Over a six-decade career, Jack Kirby created or co-created some of Marvel Comics’ most fabled heroes: the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, and the groundbreaking Black Panther. But of equal significance was the inner complexity of his characters. Kirby transformed superheroes from two-dimensional cops with capes into layered, conflicted individuals. The first-ever retrospective of his trailblazing work, “Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity,” opened last week in Los Angeles. Featuring archival comic books, canvases, interior panels, and sketches, the exhibition breezily traces the artist’s life from beginning to end, starting with his early work illustrating titles such as Young Romance and then moving to the signature characters that forged his legacy. For Kirby, who died at 76, in 1994, comic books were morality plays. “The characters represent sort of a transcendent feeling that we all have inside us,” he once said. “That we could do better. That we want to do better.” —Michael Callahan