In 1970 the comic book community was shocked when it discovered that longtime Marvel Comics artist Jack Kirby left the Bullpen and signed an exclusive contract with Marvel’s Distinguished Competition: DC Comics.
Kirby left Marvel over creative rights and money. The last couple of years he worked for Marvel he found himself relegated as simple hired help even though both he and Stan Lee had created the bulk of Marvel’s characters and stories.
Stan Lee was officially dubbed: The Face and Voice of Marvel, while Kirby was shuffled off to the side and basically ignored.
Kirby had had enough and when the offer came from DC Comics to jump ship he was all in.
At first Jack was given complete creative control. He wrote and drew what is now dubbed “The Fourth World.”
Jack started out slow and introduced his cosmos-spanning epic in the pages of all things Jimmy Olsen Superman’s Pal.
From there he created The Forever People, The New Gods and Mister Miracle-all of which tied into a cohesive whole.
Fans were thrilled, as was DC Comics. Unfortunately in less than a year sales were lagging and both DC and fans complained that while Kirby's vision was impressive, how he pulled it off was confusing, inconsistent and often unclear.
Before long the epic was cancelled and Kirby found himself in a similar situation that he had when he left Marvel.
DC relegated him to second tier creations that lacked the Kirby fire of The Fourth World.
Jack turned out The Demon, Atlas, Sandman, OMAC, The Losers and a myriad of other less inspired titles.
Before long, disgruntled and discouraged, Kirby let DC Comics and with his tail between his legs returned to Marvel where he created a few less than memorable titles. He drew and wrote stints on Captain America, Black Panther, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, The Eternals and a plethora of covers.
After a few years it was evident that the old Kirby magic was fading and that a new generation of artists and writers were overshadowing The King Of Comics.
Kirby had a final blowout with Marvel and shifted his efforts to some forgettable independent titles. As his drawing become more primitive and his stories less cohesive Kirby eventually disappeared from comic book pages and not long afterwards passed away.
Sadly Jack would never see the full impact his Fourth World Saga had on DC Comics and the mega-hit movies inspired by his wild imagination and concepts for Marvel.
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