New Gods Director Ava DuVernay Celebrates Jack Kirby’s Captain America for July 4th

Americans have been celebrating the Fourth of July throughout this weekend, honoring the complicated history and legacy of America in an array of different ways. For some comic fans, that means paying tribute to some of the most detailed takes on American history in comics — including a pretty profound Captain America panel from Jack Kirby. On Saturday, the official Twitter account for the Jack Kirby Museum shared a look at the writer and artist’s original panel from 1976’s Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, which featured dialogue that specifically mentions the fight for racial equality that occurred in Selma, Alabama. This panel caught the attention of Ava DuVernay , who directed the 2014 movie Selma, and is currently working on adapting another Kirby work with DC’s New Gods movie.

While the reference to Selma didn’t ultimately make it into the finished script, the parallel between Kirby’s reference to it, and DuVernay adapting both the story of Selma and Kirby’s work, is pretty special.

New Gods will tell the story of the residents of New Genesis and Apokolips, two twin planets that are engaged in an epic cosmic war. DuVernay has been attached to a New Gods movie for almost exactly two years now, and is currently working on the script with Mister Miracle and Batman comic writer Tom King.

“I feel like I have this genius, Jack Kirby, who created this [series] and this genius Ava DuVernay,” King explained in an interview previously. “I see them as parallel figures, both taking their uniquely American backgrounds and using them to push American art forward into places it’s never been before. I feel like it’s job to bring those two geniuses to together and to make it work.”

What do you think of that original Jack Kirby Captain America panel? Are you excited to see Ava DuVernay adapt Kirby’s work with New Gods? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!