Kirby 100: (Some of the) characters created or co-created by Jack Kirby

We're kicking off a month-long celebration of Jack "King" Kirby's centenary. First up, a look at some of his most famous creations and co-creations.

As comics fans (should) know, Kirby was more than an artist. He was a creative genius and visionary.   His style and artistic techniques shaped superhero comics up to the present moment. Filmmakers also are inspired by his action scenes, costume and character designs, imagery and tech. 

Kirby was a storyteller. He provided the plots to most of the plots for the comics he worked on, including The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Hulk, X-Men and Thor. Stan Lee sometimes co-plotted and he provided the the captions and dialogue to the stories. Between the two of them, they created the Marvel Universe. 

Kirby co-created Captain America with Joe Simon and provided the initial idea, name and, likely, design for Spider-Man. And, with Stan Lee, he created and co-created nearly ever other Marvel hero. He also created numerous characters for DC Comics during the early to mid 1970s, such as the New Gods and Mister Miracle.

So, below is a long list of names, none of which we'd know if not for Jacob Kurtzberg, aka Jack Kirby, the King of Comics, born 100 years ago this month on Aug. 28, 1917.

Characters:

• Absorbing Man.
• Annihulus
• Ant-Man.
• The Avengers.
• Big Barda.
• Black Bolt.
• Black Panther.
• Black Racer.
• Blastaar.
• The Boy Commandos.
• Bucky Barnes.
• Captain America.
• Challengers of the Unknown.
• Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)
• Sharon Carter.
• The Challengers of the Unknown.
• Darkseid.
• The Demon.
• Devil Dinosaur.
• Doctor Doom.
• Dum Dum Dugan.
• Morgan Edge.
• Ego the Living Planet.
• Enchantress.
• Eternals.
• The Fantastic Four (Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm)
• Fighting American.
• The Fly.
• The Forever People.
• Jane Foster.
• Nick Fury.
• Galactus.
• Giant-Man.
• Groot.
• The Guardian.
• H.E.R.B.I.E.
• Hercules (Marvel version)
• The Hulk.
• Impossible Man.
• The Inhumans.
• Iron Man.
• Ka-Zar.
• Kamandi.
• Kang the Conqueror.
• Kalibak.
• Kamandi.
• Klaw.
• Kobra.
• The Kree.
• Loki.
• Machine Man.
• Magneto.
• Man-Beast.
• Manhunter.
• Alicia Masters.
• Medusa.
• Miracle Man.
• Mister Miracle.
• MODOK.
• Mole Man.
• Molecule Man.
• Moon Boy.
• The New Gods.
• The Newsboy Legion.
• Odin.
• OMAC.
• Psycho Man.
• Puppet Master.
• Quicksilver.
• Radioactive Man.
• The Rawhide Kid.
• Red Skull.
• Sandman.
• Scarlet Witch.
• Sentinels.
• Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.
• Sif.
• The Silver Surfer.
• The Skrulls.
• Toad.
• Thor.
• Triton.
• The Two-Gun Kid.
• Uatu, the Watcher.
• Adam Warlock.
• The Wasp.
• Wyatt Wingfoot.
• The X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Iceman, Professor X)
• The Yancy Street Gang.
• Baron Zero

And a ridiculous number of others ...