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151-405: Machine Man originally appeared in the pages of 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (July 1977), which was written and drawn by Jack Kirby , where he was called Mister Machine . He went on to appear in his own self-titled series in 1978. This title featured Machine Man entering the mainstream Marvel Universe. Jack Kirby wrote and drew the first nine issues, which dealt with the title character's status as

302-898: A Celestial , as the Celestials—revealed to be the power behind the Monoliths—had become interested in Machine Man. Machine Man, whose real name is Z2P45-9-X-51, was the last of a series of sentient robots created at the Broadhurst Center for the Advancement of Mechanized Research in Central City, California, by robotics expert Dr. Abel Stack for the US Army. However, all previous 50 experimental robots went mad as they achieved sentience and became psychotic, due to

453-413: A boring or mundane personal hell. Aaron's nightmare was life as an insurance adjuster for Delmar Insurance in Central City, USA. Bashing his head into a personal computer several times out of depression, he kills himself, only to answer the phone a moment later. Stack is freed from the nightmare by the intervention of fellow Nextwave member Tabitha Smith . Machine Man was also one of the main characters of

604-524: A contractual dispute in which editor Jack Schiff , who had been involved in getting Kirby and the Wood brothers the Sky Masters contract, claimed he was due royalties from Kirby's share of the strip's profits. Schiff successfully sued Kirby. Some DC editors had criticized him over art details, such as not drawing "the shoelaces on a cavalryman's boots" and showing a Native American "mounting his horse from

755-494: A cosmic purview informed by Kirby's seemingly boundless imagination—one well-matched with the consciousness-expanding youth culture of the 1960s. For almost a decade, Kirby provided Marvel's house style, creating many of the Marvel characters and designing their visual motifs. At the editor-in-chief's request, he often provided new-to-Marvel artists "breakdown" layouts, over which they would pencil in order to become acquainted with

906-526: A cure. He is dismayed by Jocasta's decision to marry Ultron. Under orders from Captain Steve Rogers , Machine Man teams up with Red Hulk , who is tracking down a Qatari rebel named Dagan Shah (whom Red Hulk believed to be behind the death of his old friend Will Krugauer). Machine Man and Red Hulk arrive in Sharzhad where they find Dagan Shah in the disguise of Arabian Knight , who lets them through

1057-695: A day. His first published work at Atlas was the cover of and the seven-page story "I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers" in Strange Worlds #1 (Dec. 1958). Initially with Christopher Rule as his regular inker, and later Dick Ayers , Kirby drew across all genres, from romance comics to war comics to crime comics to Western comics, but made his mark primarily with a series of supernatural-fantasy and science fiction stories featuring giant, drive-in movie -style monsters with names like Groot ,

1208-518: A degree of pride in his "roboty parts" — which he uses to kill Fin Fang Foom — Aaron has developed a fondness for alcohol, stating "My robot brain needs beer" on regular occasions. He is not especially popular with his teammates because of his self-important attitude, and, as is learned in a flashback that after being brought to space by the Celestials at the conclusion of his previous series, he

1359-475: A device given to him by Jacob Feinman, Machine Man disables Zero/One's drones and frees Black Fog from Zero/One's control as Black Fog leaves the area, stating that his debt is paid. Machine Man and Red Hulk arrived in Hawaii to fight a genetically-engineered Hydra that was created by Zero/One. As part of the 2016 Marvel NOW! , Machine Man appeared as an employee of Umbral Dynamics. Machine Man later appears as

1510-578: A different tone from Kirby's previous stories. Issue #15 saw a new writer, Tom DeFalco , taking over the writing chores. The title lasted until issue #19, ending in Feb. 1980. In Oct. 1984–Jan. 1985, the Machine Man title was resurrected, in a four-issue miniseries written by Tom DeFalco with art by Herb Trimpe (breakdowns only, issues #1–3) and Barry Windsor-Smith (finishes only, issues #1–3 and full art for issue #4), with Windsor-Smith also coloring

1661-437: A different variety of devices, including: gas chromatograph , laser interferometer , micro-pulse radar, audiometer, seismometer , gravity-wave detector, pulse-code modulator, standard-computer input/outputs, radio beacon, all-wave transceiver , laser-cutting torch/weapon, and projection of heat, cold, or electricity; one of his fingers has been shown to contain a bullet-firing mechanism that uses .357 Magnum ammunition. He has

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1812-468: A female Blacklash . Cassandra Lang attempts to get abilities from Power Broker with the intention of double-crossing him. However, Power Broker realizes that she does not have what it takes to be a villain. Instead, Power Broker tells her about Darren having stolen her heart and that her father hid it from her. As Darren had stolen something from him, he makes a deal with her....he will give her powers to do with as she wants. In exchange, she must retrieve

1963-753: A format that would later be called the trade paperback , which would eventually become standard practice in the industry. However, Infantino and company were not receptive and Kirby's proposals only went as far as producing the one-shot black-and-white magazines Spirit World and In the Days of the Mob in 1971. Kirby later produced other DC series including OMAC , Kamandi , The Demon , and Kobra as well as working on such extant features as " The Losers " in Our Fighting Forces . Together with former partner Joe Simon for one last time, he worked on

2114-457: A fugitive from the military after the death of his creator, and his first interactions with mankind. The book was canceled at the end of 1978 with X-51 finally standing up to the military. Machine Man appeared next in a three issue story arc within the pages of The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #235–237, battling the Hulk within the suburban setting of his human friend, Dr. Peter Spaulding. By the end of

2265-634: A house for his family in Mineola, New York on Long Island . It was the family's home for the next 20 years; Kirby worked out of a basement studio just 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, which the family referred to jocularly as "The Dungeon". He moved the family to Southern California in early 1969, both to live in a drier climate for the sake of daughter Lisa's health and to be closer to the Hollywood studios Jack Kirby believed might provide work. In an interview, Kirby's granddaughter Jillian Kirby said Jack Kirby

2416-563: A hurry because I couldn't take that kind of thing," describing it as "a factory in a sense, like my father's factory. They were manufacturing pictures." Around that time, the American comic book industry was booming. Kirby began writing and drawing for the comic book packager Eisner & Iger , one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers. Through that company, Kirby did what he remembered as his first comic book work, for Wild Boy Magazine . This included such strips as

2567-457: A knock-off called "Lackey." During a meeting with Slug , who had used Hench to hire the new Hijacker to steal a Giganto egg, Power Broker is made aware of Cross's treachery, which enrages him to the point of ordering the premature release of "Hench 2.0". Power Broker later held an event to promote the new Hench 2.0 upgrade. In order to protect the unveiling, he used the Hench App to hire

2718-411: A lack of identity. X-51 was the only survivor, as he was treated as a son by Stack and given a human face mask as well as being exposed to one of the monoliths from 2001 . After Stack died trying to protect him, X-51 assumed the human name Aaron Stack and escaped confinement, only to be relentlessly pursued by the army. X-51 named himself Mister Machine in issue #9 of the 10-issue run of 2001 . While on

2869-404: A large amount of arrivals. Unfortunately for Jackson, the aliens were less than pleased at having been dumped on Earth, and attacked him. Playing dead, Jackson came upon a parasitic organism (Jackson calls it an alien, but U.S. Agent believed it to be an escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. experiment to control the alien criminals) who had lost its host. In exchange for becoming its host, Jackson would be granted

3020-418: A lieutenant, learning that comics artist Kirby was in his command, made him a scout who would advance into towns and draw reconnaissance maps and pictures, an extremely dangerous duty. After the war, Simon arranged work for Kirby and himself at Harvey Comics , where, through the early 1950s, the duo created such titles as the kid-gang adventure Boy Explorers Comics , the kid-gang Western Boys' Ranch ,

3171-591: A living as a garment factory worker. Kirby grew up in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City . Among his close friends was Leon Klinghoffer , who grew up in the same neighborhood, and who in 1985 was shot, killed and thrown overboard from the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian Liberation Front hijackers . In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood. He liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art. Essentially self-taught, Kirby cited among his influences

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3322-551: A member of Domino 's incarnation of the Mercs for Money . During the " Iron Man 2020 " event, Machine Man appears as a member of the A.I. Army . Machine Man was assigned to blow up the satellite dish on Baintronics only for his feelings towards a reprogrammed Jocasata to get in the way. He followed her to a Baintronics facility and fought through many of the X-series robots that came before him. When he finally catches up to Jocasta, he

3473-542: A multitude of situations, both useful and esoteric. When asked if he could impregnate a human woman from several feet away, Aaron simply states "I am full of very useful devices". In the Point One event, as many other heroes, Machine Man was slightly revamped, gaining new powers and abilities. Now being a cross between the nano-technological being in the X-51 miniseries and the living Swiss Army knife of Nextwave , Machine Man

3624-595: A nation by the Arab League upon Sultan Magus agreeing to stop the weapons trading and states that they are trespassing. Sultan Magus then orders Red Hulk and Machine Man to get out of Sharzhad while he secretly plans to have his revenge on Red Hulk someday. Following an altercation with Red She-Hulk , Machine Man and Red Hulk track Zero/One to her floating island base Ogygia. As Red Hulk and Machine Man are fighting Zero/One's genetically-engineered sea monsters, Zero/One sends Black Fog to fight Machine Man and Red Hulk. Using

3775-705: A new incarnation of the Sandman . Kirby produced three issues of the 1st Issue Special anthology series and created Atlas the Great , a new Manhunter , and the Dingbats of Danger Street . Kirby's production assistant of the time, Mark Evanier , recounted that DC's policies of the era were not in sync with Kirby's creative impulses. Also Evanier said that he was often forced to work on characters and projects which he did not like. Meanwhile, some artists at DC did not want Kirby there, as he threatened their positions in

3926-731: A professional criminal and an executive with the criminal organization known as the Corporation . As a member of the Corporation, Jackson attempts to take control of Machine Man . With Eugene Stivak, Moonstone , and the Vamp , he later battles Captain America , Marvel Man , the Falcon , and the Hulk . Jackson kidnaps Trish Starr, and battles the Hulk and Machine Man again. Jackson founds

4077-479: A rarity, Kirby inked himself. Kirby recast the archer as a science-fiction hero, moving him away from his Batman-formula roots, but, in the process, alienating Green Arrow co-creator Mort Weisinger . He began drawing Sky Masters of the Space Force , a newspaper comic strip, written by the Wood brothers and initially inked by the unrelated Wally Wood . Kirby left National Comics Publications due largely to

4228-714: A series of interlinked titles under the blanket sobriquet " The Fourth World ", which included a trilogy of new titles— New Gods , Mister Miracle , and The Forever People —as well as the extant Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen . Kirby picked the latter book because the series was without a stable creative team and he did not want to cost anyone a job. The three books Kirby originated dealt with aspects of mythology he had previously touched upon in Thor . The New Gods would establish this new mythos, while in The Forever People Kirby would attempt to mythologize

4379-656: A significant part of the DC Universe . Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation and independent comics . In his later years, Kirby, who has been called "the William Blake of comics", began receiving great recognition in the mainstream press for his career accomplishments, and in 1987 he was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame . In 2017, Kirby

4530-414: A sort of medieval-themed Avengers, with Machine Man becoming Sir MacHinery. The Ultimate Marvel version of Machine Man is Danny Ketch , who sacrificed his life during Galactus ' assault on Earth via MODOK . Danny Ketch's consciousness is later revealed to have survived inside a robotic body formed from salvaged Gah Lak Tus tech and is dubbed "Machine Man" by Phil Coulson . As Machine Man, Ketch joins

4681-426: A special announcement to make. As I started telling about Jack's return, to a totally incredulous audience, everyone's head started to snap around as Kirby himself came waltzin' down the aisle to join us on the rostrum! You can imagine how it felt clownin' around with the co-creator of most of Marvel's greatest strips once more." Back at Marvel, Kirby both wrote and drew the monthly Captain America series as well as

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4832-572: A staggering 92% of its print run, inspiring Crestwood to increase the print run by the third issue to triple the initial number of copies. Initially published bimonthly, Young Romance quickly became a monthly title and produced the spin-off Young Love —together the two titles sold two million copies per month, according to Simon —later joined by Young Brides and In Love , the latter "featuring full-length romance stories". Young Romance spawned dozens of imitators from publishers such as Timely, Fawcett , Quality , and Fox Feature Syndicate . Despite

4983-574: A supervillain auction being held on Long Island . Very little is known about the second version of the Power Broker other than he wears a battle suit and can project bolts of energy from his hands. This new Power Broker has apparently taken over Power Broker, Inc. He was responsible for giving Paul Brokeridge super-strength to wrestle in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, a move that led to Paul attaining

5134-429: A supply of water and terraforming a part of the desert for Sharzhad. When Sultan Magus returns, he attacks Red Hulk and Machine Man. Sultan Magus rips Machine Man in half. When Arabian Knight is freed from his imprisonment, Red Hulk and Machine Man continue their fight with Sultan Magus until General Reginald Fortean arrives and ends the fight. Fortean states to Red Hulk and Machine Man that Sharzhad has been recognized as

5285-725: A team formed by the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, or H.A.T.E. (a subsidiary of the Beyond Corporation© ) to fight Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now preferring simply to be called Aaron, Machine Man is partnered with Monica Rambeau , Tabitha Smith , Elsa Bloodstone , and The Captain , and the team soon discovers that H.A.T.E. are funded by the Beyond Corporation©, leading them to go rogue and carry out their mission on their own prerogative. Calling humans "fleshy ones" and expressing

5436-493: A then-reasonable $ 15-a-week salary. He began to explore superhero narrative with the comic strip The Blue Beetle , published from January to March 1940, starring a character created by the pseudonymous Charles Nicholas , a house name that Kirby retained for the three-month-long strip. During this time, Kirby met and began collaborating with cartoonist and Fox editor Joe Simon , who in addition to his staff work continued to freelance. Simon recalled in 1988, "I loved Jack's work and

5587-467: A year's worth of material. Kirby was drafted into the U.S. Army on June 7, 1943. After basic training at Camp Stewart , near Savannah, Georgia, he was assigned to Company F of the 11th Infantry Regiment . He landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on August 23, 1944, 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 months after D-Day , although Kirby's reminiscences would place his arrival just 10 days after. Kirby recalled that

5738-558: Is a fictional criminal corporation in the Marvel Universe which provides individuals with superhuman physical abilities for a price. The organization was created by Mike Carlin and Paul Neary . Power Broker Inc. was founded by Curtiss Jackson and Karl Malus. Power Broker Inc. specializes in augmenting the strengths of anyone at a superhuman level. When Curtiss was killed by the Punisher, the second Power Broker took over. In

5889-525: Is considered Marvel's first graphic novel . Still dissatisfied with Marvel's treatment of him, and with an offer of employment from Hanna-Barbera , a job located in nearby Hollywood, Kirby left Marvel to work in animation. In that field for Ruby-Spears Productions he did designs for Turbo Teen , Thundarr the Barbarian and other animated series for television. In addition to a superior pay to his comics work, Kirby enjoyed excellent relations with

6040-459: Is now suffused with nanites able to effortlessly change his appearance from his earliest, jump-suited look to the more-humanoid looks of Nextwave. Also, his nanotechnology allows him to transform and rebuild every piece of machinery he comes in contact with, such as building an anti-gravity vehicle out of a motorcycle. In Nextwave #10, Forbush Man forces each member of Nextwave to experience life in 'Forbush Vision'; they were cursed to suffer in

6191-446: Is taken down by a new X-series robot model named X-52. Despite being at a disadvantage, Machine Man defeated X-52 and killed Jocasta while making off with her still-active head. Though he ran into a Baintronics security personnel as he prepares to fight them. Machine Man was constructed by unnamed computer engineering specialists under Dr. Oliver Broadhurst at the Broadhurst Center for the Advancement of Mechanized Research; Dr. Abel Stack

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6342-577: The Marvel Zombies universe, and the two are transported there by Portal . At first he wants to complete his mission only for the money, until he discovers that the zombies are cloning humans for food, much as humans use his fellow robots only for their own needs. He obtains cell samples from the Kingpin 's wife Vanessa , who is still alive and being kept safe by the Kingpin. Machine Man delivers

6493-468: The Marvel Zombies universe, initially in a cameo as part of the Nextwave team who engage in battle against the infected heroes and are killed off panel in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness , and as the main character in Marvel Zombies 3 . As the main character, Machine Man accepts an assignment on behalf of A.R.M.O.R. to accompany Jocasta to retrieve a blood sample from a living human from

6644-644: The CIA 's " Canadian Caper ", in which some members of the U.S. embassy in Tehran , Iran, who had avoided capture in the Iran hostage crisis , were able to escape the country posing as members of a movie location-scouting crew. In the early 1980s, Kirby and Pacific Comics , a new, non-newsstand comic-book publisher, made one of the industry's earliest deals for creator-owned series, resulting in Captain Victory and

6795-573: The Captain America's Bicentennial Battles one-shot in the oversized treasury format . He created the series The Eternals , which featured a race of inscrutable alien giants, the Celestials , whose behind-the-scenes intervention in primordial humanity would eventually become a core element of Marvel Universe continuity. He produced an adaptation and expansion of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey , as well as an abortive attempt to do

6946-450: The Earth X trilogy. Transformed by a monolith into a transparent version of himself, Aaron was forced to become the new Watcher by a blind Uatu , the previous Watcher, who had not viewed any event on the planet for 20 years. Tricking Uatu, who had attempted to force Machine Man to reject his humanity, Machine Man managed to use his access to Watcher technology and data to help humanity defeat

7097-539: The Fantastic Four . He then met mechanic "Gears" Garvin, and then battled Baron Brimstone . He also battled Madame Menace . He then first encountered Aurora , Northstar , and Sasquatch of Alpha Flight . Spaulding and Garvin set up Machine Man with a human identity as Aaron Stack, insurance investigator for the Delmar Insurance Company, but he continued having adventures as a superhero on

7248-731: The Future Foundation under Coulson. Machine Man appears in Spider-Man Unlimited , voiced by Dale Wilson . This version was intended to serve as an enforcer to the High Evolutionary , but was rejected due to being obsolete and set to be disassembled before Spider-Man saves him. Subsequently, he joins the resistance against the High Evolutionary. Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg ; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994)

7399-693: The Hulk , Thor , the X-Men and Magneto , Doctor Doom , Uatu the Watcher , Ego the Living Planet , the Inhumans and their hidden city of Attilan, and the Black Panther (comics' first black superhero) and his Afrofuturist nation, Wakanda . Kirby initially was assigned to pencil the first Spider-Man story, but when he showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, "I hated the way he

7550-688: The New York Times : Power Broker (character) Power Broker is the name of two fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The "Power Broker" concept was devised by Mark Gruenwald as a satire on the public obsession with health and fitness. The Power Broker is used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) as

7701-628: The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn , leaving after a week. "I wasn't the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted people who would work on something forever. I didn't want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done". Kirby joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First!!! (under

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7852-535: The Sandman feature in Adventure Comics and created the superhero Manhunter . In July 1942 they began the Boy Commandos feature. The ongoing "kid gang" series of the same name, launched later that same year, was the creative team's first National feature to graduate into its own title. It sold over a million copies a month, becoming National's third best-selling title. They scored a hit with

8003-559: The Sub-Mariner and Captain America. In later years, Lee and Kirby disputed over who deserved credit for such creations as The Fantastic Four . The story frequently cited as Lee and Kirby's finest achievement is " The Galactus Trilogy " in Fantastic Four #48–50 (March–May 1966), chronicling the arrival of Galactus , a cosmic giant who wanted to devour the planet, and his herald, the Silver Surfer . Fantastic Four #48

8154-714: The U.S. Army and serving in the European Theater in World War II , Kirby corresponded with his wife regularly by v-mail , with Roz sending daily letters while she worked in a lingerie shop and lived with her mother at 2820 Brighton 7th Street in Brooklyn. During the winter of 1944, Kirby suffered severe frostbite and was taken to a hospital in London for recovery. Doctors considered amputating Kirby's legs, which had turned black, but he eventually recovered and

8305-504: The X-Men , among many others. Kirby's titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, largely in the realm of authorship credit and creators' rights, Kirby left the company for rival DC. At DC, Kirby created his Fourth World saga which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved commercially unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth World's New Gods have continued as

8456-708: The comic strip artists Milton Caniff , Hal Foster , and Alex Raymond , as well as such editorial cartoonists as C. H. Sykes , "Ding" Darling , and Rollin Kirby . He was rejected by the Educational Alliance because he drew "too fast with charcoal", according to Kirby. He later found an outlet for his skills by drawing cartoons for the newspaper of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a "miniature city" on East 3rd Street where street kids ran their own government. At age 14, Kirby enrolled at

8607-474: The pseudonym Jack Curtiss ). He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the theatrical animation company Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener (an artist who fills in the action between major-movement frames) on Popeye cartoons at the same time in 1935. He left the studio before the Fleischer strike in 1937. "I went from Lincoln to Fleischer," he recalled. "From Fleischer I had to get out in

8758-405: The 1980s, including a brief revival of his "Fourth World" saga in the 1984 and 1985 Super Powers miniseries and the 1985 graphic novel The Hunger Dogs . DC executives Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz had Kirby re-design the Fourth World characters for the Super Powers toyline as a way of entitling him to royalties for several of his DC creations. In 1985, Kirby and Gil Kane helped to create

8909-410: The 2020 Machine Man may turn out not to be the true X-51, but instead a duplicate created by Sunset Bain . The story concludes in Thor Annual #15, also in 1990. He later fought alongside the Avengers , which led to the invitation to become a team reservist. Later he was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. , who wanted to use his technology to create another Deathlok . He helps the X-Men and Douglock against

9060-411: The Agent defeated Jackson and freed the captured wrestlers, and forced Malus to restore their strength. The U.S. Agent then destroyed Malus' equipment and records, leaving Jackson in an over-augmented state. Power Broker has been responsible for providing augmented henchmen to various criminal organizations, such as the Sweatshop , and the Power Tools . The Power Broker was later revealed as one of

9211-403: The Avengers, he attacks Justice and Firestar . Because of his actions against Justice and Firestar, X-51's membership in the Avengers is revoked. At the end of X-51 , X-51 encountered one of the monoliths and disappeared, brought into the presence of the monolith's creators, the cosmic beings known as the Celestials. Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen 's Nextwave series sees Machine Man join

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9362-497: The Bible, made for a heady brew, but the scope of his vision has endured." In 2007, comics writer Grant Morrison commented that "Kirby's dramas were staged across Jungian vistas of raw symbol and storm ... The Fourth World saga crackles with the voltage of Jack Kirby's boundless imagination let loose onto paper." In addition to his artistic efforts, Kirby proposed a variety of new formats for comics such as planning to collect his published Fourth World stories into square-bound books,

9513-409: The Galactic Rangers , and the six-issue miniseries Silver Star (later collected in hardcover format in 2007). This, together with similar actions by other independent comics publishers as Eclipse Comics (where Kirby co-created the character Destroyer Duck in a benefit comic-book series published to help Steve Gerber fight a legal case against Marvel), helped establish a precedent to end

9664-415: The Marvel look. As artist Gil Kane described: Jack was the single most influential figure in the turnaround in Marvel's fortunes from the time he rejoined the company ... It wasn't merely that Jack conceived most of the characters that are being done, but ... Jack's point of view and philosophy of drawing became the governing philosophy of the entire publishing company and, beyond the publishing company, of

9815-469: The Power Broker Corporation. He hires Dr. Karl Malus , a mad scientist who has experimented on various superhuman individuals, to technologically augment the strength of paying customers to superhuman levels. The strength augmenting process is tremendously risky, with half the subjects dying or becoming severely deformed, but this information is kept a closely guarded secret. Power Broker and Malus use highly addictive drugs on their subjects, telling them that

9966-458: The Power Broker to move. Jackson has managed to de-augment himself and no longer uses the exo-skeleton. Jackson was briefly the host to a parasitic organism. This allowed him to mind-control anyone infected with the organism's spawn. Jackson has a college degree in business administration, and is a highly skilled administrator and planner. The second Power Broker wears a battlesuit and can project bolts of energy from his hands. Power Broker, Inc.

10117-429: The Red Skull's division chiefs. Jackson resurfaced following the Maximum Security storyline, when Earth was made into an intergalactic penal colony. His extra-muscular bulk had been shed in-between appearances leaving him looking normal once again. Seeing an opportunity to recruit many of the exotic prisoners being dumped by the Kree and other alien races, Jackson raced to an area his computers determined would have

10268-435: The Thing from Planet X; Grottu, King of the Insects; and Fin Fang Foom for the company's many anthology series, such as Amazing Adventures , Strange Tales , Tales to Astonish , Tales of Suspense , and World of Fantasy . His bizarre designs of powerful, unearthly creatures proved a hit with readers. Additionally, he freelanced for Archie Comics around this time, reuniting briefly with Joe Simon to help develop

10419-424: The Western Bullseye: Western Scout ; the war comic Foxhole because EC Comics and Atlas Comics were having success with war comics, but promoting theirs as being written and drawn by actual veterans; In Love because their earlier romance comic Young Love was still being widely imitated; and the crime comic Police Trap , which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials. After

10570-469: The ability of flight under his own power through the means of anti-gravity disks. During the X-51 series, Machine Man had a few extra features thanks to nanotechnology within him at the time. This mainly included parts of himself being rebuilt if damaged, also causing many changes in his look from issue to issue. He also had a beam cannon on his chest. In Nextwave , he has become a living Swiss Army knife of sorts, containing various tools and weapons for

10721-483: The ability to process information and make calculations with superhuman speed and accuracy. Machine Man is powered by solar energy . He can also draw power from several different external-energy sources, if needed. Machine Man has the ability to telescope his arms and legs to a length of 100 feet (30 m). Machine Man's hands are equipped with variable-payload fingers, some routinely carried in his fingers, others stored in hidden recesses in his belt. His fingers contain

10872-673: The addictive drug, so the Power Broker sends the Grapplers to kill her. The Power Broker later kidnaps wrestler turned hero Demolition-Man , and battles Captain America and the Shroud when they come to rescue him. When Power Broker, Inc. is attacked by the Scourge of the Underworld , Curtiss Jackson exposes himself to his own augmentation device. The process goes awry, leaving him so grotesquely muscle-bound that he cannot move. Jackson

11023-587: The age of 76. The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor, and he is known as " The King " among comics fans for his many influential contributions to the medium. Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, at 147 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City ; he grew up there. His parents, Rose (Bernstein) and Benjamin Kurtzberg, were Austrian-Jewish immigrants, and his father earned

11174-432: The agreement, but reserved the right to reclaim the art if Kirby violated the deal. After Kirby publicly slammed Marvel, calling the company thugs and claiming they were arbitrarily holding his creations, Marvel finally returned (after two years of deliberations) approximately 1,900 or 2,100 pages of the estimated 10,000 to 13,000 Kirby drew for the company. For the producer Charles Band , Jack Kirby made concept art for

11325-650: The alias of Sharon Carter , portrayed by Emily VanCamp . The Curtiss Jackson version of Power Broker first appeared in Machine Man #6 (September 1978) and was created by Roger Stern and Sal Buscema . The second version of Power Broker first appeared in Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1 (January 2008) and was created by Dan Slott and Christos N. Gage . Curtiss Jackson was born in Charlotte , North Carolina . He became

11476-507: The amoral Iron Man of 2020 . In Paradise X: Heralds #1, Iron Man 2020 claimed to the Earth X Machine Man that he had killed Machine Man 2020, despite the miniseries depicting Arno Stark's decisive defeat at Machine Man's hands. When Morgan le Fay restructured reality in volume three of Avengers #1–3, nearly all Avengers, past and present, were transformed into the Queen's Vengeance,

11627-414: The anthology title Chamber of Darkness , and received full credit for doing so; but in 1970, Kirby was presented with a contract that included unfavorable terms such as a prohibition against legal retaliation. When Kirby objected, the management refused to negotiate any contract changes, bluntly dismissing his contribution to Marvel's success since they considered Lee solely responsible. Kirby, although he

11778-537: The art for the remaining issues of the series after Kirby died. In the early 1940s, Kirby and his family moved to Brooklyn . Kirby met Rosalind "Roz" Goldstein, who lived in the same Brooklyn apartment building. The pair began dating soon afterward. Kirby proposed to Goldstein on her 18th birthday, and the two became engaged. They married on May 23, 1942. The couple had four children: Susan (b. December 6, 1945), Neal (b. May 1948), Barbara (b. November 1952), and Lisa (b. September 1960). After being drafted into

11929-580: The by-then-defunct Pacific Comics, and then licensed to Topps for what became the " Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga " mythos. Phantom Force was the last comic book Kirby worked on before his death. The story was co-written by Kirby with Michael Thibodeaux and Richard French, based on an eight-page pitch for an unused Bruce Lee comic in 1978. Issues #1 and 2 were published by Image Comics with various Image artists inking over Kirby's pencils. Issue #0 and issues #3–8 were published by Genesis West, with Kirby providing pencils for issues #0 and 4. Thibodeaux provided

12080-534: The championship and later being crippled by a stronger wrestler. Power Broker was also responsible for giving Paul's brother Roger superpowers where Roger later became the superhero Hardball . Power Broker proceeds to invest in Hench, a mobile app that allows people to quickly hire supervillains. He demonstrates his invention to Darren Cross by enlisting Whirlwind to kill Ant-Man . When Cross refuses to invest at least 1.2 billion dollars in Hench, Power Broker ends

12231-575: The chemical is necessary to stabilize their powers, but in fact it only serves to keep the subjects working for—and paying—the Power Broker. Many wrestlers of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation , which is only open to those with super-strength, use the Power Broker's services, and wind up indebted to them. The Power Broker offers wrestler Sharon Ventura superhuman strength, and is reportedly sexually abused while drugged. She breaks free before Malus can administer

12382-475: The coming Celestials , by revealing to Earth's superhero community the true origins of mankind. After defeating the Celestials, Machine Man used his newfound position to contact parallel Earths to help them eradicate the Celestial menace. Aside from his mainstream version having travelled to this universe, Machine Man and his Nextwave counterparts are also a team in this reality; they are destroyed off-panel by

12533-557: The company; they also had bad blood from previous competition with Marvel and legal problems with him. Since he was working from California, they were able to undermine his work through redesigns in the New York office. At the comic book convention Marvelcon '75, in 1975, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Kirby was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for DC Comics. Lee wrote in his monthly column, "Stan Lee's Soapbox", "I mentioned that I had

12684-609: The concept and designs for the Ruby-Spears animated television series The Centurions . A comic-book series based on the show was published by DC and a toy line produced by Kenner . In the twilight of his life, Kirby spent a great deal of time sparring with Marvel executives over the ownership rights of his original page boards. At Marvel, many of these pages owned by the company (due to outdated and legally dubious copyright claims) were given away as promotional gifts to Marvel clients or simply stolen from company warehouses. After

12835-485: The demo, and cancels Whirlwind's attempted assassination of Ant-Man. A publicist named Marlena Howard later uses Hench to hire the Magician 's son to stage an attack on Darla Deering. Cross's unwillingness to invest in the Hench App spurs Augustine Cross into hiring Machinesmith to hack into the databases of Power Broker Inc. so that Cross Technological Enterprises can steal the Hench algorithm and use it to create

12986-530: The duo 25 percent of the profits from the feature. The first issue of Captain America Comics , released in early 1941, sold out in days, and the second issue's print run was set at over a million copies. The title's success established the team as a notable creative force in the industry. After the first issue was published, Simon asked Kirby to join the Timely staff as the company's art director. With

13137-479: The duo rearranged and republished artwork from an old Crestwood story in In Love , Crestwood refused to pay the team, who sought an audit of Crestwood's finances. Upon review, the pair's attorneys stated the company owed them $ 130,000 for work done over the past seven years. Crestwood paid them $ 10,000 in addition to their recent delayed payments. The partnership between Kirby and Simon had become strained. Simon left

13288-553: The entire field ... [Marvel took] Jack and use[d] him as a primer. They would get artists ... and they taught them the ABCs, which amounted to learning Jack Kirby ... Jack was like the Holy Scripture and they simply had to follow him without deviation. That's what was told to me ... It was how they taught everyone to reconcile all those opposing attitudes to one single master point of view. Highlights of Kirby's tenure also include

13439-457: The entire miniseries and co-plotting issue #4 with DeFalco. This series turned out to be one of the most popular of all the Machine Man titles, tying with previous continuity, but with the action set in the distant cyberpunk future of 2020, starting with Machine Man's reassembly. The miniseries was first reprinted as a 96-page trade paperback in 1988 ( ISBN   978-0-07-135458-5 ), with brand new cover art by Barry Windsor-Smith. The miniseries

13590-591: The films Doctor Mortalis and Mindmaster , which were later released as Doctor Mordrid (1992) and Mandroid (1993), respectively. Doctor Mordrid began as a planned adaptation of the Marvel Comics character Dr. Strange , but Band's option expired. For Topps Comics , founded in 1993, Kirby retained ownership of characters used in multiple series of what the company dubbed " The Kirbyverse ". These titles were derived mainly from designs and concepts Kirby had kept in his files, some intended initially for

13741-499: The fingerprint mold, place the band on his wrist, and inject him with the drug he had planned to use on her. The Power Broker had Malus' legs broken for his betrayal, then promptly re-hired him to try to cure Jackson's condition. Malus captured and experimented on several augmented individuals, including Battlestar to perfect the de-augmentation process, which drew the involvement of the U.S. Agent . Jackson appeared, revealed to be using an exo-skeleton to move. Together, Battlestar and

13892-469: The first time I saw it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He asked if we could do some freelance work together. I was delighted and I took him over to my little office. We worked from the second issue of Blue Bolt through... about 25 years." After leaving Fox and collaborating on the premiere issue of Fawcett Comics ' Captain Marvel Adventures ([March] 1941), the first solo title for

14043-604: The force field and leads them to his palace. Once inside the palace, Dagan Shah sheds his disguise, reveals his true identity as the Sultan Magus, and imprisons Red Hulk and Machine Man, as it is shown that the real Arabian Knight is imprisoned in a crystal. Red Hulk and Machine Man escape when Sultan Magus travels to Cairo after probing Red Hulk's mind to find out who could have sent Red Hulk to Sharzhad. Machine Man reveals to Red Hulk that Sultan Magus has used Rigellian technology to manipulate hydrogen, which involved providing

14194-680: The future DC Comics , Kirby drew 20 stories for Atlas from 1956 to 1957: Beginning with the five-page "Mine Field" in Battleground #14 (Nov. 1956), Kirby penciled and in some cases inked (with his wife, Roz ) and wrote stories of the Western hero Black Rider , the Fu Manchu -like Yellow Claw , and more. But in 1957, distribution troubles caused the "Atlas implosion" that resulted in several series being dropped and no new material being assigned for many months. The next year Kirby returned to

14345-482: The genre of romance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications . Kirby was involved in Timely's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics , which in the next decade became Marvel. There, in the 1960s, Kirby cocreated many of the company's major characters, including Ant-Man , the Avengers , the Black Panther , the Fantastic Four , the Hulk , Iron Man , the Silver Surfer , Thor , and

14496-500: The glut, the Simon and Kirby romance titles continued to sell millions of copies a month. Bitter that Timely Comics ' 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics , had relaunched Captain America in a new series in 1954, Kirby and Simon created Fighting American . Simon recalled, "We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America". While the comic book initially portrayed the protagonist as an anti-Communist dramatic hero, Simon and Kirby turned

14647-489: The highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics , predecessor of Marvel Comics . During the 1940s, Kirby regularly teamed with Simon, creating numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications , later to become DC Comics . After serving in the European Theater in World War II , Kirby produced work for DC Comics, Harvey Comics , Hillman Periodicals and other publishers. At Crestwood Publications , he and Simon created

14798-685: The homefront kid-gang team, the Newsboy Legion , featuring in Star-Spangled Comics . In 2010, DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed that "Like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster , the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby was a mark of quality and a proven track record." With World War II underway, Liebowitz expected that Simon and Kirby would be drafted , so he asked the artists to create an inventory of material to be published in their absence. The pair hired writers, inkers, letterers, and colorists in order to create

14949-425: The idea to comic books and with Kirby created a first-issue mock-up of Young Romance . Showing it to Crestwood general manager Maurice Rosenfeld, Simon asked for 50% of the comic's profits. Crestwood publishers Teddy Epstein and Mike Bleier agreed, stipulating that the creators would take no money up front. Young Romance #1 (cover-date Oct. 1947) "became Jack and Joe's biggest hit in years". The first title sold

15100-599: The industry for a career in advertising, while Kirby continued to freelance. "He wanted to do other things and I stuck with comics," Kirby recalled in 1971. "It was fine. There was no reason to continue the partnership and we parted friends." At this point in the mid-1950s, Kirby made a temporary return to the former Timely Comics , now known as Atlas Comics, the direct predecessor of Marvel Comics . Inker Frank Giacoia had approached editor-in-chief Stan Lee for work and suggested he could "get Kirby back here to pencil some stuff. While freelancing for National Comics Publications,

15251-638: The insult when confronted about it by Lee's protege, Roy Thomas , who was similarly insulted with Flashman's sidekick, Houseroy. The central villain of the Fourth World series, Darkseid , and some of the Fourth World concepts, appeared in Jimmy Olsen before the launch of the other Fourth World books, giving the new titles greater exposure to potential buyers. The Superman figures and Jimmy Olsen faces drawn by Kirby were redrawn by Al Plastino , and later by Murphy Anderson . Les Daniels observed in 1995 that "Kirby's mix of slang and myth, science fiction and

15402-455: The item that Darren took from him and in the process get her revenge on him. She chooses to have her old powers back because she does not want to learn a new power set. Lang is given a new suit and a helmet similar to her father's while sporting the new name of Stinger. At a public event, Power Broker revealed the Hench X app that enables anyone to become a supervillain. He tests it out on a former comic store clerk named Paul who ends up becoming

15553-541: The last remaining zombies, he declares, "No, you know what? My name is Machine Man and I just saved the ☠☠☠☠ing world!" accepting the name he spent much of Nextwave and this series denying. In Marvel Zombies 5 , he teams up with Howard the Duck . They later work with and befriend Jacali Kane, daughter of an alternate-universe Hurricane . The trio travel the multi-verse fighting zombies; their intentions are to gather samples from biologically differing zombies in other to gain

15704-443: The lives of the young people he observed around him. The third book, Mister Miracle was more of a personal myth. The title character was an escape artist, which Mark Evanier suggests Kirby channeled his feelings of constraint into. Mister Miracle's wife was based in character on Kirby's wife Roz, and he even caricatured Stan Lee within the pages of the book as Funky Flashman , a depiction Lee found hurtful while Kirby tried to downplay

15855-439: The monopoly of the work-for-hire system, wherein comics creators, even freelancers, had owned no rights to characters they created. In 1983 Richard Kyle commissioned Kirby to create a 10-page autobiographical strip, " Street Code ", which became one of the last works published in Kirby's lifetime. It was published in 1990, in the second issue of Kyle's revival of Argosy . Kirby continued to do periodic work for DC Comics during

16006-674: The nascent Marvel. For DC around that time, Kirby co-created with writers Dick and Dave Wood the non-superpowered adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown in Showcase #6 (Feb. 1957), while contributing to such anthologies as House of Mystery . During 30 months freelancing for DC, Kirby drew slightly more than 600 pages, which included 11 six-page Green Arrow stories in World's Finest Comics and Adventure Comics that in

16157-617: The passage of the Copyright Act of 1976 , which greatly expanded artist copyright capabilities, comics publishers began to return original art to creators, but in Marvel's case only if they signed a release reaffirming Marvel's ownership of the copyright. In 1985, Marvel issued a release that demanded Kirby affirm that his art was created for hire, allowing Marvel to retain copyright in perpetuity, in addition to demanding that Kirby forego all future royalties. Marvel offered him 88 pages of his art (less than 1% of his total output) if he signed

16308-422: The person she once knew, he gives an explanation. Describing his earlier, friendly personality as being linked to "unresolved Oedipal issues", he claims to have grown tired of saving people over and over again to earn their love, as he loved them. Since that never happened (he claims), he has "modeled myself after the fleshies now. I look out for Number One, just like them". At the end of the series, as he wipes out

16459-487: The previously introduced superhero, and for which Kirby was told to mimic creator C.C. Beck 's drawing style, the duo were hired on staff at pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman 's Timely Comics (later to become Marvel Comics). There Simon and Kirby created the patriotic superhero Captain America in late 1940. Simon, who became the company's editor, with Kirby as art director, said he negotiated with Goodman to give

16610-417: The rightness of his position, Iron Man tells of the time Machine Man came to visit him. Machine Man was seeking to compare notes with Iron Man, thought to be a robot by Machine Man. Drunk, irate, and under considerable stress from the machinations of Obadiah Stane , Iron Man attacks Machine Man and almost kills two of his own employees. At the last possible second, Machine Man's extendable arm pushes them out of

16761-414: The rights. In collaboration, Geller commissioned Kirby to draw set designs that would be used as architectural renderings for a Colorado theme park to be called Science Fiction Land; Geller announced his plans at a November press conference attended by Kirby, former American football star Rosey Grier , writer Ray Bradbury , and others. While the film did not come to fruition, Kirby's drawings were used for

16912-442: The run, the newly christened Machine Man initiated contact with humanity in order to better understand it. After being captured and later freed, Machine Man was found by psychiatrist Peter Spaulding. He also battled Col. Krag's troops. Soon after that, he first encountered Curtiss Jackson . Alongside the Hulk , he battled Curtiss Jackson. Soon after that, he was redesigned and rebuilt by Dr. Oliver Broadhurst. He then first encountered

17063-488: The safe escape of Nextwave. Later appearances in the Marvel Comics Presents vol. 2 suggest that X-51's memories of his time with the Celestials may be skewed, as he experienced visual hallucinations of a miniature Celestial helping him overcome his psychological issues. Despite the appearance of Nextwave characters in other Marvel titles, in 2006 Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada stated that Nextwave's setting

17214-415: The saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s", and Lee soon discovered that the story was a favorite on college campuses. Kirby continued to expand the medium's boundaries, devising photo-collage covers and interiors, developing new drawing techniques such as the method for depicting energy fields now known as " Kirby Krackle ", and other experiments. In 1968 and 1969, Joe Simon

17365-585: The same costume and displays the same nonsensical and zany personality developed, in place of his previous logical and friendly self. He reveals that Agent Maria Hill from S.H.I.E.L.D. offered him financial compensation to join the Initiative, enraging Ms. Marvel, who had supported it from the beginning, for free. He spends much of his time in Chile and aboard the Minicarrier 13, Ms. Marvel's headquarters at

17516-479: The same for the classic television series The Prisoner . He wrote and drew Black Panther and drew numerous covers across the line. Kirby's other Marvel creations in this period include Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur . Kirby's final comics collaboration with Stan Lee, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience , was published in 1978 as part of the Marvel Fireside Books series and

17667-649: The same time, Kirby grew increasingly dissatisfied with working at Marvel, for reasons Kirby biographer Mark Evanier has suggested include resentment over Lee's media prominence, a lack of full creative control, anger over breaches of perceived promises by publisher Martin Goodman, and frustration over Marvel's failure to credit him specifically for his story plotting and for his character creations and co-creations. He began to both write and draw some secondary features for Marvel, such as "The Inhumans" in Amazing Adventures volume two , as well as horror stories for

17818-592: The samples to Jocasta, but the zombies nearly destroy him in retribution, and Portal and Jocasta are forced to leave his ruined body in that dimension. After Machine Man reveals that it was a holographic projection of himself, he fights off some zombies and captures the zombie Lockjaw who he uses to teleport back to his own dimension. Disposing of the remaining zombies within the facility, Machine Man and Jocasta are assigned back to S.H.I.E.L.D. He retains his personality as displayed in Nextwave and Ms Marvel in this series, but when Jocasta describes him as different from

17969-524: The science fiction adventure "The Diary of Dr. Hayward" (under the pseudonym Curt Davis ), the Western crimefighter feature "Wilton of the West" (as Fred Sande ), the swashbuckler adventure "The Count of Monte Cristo" (again as Jack Curtiss), and the humor features "Abdul Jones" (as Ted Grey ) and "Socko the Seadog" (as Teddy ), all variously for Jumbo Comics and other Eisner-Iger clients. He first used

18120-442: The second Plantman . Plantman was then unleashed when Ant-Man showed up to interrogate Power Broker on personal matters. Some time later, Power Broker ran out of funding for his Hench app and fled to his secret island where he started to work on an app for supervillain travel booking. Unfortunately, his investors turned down the idea. Upon tracking down Power Broker, Stinger subdued him. The Curtiss Jackson version of Power Broker

18271-461: The series The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong . Additionally, Kirby drew some issues of Classics Illustrated . At Marvel Kirby hit his stride once again in superhero comics, beginning with The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), which some have observed, shares many elements of Kirby's Challengers of the Unknown . The landmark series became a hit that revolutionized the industry with its comparative naturalism and, eventually,

18422-399: The series X-51, The Machine Man in which Machine Man experiences a programming malfunction: he would uncontrollably attack any mutant he encountered. He was given a drastically more robotic look and his powers were vastly changed. The reason for both was that he had been reconstructed by Sentinel -based nanotechnology. The series lasted twelve issues; in the final one, he was 'recovered' by

18573-659: The series into a superhero satire with the second issue, in the aftermath of the Army-McCarthy hearings and the public backlash against the Red-baiting U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy . At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company, Mainline Publications , securing a distribution deal with Leader News in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend Al Harvey 's Harvey Publications at 1860 Broadway. Mainline, which existed from 1954 to 1955, published four titles:

18724-447: The side. In Iron Man #168 (March 1983), Machine Man attempts to pay Iron Man a visit. Machine Man was seeking to compare notes with Iron Man, thought to be a robot by Machine Man. At the time, Iron Man was drunk, irate, and under considerable stress from the machinations of Obadiah Stane. Iron Man attacked Machine Man and almost killed two of his own employees. At the last possible second, Machine Man's extendable arm pushed them out of

18875-673: The staff, especially with the younger artists who typically credited him as their inspiration. He worked on The New Fantastic Four animated series, reuniting him with scriptwriter Stan Lee and they kept their relations sufficiently cordial on a professional level. He illustrated an adaptation of the Walt Disney movie The Black Hole for Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales syndicated comic strip in 1979–80. In 1979, Kirby drew concept art for film producer Barry Geller's script treatment adapting Roger Zelazny 's science fiction novel, Lord of Light , for which Geller had purchased

19026-407: The storyline, he incurred a complete system shutdown, leading to the events portrayed in his relaunched monthly series. The title was relaunched in issue #10 after a nine-month hiatus. Status quo in the book changed with Machine Man now living amongst humanity, and dealing with his own new-found emotions. Marv Wolfman came aboard as the new writer, partnered with artist Steve Ditko , which helped set

19177-753: The success of the Captain America character, Simon said he felt that Goodman was not paying the pair the promised percentage of profits, and so sought work for the two of them at National Comics Publications (later renamed DC Comics ). Kirby and Simon negotiated a deal that would pay them a combined $ 500 a week, as opposed to the $ 75 and $ 85 they respectively earned at Timely. The pair feared Goodman would not pay them if he found they were moving to National, but many people knew of their plan, including Timely editorial assistant Stan Lee . When Goodman eventually discovered it, he told Simon and Kirby to leave after finishing work on Captain America Comics #10. Kirby

19328-513: The superhero comic Stuntman , and, in vogue with the fad for 3-D movies , Captain 3-D . Simon and Kirby additionally freelanced for Hillman Periodicals (the crime-fiction comic Real Clue Crime ) and for Crestwood Publications ( Justice Traps the Guilty ). The team had its greatest success in the postwar period by creating romance comics . Simon, inspired by Macfadden Publications ' romantic-confession magazine True Story , transplanted

19479-542: The surname Kirby as the pseudonymous Lance Kirby in two "Lone Rider" Western stories in Eastern Color Printing 's Famous Funnies #63–64 (Oct.–Nov. 1939). He ultimately settled on the pen name Jack Kirby because it reminded him of actor James Cagney . However, he took offense to those who suggested he changed his name in order to hide his Jewish heritage. Kirby moved on to comic-book publisher and newspaper syndicator Fox Feature Syndicate , earning

19630-495: The time, antagonizing and criticizing every available agent. In addition to financial compensation, S.H.I.E.L.D. has also provided Aaron with a Life Model Decoy of Monica Rambeau , which is programmed to cry for him. Keeping him in his new role of comic relief , Aaron has been shown using the LMD body as a replacement part for his damaged body, going so far to offer womanly advice to a deeply shocked Araña. Machine Man appears twice in

19781-449: The use of the parasite's spawn to infect and control others. In his plan to take over the world, Jackson smuggled the parasite spawns to a HYDRA base and a rebel Atlantean group. These operations were broken up by S.T.A.R.S. (Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad) and their main agent, U.S. Agent, leading the group to take down the Power Broker once again. The Punisher later kills and impersonates Jackson in order to infiltrate

19932-604: The villainous Red Skull , who had taken over the Helicarrier where Machine Man was held. He helped the X-Men again against Bastion and his Sentinels . As a consequence, he was infected by Sentinel programming, assuming a more robotic look in the subsequent series X-51 , and losing self-control whenever he was faced with a mutant. During this series, he was on the run from Sebastian Shaw , who wants his technology for himself. Because of his new programming, while seeking aid from

20083-604: The way. In a meeting with the Thing of the Fantastic Four , Machine Man also first met and fell in love with another sentient robot, Jocasta . Alongside the Thing and Jocasta, he battled Ultron . However, during the battle, Machine Man witnessed the seeming destruction of Jocasta by Ultron. In 1990, Machine Man guest-starred in Iron Man Annual #11 (part of the "Terminus Factor" storyline). That story created strong hints that

20234-422: The way. Iron Man uses this incident as the need for accountability in the superhero population. Aaron and Sleepwalker are recruited to aid Ms. Marvel in finding her teammate Araña as part of a S.H.I.E.L.D. strikeforce known as Operation Lightning Storm. In the promotional cover for this appearance, he is in the costume which he wore during Nextwave . His appearance is entirely in keeping with Nextwave: he wears

20385-461: The wrong side." Several months later, after his split with DC, Kirby began freelancing regularly for Atlas despite harboring negative sentiments about Stan Lee (the cousin of Timely publisher Martin Goodman's wife), who Kirby had always found annoying on top of his aforementioned betrayal he suspected in the 1940s. Because of the poor page rates, Kirby would spend 12 to 14 hours daily at his drawing table at home, producing four to five pages of artwork

20536-537: The zombie Power Pack . The classic version of Machine Man also appears in Marvel Zombies Dead Days in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. He is part of a last-ditch super-team gathered to fight the zombies. Machine Man was reactivated in the year 2020 by a group of outlaw scavengers called Midnight Wreckers (led by X-51's old friend Gears Garvin), and forced to battle his old enemy, the industrialist ice queen Sunset Bain , as well as mercenary Arno Stark,

20687-529: Was a "liberal Democrat". Jack Kirby held anti-communist views, once saying that "I was against the reds. I became a witch hunter. My enemies were the commies—I called them commies. In fact, Granny Goodness was a commie, Doubleheader was a commie." On February 6, 1994, aged 76, Kirby died of heart failure in his Thousand Oaks, California home. He was buried at Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California . Brent Staples wrote in

20838-608: Was able to walk again. He returned to the United States in January 1945, assigned to Camp Butner in North Carolina, where he spent the last six months of his service as part of the motor pool. Kirby was honorably discharged as a private first class on July 20, 1945, having received a Combat Infantryman Badge , a European/African/Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with a bronze Battle Star . In 1949, Kirby bought

20989-496: Was an American comic book artist , widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew up in New York City and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons. He entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss , before settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created

21140-399: Was an ordinary man until he exposed himself to his own chemical and radiation strength augmentation process. This granted him superhuman strength and durability, but left him with a grotesquely overdeveloped muscular physique which renders him unable to move without artificial aids. Dr. Karl Malus invented a powerful steel alloy exo-skeleton with tongue controls and flight capabilities to enable

21291-421: Was bitterly convinced it was specifically Lee who betrayed them, ignoring Simon's willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt. Kirby and Simon spent their first weeks at National trying to devise new characters while the company sought how best to utilize the pair. After a few failed editor-assigned ghosting assignments, National's Jack Liebowitz told them to "just do what you want". The pair then revamped

21442-536: Was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel's readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that "As the fourth year of the Fantastic Four came to a close, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemed to be only warming up. In retrospect, it was perhaps the most fertile period of any monthly title during the Marvel Age." Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "[t]he mystical and metaphysical elements that took over

21593-476: Was doing it! Not that he did it badly—it just wasn't the character I wanted; it was too heroic". Lee then turned to Steve Ditko to draw the story that would appear in Amazing Fantasy #15, for which Kirby nonetheless penciled the cover. Lee and Kirby gathered several of their newly created characters together into the team title The Avengers and brought back old characters from the 1940s such as

21744-497: Was dumped back on Earth because the space-gods considered him to be a "complete and utter ☠☠☠☠". He appears to have a rather serious attraction to Elsa Bloodstone and stares at her chest constantly, much to her chagrin. It is revealed that, when still an agent of H.A.T.E, Aaron would often sneak into Dirk Anger 's room to steal beer until he found out what Anger made it out of. He later uses his knowledge of Dirk's quarters to steal Anger's mother's dress and hold it hostage in exchange for

21895-400: Was earning $ 35,000 a year freelancing for the company (adjusted for inflation it was the equivalent of over $ 271,000 in 2024), then left Marvel in 1970 for rival DC Comics, under editorial director Carmine Infantino . Kirby spent nearly two years negotiating a deal to move to DC Comics, where in late 1970 he signed a three-year contract with an option for two additional years. He produced

22046-557: Was his chief programmer. Machine Man's robotic materials, design, and construction ( titanium alloy) provide him with a number of abilities, as does his adamantium composition. He possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, and reflexes. He is an expert on his own construction and repair. Machine Man has superhuman visual acuity. He possesses an above normal intellect, with a capacity for unlimited self-motivated activity, creative intelligence, and human-like emotions. He has superhuman cybernetic analytical capabilities, including

22197-772: Was in a universe separate from the main Marvel continuity. However, later issues of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe , as well as Civil War: Battle Damage Report , consistently place Nextwave's activities in mainstream continuity. As noted above, subsequent appearances by Stack have used the Nextwave portrayal. Machine Man appears in a flashback to Iron Man #168 (March 1983) in Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War . In trying to convince Captain America of

22348-400: Was involved in litigation with Marvel Comics over the ownership of Captain America, initiated by Marvel after Simon registered the copyright renewal for Captain America in his own name. According to Simon, Kirby agreed to support the company in the litigation and, as part of a deal Kirby made with publisher Martin Goodman, signed over to Marvel any rights he might have had to the character. At

22499-407: Was posthumously named a Disney Legend for his creations not only in the field of publishing, but also because those creations formed the basis for The Walt Disney Company 's financially and critically successful media franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe . Kirby was married to Rosalind Goldstein in 1942. They had four children and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, at

22650-464: Was republished again in 1994 as two double-size books, with the name Machine Man 2020 . Characters from this alternate future have made appearances in other Marvel books, namely Arno Stark, the mercenary Iron Man 2020 . In 2013, many of Arno Stark’s adventures were collected in the Iron Man 2020 TPB, which included all 4 issues of Machine Man volume 2. In 1999, Marvel brought the character back in

22801-444: Was revealed to be a patient at Los Angeles County Hospital. Malus decided to take advantage of this situation by sending Vagabond , who knew Jackson (having previously approached him about gaining super-strength herself), to obtain a copy of his fingerprints so that Malus could access all of Jackson's personal accounts and vaults. He used an explosive wristband to force Vagabond's cooperation, but she managed to knock Malus out, destroy

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