KirbyFan4ever wrote:
I think the reason Jack "held back" was because he was tired of seeing his creations bastardized, like Stan did with the Surfer. He was under no obligation to contribute new ideas/create new characters; he was there to illustrate Stan's "stories" - so if there's anyone to be criticize about a perceived lack of originality, I think that should be Stan.
I'm not sure how this is material to the topic at hand, but once Kirby decided to leave Marvel, he obviously wasn't inclined to create new characters anymore, but that happened well after he co-created much of the Marvel Universe.  I'm also not sure I'd characterize Stan as "bastardizing" the Silver Surfer.  Kirby may not have liked Stan's origin, but it doesn't sound like Kirby's idea was anything to write home about.  Personally, I like what Stan did -- I think he humanized the Surfer in a way that made him more relatable to the average reader (which is something that he did to a lot of Kirby concepts, and was something that was lacking from a lot of Kirby's post-Stan Lee work).  Bottom line is that I think both creators did their best work when working together, and rarely did comparable work when apart (although Lee/Ditko was obviously another great collaboration).  But I digress, and I hope this doesn't become another senseless Stan v. Jack debate...