John Hodgman reviews Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus for NY Times

In the NY Times, John Hodgman reviewed Jack Kirby's groundbreaking Fourth World comic book series from DC in the 1970s.

Kirby’s “Fourth World” — a weird saga of warring gods that for a brief moment hijacked the normally staid line of DC Comics and plunged it into bracing, beautiful oddness, and which is now fully and lovingly collected in the four-volume Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus (DC Comics, $49.99 each).

Besides the psychedelic jump-start he gave to Jimmy Olsen, Kirby started three new titles — “The Forever People,” “The New Gods” and “Mister Miracle.” All chart the conflict between two families of the New Gods: those on the peace-loving planet of New Genesis, and those living in the warlike world of Apokolips. Apokolips is ruled by the evil Darkseid, who seeks the “anti-life equation” that will erase all free will in the universe but his own. Pitted against him is his son, the monstrous yet noble Orion, raised on New Genesis to love peace but ultimately doomed by his addiction to war.

It was a cosmic “epic for our times,” with one foot in ancient myth and the other in the wildest science fiction. And unusually for a comic book story, it was designed to be told slowly, over many years, and to come to an end.

But it was also a personal epic. Kirby, as you ought to know, was the King. He got the nickname while working at Marvel comics, where, with Joe Simon, he created Captain America. Later, with Stan Lee, he helped fashion a completely new, psychologically rich aesthetic in comics, reviving a flagging industry and unveiling a pantheon of pop-culture deities — the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer — that still walk the earth today.

Link (Thanks, Dad!)

[#1 posted by shortfatsteve , June 2, 2008 12:52 PM]

Wow, I thought it would be funnier, but it's still a pretty good review. Nice to know that Hodgman is one of us comic nerds.

[#2 posted by dougrogers , June 2, 2008 1:29 PM]

I never noticed it before. It's very subtle. It's very easy to draw straight lines. Look closely at the top edge of the eyehole's on Orion's Mask. One is straight. The other curved. A very subtle and complex expression results.

Accident of the hand?

[#3 posted by crenelle , June 2, 2008 1:35 PM]

Kirby also created a title called Kamandi. It wasn't part of the New Gods thing so far as I remember.

[#4 posted by Mark Frauenfelder , June 2, 2008 1:40 PM]

Kamandi is my favorite. DC hinted that Kamandi lived in the same universe as the New Gods.

[#5 posted by The Unusual Suspect , June 2, 2008 1:55 PM]

And The Demon.

I don't recall any hints of The Demon nor Kamandi (named after the bunker he lived in, "Command D") being part of the "Fourth World Trilogy" universe though. Even Jimmy Olsen was on the periphery.

[#6 posted by Rodney Ascher , June 2, 2008 4:12 PM]

I never heard that Kamandi was tied into the New Gods universe but he WAS connected to my favorite Kirby Kreation - O.M.A.C - the One Man Army Corps - a mohawked super agent who works for a creepy version of the UN in the future and fought suicide bomber sex robots (!!!) in his first issue.

But (sigh) technically, they were tied together by a new creative team after Kirby's departure (I believe OMAC was Kamandi's Grandfather) so one could argue whether or not that really counts.

I apologize for the above but hey - great review! Thanks for the link!

[#7 posted by airship , June 3, 2008 7:11 AM]

Even the mainstream DC comics of the era occasionally connected to the New Gods, most notably in Superman's battle with Darkseid.