While I'm a great admirer of Kirby's Fourth World and its awesome villain Darkseid, I have to relent and say that without a doubt Kirby's greatest villain Doctor Doom. While he created villains which were more powerful and villains which were more depraved, never did he (ably assisted by Stan "The Man" Lee) make a bad guy who combined all of those vile traits with just enough of a dash of nobility to make it all very weird. Rooting for the villain is not how it's supposed to work, but sometimes with Doctor Doom it's hard not to try to understand his point of view, a demented as it can be.
Here are (as far as I can tell) all of the covers Kirby ever produced featuring Doctor Doom. (Would love to find out I"m wrong.) I command you to enjoy!
Many of these covers are noteworthy, but I'm finding I'm partial to FF #s 16 and 39--just two of the several "larger than life" portrayals of the good doctor (funny how often Kirby indulged in that, isn't it?), but the two which are possibly the most eye-catching to the uninitiated in terms of what an intriguing character this must be. How cool it must be to be able to design sales-ready concepts for comic book covers--with few exceptions, Kirby had a real talent for it.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to the final product Stan Lee had quite a bit to say about the cover designs. So no doubt Kirby got it, but Stan seemed able (at times) to know what sold pretty well too. Carmine Infantino was the master at that.
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Yep Doom is the best kind of villain, one you can even root for. I love the issues where Doom ends up working with the FF.
ReplyDeleteAs the years have gone by he has gotten more complicated and even at moments mildly heroic. I learned just how base he was originally in these earliest stories. Good to revisit the roots from time to time.
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