Writer & Letterer: Mário Freitas
Illustrator: Lucas Pereira
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $9.99
Release Date: August 27, 2025
It's Mike's first day at his new job. He doesn't feel qualified for the position. But Sherm assures Mike he can do it. In a care facility, the most important qualities are patience and being a good listener. Mike's primary duty will be looking after their oldest resident. Jack had his previous attendant fired. Will Mike win Jack's trust? Can the newbie ease the resident through his memory lapses? Let's grab a humidor, leap into The Man Who Dreamt The Impossible: A Tribute To Jack Kirby #1, and see!
Story
Sherm introduces Mike to Jack. As he shows him around the care center, Sherm explains he doesn't know what's wrong. Jack has been old for a long time. He loves telling stories. But at times, Jack gets confused. Above all, Jack loves the care center's library. Mike's predecessor, Martin, made a mess of it. Hopefully, a new helper will lift Jack’s spirits.
In The Man Who Dreamt The Impossible: A Tribute To Jack Kirby #1, we follow Mike as he eases Jack through the pitfalls of age. One of Mike’s duties is to keep Jack and the other residents on schedule. Although each has particularities that may grate on the others, Jack enjoys socializing with Wally, Gene, Bill, and Steve. When Jack boasts about getting rid of Martin, Gene says he liked the former attendant. So what if Martin listened to his stories and later passed them off as his own?
While Jack remains frustrated by his limitations, Mike gradually notices improvements. He realizes how important the library is to Jack. So, as Mike cares for Jack, he makes time to reorder the books. It’s a collaborative process that Jack is passionate about. But a mysterious presence haunts the library, preventing Mike from getting all the books in their proper order.
In The Man Who Dreamt The Impossible: A Tribute To Jack Kirby #1, we learn about the artist's life. Instead of a biographical reconstruction, Mário Freitas creates a humorous and elegant metaphor of Jack Kirby's career and the battles over credit for his contributions. As Jack Kirby’s immortal creations take to the page in new and interesting ways, Mike watches and learns his place in the universe. Perhaps this universe is one of many. But Jack is the beating heart of it. Mike’s role is to sit back, learn, and marvel.
Art
While Sherm shows Mike around the mansion dressed in white clothes and gray shoes, Jack wears a green sweater. As Mike goes about his duties, and the snow covering the garden where the residents gather slowly melts, Jack demonstrates a preference for green shirts. Yet when Jack taps into his former vitality, his shirt loses its color. One day, he discovers a body splashed with crimson on the floor of the library. As he gazes up, he sees recognizable figures imprisoned in green egg-like energy fields. A bearded man, clad in a green shirt, climbs down the wooden shelves of reddish-brown books headfirst. As a figure that glows with yellow radiance descends, the care home hovers amid a purple, red, and blue cosmos.
While Lucas Pereira lavishes a loaded palette on his whimsical art, he often lays out the action across pages. On occasion, the characters navigate a winding and circuitous path before our eyes. While surrounded by classic novels and texts, many of the books in the library bear Jack King's name on their spines. Yet Jack refuses to rest after his prolific career. His expression and gestures often reveal the anger burning inside, as he struggles to regain what he lost. And when Jack finally finds the strength he seeks in The Man Who Dreamt The Impossible: A Tribute To Jack Kirby #1, black spots and blotches surround his moment of triumph.
Mário Freitas fills white narrative boxes and dialogue balloons with black uppercase letters. The ample panels and dialogue in this 1970s, Treasury-size issue slow the pace, as does parsing the homages and informative associations. Alien symbols fill cloudlike balloons in the library. Arrows rise from them like smoke from a cigar. Large-scale lettering occasionally fills the page, such as when an exoskeleton appears that would put Ellen Ripley’s cargo loader to shame. While a sound effect accompanies a difficult introduction, red letters waft away as Mário’s story reaches its end. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
In The Man Who Dreamt The Impossible: A Tribute To Jack Kirby #1, Mário Freitas demonstrates why this luminary casts an eternal shadow. Through his story, readers discover the magnitude of his contributions, his impact on later writers and artists, and how Jack Kirby’s creations have transcended their original medium.
Rating 9.8/10
To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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