It was my understanding that Kirby drew the pictures and Stan Lee came up with the dialogue to explain them.
It may be that these one-time powers and abilities were the result of Lee grasping at straws to give some coherent rationale for Kirby's epic but wildly fanciful imagery.
From what I've read in varous interviews and articles, they started off discussing the plots in some detail. As time went on and Lee took on scripting more and more strips, he increasingly left the artists on their own to plot the stories, with the dialogue and captions added by Lee later
( ... )
Kirby's Machine Man (which I liked) was kind of the same deal. The character had a special built-in gadget for every occasion. He was like a walking Swiss Army knife. He even had a device that warped in a robot from another galaxy who was in peril, and which sent him right back again when he proved hostile. Kirby was always throwing in new powers for heroes; I wonder if he was the guy who gave the Hulk the ability to jump around like a big green grasshopper.
I would guess it was Kirby who gave the Hulk his leaping ability, but that answer may be lost to the mists of time.
Now that I think about it, even when working with Joe Simon, Kirby had the Shield (Lancelot Strong) sometimes come up with a new unexplained power as needed. It seems to have part of the Kirby creative process; I'm not complaining, just making an observation.
It's an interesting thought, of course this would be after Thor lost the ability to turn into Don Blake, who had a sort of miraculous skill as a doctor.
It did get pretty ridiculous, sometimes. Thor had time-traveling powers in one issue. And I wonder who gave Iron Man built-in roller skates. But as far as the Hulk's leaping power, I can only say, Sproing...sproing...sproing...
Kirby has such a turbo-charged imagination that he threw stuff on every page that later artists and writers would reuse for decades.
Iron Man's silliest accessory might have been in AVENGERS# 2, where he pulls pieces from within his chest panel that assemble into a five-foot sledge hammer attached at his elbow. Why he thought he would need this at any time, I can't fathom.
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It may be that these one-time powers and abilities were the result of Lee grasping at straws to give some coherent rationale for Kirby's epic but wildly fanciful imagery.
Not an enviable task, that.
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Kirby was always throwing in new powers for heroes; I wonder if he was the guy who gave the Hulk the ability to jump around like a big green grasshopper.
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Now that I think about it, even when working with Joe Simon, Kirby had the Shield (Lancelot Strong) sometimes come up with a new unexplained power as needed. It seems to have part of the Kirby creative process; I'm not complaining, just making an observation.
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But as far as the Hulk's leaping power, I can only say,
Sproing...sproing...sproing...
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Iron Man's silliest accessory might have been in AVENGERS# 2, where he pulls pieces from within his chest panel that assemble into a five-foot sledge hammer attached at his elbow. Why he thought he would need this at any time, I can't fathom.
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