I also feel that a case may be made that Stan's plotting may have driven Jack to greater and greater heights. A plebian story likely would not have required the grandeur that Kirby seemed to achieve so easily. But Stan threw the Fantastic Four and Thor epics around like a farmer scattering seeds, and Jack turned them into an excellent crop. I'm not so sure that Jack's limits would have been challenged if he had been the artist on Daredevil or Ant-Man.

Stan gave everyone a nickname and promoted them, but we don't really discuss Dashin' Don Heck or Gentleman Gene Colan in the same way that we do Jack Kirby. Both artists were splendid, no doubt - but they aren't the King.

Perhaps in a negative way this is applicable too, i.e., folks long after the Lee-Kirby team was defunct started aggrandizing Kirby to Lee's detriment, "justified" by their placing the onus of blame on Lee for supposedly first aggrandizing himself to Kirby's detriment.

That nonsense aside... I can't fathom that Kirby was ever denigrated in any quarter. The power of his work is overwhelming. How can such seemingly simple lines create art so mighty?! Utterly amazing.