The Black Racer

The Black Racer is Jack Kirby's cosmic embodiment of death within the Fourth World mythology, manifesting as a skiing figure who travels the universe claiming the dying. He inhabits the body of a paralyzed Vietnam veteran, granting the otherwise immobile man an extraordinary cosmic purpose.

Few cosmic concepts hit as hard as Jack Kirby's Black Racer, a figure of death and inevitability who ski-slopes through the cosmos as part of DC's sweeping New Gods mythology, introduced in 1971 at the dawn of the Bronze Age. Born from Kirby's legendary Fourth World saga, this enigmatic herald of the end keeps extraordinary company — sharing pages with Superman, The Flash, Orion, and Green Lantern — which speaks to the grand, universe-spanning scale of the stories this character inhabits. With over five decades of appearances stretching from The New Gods to Superman and even earning a place in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, the Black Racer is one of those singular, visually arresting Kirby creations that reminds you why the King's imagination remains unmatched. That key-issue pedigree and enduring presence across 54 years make this a character any serious DC collector should know.