1917 to 2017: 100 years of Kirby.

Join us to celebrate Jack “King” Kirby’s 100^th birthday by learning about the characters and stories he created that changed comics forever. To commemorate Jack’s centennial, we’ve sat down with the modern-day creators he influenced—and the decades of work he gifted us all.

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Fantastic Four in their 1961 debut issue, none of the characters exactly wanted their cosmic ray-granted abilities. Sure—Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, and The Thing eventually used their powers to save the world, but they likely would’ve chosen to give them up in the early days.

So what happened when they actually lost their powers just a few years later in 1965’s FANTASTIC FOUR #39 and #40? In the previous story, the team barely escaped a nuclear blast set off by the Frightful Four—and after floating in the ocean for 24 hours, a Navy submarine picked them up so they could convalesce aboard the vessel. Soon, however, they admitted to themselves and each other that in the chaos, they’d lost their powers!

Fantastic Four (1961) #39

• Published: June 10, 1965
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 13, 2007
• Penciller: Jack Kirby
• Cover Artist: Jack Kirby

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After returning to New York, Reed immediately got to work, attempting to scientifically replicate their powers—while hoping that their enemies wouldn’t find out about their defenselessness. Despite his efforts, Richards failed with his experiments.

As the evil Doctor Doom raged against his longtime opponents—and planned an urgent attack—the Fantastic Four’s lawyer, Matt Murdock, agreed to meet them at a mysterious warehouse. There, he witnessed (via his special sensory abilities) the group practicing with their new power-replicating equipment. Then, during the meeting, Doom began his assault. In the smoke and confusion, Murdock changed into his fighting togs and offered his services as Daredevil!

As Doctor Doom set up in the Baxter Building, using Richards’ own weapons against the heroes, the group split up to take on the villain from different angles. And as Doom obsessed over tracking down the Four, the Man Without Fear snuck in a window and got the drop on the Latverian.

Fantastic Four (1961) #40

• Published: July 10, 1965
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 13, 2007
• Penciller: Jack Kirby
• Cover Artist: Jack Kirby

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Daredevil held his own against Victor von Doom for a long enough time that the Fantastic Four were able to catch up—though still without powers, they still threw themselves into battle. While his teammates distracted Doom, Richards grabbed the Stimulator—a weapon they used against the Skrulls in FANTASTIC FOUR #37—and zapped Ben, Johnny, Sue, and himself.

The device reawakened their powers, allowing the team to join the fight full-force. The battle between Ben Grimm and Victor von Doom threatened to knock down the entire Baxter Building—if not New York City itself—and ultimately The Thing crushed Doom’s plans for conquest. Though the villain still managed to escape thanks to his diplomatic immunity as ruler of Latveria!

Having regained their powers, the team—and especially Grimm—didn’t celebrate, but at least knew they could defend themselves the next time their enemies came calling.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more Kirby klassics! And join the conversation on all of our social channels with the hashtag #Kirby100.

Every day this month, a new supernatural character or story from the Marvel Universe gets a spooky spotlight leading up to Halloween!

While comics have always provided some of the most strange and wonderful visual storytelling around, at times they’ve taken certain cues from other popular entertainment—like scary movies and sci-fi serials. And those kind of stories filled a series of classic Marvel anthologies including STRANGE TALES, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, and TALES OF SUSPENSE.

For the inaugural Marvel Spooklight of 2017, we focus on 1959’s TALES OF SUSPENSE #1—edited by Stan Lee with art by Al Williamson, Don Heck, John Buscema, Larry Lieber, and Steve Ditko…some of the all-time great artists featured in one single comic.

Opening the Don Heck cover, the first story “The Strangers from Space!” took place in the far future—the year 2000—and posited a solar system conquered by the planet Earth. Presuming themselves to be the only sentient creatures around, humanity got a fright when an unidentified flying object appeared and began surveying various local planets.

In fear of what the aliens might do next, the U.S. military fired on the craft. In response, a humanoid creature emerged from the alien ship and announced that that merely needed a pit stop. Soon, however, the aliens revealed that they actually used hypnotic shields to hide their actual, more frightening forms. When they finally departed, the visitor stated that they hoped mankind would be more accepting when they would return in several hundred years.

Next in the issue, Don Heck illustrated a piece called “I Dared Explore the Unknown Emptiness!” Set in 2478, this story saw several space crews searching for planets to help combat Earth’s overpopulation problem. Air Force Colonel Frank Stevens and his crew braved a planet called Atavisius, where they faced hungry dinosaurs, a harrowing meteor shower, and angry metallic denizens. Despite their failed mission, Stevens gave an impassioned ending speech about taking responsibility for overpopulation and using human intelligence to find another solution.

Tales of Suspense (1959) #1

• Published: January 01, 1959
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 17, 2007
• Penciller: Steve Ditko
• Cover Artist: Don Heck

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Following that, John Buscema drew a quick story called “The Day I Left My Body!” After a scuffle at a prison, an inmate named Wells saw his spirit emerge from his body and begin to watch the scene. While in his phantom state, Wells realized he had the ability to control the mind of a visiting lawyer—and after returning to his body, the prisoner realized that this power remained. He pushed the lawyer to get him his release, though he tried too hard—and caused the lawyer to lose focus, and thus the case, sending Wells back to the prison for good.

Larry Lieber pencilled the next installment, “He Fled in the Night,” which took place, rather than in the future, in the past. This story, set in 1717, found a man dreaming of a life more exciting than his own nine-to-five office existence. The man quit his job to set sail on a ship…and in the last panel was revealed to be none other than Robinson Crusoe!

Finally, Steve Ditko brought this issue to a close with the story “Prisoner of the Satellites!” A character named Mark Coren innocently walked through the night when, suddenly, a series of meteorites crashed around him—with chunks of stone then turning and revolving around his body, shrinking him in the process. As a radical remedy, a group of scientists launched Mark into space to utilize nearby cosmic rays that might help reverse the process. Thanks to a series of trips around the Earth, nearby aliens—who had launched the meteors as a test—realized that this planet should not be explored further and left to conquer other planets.

At times more sci-fi than horror, these stories still dug into a few of humanity’s perennial fears.

Fright Fact

TALES OF SUSPENSE #39 introduced Iron Man—and by issue #59, the Armored Avengers got a new partner: Captain America. The two heroes then shared the book until issue #99, when they each scored their own series—with CAPTAIN AMERICA carrying on the numbering from Suspense while IRON MAN launched with a brand-new issue #1.

Tune in tomorrow for another Halloween Spooklight!

Blackagar Boltagon has changed. And his home has changed too.

The King sails across the galaxy to return to a planet unlike anything he’s known before. On November 1, writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Frazer Irving present a most unusual homecoming in BLACK BOLT #7!

We snagged Saladin to discuss the voyage—and what Black Bolt will bring with him back to Earth.

Marvel.com: Black Bolt returns to Earth in BLACK BOLT #7—how different do we find him now compared to when he departed the planet before issue #1?

Saladin Ahmed: He’s quite different.

Part of that has been what we’ve done with the series as a whole—as we never knew much about the Black Bolt that left Earth. So I’ve spent this first arc trying to get inside of who he might’ve been before.

Over the course of his imprisonment, though, he has sort of become someone else. He views his place in the world differently and most of this second arc will be about what happens when you change, come back home, and have to deal with all the things still there.

Marvel.com: Rumor has it he might not be coming back alone. What can you tell us about his travel companions?

Saladin Ahmed: Black Bolt returns with the alien psychic child Blinky. She became one of his companions in the prison and doesn’t really have anywhere to go. As we’ll see, Black Bolt tries to be a father figure again after he failed pretty miserably with his own kid.

Marvel.com: From Blinky’s perspective, what does this trip represent? What does it feel like for her?

Saladin Ahmed: Blinky had an extremely hard childhood—which we’ll get some glimpses of—and she spent time in a torture prison. So even given all the consequences and old faces Black Bolt will encounter with her by his side, I think she seems mostly wide-eyed in wonderment. She has an interest in Earth and she will have a whole new world of experiences.

I try not to write Blinky as horrendously naïve, but she is a kid. And despite a lot of the hard things that have happened to her, she tries to see what might be cool and interesting around her. And she’ll continue to do that. She’ll provide some lighter moments to the story.

Marvel.com: Black Bolt has changed, but Earth has as well. How different is the planet he returns to?

Saladin Ahmed: He spent a lot of time in prison—not all of this on-screen—but to my mind he spent a lot of time thinking about mistakes he made as a leader—the consequences of the Terrigen Mist, for instance. He comes back ready to deal with that only to find that the Inhumans faced another near-extinction event from Hydra.

This will be even more baggage for him to deal with. Very swiftly upon returning to Earth, he’ll have a reckoning with a new generation of Inhumans.

Marvel.com: The trip back to Earth promises to present its own challenges—what struggles will Black Bolt encounter along the way?

Saladin Ahmed: Well, issue #7 acts as an interval issue between the two arcs, guest drawn by Frazer Irving. An ethereal space issue. A journey.

I don’t want to give too much away, but threats emerge from the fact that Black Bolt and Blinky leave in a damaged state. Black Bolt’s power has been reduced significantly and he’s lost his voice. Lockjaw remains injured. Blinky continues trying to shake this stuff off.

They will have a passenger with them. They try to fix the situation in the prison and it seems most of the inmates escaped, but one inmate they encountered a few issues ago—Monsteroso—essentially needs a ride home. So they try to tie up some loose ends there, though they feel beleaguered at each turn.

Marvel.com: You mentioned Frazer Irving coming on as a guest artist for this one. How did you like working with him?

Saladin Ahmed: It’s interesting—Christian Ward and I have a pretty intimate bond that we’ve developed over these few issues. But really, with Frazer, I wanted to stay pretty hands-off and maybe a little looser in my scripting, just to see what he’d do.

He has a very alien style. Christian’s art has a psychedelic and cosmic feel, but Frazer’s feels more like hard science fiction in a way. It really lends itself to this story. He drew the ship that they travel on in this gorgeous way.

It felt really cool to not boss him around too much.

Marvel.com: As you mentioned, this acts as a sort of transition issue. For readers that heard the buzz and were waiting for a good moment to jump on, why does issue #7 serve as the right moment?

Saladin Ahmed: Oh, because while we certainly follow threads from the first arc, we telling a self-contained story in the second arc. BLACK BOLT #7 will be really a good place to meet the characters before we plunge into the action.

Saladin Ahmed and artist Frazer Irving’s BLACK BOLT #7 crash lands on November 1!