Why Does Kirby's The Demon, not get any love?

[Starchild]

The Demon and The New Gods are there for me.

I believe The New Gods are woefully overexposed.

The New Gods are pretty cool, but they should only be used in events. Nothing more.

[Darrin Kelley]

I agree there somewhat.

If you see the New Gods all of the time. They cease being something special and majestic.

For me. They have just become tiresome.

[DrNewGod]

In many ways, Etrigan is the closest thing to The Hulk in DC's history. For that reason, he doesn't quite fit in any DCU.

I can understand why some don't like him. Still, he can play a unique and fascinating role if handled properly.

[t hedge coke]

Even if you don't love Etrigan, why no love for Kirby's Demon comics or the rest of the characters and stories and art? Klarion's creepy, insistent entry, just showing up calling everyone "uncle" and saying he's there because he's hungry, give him food, give him a place to stay. The jump from Arthurian court to modern times.

[The Darknight Detective]

I agree with the pure gold statement. People on here tend to exaggerate when it comes to his work.

The guy was a great, but I never liked his Superman. Etrigan? That I liked.

[ed2962]

I believe The New Gods are woefully overexposed.

I respectfully disagree. Darkseid might be overused, but not so much The New Gods as a whole.

[Sirzechs]

I respectfully disagree. Darkseid might be overused, but not so much The New Gods as a whole.

True, I'd say since Godhead this is the most the New Gods have been used in years(and yes I actively ignore countdown and death of the New Gods).

[Darrin Kelley]

True, I'd say since Godhead this is the most the New Gods have been used in years(and yes I actively ignore countdown and death of the New Gods).

Respectfully?

They have been used nonstop since the very outset of the New 52.
Non-stop through Earth 2.
Non-stop while the Worlds Finest series ran.
Justice League started with a fight against Darkseid and his forces.
Wonder Woman had guest appearances of them during Azzarello's run.

There has never been a break from them since the New 52 started.

[Deniz Camp]

People on here tend to exaggerate when it comes to his work.

Why do you feel the need to be reductive, I wonder?

Rather than simply acknowledging a differing in viewpoint, you imply that there is something dishonest about the joy someone might take in that run. I'll refrain from doing in kind by accusing you of a need to be contrarian for its own sake. I accept that Kirby's Demon didn't connect with you. Perhaps you can accept that it did connect for me?

[Starchild]

Why do you feel the need to be reductive, I wonder?

Rather than simply acknowledging a differing in viewpoint, you imply that there is something dishonest about the joy someone might take in that run. I'll refrain from doing in kind by accusing you of a need to be contrarian for its own sake. I accept that Kirby's Demon didn't connect with you. Perhaps you can accept that it did connect for me?

If you enjoyed Kirby's run on The Demon, then more power to you. I personally don't care. His take on the character just wasn't for me, plain and simple. Jack Kirby isn't the flawless writer that people make him out to be. I'm not going to say anything else about it, don't want it to escalate.


And I feel like I need to say this again. I LOVE Jack Kirby. Challengers of the Unknown, Silver Surfer, Fourth World, Kamandi & OMAC.


I am not going to love every writer or every book I come across. Everyone loves Morrison's JLA, but I don't and that is perfectly fine....even though I want to give it a second chance.

[FanboyStranger]

I'm going to get slammed for this. But here goes.

Not everything Jack Kirby did was pure gold. The man produced his share of bad material. Like any other legendary creator.

I am a Kirby fan. But I can objectively and fairly say: That there are creations of Kirby that I actively dislike and believe are terrible.

I don't believe that the Demon was a bad creation, but it's certainly second tier Kirby. The original series was pretty good and solid entertainment, but it certainly doesn't compare to the Fourth World stuff or Kamandi, which is, in my opinion, the single most underrated Bronze Age comic.

It took other creators to make Etrigan sing. If not for Veitch, Bissette, Totleben, Moore (I list them in that order because it was Rick and Steve's idea to bring him back) and Matt Wagner, I don't think the character would have been seen after the '80s. Even Kirby would admit the book was kinda a stretch-- he liked a battle helmet that Hal Foster drew in Prince Valiant and decided that should be the basis of a character.

[FanboyStranger]

The rhyming is a modern thing. When Kirby wrote him, he didn't talk all in rhyme. A couple of couplets maybe, but that's it.

Etrigan's been rhyming for far longer than you'd think. I want to say it started in 1979. It developed a few years after the Kirby comic. It was actually Len Wein who started the rhyming stuff like three or four years after The Demon was cancelled. Alan Moore ran with it after Rick Veitch and Steve Bissette sent him a letter with all the stuff they'd like to do with Swamp Thing. It was really Moore who formalized it, having Etrigan speak in Elizabethean sonnets, and Matt Wagner ran with that, which lead to a feature in Action Comics Weekly and his own title.

[JLH]

Love Kirby's Demon. Hate the rhyming that came afterward though... IMO this is a character who has the makings of a great movie.

[Billy Batson]

Kirby in general doesn't get love from DC. Most of his DC work is out of print.

[K. Jones]

A lot of really great comics pros have taken a stab at Etrigan in cool ways, so each volume has its own flavor and style.

I've only recently read Kirby's original run, alongside my complete Fourth World read. And frankly I consider them almost part of the same story. On page one, Merlin refers to his books of magic as relics of the Old Gods and that draws a line between Etrigan and Morgaine and the Fourth World stuff happening in Metropolis. In fact, Kirby's Demon is about the only place you'll see Kirby's Gotham, and contrasting Kirby's Gotham with Kirby's Metropolis is a fascinating exercise, in as much as his Gotham is this old world city where strange horror-themed terrorism takes place. Witchboys. Operatic phantoms. Frankenstein labs. Constant attacks by Morgaine. Werewolves. It has a kinship to Denny O'Neil's Gotham that has nothing to do with street gangs.

Meanwhile, Metropolis has the biggest, meanest organized international gang of all time being given their weapons by Evil Space Gods who also have clone labs, brainwash evangelical seminars, theme parks, the works.

It's almost like his Gotham is more Boston-like.