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.

Family remained an important factor in Jack Kirby’s work throughout his entire career. He took on as much work as possible as the provider of his own clan and also wove that responsibility into many of his comics. BLACK PANTHER #8–10 from 1978 focused on these ideas as well when T’Challa dealt with problems while his own blood responded to a related threat back in Wakanda.

The first installment began with a masked man facing off against The Black Panther in Wakanda during the combat ritual which allows for any challengers to try and defeat the country’s champion for supremacy. To our surprise, the Panther fell and the hooded combatant turned out to be none other than T’Challa! We then cut to our hero himself flying a chopper back to his homeland and realize we’ve been feasting our eyes on a flashback. We’d seen something like this in AVENGERS #87, but not drawn by “The King”! His return home delayed once more upon seeing two people floating below him in a life raft.

Meanwhile, in Wakanda, the mutated Jakarra—T’Challa’s half-brother—continued his rampage throughout the nation after exposing himself to too much Vibranium. Driven mad, he decided to wage a war against his own people! Back in the copter, the men the Panther saved turned out to be less than reputable. In fact, the mobsters put a gun to the king’s head and demanded he fly them to Corsica. Instead, the savvy jungle king lurched the helicopter so that they all crashed. The mafia boss’ henchman perished, but Scarpa survived, leaving T’Challa questioning what he should do as he carried his unconscious attacker through the desert.

Black Panther (1977) #8

• Published: March 10, 1978
• Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 13, 2007
• Writer: Jack Kirby
• Penciller: Jack Kirby

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At the same time, in Wakanda, N’Gassi spoke to a quartet of T’Challa’s extended family members who had been called on to serve in the Panther’s stead during his absence. The group included race car driver Khanata, businessman Ishanta, Zuni, and genius youth Joshua Itobo. Though even they didn’t know if they stood up to the task of stopping their rampaging cousin, the foursome soon found themselves tested as Jakarra burst into their meeting. Between their quick-thinking and brave actions, T’Challa’s relatives chased the threat away, and suddenly felt a newfound desire to fight for their nation.

The rechristened “Black Musketeers” donned Black Panther-esque costumes to face off against Jakarra. Over in the desert, the actual Black Panther could not figure out why he suddenly came across robots and aliens, only later realizing he’d wandered onto the filming location of a sci-fi motion picture! After an incredibly long journey, T’Challa finally made his way back to Wakanda and just in time as Jakarra threatened to destroy the entire planet by taking his ever-changing form to the Great Vibranium Mound. Though his brethren did their best to stop the imminent danger, it took the Panther leaping into action to actually stop his brother, destroying him in the process.

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.

Daken’s coming to town and that might not be such a good thing for Bobby Drake. Wolverine’s psycho son will pay a visit to his fellow mutant starting with ICEMAN #9 by writer Sina Grace and artist Robert Gill on January 3.

Gill joined the book with issue #6 and has been going strong since. In that time he’s developed his take on the frosty hero, but now he gets to give Daken a whole new look thanks to the presence of an Apocalypse Death Seed! We talked with the artist about transitioning to the title, figuring out Bobby’s looks, and powering Daken up!

Marvel.com: How has it been hopping on ICEMAN and working with Sina so far?

Robert Gill: It’s been great, and working with Sina has been a blast. It felt like a very smooth transition for me coming off TOTALLY AWESOME HULK and into ICEMAN, and I think issue #6 was a great starting point since it basically kicked off a new arc. Sina’s been super supportive of my work and he’s always available to go back and forth over any aspect of the book, which I feel has helped shape it into something even better than we hoped.

Marvel.com: What are the main elements to Bobby’s visuals both when he’s iced-up and defrosted?

Robert Gill: As Iceman, I try to capture the varied look and feel that ice can have, from a smooth reflective quality to the jagged, tough edges. The sled and how it’s created and moves is very iconic and I’ve tried to treat it as a character all its own.

As for Bobby Drake, I like to think of him as a very approachable, nice, every day kind of guy. He’s not a massive dude, nor does he have any real distinctive physical traits like a scar or missing body part or something wacky, so he’s actually been a little more challenging to nail aesthetically than pretty much any other character in the book! Sina gets pretty specific with the fashion elements of Bobby and the supporting characters, and that helps a lot in defining them visually.

Marvel.com: You alluded to this a bit in mentioning the sled, but Iceman’s powers offer a lot of potential. Do you enjoy figuring out how all that plays out on the page?

Robert Gill: I think that might be my favorite aspect of the book. At times it can be tough to come up with cool-looking manifestations of his powers that maybe haven’t been seen before due to deadlines and things, since I’d love to spend way more time designing the specific visuals. But it’s very fun to have basically no limits to the imagination here and I very much enjoy incorporating any of these visuals into the design and layout of a page.

Marvel.com: How would you describe Bobby and Daken’s relationship going into this story and how it changes as the tale progresses?

Robert Gill: My impression was that they seemed to have a sort of standoffish relationship coming into this. They weren’t bloodthirsty enemies that brawled the second they saw one another, and I don’t think Iceman/Bobby saw Daken as too big of a threat overall. But, before this series is through, all that will change!

Marvel.com: In this book you’ve got Daken powering up with the Apocalypse Death Seed. What was the process like for figuring out how that would look?

Robert Gill: Sina was fairly specific on how Daken should look and he’s always great with painting a pretty clear picture of things in his scripts. I love to play off that and run with things, to try and evolve and beef things up even more than perhaps he intended.

I’d love to spend a whole week working on a design for any character, even two weeks, but that’s just not possible with a monthly book. So, I try to get a clear idea in my head from the descriptions in the script and any outside inspirations I can think of, and just build a look as I go, through the layout process and while working on the final page.

ICEMAN #9, by Sina Grace and Robert Gill, slides your way on January 3!

Totally Awesome no more, Amadeus Cho has become a Hulk of a familiar color, and this March, his rage will engulf his home planet! Writer Greg Pak welcomes artist Carlo Barberi along for a visit to familiar territory when World War Hulk II kicks off with INCREDIBLE HULK #714.

“What follows [“Return to Planet Hulk”]?” asks Executive Editor and SVP Tom Brevoort. “World War Hulk II, of course! To survive on the savage world of Sakaar, Amadeus Cho was forced to unleash his darkest impulses! Returning to Earth, now The Hulk is at the wheel–and it’s a more unpredictable, more unconquerable Hulk than any we’ve seen before! The heroes of the Marvel Universe must intercede as the formerly Totally Awesome Hulk begins to carve his own path across the world.”

Incredible Hulk #714 cover by Mike Deodato

Altered not only by his stint on Sakaar but also his GENERATIONS adventure with the original Hulk, Amadeus says goodbye to restraint and unleashes his not-so-jolly green giant on a terrified populace. Will The Black Panther, the Champions, and Alpha Flight be enough to curb the monster unchained?

Join the battle for Earth with INCREDIBLE HULK #714 in March as Greg Pak and Carlo Barberi spark World War Hulk II! And re-read the original World War Hulk through Marvel Unlimited!