gas station (thank you Kirby Museum---I always felt he over-paid for the tires and never considered his down payment on collateral damage). He moves like a hot rod on his new wheels (three tires attached to him with rods), which afford him an escape worthy of Evel Kneivel. Asking some cyclists for directions, since he shocks one of them into wiping out, is a bust, but he's within half a mile of Central City before you know it. He then goes to see the doctor, surprising him with a laser light for his pipe. Harried, Machine Man bluntly asks to stay a few...