The Challengers of the Unknown is a fictional group of adventurers appearing in comic books published by DC Comics . The quartet of adventurers explored paranormal occurrences while facing several fantastic menaces.
163-466: The characters' provenance is uncertain. Various sources credit the group as the sole creation of artist and storyteller Jack Kirby , a co-creation with writer Dave Wood or a co-creation with Kirby's former partner Joe Simon . Following the end of the Challengers comic, DC has revived the characters in different incarnations over the years. Some have claimed that Kirby reworked the basic concept of
326-402: A mysterious figure hovering over the fight. After some encouraging words from Clark Kent, he decides to take two weeks off to investigate. He tracks down a figure connected with the past of Jonathan Drew and is told the story of how Jonathan became Codename: Assassin. His informant is quickly executed by Codename: Assassin, who then tries to kill Jimmy. Jimmy is able to avoid being killed and
489-478: A 2010 story, he claimed it stopped working some time in the past, never worked particularly well in the first place, and contacted Superman through Morse code now, anyway, but still wore it for show. Mostly during the Silver Age of Comic Books , Jimmy would find himself temporarily transformed, for better or worse, or undergo a disguise for various purposes. The variety of transformations Jimmy received during
652-524: 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
815-494: 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
978-634: A cover date of September 2019, DC Comics published a 12-part comedic miniseries that restored some elements of the 1954 series to the main DC Comics timeline. Jimmy was once again shown as Turtle Boy and Elastic Lad, and his antics, glamorous lifestyle as Superman's pal, and strange transformations were depicted as a source of streaming-media ad revenue that was keeping the Daily Planet afloat. The series explored Jimmy's siblings Janie and Julian, his family's historic relations with Lex Luthor 's family,
1141-695: 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 ,
1304-494: A deep-seated hatred for Superman and eyes for Lois Lane. It was Jimmy who first uncovered his secret plot to control the world's finances through his company Aelius Industries, Inc. Olsen is a central character in the 12-part miniseries Superman: Metropolis (beginning June 2003). Written by Chuck Austen and illustrated by Danijel Zezelj, the series focuses on the futuristic technology unleashed in Metropolis by Brainiac in
1467-414: A faction within the U.S. military is actively plotting to kill Superman. Willing to do anything to uncover the conspiracy behind Project 7734 , Jimmy uses an anonymous chat server and gets in contact with Erik/Amazing Woman from Infinity Inc. , who claims to have information useful to Jimmy. Despite being actively pursued by Codename: Assassin, who goes so far as to place bugs in his house, Jimmy goes to
1630-753: 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
1793-634: 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
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#17327809467481956-563: 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
2119-418: 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 ,
2282-591: 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
2445-514: A major cultural celebration, and the introduction of Chloe Sullivan (from the Smallville television series) to the DCU proper. In the latest arc, he goes on a charity date with a girl named Maggie, only to discover that she somehow has ties to Mr. Mxyzptlk , and that she wants to marry him. The last three chapters of the story are told in the self-titled one-shot Jimmy Olsen . Beginning with
2608-705: 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
2771-490: A plot involving the attempted murder and faked death of Olsen, and a marriage in Gorilla City that Jimmy subsequently forgot to annul. The series poked fun at DC Comics' own history, including a sequence in which Jimmy angered Batman by suggesting a phone-in campaign to decide whether Robin lived or died . By the end of the series, Jimmy received a new Signal Watch and became the publisher of the Daily Planet. The series
2934-539: A pop singer who used the anagram ID of Tino Manarry. Red Ryan returned from the dead and Tino was written out after suffering an injury that left him blind. Toward the end of the original series, a woman with an occult background named Corinna Stark acted as a fifth member of the team. Prepublication solicitations for various Countdown to Final Crisis tie-ins referred to the group of Donna Troy , Jason Todd , Kyle Rayner , and "Bob" (a nefarious, renegade "purist" Monitor ), as "Challengers from Beyond". This group went on
3097-504: A previous storyline and how it affects the everyday lives of Metropolis citizens. Jimmy takes a position as a regular star reporter for The Daily Planet , replacing the recently demoted Clark Kent. This caused a strain at the Planet . Jimmy's story in the 2007–08 weekly series Countdown to Final Crisis begins with an investigation into the death of Duela Dent . Tying into the Death of
3260-696: A quest through the newly formed multiverse to find Ray Palmer , whom Bob claimed was essential to the survival of the universe. Eventually the Earth heroes were betrayed by Bob, who sought to kill Palmer, rather than protect him or acquire his aid. Palmer, Troy, Todd, and Rayner found themselves involved in a war between the Monitors and Monarch 's forces. Later they traveled to Apokolips , where they teamed up with Jimmy Olsen , Forager , Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl . After returning to Earth, Troy, Rayner, Forager, and Palmer decided to team up again. They traveled to
3423-479: 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
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#17327809467483586-401: A romantic relationship. Forager informs him that Jimmy has become a soulcatcher for the spirits of dying New Gods. The Monitor known as Solomon later tells him that his new powers are the consequence of Darkseid using Jimmy as a host for powers he wishes to use to recreate the universe in his image, knowing that "Superman's pal" is one of the world's most well-protected citizens. Later, as
3749-714: 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
3912-656: 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
4075-481: 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
4238-572: 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
4401-642: A strikeforce of non-powered heroes). They were prominently featured in Darwyn Cooke 's DC: The New Frontier miniseries (2003–2004). Various members were essential in many battles against menaces that arose throughout the series. In the 1996 crossover series Amalgam Comics , the Challengers were merged with the Fantastic Four to become Challengers of the Fantastic . The Challengers of
4564-472: A theme park, and their adventures disregarded as cooked-up articles in a tabloid, The Tattletale . The nearby town has renamed itself Challengerville, managing to thrive on the team's name. A cosmic entity, which prides itself as "the personification of all evil", influences the entity Multi-Man to blow up the mountain. The town is destroyed. Hundreds die, including, seemingly, Prof and June. The surviving Challengers are placed on trial, but eventually freed with
4727-493: 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
4890-491: A uniform and official status. No explanation was given for Corinna Stark's departure, nor June's joining the team. The revived series was canceled with issue #87 in 1978. Adventure Comics Digest #493–497 (1982) featured an expanded version of the team's origin. The Challengers returned in a limited series , Challengers of the Unknown (vol. 2) (1991), by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale . It ran eight issues and
5053-508: A variety of slapstick adventures and strange transformations, such as Jimmy transforming into the giant "Turtle Boy" in issue #53. The stories in the title often featured particularly outlandish situations, ranging from Jimmy being hurled back in time to Krypton before its destruction in issue #36 to dealing frequently with gorillas of all sorts. During this period, Jimmy Olsen lived a glamorous life as "Superman's Pal" and even had his own (in-story) fan club. Beginning in 1958, Olsen gained
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5216-431: A villain inside of a virtual reality simulator. Jimmy's home life and background is described in some detail throughout the course of the show. Although we never see her, some references are made to Jimmy's mother who is described as being overweight and having allergies. Jimmy's father Jack Olsen is a James Bond-like secret agent for the fictional National Intelligence Agency (N.I.A.) and the episode 'The Dad who Came in from
5379-467: 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
5542-543: Is a hacktivist who later fuses with a Mother Box , becoming a New God with intangibility and technology-manipulating abilities. Jimmy Olsen appears in The Adventures of Superman , voiced initially by Jackie Kelk and subsequently by Jack Grimes . Jimmy Olsen appears in Adventures of Superman , portrayed by Jack Larson . On TV, he lived at 360 Appletree Lane Apartment #3 in Metropolis. This version of
5705-679: Is an assistant to Lex Luthor who was genetically modified to gain Kryptonian superpowers. However, this eventually causes his body to destabilize and die. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen appears in The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again . An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen who became a reporter for the Gotham Gazette appears in All Star Batman & Robin,
5868-502: Is apparently shielded from Codename: Assassin's telepathy due to his own many physical transformations over the years. Jimmy goes to Project Cadmus and speaks to Dubbilex , who tells him the story about the death of the original Guardian at the hands of Codename: Assassin and how cloning is such an imperfect science that the only viable clone alive went into hiding in the desert. Dubbilex then dies from injuries sustained in an earlier conflict with Codename: Assassin. Jimmy heads south to
6031-472: Is blinded. Red donates an eye to his brother and dons an eye patch. Eventually Red receives an eye transplant. Prof becomes possessed by an evil spirit and is shot by a villain. While he recovers, Corinna Stark, a mysterious blonde with mystical knowledge, invites herself onto the team. The Challengers fight occult alien-monsters in backwoods villages and dark dreams, and Rocky and Red fight for Corinna's affection. The Challs are later semi-retired, their mountain
6194-525: 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
6357-545: Is killed, a teen rock star/engineering genius immediately wages a vendetta against the three-man team. "Tino Mannaray" turns out to be Martin Ryan, Red's kid brother, who blames the team for his death. Red eventually returns; though blown up, he had been dosed with shape-changing Liquid Light and rendered amnesiac, but still nearly conquered the Pacific as a Tiki god. As the team's challenges become more occult, Red's brother Tino
6520-616: The Arrowverse series Supergirl , he was portrayed by Mehcad Brooks . Douglas Smith portrays the character in Superman & Lois . He will be portrayed by Skyler Gisondo in Superman (2025). An unnamed "office boy" with a bow tie appeared in the story "Superman's Phony Manager," published in Action Comics No. 6 (November 1938); it was retroactively considered to be Jimmy Olsen's first appearance. The character
6683-454: The Arrowverse , portrayed by Mehcad Brooks . Introduced in Supergirl , this version is African-American and a former Daily Planet photographer who joins CatCo as an art director in the pilot episode . Additionally, he is aware of Superman and Supergirl 's secret identities and lost his father to criminals when he was a child, leading him to become the vigilante Guardian . Later in
Challengers of the Unknown - Misplaced Pages Continue
6846-644: 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
7009-573: 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
7172-459: The DC Universe was dramatically altered, giving very different back stories to many of its heroes and villains. This version of the Challengers incorporates elements of the original and 1990s lineups. The Challengers were formed for a reality television contest, when several notable people were assembled by archaeologist presenter Clay Brody for his "Challengers" program. Clay, the contestants, producer June, and pilots Ace and Maverick, were lost in
7335-743: 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
7498-702: The Joker appears in the Emperor Joker storyline. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen appears in All-Star Superman . An alternate timeline variant of Jimmy Olsen appears in Flashpoint . This version is a secret agent working for Cyborg before being killed in action and replaced by Lois Lane. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen from Earth-2 appears in Earth 2 . This version
7661-660: The New York Times : Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics . Olsen is most often portrayed as a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet . He is close friends with Lois Lane and Clark Kent , and has a good working relationship with his boss Perry White . Olsen looks up to his coworkers as role models and parent figures . From 1954 to 1982, Olsen appeared in 222 issues of
7824-628: 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
7987-535: 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
8150-559: 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
8313-714: 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
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#17327809467488476-504: 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
8639-708: 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
8802-474: 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
8965-416: The "Volume 3" Challengers, but given the nicknames of the originals: Kenn is "Prof", Clay is "Rocky", Brenda is "Red", and Marlon is "Ace". Since Kenn was always shown as the most "mystical" of the new Challs, it makes sense that he would be "Prof" in a magical universe, rather than Brenda, the team's scientist. During Superboy's trip through Hypertime, referenced above, he briefly visits an Elseworld in which
9128-516: The 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1984 film Supergirl ; Michael Landes in the first season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Justin Whalin in the subsequent three seasons; Sam Huntington in the 2006 film Superman Returns ; Aaron Ashmore in The CW 's Smallville ; and Michael Cassidy in the 2016 DC Extended Universe film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice . In
9291-465: 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
9454-549: 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,
9617-688: The Boy Wonder #6. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen from Earth-30 appears in Superman: Red Son . This version is a CIA agent who later becomes Vice President of the United States under Lex Luthor. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen from Earth-395 appears in Superman: Kal . This version is Jamie Ollson , an alchemist and teacher to Merlin. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen who serves
9780-620: The Challengers of the Unknown. Soon famous, the Challengers accept many "unknown challenges" from The Pentagon , mad scientists, and people with a problem. Over time the "Challs" establish the hollowed-out Challengers Mountain as headquarters. Later they adopt an hourglass logo to symbolize time running out. They encounter genies, common and sophisticated thieves, rocs , aliens and robots good and bad. Their adventures later veer toward superheroics, and take in everything from occult menaces to Bermuda Triangle mysteries. The Challengers travel through space, time, and other dimensions. They encounter
9943-617: The Challengers were himself, Ace, Guardian , and Dubbilex . The June who arrives in the DCU at the end of that story is also an Elseworlds version, coming from a universe where she was a full Challenger from the beginning. She was apparently exchanged with the June of the main timeline when she was struck by Hypertime energies. The Challengers also made brief appearances in JLA: Another Nail (when all time periods meld together) and The Adventures of Superman Annual #7 (as part of
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#173278094674810106-403: The Cold' is entirely devoted to this character. Jimmy Olsen appears in Smallville , portrayed by Aaron Ashmore . This version prefers to be called James, is in a relationship with series-original character Chloe Sullivan , and is ultimately killed by the titular villain in the eighth season finale "Doomsday". Chloe entrusts his camera to his younger brother (portrayed by Ryan Harder). In
10269-409: 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
10432-433: The Hegemony, a cabal of billionaires who secretly run that world. Made slaves on a Moon base, three Challengers blow up the base, escape to Earth, and declare war on the Hegemony until (like the obliquely mentioned earlier Challengers) their "borrowed time" runs out. The Challengers make a brief appearance in the Elseworlds miniseries Conjurers , set in an alternate DCU where magic is a part of mainstream society. These are
10595-402: The Himalayas when their plane crashed under mysterious circumstances. All but one of them showed up weeks later, remembering a recuperation in Nanda Parbat, in which the city's elder told them to beware the unknown, but also to challenge it. Returning to civilization, the group found a talisman that had led Clay to pick them, and a note explaining that it was one of a set. The Challengers program
10758-415: 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
10921-422: The Monitors' headquarters, where they informed the shocked beings that they would be watching over them as a sort of interdimensional border guards. The 2007 revival of The Brave and the Bold series features a storyline involving the Challengers. Destiny of the Endless reveals to Supergirl and Lobo that his Book of Destiny has changed because there appeared to be men who existed, but were not recorded in
11084-401: The New Gods storyline, Jimmy starts to develop many superpowers, which he first discovers when he is attacked by Killer Croc while gathering information on Duela's death. As the story progresses he tries to uncover the origin of these powers and starts to discover their potential limitlessness in stories which mimic the Silver Age Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen adventures. Briefly operating as
11247-400: The Signal Watch, a high-frequency supersonic device that allowed Jimmy to contact Superman in case of emergency. Lucy Lane debuted as Jimmy's off-again, on-again love interest in issue #36. Jimmy and Lucy were occasionally married in "imaginary stories" such as " The Wedding of Jimmy Olsen" (issue #38) and The Amazing Story of Superman Red and Superman Blue! Early adventures saw Olsen in
11410-554: The Silver Age is often homaged or parodied in later comics and adaptations featuring the character – for instance, in JLA: The Nail , Jimmy cites three of these transformations as his motivations behind backing Luthor's bill to outlaw metahumans and in Countdown , Jimmy is used as a spirit container for the deceased New Gods, causing him to exhibit strange powers, albeit uncontrollably, with other stories simply making passing references. An alternate universe variant of Jimmy Olsen from Earth-898 appears in JLA: The Nail . This version
11573-435: 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
11736-518: The Unknown have faced an array of villains: The Challengers of the Unknown appear as character summons in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure . The 1950–60s series won the 1967 Alley Awards for Best Non-Super-Powered Group Title and Best Normal Adventure Group. Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg ; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist , widely regarded as one of
11899-587: The Unknown", including ghostly Prof and June, were poised to take on menaces in the dark corners of the world. Later, four new Challengers pursue X-Files -like horrors. They are Clay Brody, NASCAR driver; Brenda Ruskin, physicist; Kenn Kawa, radical games designer; and Marlon Corbet, commercial pilot, who also miraculously survived a plane crash. They stopped sacrificial wackos, drug-juiced zombies, vengeful ghosts, Amazon cults, Lovecraftian monsters, mass suicides, humming buildings, and other oddities. They were advised by Rocky Davis, older and grayer and alone. It
12062-669: The WGBS media executive Morgan Edge . Kirby also used the series as a vehicle to reintroduce Golden Age characters that he previously created at DC Comics, such as the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion . Before the end of his run, Kirby wrote stories involving vampires , the Loch Ness Monster , Victor Volcanum, a fire-eating archcriminal, as well as a two-part story that featured the comedian Don Rickles . Kirby left
12225-511: 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
12388-541: The ability to temporarily transform into the superhero Elastic Lad by drinking a serum, becoming an honorary member of the Legion of Super-Heroes . When traveling to the Bottle City of Kandor , Superman and Jimmy donned the secret identities of Nightwing and Flamebird , respectively. He was promoted by editor Perry White to the status of "full-fledged reporter" in issue #124 (October 1969). Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen
12551-587: 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
12714-432: 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
12877-414: 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
13040-543: The appointment, only to find Erik's house burned to the ground. Jimmy pulls Erik out who, with his dying breath, shifts to his more reliable and powerful Erika form. Erik gives him Natasha Irons ' number. Natasha then contacts Jimmy, telling him about the plans of General Sam Lane , his outworldly fortress and his capture, and use of a Planet Breaker weapon of Captain Atom , now codenamed Project Breach (due to his similarity to Tim Zanetti 's fate). Finally ready to uncover
13203-537: 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
13366-518: The book, and their undocumented actions made the book unreliable. Destiny cast the book away, and it was eventually recovered by Batman and Green Lantern with the help of the Challengers, the men in question, who become the new holders of the book. Destiny later reclaims the book. Leslie "Rocky" Davis appears regularly in Doom Patrol , in which he serves as something of a counselor to the members of that team, and resides on Oolong Island. In 2011,
13529-580: 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
13692-456: The character was largely popular, leading DC Comics to create the series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen , a regular title with him as the protagonist. Decades later in 1996, Larson portrayed an unnaturally aged Jimmy Olsen in an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman . Jimmy Olsen appears in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman , portrayed by Michael Landes in
13855-462: The character, playing Jimmy as a lovably naive rookie. When Whalin took over the role, more emphasis was placed on Jimmy's love-life and he would frequently seek out Lois, Clark and Perry's advice on these matters. Whalin's Olsen was described as being a computer whiz and these talents often came in useful to Lois and Clark/Superman, particularly in the episode 'Virtually Destroyed' where Jimmy's computing abilities come in handy as Lois and Superman battle
14018-455: The comic series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and Superman Family , in addition to the main Superman titles. The character has appeared in most other media adaptations of Superman. He was portrayed by Tommy Bond in the two Superman film serials , Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950); Jack Larson in Adventures of Superman ; Marc McClure in the Superman films of
14181-557: 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
14344-609: 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
14507-426: The contract doesn't stop him owning another paper. Jimmy Olsen appears in the Superman & Lois episode "A Regular Guy", portrayed by Douglas Smith . This version is the brother of Janet Olsen and headed up the Daily Planet's baseball game. His friendship with Clark is semi-strained when he suspected that Clark Kent is Superman which would also explain why he showed up late to the different baseball games. By
14670-530: 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
14833-479: 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
14996-886: The ending scene of the series finale set seven years in the future, the adult version of the younger Olsen (also portrayed by Ashmore) appears working with Lois and Clark at the Daily Planet . The 2008 DVD box set for the seventh season of Smallville includes a 22-minute featurette, entitled Jimmy on Jimmy , which features four of the six surviving actors at the time who had portrayed Jimmy Olsen in live-action: Jack Larson ( Adventures of Superman ), Marc McClure ( Superman film series , Supergirl film ), Sam Huntington ( Superman Returns ), and Aaron Ashmore ( Smallville ). Michael Landes and Justin Whalin (both from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman ) did not participate. Jimmy Olsen appears in TV series set in
15159-553: 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
15322-536: The escape of prisoners from Blackgate Prison. Rocky fights in the Battle of Metropolis . He is one of dozens of heroes fighting the opposing army of the Secret Society of Super Villains . The Society is ultimately defeated. Later, on a world without superheroes, a blogger , a hip hop artist, an eco-terrorist, and two others discovers they'd been genetically enhanced and chip-programmed to be soldier-pawns by
15485-579: The events of Countdown begin to come to their close, Jimmy becomes a more confidently powerful character and is reunited with the series' other cast members on a mission to stop Karate Kid 's disease from becoming a pandemic of apocalyptic proportions. Unfortunately, they fail, and the Morticoccus virus devastates an alternate Earth. Upon return to their Earth, Jimmy is captured by Mary Marvel , who had been manipulated towards evil by Darkseid. When Superman comes to save Jimmy, Darkseid takes control of
15648-591: 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
15811-414: The first season and Justin Whalin for the rest of the series' run. The reason cited behind the change is that Landes looked too much like Dean Cain as well as to emphasize Jimmy's youth. Landes played Olsen as a cocksure, sarcastic Generation X character, who often seemed like he was very sure of himself although usually, the opposite was true. Whalin gave a portrayal closer to previous incarnations of
15974-469: 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
16137-680: 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
16300-482: 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
16463-500: 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
16626-489: 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
16789-622: 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
16952-425: 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
17115-599: 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,
17278-638: 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
17441-602: The likes of the Doom Patrol , Deadman , Swamp Thing , Jonny Double , and the Sea Devils , with whom they fight the criminal group Scorpio . June Robbins, a computer genius and archaeologist, joined the Challengers for many adventures as an "honorary" or "girl" Challenger. June first officially joins the team after the rogue robot 'Ultivac' seemingly kills one of the original Challengers. However that man returns thanks to heroic efforts of modern medical science. When Red
17604-443: 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
17767-433: 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
17930-510: The millennium, as a second, unrelated group had a title in the late 1990s as part of the Weirdoverse line. In 2000, DC published a one-shot, Silver Age: Challengers of the Unknown , done in the style of the original Silver Age of Comic Books Challengers. The roster included Ace Morgan, Prof Haley, Rocky Davis and Red Ryan , with their occasional companion June Robbins. Ryan was killed and briefly replaced by his younger brother Marty,
18093-634: The missing Challengers—Ace, Red, Prof, and June—in Hypertime . The team was waging guerrilla war against Black Zero (a Superboy variant). With Black Zero defeated, the team returns to Earth, but loses Red along the way. Reunited with Rocky in Metropolis , hosted by Rip Hunter , the original Challengers vow to explore Hypertime, "the greatest unknown", to find Red. Two Challengers partake in Infinite Crisis . Rocky Davis and Prof Haley help stem
18256-439: 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
18419-564: The multiverse. The Dark Prof created a new Challengers that he could use to collect the remains of an ancient god whose remains were flung through time and space when the Source Wall was destroyed. The Dark Prof recruits Trina Alvarez, Moses Barber, Krunch, and Bethany Hopkins as the most current incarnation of the team. They soon discover his evil intentions and send him back to the Dark Multiverse, saving Ace, Red, Rocky and Prof in
18582-560: 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
18745-670: The next decade, and he made a notable appearance as the manager of a community baseball team in the 1946 radio serial Clan of the Fiery Cross . The first long story featuring the character, "King Jimmy Olsen," ran in the daily Superman newspaper strips from July 20-October 28, 1944. Following Jack Larson's portrayal on The Adventures of Superman TV series, Olsen was promoted from office boy to "cub reporter" beginning in Superman #86. Later in 1954, Olsen received his own series, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen . The first issue introduced
18908-465: The old Pemberton Camera Factory, sharing the results of his now-unhindered investigations with Perry and Mon-El. DC Comics has reported in solicits that Nick Spencer and R. B. Silva will be producing a monthly 10-page backup feature in Action Comics chronicling the adventures of Jimmy Olsen in Metropolis. Reported story topics include an alien civilization choosing Metropolis as the base of
19071-633: The original Challengers and even had Rocky agree to advise them. One more revamp was done by Howard Chaykin in a six-issue miniseries (vol. 4, 2004–2005). This series had another new group of characters and was entirely unrelated to the previous two incarnations. When acquaintances miraculously survive a plane crash unscathed, they conclude that since they are "living on borrowed time" they should band together for hazardous adventures. The four—pilot Kyle " Ace " Morgan , daredevil Matthew " Red " Ryan , strong and slow-witted Leslie " Rocky " Davis , and scientist Walter Mark " Prof " Haley —became
19234-471: The other characters' stories. By the second series, Jimmy Olsen became an investigative reporter for WGBS-TV nicknamed "Mr. Action," featuring in urban crime stories that less frequently involved Superman. Olsen appeared in new stories in The Superman Family #164, 167, 170, 173, 176, 179, and 182–222. A number of Superman writers including Leo Dorfman and Cary Bates contributed scripts for
19397-617: 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
19560-409: The pilot. Though he killed two of them, they managed to defeat him, and the survivors vowed to find the rest of the talismans and save the world. The original Challengers Prof, Ace, Red, and Rocky were on a mission on an Earth in the Dark Multiverse when Prof was badly wounded. He figured out how to use the dark energy to heal himself. In doing so he inadvertently sent his dark multiverse counterpart to
19723-521: The point where Jimmy was best man at their wedding. This period ended when he believed (wrongly) that he had discovered Superman's secret identity and said he would announce it live on air. He reconsidered his actions, but lost his job for wasting the time slot. He was again rehired by the Planet . Jimmy later came under the angry hand of the Alpha Centurion , an alternate universe dictator with
19886-522: The powers within him, causing Jimmy to radiate Kryptonite radiation, until Ray Palmer manages to rewire Darkseid's control from inside of Jimmy. Jimmy then transforms into a giant turtle-like creature, and prepares to take on Darkseid himself. Darkseid overcomes Jimmy, and prepares to kill him. Ray Palmer then comes out of Jimmy with the New God soul battery, and destroys it, returning Jimmy to normal. During Superman's fight with Atlas , Jimmy witnesses
20049-487: 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
20212-457: The process. DC published two other series, also titled Challengers of the Unknown , featuring the original Challengers' concept combined with a new set of characters. The Challengers were revamped by writer Steven Grant in vol. 3 (1997), which had a totally new group of characters and was one of four series making up the Weirdoverse group of titles. This ongoing series ran 18 issues, through 1998. This team of paranormal investigators met
20375-528: The relationship was that Jimmy designed the signal watch himself, leading to his first meeting with Superman. Superman briefly considered confiscating the watch, but decided to trust Jimmy to use it responsibly. While Jimmy's transformations no longer occur as regularly as they did in the Silver Age, Jimmy once became a type of "Elastic Lad" on contact with the Eradicator ; this transformation, however,
20538-414: 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
20701-415: 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
20864-479: 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
21027-649: 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
21190-524: 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
21353-461: 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,
21516-399: The series following issue #148. With issue #164 (April–May 1974) the series was renamed The Superman Family . An anthology title that incorporated the recently cancelled series Supergirl and Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane , Superman Family initially featured one new story about Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, or Supergirl, with the featured character in each issue narrating reprints of
21679-659: 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:
21842-736: The series with Stan Lee in 1961 to create The Fantastic Four , the first creation that marked the rise of Marvel Comics . The adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown debuted in Showcase #6 (February 1957), in an uncredited story attributed to Jack Kirby for art and to Kirby and Dick Wood for script, under editor Jack Schiff . The series continued in the bimonthly Showcase for three more appearances (#7, 11–12, April 1957, December 1957 – February 1958) then moved to its own title, starting with issue #1 (May 1958). Kirby moved on after issue #8 (July 1959), with Bob Brown succeeding him as artist. The title continued through issue #75 (September 1970), followed by two reprint issues. The series
22005-463: The series, Olsen becomes head of CatCo in National City after Cat Grant moves to Metropolis, and quits after Andrea Rojas buys the company and forces him to report on stories based on profitability as opposed to truth. Although his contract forbids him from working at another newspaper after quitting, he finds a loophole by becoming the editor of his hometown paper, The Calvintown Gazette , as
22168-673: 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
22331-406: The stories, and they were most often pencilled by Kurt Schaffenberger . The series ended with issue #222 (September 1982). Afterwards, Jimmy Olsen continued to appear in issues of Superman , Action Comics , World's Finest Comics , and DC Comics Presents , where a 29th-century descendant of Olsen became Superwoman . Following Crisis on Infinite Earths , Jimmy's prior history as a character
22494-753: 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
22657-537: The superhero Mr. Action, Jimmy is unable to command the respect of established superheroes in the Justice League and Teen Titans . He gives up on this particular avenue. One of these powers allows Jimmy to realize the identities of some superheroes, such as Robin and Superman, who requests that he take care of Krypto . Jimmy is eventually tracked down by the New God Forager , with whom he begins
22820-513: 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
22983-542: 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
23146-454: The testimony of Superman . They are, however, ordered to disband. A tabloid reporter, Moffet, becomes involved with the group after several unexplained incidents. Moffet begins to piece together many seemingly unrelated massacres. Red became a violent, vigilante mercenary. Ace becomes an addled mystic, losing new-found friends due to inattention and incompetence. Rocky becomes lost in a life of luxury and ends up in an insane asylum. Eventually
23309-411: The three reunite, and with Moffet's aid, find a strange portal near what was once Challengerville. They discover Prof and June, pregnant, "alive" in a strange "phantom zone". The dark demon confronts them and the final battle comes down to Moffet and a neutron bomb. The decision to attack is literally taken out of his hands by Multi-Man, who sacrifices himself to destroy the demon. "The New Challengers of
23472-471: The town of Warpath, AZ, managing to avoid conflict with Codename: Assassin on the way. Upon arriving in Warpath, Jimmy interviews the sheriff, Greg Saunders , who evades his questions. Jimmy follows him after dark and sees Saunders working with the last Guardian clone . He then confronts the clone at his home and the two speak. With his two weeks up, Jimmy returns to Metropolis horrified from learning that
23635-438: The truth, Jimmy is openly confronted by Codename: Assassin, who until that point had merely followed him closely. Jimmy uses his signal watch to call Mon-El . Jimmy is shot twice in the chest by Codename: Assassin and sinks into the ocean. Despite surviving his assassination attempt, Jimmy decides to fake his death, having his documents planted on a heavily disfigured corpse. With no one knowing about his survival, Jimmy moves into
23798-461: 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
23961-529: 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
24124-673: Was a best seller throughout the 1960s; at its peak it was the #4 best-selling comic book with an estimated 520,000 copies sold each month. Reprints from the magazine were also featured in 80-Page Giant #2 and 13 (1964–65). Jack Kirby 's Fourth World storyline began in Jimmy Olsen comics in 1970, with issue #134. Kirby began by introducing a secret " D.N.A. Project " to create Mutated Humans for Good, adding "the Hairies" (a group of technology-equipped hippies), superbeings from other planets (proto- New Gods ), Intergang , Darkseid , and
24287-545: 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
24450-421: 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
24613-557: Was canceled with issue #77 in 1971 (January 1971). In 1973, three reprint issues were published (#78–80). The team’s lineup was briefly enhanced with the inclusion of the paranormal sensitive Corrina Stark toward the end of this run. The Challengers had a short-lived 1976–77 revival in Super-Team Family #8–10. The group then returned to its own title continuing the number with #81. During this period, they were joined by Deadman and Swamp Thing , and associate June Robbins got
24776-536: 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
24939-476: 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
25102-400: 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
25265-479: Was erased. Despite recent modernization efforts on Superman and his supporting characters, Jimmy Olsen has not been significantly changed in the Modern Age. He is still a cub reporter working for The Daily Planet , and is still friends with Superman. His look was made over as he stopped wearing bowties, and started wearing casual clothing (though this trend started in the 1970s comics). An interesting alteration to
25428-400: Was eventually revealed that the original Challengers were dematerialized by a mad scientist's ray-weapon. The same ray caused both plane crashes, as well as others. Soon the original Challs reappeared, helped the young Challs defeat the madman, then walked back into oblivion (minus a wounded Rocky) to shut down a runaway Tesla field. The young Challengers vowed to fight on. Superboy discovers
25591-532: Was extremely painful for Jimmy and has not appeared since. He also took the identity of "Turtle Boy" in a series of pizza commercials , made when he was temporarily laid off from the Planet . In the 1990s, Jimmy quit the Planet in a dispute over a story and went to Metropolis broadcaster Galaxy Broadcasting, where he worked as an on-air investigative reporter. This change matured Jimmy somewhat, but he became more ambitious, as well as more brash and arrogant. He still stayed on good terms with both Clark and Lois to
25754-516: Was introduced as Jimmy Olsen by producer Bob Maxwell on The Adventures of Superman radio show on April 15, 1940. After eight early unnamed appearances in comics, Olsen first appeared as a named character in a story by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster titled "Superman versus The Archer" in Superman No. 13 (November–December 1941). He occasionally appeared as an office boy in Action Comics , Superman , and World's Finest Comics throughout
25917-400: 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
26080-485: 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
26243-473: Was reprinted in trade paperback as Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! (2004). This series depicted the Challengers in middle age, breaking up after a tragic accident and coming back together as a team. Loeb hoped for a monthly title, and planned at least a second limited series, but neither volume materialized. Elements of this revival later appeared in several Superboy stories around the turn of
26406-417: Was retooled to take advantage of the quest. With their home base on a Metropolis soundstage dubbed "Challengers Mountain", the group sought out the talismans in far-flung corners of the world, usually accompanied by some oddity, like warrior statues or giant-ant-spewing portals. Their greatest initial challenge came when in a short period their show was cancelled and they were attacked by their dead friend, "Ace"
26569-526: Was written by Matt Fraction, drawn by Steve Lieber, colored by Nathan Fairbairn, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. A collected edition titled Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? was published in September 2020, and it received an "honorable mention" in Publishers Weekly's year-end critics poll. Jimmy possesses a watch which emits a high-pitched signal only Superman can hear. In
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