JIMMY OLSEN 137 (1971)
Writing and pencils by Jack Kirby
Cover by Jack Kirby & Neal Adams
This book is getting crowded: we have Superman, the Newsboy Legion and the Guardian (who doesn’t actually appear in the story).
Oh and Jimmy Olsen is also there, I guess.
The titular “Four-Armed Terror” (or F.A.T. to his friends) is this yellow guy, busy terrorizing the Zoomway bikers from issue 133.
But enough about that, let’s see Jimmy and Superman test out the Solar-Phone ™ for the Hairies!
This device picks up radio signals from space to make you high as a kite.
Seriously, try looking at this splash page without thinking that all those people are seriously tripping.
Oh man, I can’t wait to see what trippy dream world Kirby is going to draw with his boundless imagination aaaand it’s one of his crappy collages.
This time taking THREE WHOLE PAGES.
You know the deal:
I’ll admit it looks better than the previous ones, but… three pages on a tangent that goes absolutely nowhere, because this is completely disconnected from the rest of the story!!!
And these are not the only splash pages we get: once Superman and the others come back to reality and they hear the alarm of DNA Project, Kirby gives us a page of the Newsboy Legion discussing what to do with Jimmy.
This is a 22 page comic.
3 pages are full-page collages and an additional 5 are splash pages.
That’s 14% and 23% of the comic each, and 36% when combined!
Yes that’s well-drawn… it’s still Kirby and all… but that is a horrible way to structure a comic.
Especially since none of this matter, because Superman LITERALLY leaves the Newsboy Legion behind when flying to investigate the destruction left behind by the F.A.T.
The F.A.T. turns out to be strong enough to wrestle with Superman (!!!), but then Jimmy finds him and pulls a ridiculously convenient McGuffin a sonic weapon that I suppose he keeps around.
The F.A.T. manages to escape, and we learn he’s being monitored by Symian and Mokkari from last issue as he infiltrates the DNA Project.
And that’s basically all that happens in this comic.
What, you thought decompressed storytelling was invented in the 90s ?
Historical significance: 1/10
The Four-Armed Terror sometimes shows up. That’s as far as it goes.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Missing the top grade because no Kryptonite was involved this time.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
The fight between Superman and the F.A.T. is of course well-choreographed, and it’s a bit longer than I showed… but not by much. Aside from that, almost nothing actually happens in this comic; which isn’t all that unusual for Kirby, but this time we don’t even get new cool worldbuilding out of it!
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
If this was “most WTF moment” it would be the space radio that gets you high, but since that’s a splash page I have to settle with the F.A.T. trapping Superman & Co. into an energy egg.
Interesting letters: I agree 100% with this assessment of the Kirby run.
I wonder if “Bob Bozakis” is actually a misspelling of future DC writer Bob Rozakis.