User blog:Valerian Jones/New Gods 3 - Oh no, it's The Black Racer ...

Like all comic book writers and artists, Jack Kirby put out some rubbish. It's almost impossible when working to such a tight monthly schedule to put out stuff that is not very good. It's just a fact of life. Still New Gods 3 goes beyond just not being very good to the realms of truly, truly awful. Kirby hit gold when he came up with the Silver Surfer and it's fairly obvious that he tried replicate that magic but it fails terribly. The Black Racer is the worst character every created.

It's clear that at this point in his career, Kirby needed an editor as well as someone to write the dialogue. Stan Lee could be verbose but his way with words is far beyond anything Kirby could manage. Stan did it all - funny, bombastic, high-falutin', witty, dramatic, irony, self-aware etc. How much better would New Gods have been if Stan had been involved.

With the comic book world celebrating Kirby's 100th Birthday, perhaps it is time to for a back lash ...

Kirby was a true great to be fair but as I said earlier he did have his bad days and New Gods 3 was one of them.