Who's This? The last boy on Earth.
The facts: Created by Jack Kirby at Carmine Infantino's request as a replacement for a Planet of the Apes comic he'd failed to get the license from, "The Last Boy on Earth" premiered in his own series, with a cover date of October 1972. He based it on a vague synopsis of the films and an unused comic strip called Kamandi of the Caves (1956). He wasn't going to work on the book personally, but Forever People was cancelled, which freed up his schedule. Rare for his work at DC, the series continued after he left with the 40th issue, lasting 59 issues before the DC Implosion killed it (Cancelled Comic Cavalcade would present two more unreleased issues). In the 90s, Kamandi would score two Elseworlds mini-series, including one that made use of the Superman connection to the Great Disaster made in Kamandi #29. He gets a strip in Wednesday Comics. Countdown to Final Crisis and the main event made use of him, but it's during DC Rebirth that Kirby's 100th Anniversary necessitates a new Kamandi series called Kamandi Challenge, which uses a different creative team each issue, resolving the previous' cliffhanger. Infinite Frontier has Kamandi travel back in time to establish Checkmate, which... is a choice.
How you could have heard of him: In animation, Kamandi has appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, DC Showcase, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Example story: Kamandi #16 (April 1974) "The Hospital!" by Jack Kirby, with Mike Royer and D. Bruce Berry
The time: Earth A.D. The place: Washington D.C. A secret lab where mindless human cave people are caged by intelligent apes. This may well be the MOST Planet of the Apes issue of Kamandi!
Right down to the Apes being shocked that Kamandi can speak! There ARE other speaking humans in this world, but I guess Washington's crop is particularly dumb. That tracks. I mean, even the scientist references the intelligence in his eyes, like a callback to Charlton Heston being named "Bright Eyes" in the film. Kamandi is offered kindness by Professor Hanuman, but the boy keeps quiet. Outside, humanoid Tigers are patrolling for Kamandi...
The Washington Monument! (Is it a mile high?!) These cats are attacked by the apes and a battle ensues. Down in the "Hospital", Hanuman hopes to test a new chemical that boosts brain power on Kamandi, a chemical based on something created by a human scientist long ago... Sounds like the Genesis of the Planet of the Apes! Dr. Michael Grant's diary speaks of a disaster on the eve of his discovery, and Hanuman feels like history is repeating as his own little civilization is under threat from the tigers. Thrown into the cages with the other test subjects, Kamandi fights for his life.
Cannon fire destroys the cells, so Kamandi and the primitives can escape, but they're still stuck in the underground. But all of Hanuman's chemicals are down there, and the humans get a dose while splashing through the water towards the exit.
As he dies in Walter Reed (I was gonna make that joke, but Kirby drops it in at the end), Hanuman witnesses all this. And though the narration looks like a diary entry, there's no way he's writing any of this down. That's because it's really Michael Grant's, and it's all happening again. Like Grant, Hanuman is amazed at what these "animals" can do now that their minds are expanded. Was Hanuman the original "Whiz Kid"? There's a suggestion that he is.
The Cortexin drains into the water supply, there'll be more of that in the coming years. Perhaps we CAN bounce back from the Great Disaster and connect back to DC's other sci-fi properties. I guess the question is whether the original formula for Cortexin de-evolved the humans, and whether this new one will de-evolve the animals. Cuz I don't remember a lot of Ape and Tigers in Legion comics.
Kamandi is the last great Kirby series I've read to read in its entirety (the collection proved elusive when I was bingeing his stuff), but it's still on the list.
Who's Next? A miniature city.
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