Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Don't Make Me Angry!, Part 19: 2001: A Space Odyssey #10

Jack "King" Kirby's high-concept movie continuation ends with a whimper.....

 Wow, this issue has absolutely ZERO 2001-related content whatsoever. It's a shame that these final three issues of the series couldn't be included in the MACHINE MAN BY KIRBY & DITKO: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION trade paperback that Marvel published in 2016. Alas, it seems as if this title will never again see the light of day.

 This issue features Mister Machine facing off against Mister Hotline, a servant of the evil computer disguised as a devil known as Monitor. This is typical batshit crazy Kirby at its finest. The art is great, as usual, but I can't help mourning the endgame that Kirby was cheated out of by the cancellation of this book. Before going on to his own spinoff , however, Mister Machine would go on to face the one foe that no superhero can defeat: copyright infringement!





 I guess this guy came first, and that caused Marvel to change ol' X-51's name to the catchier Machine Man moniker. It'll be interesting to see where Kirby takes MM in the aforementioned collection, but, again.....WHAT THE EFF DID KIRBY HAVE PLANNED FOR 2001 IF IT WERE NEVER CANCELED????  As it stands, the complete lack of any kind of overarching plot or sense of resolution almost renders reading this series a complete waste of time. I'm glad that I tracked these issues down, though. You can't help but read this series and feel that it was very personal to Mr. Kirby.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 10 earns six out of ten crowns for King Kirby. LONG LIVE THE KING!!
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