In another competition-heating move against Amazon and Whole Foods, Walmart-owned Jet.com recently launched an in-house collection of household essentials.

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.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked together to create one of the finest collections of characters ever assembled. Sometimes these creations came from bouncing ideas off of each other before actually working on the comic while others sprouted from different places of origin. Take The Silver Surfer for example. Everyone knows he first appeared ahead of his master Galactus in the pages of the classic FANTASTIC FOUR #48, but the genesis of the character proves an even more interesting story. In his intro to MARVEL MASTERWORKS VOLUME FOUR, Lee remembered how they nailed down the concept of Galactus and then recounted seeing Silver Surfer for the first time.

“After the story had been hammered out, when Jack Kirby delivered the artwork, I noticed some panels featuring a strange-looking guy on a flying surfboard,” Lee wrote. “’Who’s he?’ I asked, not recalling any mention of such a character in our previous discussions. Jack simply said that he felt that anyone as powerful as Galactus should have his own personal herald who searched the skies looking for planets for his master to devour. Well, needless to say, the idea grabbed me. But even more than that, I loved the way the Surfer had been drawn. Something about him looked so pure, so guileless, so noble that I felt I couldn’t let him speak like any other typical comic book character. His personality had to be as special as his demeanor. And so, I decided to let the Silver Surfer become the voice of Marvel’s conscience. He mouthed all the philosophical thoughts and observations that I myself had always harbored and dwelled upon. Within a short time he, more than any other of our creations, came to symbolize all that was good and true about life and the human condition.”

Silver Surfer (1968) #18

• Published: September 01, 1970
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: January 01, 2000

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The Surfer kicked around FANTASTIC FOUR for a while after his debut, but earned his own series in 1968 by Lee and artist John Buscema, who would draw every issue of the title except the finale, #18, which saw Kirby return to the character he helped create. The story kicked off with our hero zipping around a series of powered individuals  looking to attack him. Aireo, Stallior, Timberius, and Leonus did so at the behest of their Inhuman leader Maximus the Magnificent—alternately known as the Mad.

Upon returning to their master, the Inhumans heard Maximus’ plan to get the Surfer mad at all of their kind instead of his group specifically. The ploy worked, as Norrid Radd flew to Attilan wondering why its denizens had attacked him. Quickly Black Bolt went to meet the visitor, but Medusa and Karnak set upon him as an intruder and knocked him unconscious! Waking up, Surfer lashed out against his captors. At that same time, Maximus attacked his brother’s people, sending Attilan into a panic. After wrestling his board away from Lockjaw, Silver Surfer flew off only to be attacked by more Inhumans.

Sick of the battle in every way, The Silver Surfer zoomed out of there to get some quiet and think. Instead of cooling off, though, he found himself overtaken by his anger. All this time of playing conscience to a world that didn’t seem to want him had taken its toll and he swore to be “the deadliest one of all!” However, with the cancellation of the book after this issue, readers never quite got to see that version of the character. Still, it would have been wild to see a Jack Kirby-drawn series with the man formerly known as Norrin Radd going crazy on the Earth!

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

On November 29, Marvel’s high-flying spider-duo returns for their series swan song—and you can expect double the excitement, double the Spider-heroes, and even double the Spider-artists.

SPIDER-MEN II #5 marks writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli’s final issue of the limited series. And as a surprise, “Mark Bagley makes a very special appearance,” teases Bendis.

So what do these arachnologists have in store? We bugged Bendis to give us the inside scoop.

Marvel.com: The final issue has arrived! What can readers expect with issue #5?

Brian Michael Bendis: Miles Morales and Peter Parker have teamed up because the mercenary Taskmaster has caused a lot of chaos behind a portal to another dimension. At first we don’t know what he wants or what’s going on, but it gets revealed that Taskmaster has been on a fact finding mission for someone named Miles Morales.

Not our Miles Morales. A different Miles Morales.

But what does he want and why? And how does it connected to our Miles?

Marvel.com: What can you tell us about this other Miles and how he might be connected to our heroes?

Brian Michael Bendis: We now know from the reveal in issue #3 and #4 that this new Miles Morales became a very close friend of a young Wilson Fisk and saw Wilson’s ascension to the ranks of Kingpin. We discover that this Miles did not have the same taste for blood and ambitions as Wilson, so Wilson created a situation for his dear friend to disappear and live happily ever after with the woman of his dreams. That is why no one has ever heard of him…until now.

Marvel.com: Last we saw, Miles didn’t know much about his mysterious namesake. What might be his big concerns heading into the last issue?

Brian Michael Bendis: Our Miles doesn’t know that he intercepted this other Miles’ mission to find his lost love. The other Miles’ wife has passed from a terrible illness. He lost his lifelong love and is now despondent and desperate. His wife’s funeral became the place where Wilson reunited with his once best friend and told him about other dimensions and other worlds and other versions of people in a hope to ease his pain—it sent this Miles on a quest. Our Miles doesn’t know that this Miles has been searching for his long-lost love in other dimensions.

Marvel.com: What have been Peter’s and Miles’ biggest challenges in this series? In the last issue?

Brian Michael Bendis: The legacy of Spider-Man. Is it a legacy? Or just the destiny of one man?

Peter never intended the name to be a movement or a mythology. It was his stand against crime. His burden. But now Miles and others have cast new responsibility onto the legacy of Spider-Man and no one really asked Peter what he thought of any of it. So this will be answered in this issue.

Both characters are on a lifelong journey of self-discovery—this is hardly the end, but a very important, pivotal chapter for both of them.

And I do not say that lightly.

Marvel.com: How has Pete and Miles’ relationship changed over the course of this series?

Brian Michael Bendis: When they first met, Miles was a very young man and Peter was a struggling scientist. Now, Miles has arrived on the other side of high school and Peter is a…recovering billionaire. They have both been through an enormous amount of personal growth and change since they first met. And their relationship has evolved. It’s becoming less mentor-student and more Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They’re both very good, but one just has a lot more experience.

Marvel.com: Will we see alternate, criminal Miles moving forward from SPIDER-MEN II?

Brian Michael Bendis: What criminal Miles does in this issue will surprise just about everybody who has read anything I’ve done in the last couple of years.

We knew doing a sequel to the original SPIDER-MEN would be doing a sequel to something that people had a great deal of fondness towards. I wanted to make sure that this limited series, on its own merits, lived up to that.

Where this new Miles goes and what he does will be very surprising! I felt surprised writing it.

Marvel.com: What can you tease about the issue? Any surprises heading our way?

Brian Michael Bendis: Abso-thwipping-lutely!

That was so Stan of me.

A lot happens. A lot is seen, discovered, and learned. Legitimate choices get made, legitimate chapters close, while others open. It’s big.

Marvel.com: Anything you want to add?

Brian Michael Bendis: The publication of this issue actually marks my 18th anniversary as a Spider-Man writer. There hasn’t been one month in the last 18 years where I haven’t written at least one Spider-Man related title released all over the world.

The original SPIDER-MEN series was, at the time, my ultimate statement on the franchise and I thought about that, and I thought about the number 18—a very big number in Judaism (I’m Jewish, shock)—and I wanted to make sure that this series expressed that in an elegant and honest fashion.

Don’t miss SPIDER-MEN II #5, by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli, on November 29!

WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans said Thursday that President Donald Trump has ruled out what some consider the best hope for undocumented young people who could face deportation because of him: attaching protections for the the so-called Dreamers to an omnibus government spending bill.