This issue opens up with Machine Man rescuing a hiker who somehow wound up hanging on a cliff. I like this page, which is a layout one doesn't associate with Kirby, but which works nicely here.
It's a layout that doesn't work if overused, but it does fit the situation here, and gives a nice feeling of vertigo in the first panel, and danger in the next two.
Anyway, after the events of 2001, Machine Man is walking the Earth, like Cain in Kung Fu. Oddly people don't seem that shocked by his abilities like flight, extendable arms, superhuman strenght and all that, accepting that it's all experimental equipment he's wearing. Whatever. He gets a ride from a psychiatrist who asks too many questions, so he takes off, only to be attacked by the army, still under the command of Colonel Kragg.
Fun start to what would be an uneven, but interesting, short-lived series. Royer inks the 17 page story (and really, man, 17 pages of story in a 36 page book? Who thought that was a good idea?), Giacoia inks the cover and Kirby provides a text page about some of the themes of machine sentience he plans to explore in the series.
Published 1978
1 comment:
I remember at one point Ditko did take over the book and it reminded me of how much I missed Kirby. If only he was able to carry out this story to this conclusion. Unlike his New Gods and even the Eternals there was some theads of an epic saga going through the mind of Kirby. The book, although it had good visuals reminded me too much of Mr. Fantastic powers of stretching. He Mr. Fantastic with bionics as I call it. I did get the Barry Smith illustrated version of the new Machine Man. It presented some of the layouts by Herb Trimpe. It was a good sendoff for the character, although it wasn't intended as that. It was again an ongoing series that didn't make it.
I find myself going more and more to my old Kirby comics because it's like taking a trip back to when life was a little better. All my concerns were about school and getting enough comics to read...back when they were (gasp) 25 cents!
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