The co-creator of Marvel’s Fantastic Four, X-Men, and many more classic characters now has a street in his honor in New York City.
Jack Kirby, the artist whose collaborations with writer Stan Lee gave birth to the Marvel Universe (and whose later work as a writer and artist for both Marvel and DC Comics pushed the comics medium even further), now has his very own “Jack Kirby Way.” The corner of Delancey Street and Essex Street were dedicated in his honor this week on the eve of the new Fantastic Four movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opening in theaters.
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Kirby was born on Essex Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1917. In Fantastic Four comics, the Thing hailed from “Yancy Street” — a fictional locale that Kirby and Lee based on Delancey Street and the Lower East Side area where Kirby grew up. (Lee was raised on the Upper West Side.) So the corner of Delancey and Essex is the only appropriate place for “Jack Kirby Way.” (The “Yancy Street” sign is a nice touch too.)
Kirby’s creations and co-creations for Marvel include Captain America, Ant-Man, the Avengers, Hulk, Black Panther, and Thor. For DC, he created the so-called “Fourth World” of heroes and villains that includes Darkseid, along with the Demon and Kamandi. Kirby died in 1994; sadly, unlike Lee, he didn’t live to see his characters turned into Hollywood blockbusters at the center of popular culture.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to open in theaters on July 25. I would bet a large sum of money at least a scene or two is set on Yancy Street.
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