| 2001: A Space Odyssey (comics) |
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2001: A Space Odyssey was the name of an oversized and a 10-issue monthly series "expanding" on the ideas presented in the film and the eponymous Arthur C. Clarke novel. Jack Kirby wrote and pencilled both the adaptation and the series, which were published by Marvel Comics beginning in 1976 . THE TREASURY EDITION Marvel published the adaptation in its then-common ''treasury edition'' format featuring Tabloid -sized pages of roughly twice the size of a normal comic book. The story is an essentially direct adaptation of the events of the film. But unlike the film, the comic narrative captions describe the characters' thoughts and feelings. This is a significantly different approach than that taken by the film. The treasury edition also contained a 10-page article entitled ''2001: A Space Legacy'' written by David A. Kraft . THE MONTHLY SERIES Shortly after the publication of the treasury edition, Kirby continued to explore the concepts of 2001 in a monthly comic book series of the same name, the first issue of which was dated December 1976. In this issue, Kirby followed the pattern established in the film. Once again the reader encounters a prehistoric man (''Beast-Killer'') who gains new insight upon encountering a Monolith as did Moon-Watcher in the film. The scene then shifts, where a descendant of Beast-Killer is part of a space mission to explore yet another monolith. When he finds it, this monolith begins to transform the astronaut into a star child, called in the comic a ''New Seed''. Issues 1-6 of the series replay the same idea with different characters in different situations, both prehistoric and futuristic. In #7, the comic opens with the birth of a New Seed who then travels the galaxy witnessing the suffering that men cause each other. While the New Seed is unable or unwilling to prevent this devastation, he takes the essence of two doomed lovers and uses it to seed another planet with the potential for human life. In issue #8 of the comic, Kirby introduces Mister Machine, who will later become known as Machine Man . Mister Machine is an advanced robot designated X-51. All the other robots in the X series rampage as they achieve Sentience and are destroyed. X-51, supported by both the love of his creator Dr. Abel Stack and an encounter with a monolith, transcends the malfunction that destroyed his siblings. After the death of Dr. Stack, X-51 takes the name Aaron Stack and begins to blend into humanity. Issues 9 and 10, the final issues of the series, continue the story of X-51 as he flees destruction at the hands of the Army . These issues contain no further appearances of the monolith and are better considered as the first installments of X-51's own Kirby-created series, '' Machine Man '', which began the next year. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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