A picture worth a thousand words!

Welcome all Readers, Comic book enthusiast, and lost online surfers! This week I had the honor of visiting the Jack Kirby exhibit in the CSUN art gallery and see for myself original art, printed comics, photographs, and more from Kirby’s career. If you’ve ever read an X-men, Thor, Hulk, or Fantastic four comic then you’re likely familiar with the creative genius. Although my contribution to this blog is predominately focused on green lanterns and their villains, the overall purpose is discuss the role of villains and super heroes and what they add to the plot both individually and collectively. As I wandered the exhibit I came across a comic book cover that reminded me of the blog. I felt obligated to share because I takes great talent to portray a villain as a three dimensional character in just a picture since so many comic creators are incapable of doing so with words.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times in my previous post, a superhero and villain are equally important to the plot. Villains don’t solely exist as some foe for heroes to vanquish, a villain is meant to challenge the hero and push that protagonist beyond his limits. In most successful comic books and movies, there is a balance in the opposing characters and they have an equally alluring and moving back story that motivates them to behave the way they do. In the Thor #155 comic book cover this balance of characters is evidently displayed through the use of lines and shapes, contrast of pointed and curved images, picture placement, dark back drop, and sizing.

In her book, Picture this, Molly Bang’s maintains that lines and shapes are capable of implying feelings. Horizontal shapes give a sense of stability, vertical shapes imply excitement and energy, and diagonals convey tension. If this is true, which I think it is, I am able to get a sense on tension and high energy between the two opposing characters. According to these findings, the diagonal tilt in Thor’s arm and Mangog’s shoulders imply that there is obvious tension between the two. Rather than feeling that Thor’s intentions are purely to hurt Mangog, the tension in his arm seems as though he is resistant to hurt him. It seems that while he does want to protect Odin he is hesitant. I would assume that this is because not only does Thor fear Mangog but he also seems to want to understand him. Mangog is the very embodiment of an entire race that once fought Asgard, Odin killed off the race and trapped their combined hate into Mangog body. When looking at the character placement on the cover, it seems as though Jack Kirby intended for Mangog to be the focal point rather than the battle itself.

While Mangog being the center and much larger image on this cover implies that he is stronger and more important, Kirby restores balance by placing Thor’s energetic upward hand in front of Mangog. In Bang view, images that overlap “pierce or violate the space of the other, but this also joins them together into a single unit” (86). In other words, the placement of Thor’s hand makes Mangog slightly vulnerable and less intense. This could possibly be because in the story Mangog does not intend to destroy everything but instead seeks revenge on Odin. Thor is not who Mangog is after but he is in danger because he stands in his way, you can get a sense of this danger by looking at Thor’s hand on the bottom corner on the cover.

This image seems to be more focused on Mangog himself rather than a battle between a hero and a villain. As we just previously established, the characters are currently balanced in importance however Mangog’s character is more intimidating and alluring. As the obviously larger and stronger opponent in this battle, Mangog is a brighter hue placed on a darker backdrop. As the purple in the back implies danger and vulnerability like being unable to see in the night sky, its contrast with Mangog’s yellow surface forces us to focus on Mangog while the back fades away as a minor detail. Kirby seems as though he is trying to emphasize the importance of Mangog not as a scary villain but an intimidating character with a story worth listening to. Kirby chose to round off all of the villain’s edges making him in a way softer but managed to still portray him as a threat by emphasizing on placement, color, shape direction, and size.