DC Universe The Bronze Age Omnibus by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby’s tenure at DC, in the early 70’s, lasted from 1971 to 1975, but it was one of the most monumental explosions of creativity in the history of comics. DC has already given us a gorgeous Kamandi Omnibus and a massive Fourth World Omnibus, which contained series like Jimmy Olson, Mister Miracle, The Forever People and more. What we have here is pretty much everything else which includes a WHOLE LOT of material. We have some important series like The Demon and OMAC and then a ton of smaller stories including some one-shots. The cover art is consistent with the other two Kirby Omnibus so the three look perfect on a shelf together.In some ways, the book is both excessively complete and possibly lacking. It may sound unbelievable, but you don’t get anything published by DC until page 186 when we get all 16 issues of The Demon. Prior to The Demon, we have a bunch of monochromatic comics like ‘In the Days of the Mob’ and ‘Spirit World’ from publishers I’ve never heard of. This is good stuff, but its inclusion seems very odd particularly for a book that would have been massive even without them. Next is The Sandman which I always assumed was written and drawn by Jack Kirby but I discovered he only did the art. This isn’t the Wesley Dodds or Neil Gaiman Sandman but a wholly unique take. Unfortunately, Kirby didn’t do the interior artwork for issues 2, 3 and 6 which means they aren’t included. The Omnibus does include Best of DC #22 which contains what was intended to be the 7th issue. I understand DC’s situation since this is a Jack Kirby Omnibus but including only half of a 6-issue series is disappointing unless you care 100% about Kirby and nothing about the series that are being included.OMAC is one of the best examples ever of Jack Kirby’s work. It’s weird, it’s creative and it’s uniquely Kirby. Nobody can mimic Kirby and people have tried. Since Kirby did everything except the inking, all eight issues are included. The idea of having a super soldier directly partnering with a satellite is so interesting and so Kirby. Unfortunately, like so many of Kirby’s series during this period, OMAC died a very premature death and Kirby was forced to wrap it up quickly rather than finish his intended story arc. In fact, he basically destroys OMAC.Kirby’s work on The Losers for “Our Fighting Forces” is a bit of an oddball. In this rare case, Kirby took over an existing series in which he had no involvement in its creation. It’s similar to what he did with Jimmy Olsen. It makes sense since Jack Kirby was a veteran of WW II and has a soft spot for that era. As with a lot of the stuff in this book I already owned all the Kirby issues even though I find war comics rather dull. Regardless of the genre this is another great example of Kirby’s work and it’s nice to see the range of Kirby’s abilities.There are a series of 1st Issue Special comics that include Atlas the Great, Manhunter and the Dingbats of Danger Street. This is good stuff and classic Kirby, but these were introductions to stories that were never continued, and the characters have barely been used since. We get issue #3 of the 18 issue Richard Dragon Kung-Fu Fighter only because Kirby did the artwork and it’s far from his best. Also included is issue #1 of the 7-issue Kobra with Kirby’s involvement limited to plotting the first issue and possibly creating the character of Kobra. Last and least is DC Comic Presents #84 in which Kirby platooned with Alex Toth on the penciling. A completely forgettable story. I’m glad they included these stories, but they really are for true Kirby fans.The two Super Powers mini-series are ok, but Kirby’s input included plotting the first 4 issues of the first series and doing the writing and penciling for the 5th. Definitely not the best representation of Kirby’s work. Kirby did all the penciling in the second Super Powers series so that is a bonus although I don’t know that he was involved in the writing in any way. It is interesting to note that this story came after Hunger Dogs and could be considered the final entry of Kirby’s Fourth World saga that actually had his input. It doesn’t just include Darkseid but actually has what could be considered a profound effect on the character as well as on Desaad. Legends came right after the second Super Powers so it might be considered the natural continuation except that Legends completely ignores the conclusion of Super Powers.I passed on a lot of Kirby collections waiting for the ultimate one and this is it. The cover price is $150 while I paid $94.68. As I write this review, the price on Amazon is $99.93. That’s a lot of money but this is one of the largest Omnibus at 1472 pages. The only larger one I own is the Fourth World at 1481 pages. I’m very glad I waited and from a cost perspective this is a much better deal than piecemealing together all of the Kirby collections. You also would never get such a complete collection, particularly with the one-shot deals. If I could only get one Kirby Omnibus it would be the Fourth World but I’m a huge fan and I’m always excited to have more.

Important work. Too big to hold. Too big to bury. Guess it is shelf eye-candy at best.

Great collection of DC kirby, all his latter day stuff is here including his complete runs on Demon and Mr Miracle. A mammoth read!

This is just an awesome book with greatest comic book art in the history.