We’re moving into our last seven days of Jack Kirby Tribute Month 2025, dedicated to the Fantastic Four and related characters. Today’s prompt is Klaw, “the Murderous Master of Sound.”
Klaw’s origin is very much entangled with the Wakandans and Black Panther. We learn via flashback in FF #53 that Klaw was a scientist who, in a ruthless pursuit of his research into the field of sound, decided he had to have access to the Vibranium owned by the Wakandans. When T’Challa’s father King T’Chaka denies Klaw access, Klaw unceremoniously shoots him dead on the spot! Later, Klaw thinks he’ll shoot the young T’Challa, but he underestimates the boy, losing his right hand as a result.
In FF #53’s present day, Klaw is creating monsters of “solid sound,” using a convertor of his own invention. Losing once again to T’Challa and the Wakandans, Klaw’s hidden lab mostly destroyed, he makes one last desperate gamble, jumping into his convertor himself. We don’t see the result of this experiment until #56, when he’s revealed to have been transformed into a being made of solid sound.
There’s a neat thing they do in these issues with the sound creatures, where all of them are colored bright red to visually call them out. And when Klaw transforms, he too comes out red. His visual for the most part is a lot simpler than many other Kirby designs at the time, though the face is unique.
If you wanna see who’s next, feel free to come back by again tomorrow!