Let me close out my look at Jack Kirby's Captain Victory and The Galactic Rangers from Pacific Comics with a look at the exceedingly peculiar Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers Special one and only. It's a odd story by any stretch and fitted within the broad cosmic confines of what had preceded in the comic, even more so.
The story begins aboard the Dreadnought: Tiger still waiting for a new engine (after losing its original to the Voice and his Wonder Warriors). To pass the time Egghead (sometimes called Mister Mind) has arranged elaborate trips into the past of the planet Earth using information he recorded while on the planet fighting the Insectons. Captain Victory, Major Klavus and Tarin the Tri-Command of the Tiger are suddenly swept up in this scheme and shunted into Paris of the historical past blended with the ficitonal works of both Alexander Dumas (The Three Musketeers) and Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
The find Egghead playing the role of Quasimodo, sort of, and quickly find themselves clothed and cast as the Three Musketeers. Plenty of action ensues as they seek to rescue a female Ranger who is being burned as a witch and stop a "Q-Bomb" which has been triggered inadverdantly. The of course save her and the misadventure comes to an abrupt halt when they shunted back to the Tiger with Egghead trying his best to rectify things.
Meanwhile the Q-Bomb having been transported into space explodes in a massive and colorful Kirby collage.
The Special also offers up some tasty Kirby pin-ups with insights into other aspects of the Ranger forces. Sadly these are glimpses of concepts we will never get a chance to see developed. And with that Kirby says a fond farewell to his last great creation. He's not quite done with comics, but his later work will be almost exclusively with scripts written by others.
As for Captain Victory, he will return yet again, but more on that next time.
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It does look kind of weird (but fun). I do like the pin ups, and even though he will never flesh out these concepts, they do have my mind going. That Kirby collage, by the way, is not a typical one, right? I mean, there's color within the collage components.
ReplyDeleteI think we're just enjoying the pleasures of better printing. The higher quality paper made it brighter as well.
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Got this comic, thought it was awful. Sad testament to the fact that Jack's drawing ability had drastically declined. Glad he was still getting work though.
ReplyDeleteIt's not top-flight Kirby for sure, but I rather enjoyed the absurd tale this time out.
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