(Yes, OK, Kirby is always at his best)
Seeing the ruins of Lemuria gave me such a thrill. The lost undersea civilisation is a common theme in Kirby (see the Boy Commandos, Fantastic Four issue 4, Kala, Attilan, etc.). The names might change, but those are unimportant. Kirby's books are really about the common man and the real world: it's all the same story. As a child I longed for the original Fantastic Four to continue, and here it is.
Eternals 8 is a summary of all Kirby's work. It features our prehistoric past, our possible future among the gods, romance, superheroes and monsters (three of Kirby's best known themes) and much more.
However, this blog is about Kirby as a prophet, and this book does not disappoint. The story is about people sent to die because they don't look like us, and about the Deviants' desire for racial purity. And the Deviants hate talking about it to outsiders, they won't face up to it. We do the same today.
Today I watched a video about immigrants. I'll keep this short. None of us like to think of ourselves as racist, but the fact is that we keep our borders closed unless we like people. And the people we like are generally like us. People who are different? Most of them are not welcome. Sometimes they are so desperate they come on boats. And we turn them back. To die. Or worse. Of course we won't admit that. But the lengths they will go to to get here shows us how bad their lives are.
To be fair, this is always true. But in Kirby's era racism was (on the whole) declining. Things are different in 2017. According to Thomas Picketty, our current problems can be traced to circa 1978 (when inequality began to increase again). Kirby was writing in 1976. He was prescient as usual.
Seeing the ruins of Lemuria gave me such a thrill. The lost undersea civilisation is a common theme in Kirby (see the Boy Commandos, Fantastic Four issue 4, Kala, Attilan, etc.). The names might change, but those are unimportant. Kirby's books are really about the common man and the real world: it's all the same story. As a child I longed for the original Fantastic Four to continue, and here it is.
Eternals 8 is a summary of all Kirby's work. It features our prehistoric past, our possible future among the gods, romance, superheroes and monsters (three of Kirby's best known themes) and much more.
However, this blog is about Kirby as a prophet, and this book does not disappoint. The story is about people sent to die because they don't look like us, and about the Deviants' desire for racial purity. And the Deviants hate talking about it to outsiders, they won't face up to it. We do the same today.
Today I watched a video about immigrants. I'll keep this short. None of us like to think of ourselves as racist, but the fact is that we keep our borders closed unless we like people. And the people we like are generally like us. People who are different? Most of them are not welcome. Sometimes they are so desperate they come on boats. And we turn them back. To die. Or worse. Of course we won't admit that. But the lengths they will go to to get here shows us how bad their lives are.
To be fair, this is always true. But in Kirby's era racism was (on the whole) declining. Things are different in 2017. According to Thomas Picketty, our current problems can be traced to circa 1978 (when inequality began to increase again). Kirby was writing in 1976. He was prescient as usual.
Comments
Post a Comment