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Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers (collected editions) #1
Captain Victory and The Galactic Rangers
Image Comics' archival collections of Jack "King" Kirby's creator-owned work for Pacific Comics continue with Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers Featuring lovingly reconstructed color work, this deluxe hardcover chronicles the adventures of Captain Victory and his unique crew of galactic rangers as they battle such foes as Lightning Lady, the Wonder Warriors and the ominous Blackmass. A must-have for any Kirby Collector
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
376 pages, Hardcover
First published July 29, 2007
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About the author
Jack Kirby
2,805 books479 followersJack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 14, 2013
First off: This edition of the book NEVER CAME OUT, so don't be fooled. Hopefully, Image will eventually put out the complete recolored, remastered CAPTAIN VICTORY. Until then, you're stuck picking up back issues or resorting to illicit means.
This material has a pretty crappy rep -- it's the ass-end of Kirby's comics career, when health problems had begun to affect his drawing prowess and his increasing age seemed to be contributing to the woefully out-of-touch and sometimes cringe-worthy goofiness of his prose.
Nonetheless, CAPTAIN VICTORY is f**cking glorious.
It starts off as a somewhat wonky sci-fi tale of "Galactic Rangers" exterminating a space menace of invading "Insectons" when they begin burrowing beneath Pennsylvania. It seems like ho-hum standard fare -- maybe a leftover STAR WARS era concept from Jack's animation days, dusted off for new life. But with each issue, it gets progressively darker, stranger and mind-expandingly weird. We discover that Capt. Victory, who initially seems like a generic square-jawed space hero, is actually a tortured, divided man with a suicidal streak of martyrdom. Issued a set of 50 clones with his command, he's been casually burning through his extra lives to the alarm of his underlings -- in accordance with his motto: "Victory is sacrifice! Sacrifice is continuity... and continuity is tribulation."
Startlingly, the final issues unveils the Captain's backstory, which reveals that it's all an unofficial tie-in to Jack's Fourth World / New Gods universe. (Capt. Victory, it turns out, is the son of Orion -- defeated in war by Darkseid, now reduced to a mere shadow and sinister, all-pervading voice as "Blackmaas.")
The saga, like many of Kirby's later works, cuts off rather abruptly with the tale unfinished (due in part to the collapse of Pacific Comics, his publisher). But what remains is cosmic, gonzo, psychedelic and epic -- the raw stuff, pure and uncut.
This material has a pretty crappy rep -- it's the ass-end of Kirby's comics career, when health problems had begun to affect his drawing prowess and his increasing age seemed to be contributing to the woefully out-of-touch and sometimes cringe-worthy goofiness of his prose.
Nonetheless, CAPTAIN VICTORY is f**cking glorious.
It starts off as a somewhat wonky sci-fi tale of "Galactic Rangers" exterminating a space menace of invading "Insectons" when they begin burrowing beneath Pennsylvania. It seems like ho-hum standard fare -- maybe a leftover STAR WARS era concept from Jack's animation days, dusted off for new life. But with each issue, it gets progressively darker, stranger and mind-expandingly weird. We discover that Capt. Victory, who initially seems like a generic square-jawed space hero, is actually a tortured, divided man with a suicidal streak of martyrdom. Issued a set of 50 clones with his command, he's been casually burning through his extra lives to the alarm of his underlings -- in accordance with his motto: "Victory is sacrifice! Sacrifice is continuity... and continuity is tribulation."
Startlingly, the final issues unveils the Captain's backstory, which reveals that it's all an unofficial tie-in to Jack's Fourth World / New Gods universe. (Capt. Victory, it turns out, is the son of Orion -- defeated in war by Darkseid, now reduced to a mere shadow and sinister, all-pervading voice as "Blackmaas.")
The saga, like many of Kirby's later works, cuts off rather abruptly with the tale unfinished (due in part to the collapse of Pacific Comics, his publisher). But what remains is cosmic, gonzo, psychedelic and epic -- the raw stuff, pure and uncut.
May 31, 2008
Captain Victory is Star Trek on steroids and acid.
It is big, cosmic, surreal and in spots, down right goofy. Jack just goes nuts with wonderfully bizarre aliens, machines and stories.
Instead of the big kid in cosmic affairs, earth is treated like a hick town and the universe is bigger, stranger and more dangerous than we can imagine.
A really fun read.
It is big, cosmic, surreal and in spots, down right goofy. Jack just goes nuts with wonderfully bizarre aliens, machines and stories.
Instead of the big kid in cosmic affairs, earth is treated like a hick town and the universe is bigger, stranger and more dangerous than we can imagine.
A really fun read.
July 26, 2011
Not Kirby's finest moment, writing-wise, but his art is inimitable as ever. Featuring, among other things: a sinister sentient armored fetus, an alien who resembles a black Earthman and is capable of summoning his powerful "Spirit Brother," a shapeshifting clown-alien who assumes the guise of Ronald Reagan and subsequently contracts "cosmic diarrhea" and a fourth-dimensional woman who appears as a mass of scrambled organs and enjoys the affections of the titular hero. One gets the sense that Kirby is not doing much self-editing here--it is amusing to see The King's total psyche let loose, including an exacerbation of his inexplicable abuse of scare-quotes. One of the last things he did, and singularly Kirby.
May 15, 2024
(This collected edition was never actually released, so this is a review of the series as read in single issues)
Captain Victory is Jack Kirby's best-known independent work created outside the restrictions of the Marvel and DC enterprises. The main reason for this popularity is almost certainly Victory's strongly implied connection to Kirby's New Gods saga. This connection isn't fully clear in the early issues but becomes overtly apparent in the second half.
Seeing as the New Gods saga was itself a continuation of sorts to Kirby's work on The Mighty Thor at Marvel, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers can be seen as the third part in Kirby's grand opus. While Thor was the ancient mythological hero and Orion the champion of a modern-day pantheon of gods, Captain Victory is the commander of an alien-ship, the protagonist for a post-Star Wars generation of comic readers.
As a whole, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers is an uneven series. It's comprised of 13 issues which are divided into three different story arcs, plus a standalone special issue. The first and longest arc, which started life as a prototype for a graphic novel, sees Captain Victory and the crew of the dreadnaught "Tiger" (be prepared to read a variation of this phrase a lot of times throughout the series) arrive on Earth to stop an alien invasion.
The pacing is inconsistent, a problem that remains as the story advances. Even though the central plot is rapidly introduced and soon enough normal Earth humans are interacting with aliens, there are constant speeches and character interactions that seem to go on for far too long and break the flow of the narrative. Kirby seems particularly interested in letting his characters argue amongst themselves, disagreeing about the course of action, lamenting losses or just showing off their unique idioms. It's interesting to see the characters getting developed this way, but at the same time it causes the narrative to plod, and a story arc that could have easily been concluded in three issues or less, ends up lasting for six.
The second story arc, involving the appearance of a group of powerful cosmic criminals known as "Wonder Warriors", is Kirby doing what he does best. There is still a clear difference in style and pacing between this series and its predecessors, but Kirby is at home here and so should be his fans.
The third and final arc is Captain Victory's origin story, which "officializes" the New Gods connection that was already becoming apparent with the Wonder Warriors. The first part of Victory's origin may very well be one of Kirby's greatest single issues. Free of the Comics Code and of the editorial restrictions of DC and Marvel, Kirby crafts a story that simultaneously displays all the hallmarks of his work while having a much darker edge. Kirby manages to genuinely shock, but does so in a way that feels completely organic to his style. For a series with a title as corny as "Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers", there are some surprisingly intense developments here.
As a successor to Thor and Orion, Captain Victory is a very interesting hero. He possesses some of the visual cues of his predecessors (that classic Kirby hair), but rather than an head-on combatant, Victory is first and foremost a tactician. He leads both the people and the technology of his ship against his opponents, and a lot of the charm in the series comes from seeing the technological marvels of the ship and the unique abilities of the crew, and how Victory's military genius uses them to (hopefully) triumph over his foes.
Since the series only lasted for 13 issues and one special, several of the characters and some of the technology end up feeling sadly underused. In particular, Victory's limited storage of cloned bodies that he can use to cheat death only for a limited amount of times, is a plot-element that could have been used to great effect had the series lasted longer.
The biggest issue with Captain Victory, besides (or maybe on par with) the pacing, is the tonal inconsistency.
Even though the series deals with themes of war and sacrifice throughout and includes some of the darkest material Kirby put to page, there is an abundance of corny, seemingly child-oriented elements that prevent it from ever fully embracing the serious approach that these themes demand and that Kirby fans of this era would most likely be expecting from a seasoned creator.
In particular, the back-up feature in the earlier issues is pure fluff and the standalone special is something of a mess with a plot so fast and loose it borders on the incomprehensible. I couldn't accurately describe what happened even if I wanted to.
The art is the element that never fails. If you're looking for great Kirby artwork and character designs, you can expect to see that here. The first issues are inked by Kirby's main New Gods collaborator, Mike Royer, while the latter stuff is inked by Michael Thibodeaux. Both do a great job.
The color is also standout and the covers in particular feature high-quality color that reminds me of Kirby's interior art in the "Hunger Dogs" graphic novel.
Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers is far from perfect, but there are some real gems to be found in its small run.
In particular, those looking for a Kirby-sanctioned non-brand restricted conclusion to the New Gods saga, will find a very high-quality (and unfortunately short) glimpse here.
And those loking for Kirby's take on high-tech space-exploration adventures will certainly have their fill.
Just keep your expectations in check regarding the package as a whole.
Captain Victory is Jack Kirby's best-known independent work created outside the restrictions of the Marvel and DC enterprises. The main reason for this popularity is almost certainly Victory's strongly implied connection to Kirby's New Gods saga. This connection isn't fully clear in the early issues but becomes overtly apparent in the second half.
Seeing as the New Gods saga was itself a continuation of sorts to Kirby's work on The Mighty Thor at Marvel, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers can be seen as the third part in Kirby's grand opus. While Thor was the ancient mythological hero and Orion the champion of a modern-day pantheon of gods, Captain Victory is the commander of an alien-ship, the protagonist for a post-Star Wars generation of comic readers.
As a whole, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers is an uneven series. It's comprised of 13 issues which are divided into three different story arcs, plus a standalone special issue. The first and longest arc, which started life as a prototype for a graphic novel, sees Captain Victory and the crew of the dreadnaught "Tiger" (be prepared to read a variation of this phrase a lot of times throughout the series) arrive on Earth to stop an alien invasion.
The pacing is inconsistent, a problem that remains as the story advances. Even though the central plot is rapidly introduced and soon enough normal Earth humans are interacting with aliens, there are constant speeches and character interactions that seem to go on for far too long and break the flow of the narrative. Kirby seems particularly interested in letting his characters argue amongst themselves, disagreeing about the course of action, lamenting losses or just showing off their unique idioms. It's interesting to see the characters getting developed this way, but at the same time it causes the narrative to plod, and a story arc that could have easily been concluded in three issues or less, ends up lasting for six.
The second story arc, involving the appearance of a group of powerful cosmic criminals known as "Wonder Warriors", is Kirby doing what he does best. There is still a clear difference in style and pacing between this series and its predecessors, but Kirby is at home here and so should be his fans.
The third and final arc is Captain Victory's origin story, which "officializes" the New Gods connection that was already becoming apparent with the Wonder Warriors. The first part of Victory's origin may very well be one of Kirby's greatest single issues. Free of the Comics Code and of the editorial restrictions of DC and Marvel, Kirby crafts a story that simultaneously displays all the hallmarks of his work while having a much darker edge. Kirby manages to genuinely shock, but does so in a way that feels completely organic to his style. For a series with a title as corny as "Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers", there are some surprisingly intense developments here.
As a successor to Thor and Orion, Captain Victory is a very interesting hero. He possesses some of the visual cues of his predecessors (that classic Kirby hair), but rather than an head-on combatant, Victory is first and foremost a tactician. He leads both the people and the technology of his ship against his opponents, and a lot of the charm in the series comes from seeing the technological marvels of the ship and the unique abilities of the crew, and how Victory's military genius uses them to (hopefully) triumph over his foes.
Since the series only lasted for 13 issues and one special, several of the characters and some of the technology end up feeling sadly underused. In particular, Victory's limited storage of cloned bodies that he can use to cheat death only for a limited amount of times, is a plot-element that could have been used to great effect had the series lasted longer.
The biggest issue with Captain Victory, besides (or maybe on par with) the pacing, is the tonal inconsistency.
Even though the series deals with themes of war and sacrifice throughout and includes some of the darkest material Kirby put to page, there is an abundance of corny, seemingly child-oriented elements that prevent it from ever fully embracing the serious approach that these themes demand and that Kirby fans of this era would most likely be expecting from a seasoned creator.
In particular, the back-up feature in the earlier issues is pure fluff and the standalone special is something of a mess with a plot so fast and loose it borders on the incomprehensible. I couldn't accurately describe what happened even if I wanted to.
The art is the element that never fails. If you're looking for great Kirby artwork and character designs, you can expect to see that here. The first issues are inked by Kirby's main New Gods collaborator, Mike Royer, while the latter stuff is inked by Michael Thibodeaux. Both do a great job.
The color is also standout and the covers in particular feature high-quality color that reminds me of Kirby's interior art in the "Hunger Dogs" graphic novel.
Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers is far from perfect, but there are some real gems to be found in its small run.
In particular, those looking for a Kirby-sanctioned non-brand restricted conclusion to the New Gods saga, will find a very high-quality (and unfortunately short) glimpse here.
And those loking for Kirby's take on high-tech space-exploration adventures will certainly have their fill.
Just keep your expectations in check regarding the package as a whole.
December 31, 2018
the dialogue’s a little purple, plot a little ehh, but hey who gives a shit it’s a visual medium—Capt Victory is some of Kirby’s best, and very very good acid trip sci fi
August 3, 2020
I would put this right at the top as far as visuals go. I think it's Kirby's best in that regard. The story doesn't quite live up to the pencils, but it's worth it.
For more tune in to this episode of Comic Book Coffee Break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu61J...
For more tune in to this episode of Comic Book Coffee Break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu61J...
January 21, 2013
I read the original individual issues of this series from Pacific Comics. The artwork is top shelf all the way--Kirby is The King, for sure. The story is interesting and could use a bit of expanding--seems things happen to quickly or jump from one thing to another without proper transitions. This series was Jack Kirby's return to comics in 1981 after a long absence while he worked in animation. These 14 issues are worth picking up as they can all be obtained at very low prices--you can probably find them all for under 30 bucks.
February 12, 2016
I read these in the original comic format when they came out. Jack Kirby changed his style in the early 1970s and I fell out of being a fan of his art and stories, overall I never could seem to get into the books. I had hoped he had changed again when these new comics came out but alas it was not so. If you are a Kirby fan then these are recommended
Want to read
March 25, 2016Recopilatorio de uno de los clásicos independientes de Kirby.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews