Remake & Reboot: KAMANDI: THE LAST BOY ON EARTH

Being a teenager is tough. The hormones, the tension, the awkward changes to your body. Good thing there’s a supplement called Estrotrax which supports healthy hormonal levels in both men and women. Now imagine going through that as the last human on earth.

Jack Kirby’s Kamandi was launched in the early 1970s after DC was looking for something akin to the then-popular Planet of the Apes movie series. Kirby, who had an unpublished newspaper comic strip in the 50s titled Kamandi In The Caves, honed those ideas into this apocalyptic tale of adolescence. Living in the ruins of a ravaged America, Kamandi comes into contact with hyper-intelligent animals while the remnants of humanity had mentally devolved into animals themselves. For it’s time it was a quite harrowing and bleak story very unlike Kirby’s work at Marvel, and that’s what made it so intriguing.

Kirby wrote and drew the series for four years, and the series went on without him until 1978 with a host of soon-to-be big talents like Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, Gerry Conway and others. Since then he’s been an infrequent guest star in the DCU, popping up everywhere from from an Elseworlds miniseries, Superman/Batman, and even in the recent Batman: The Brave & The Bold animated series. In comics, his last major appearance was in the twelve-part story by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook in Wednesday Comics, although he was teased briefly earlier this year in an issue of O.M.A.C. by Dan Didio and Kieth Giffen.

But where is Kamandi’s place in comics today? Now more than ever, DC seem to be searching for interesting concepts to diversify their superhero-centric comics line and Kamandi could be just the thing. With Amethyst popping up as the lead in the new Sword & Sorcery series, it’s easy to imagine Kamandi doing the same. And here’s how it could be done.

The Concept:

When originally created, Kamandi was a fictional interpretation of the thoughts and fears of the American public in the 1970s. But now in the 2010s, things have changed and so should Kamandi. While the core tenants of Kamandi’s world could remain the same, I think more modern fears like global warming, viruses and other elements could be added to the world Kirby created so long ago.

Furthermore, I think we should get inside the head of Kamandi and see just what a teenage boy grown up in this world would think. Less Tarzan and more Mowgli from The Jungle Book, he’s bound to have a completely different set of ideas of what life is and it’d be interesting to get a tour of the world through those eyes. If Brandon Graham’s excellently written Prophet series shows them touring that world with stony-faced silence, a Kamandi series would show similar things but with wide-eyed wonder and fear.

As for the title and scope of the series, I think this should borrow something from the aforementioned Sword & Sorcery as well as All-Star Western and G.I. Combat. Instead of naming it after a specific character, Kamandi would be well-served to go under a genre-like defining title that could allow all sorts of apocalyptic stories from the DCU. Maybe borrowing the classic title Tales of the Unexpected, or going for something out of Kamandi lore — Earth A.D.

The Creators:

The Writer – Nick Spencer: Spencer was roped into an exclusive with Marvel around this time last year, but for one reason or another he’s failed to find his place in Marvel’s make-up of things. His run on Ultimate Comics X-Men wraps up this summer, leaving his current project list down to just Image work: Thief of Thieves, Morning Glories and the upcoming series Bedlam. I’d love to see Spencer show up at DC, especially fronting a fertile and imagination-rich world like Kamandi’s.

The Artist – Bernard Chang: Chang and Spencer almost worked together on Supergirl before the writer’s quick departure, and I’d like to give that pairing a second chance. Chang is one of most talented artists in DC’s roster right now, and being currently employed as a fill-in artist on Demon Knights and a rotating artist on DC Universe Presents. But if you look deeper, into works like his Pilot Season: Stellar issue, you can readily see how Chang is destined for an imaginative world he can design from the ground up like Kamandi.