Сага о Секретном Городе: Комиксы Джека Кирби

Collection of comic book titles

Secret City Saga is a concept and collection of various comic book titles created by American writer and artist Jack Kirby, and published by the short lived Topps Comics, an offshoot of the Topps Trading Card company. Beginning in April 1993, the Secret City Saga books consisted of three four issue miniseries (Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga, Satan's Six, TeenAgents) and three one shot specials (Captain Glory, Nightglider, and Bombast), which were all preceded by the one shot promotional giveaway, Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga #0. The concept itself saw Topps lease Kirby's name alongside the characters, and saw the line referred to as "The Kirbyverse". All the characters resided in the same shared universe, and the deal also presented the final time that Kirby had complete creative control over any of the many properties that he had created in his career. It was initially seen as a creative and financial failure. The line consisted of leftover concepts Kirby had developed years prior, and generated low sales and minimal reader interest, finding a niche only with hard core Kirby fans.

The four issue Secret City Saga miniseries told the story of the three Ninth Men's first adventure in the present day. After release from hibernation, they discover and attempt to foil a plot whose origin lay in the last days of Gazra, involving an evil duplicate of then President Bill Clinton.

Satan's Six were a team of agents of the Kirbyverse's interpretation of Satan himself, created for the sole purpose of causing chaos in the mortal plane, but the continued incompetence of the members always seemed to be their downfall (and humanity's benefit). Members included: Brian Bluedragon, a doltish knight of Arthur's court; Hard Luck Harrigan, a petty gambler and bookie who worked in the 1930s criminal underworld; Dr. Mordius, a Henry Jekyll wannabe; Kuga the Lion Killer, a warrior of African origin; Dezira, of ancient Babylon; and Frightful, a demon in Satan's employ whose job it was to keep the members in line, a "drill instructor from Hell", so to speak. The TeenAgents were a group of four teenaged denizens of the Inner City populated by descendants of humans who fled the surface world from persecution as witches and warlocks and discovered and salvaged remnants of the Ninth Men's world that somehow survived "the Great Catastrophe". Their job was to intervene should any of the wild (and most times, monstrous) creatures that populate the bowels of the Earth try to attack the surface world (or as they referred to it, "Upworld"). After speculation, it might be safe to say that these subterranean creatures might possibly have been some of the "ordinary" wildlife that populated the Ninth Men's prehistoric times. Members of the TeenAgents included: Aurik, who possessed the power to control his own mass and density; Dijit, who possessed gloves that each individual finger was endowed with the ability to project a different form of force bolt (fire, electricity, etc., etc.,); Seera, a female who could transform herself into a vaporous state, allowing her the abilities of flight (and seemed to have slight empathic abilities); and the Kreech, a young female shapeshifter. Silver Star, a previous Kirby creation, was a government agent appointed the task of fighting superhuman enemies. A genetic mutant, classified as Homo geneticus, Morgan Miller was the result of genetic experimentation of his father, Dr. Bradford Miller. Possessing incredible superhuman strength, Miller's abilities are also a curse, for each time he uses his powers it physically drains his life force. Miller is quoted to have said, "What's up with this super secret shenanigans?" Captain Victory, another of Kirby's previous independent comic book endeavours. Victory is the leader of an extraterrestrial intergalactic police force, which visits then present day (1982) Earth. With the publication of Victory #1, though, it seems that Victory's Pacific Comics' exploits are, continuity wise, difficult to reconcile with the Kirbyverse's "present" (supposedly circa early 1990s).

What would have become the final two installments of the Secret City Saga, a new Silver Star miniseries, and a new Capt. Victory book, Victory, which were both billed as four issue miniseries, only saw the publication of the first issues before the plug was pulled on the books. The final three issues of each have yet to be published. Both Silver Star, the Secret City heroes and Captain Victory resurfaced in 2011 in Kirby: Genesis, written by Kurt Busiek, who was also the author of the never published Silver Star issues.