Jack Kirby's Fourth World
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The Fourth World is the popular name given to a metaseries]] of interconnecting comic book titles written and drawn by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics from 1970 to 1973. Originally intended to form a finite epic story, the books were cancelled for unknown reasons.
Contents |
The original comics
Published as the newsstand distribution system for comics began to break down, Kirby foresaw a day when comics would need to find alternate, more legitimate venues for sale.Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1; Afterword by Mark Evanier. Toward this end, Kirby envisioned a finite series that would be serialized and collected in one tome after the series had concluded.
The three original titles comprising the Fourth World were The Forever People, Mister Miracle and New Gods. The pre-existing title Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen was used by Kirby to introduce the Fourth World concept and characters.
Unhappy with Marvel Comics at the time, as he had created or co-created a plethora of characters without ever having copyright or creative custody of them, he turned to rival publisher DC Comics, with his sketches and designed for a new group of heroes and villains.<ref name="fwo1"/>
As described by Ronin Ro in Tales to Astonish: "The idea of the New Gods had come to Jack years earlier, when he was plotting 90 percent of the "Tales of Asgard" stories in Thor. He wanted to have two planets at war and end with Ragnarok, the battle that would kill Thor's lucrative pantheon. Instead, he tried the idea in his Inhumans stories. Now he was presenting it in its original context. Though he wouldn't ever say it publicly, the New Gods books started right after the gods in Thor killed one another. The first page of Orion of the New Gods showed the same scenes from Thor - a planet torn in half and armored gods holding swords and dying on a fiery battleground."Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution, p. 148 (Bloomsbury, 2004)
The Fourth World dealt with the battle between good and evil as represented by the worlds of "New Genesis" and "Apokolips." Darkseid, the evil lord of Apokolips, seeks the Anti-Life Equation which will allow him to control the thoughts of all living beings. Opposing him is Orion, his son raised by Highfather and his enemies on New Genesis. Other characters caught in the deadly battle included the Forever People, an extension of the kid gang concept from the 1940s with a group of adolescents adventuring without an adult supervisor; Mister Miracle, a native of New Genesis raised on Apokolips who triumphed over a torturous childhood to become the world's greatest escape artist; and Lightray, the gaily flamboyant warrior of New Genesis. Their adventures would take them to Earth where the war continued.
Kirby was writer and editor on each of the series, enabling him to use more complex themes, storylines and brutal violence than was usually the case in comic books at the time, although less graphic than what would become allowed in the comic book industry years later.
After learning that the books were going to be cancelled, Kirby attempted to tie up the storylines in the final issues of each series, but the overall story of the Apokolips-New Genesis war was never finished. A few years later, Kirby went back to Marvel Comics where he worked on Captain America, Black Panther and Eternals, a concept similar to the Fourth World mythology.
The characters later reappeared in various titles and were fully integrated into the DC Universe. The Legion of Super-Heroes storyline "The Great Darkness Saga" in 1982 merged Darkseid into the DC Universe and recast him as a major villain.
1984 Baxter reprint series
In 1984, DC Comics reprinted Jack Kirby's original eleven issues of New Gods in a six issue limited series. The first five issues each reprinted two consecutive issues of the original series. Originally, issue six was to have included the eleventh final issue of New Gods and an all-new twenty-four page conclusion to the saga titled "On the Road to Armagetto", which concluded with the deaths of both Orion and Darkseid. However, the story was rejected by DC editors.
Instead, "On the Road to Armagetto" was replaced with a forty-eight page conclusion titled "Even Gods Must Die", which lead into the 1985 The Hunger Dogs graphic novel. The Hunger Dogs, written and drawn by Kirby, incorporated the unused pages from "On the Road to Armagetto" and concluded the entire Fourth World saga.
The Fourth World characters and concepts were still used by DC even after the release of The Hunger Dogs graphic novel.
Later revivals
Concurrent with DC's New Gods reprint series in 1984, Jack Kirby drew two Super Powers comic book limited series for DC Comics in which he continued the Fourth World characters and mythology.
The Fourth World characters continued to be revived at various times. The Forever People had a miniseries in 1988, the Mister Miracle and Jack Kirby's Fourth World series (the latter by John Byrne) were launched in the 1990s, and Orion had a solo series with art and story by Walt Simonson from 2000 to 2003. Mister Miracle was featured in the Giffen-DeMatteis incarnation of the Justice League.
Grant Morrison also used some of the Fourth World mythology in various titles he worked on, including his run on JLA, with Orion and Big Barda becoming members and more recently in the Seven Soldiers of Victory metaseries, in which the New Gods played a major role.
In October 2007, the Death of the New Gods limited series written by Jim Starlin began, which brought the Fourth World characters and mythology to an end.
Trade paperbacks
The Kirby-produced Fourth World titles were reprinted by DC in trade paperback format in the early 2000s in black and white rather than in color, although the Jimmy Olsen preludes were reprinted in color.
Omnibus
On September 11 2006, DC announced that it would reprint the entire Fourth World saga in publishing order in a four book hardcover collection entitled Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus.Newsarama: DC ANNOUNCES NEW COLLECTIONS; BLACK DOSSIER DELAY (11 September, 2006)Newsarama: KING-SIZED KING: GEORG BREWER ON THE FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUSES (6 May, 2007) The first volume was released on July 12, 2007, the second was released on September 5, 2007, the third was released on November 21, 2007, and the fourth was released on March 26, 2008. The fourth Omnibus included the remaining issues of Mister Miracle, Forever People, and New Gods, the Fourth World character entries written for Who's Who, the forty-eight page "Even Gods Must Die!" story published in the 1984 New Gods Baxter reprint series, and The Hunger Dogs graphic novel. The unpublished twenty-four page cut of The Hunger Dogs, titled "On the Road to Armagetto!", was included as well.Newsarama.com: DC RESTORES HUNGER DOGS ART FOR KIRBY OMNIBUS v4DC Comics' solicitation for Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (Vol. 4)
In other media
- Characters from the Fourth World have appeared in the animated series Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.
- Toys of several Fourth World characters have been made over the years, with the first being part of the Super Powers toyline.
