Today is the 100th birthday of the late, great Jack Kirby, and what better way to celebrate than with new comics that pay tribute to his legacy. Throughout August, DC Comics has been releasing one-shots spotlighting the wide range of Kirby’s creations for the publisher, from major characters like Darkseid and the New Gods to charming, but lesser-known concepts like the Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos. DC also released the first issue of a new Mister Miracle miniseries from Tom King and Mitch Gerads this month, and if readers want a different interpretation of that title hero, they can check out this week’s The Black Racer And Shilo Norman Special, written by prolific writer/director/producer Reginald Hudlin with art by Denys Cowan, inker Bill Sienkiewicz, and colorist Jeromy Cox.
Scott Free may be the Kirby escape artist getting all the attention right now thanks to the, but he’s not the only person to wear that mantle and tempt death with unbelievable stunts that would be lethal for pretty much anyone else. Shilo Norman doesn’t have Scott’s alien background; he’s just an ordinary human, and in this week’s special, Shilo may have tried the stunt that ends it all for him. This exclusive preview of The Black Racer And Shilo Norman Special has Shilo visited by the herald of death in the middle of his latest escape, and the shots of Mister Miracle in action have the aggressive, bombastic quality that made Kirby such a pioneer in superhero comics.
Hudlin and Cowan collaborated in the past on the Captain America/Black Panther: Flags Of Our Fathers one-shot and the comic-book adaptation of Django Unchained, two books with very different storytelling sensibilities that showcase this team’s versatility. Cowan, Sienkiewicz, and Cox recently did phenomenal work on Deathstroke #11, and this week’s special has them moving in a much more spectacular direction than that street-level story while still retaining some of that grit because of Sienkiewicz’s severe, scratchy inking. This issue also features artwork from Ryan Benjamin and Richard Friend, who aren’t as stylized as Cowan and Sienkiewicz, but are close enough in their general aesthetic that it shouldn’t be a harsh transition between teams.