One of the most enigmatic creations in Jack Kirby's Fourth World was Beautiful Dreamer. She is a member of the Forever People, that gaggle of hippie-like ragtags from New Genesis (which they called "Supertown") who came to Earth to help defend it from the predations of Darkseid and his minions from Apokolips. He seeks the Anti-Life Equation and it's suggested in this poster page that Beautiful Dreamer is key to that search. But to my knowledge that special nature is never quite revealed, at least by Kirby in his original truncated opus. Too bad, but ain't grand to look at in the enhanced blacklight version above and the original version below.
It was a beautiful dream indeed. It's my beloved late wife's birthday. She was a most beautiful dreamer too. She understood instinctively that we all "hold the key to the victory in the strangest war every fought" and that's to maintain our freedom and our sense of self in a world that relentlessly wants to rob us of both. The Dojo resumes regular business tomorrow.
Rip Off
As much as I tried I just never got into Kirby's Fourth World series, especially the Forever People. I liked Kamandi a lot and the Demon was oK though .
ReplyDeleteJust thinking about the Fourth World quickens my pulse a little. I absolutely loved it -- for me Kirby was never better. Having said that I was a bit late to the Demon and Kamandi, the latter seeming somewhat simple after the complex Fourth World stuff. I was of course wrong as Kamandi is tremendous. I'm just waiting for the day when I can read them again.
DeleteThe Fourth World is one of the saddest "if only..." projects in mainstream comics history, I think. Other than Walt Simonson, no one else has been able to come close to what Kirby was doing (and might have done) with that series—and far too many acclaimed writers have since made a hash of it, ignoring Kirby & invariably diminishing his concepts—the same thing over at Marvel with the Eternals, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteEven truncated, I find the Fourth World rewarding every time I return to it. Every issue is packed with ideas & questions that still make me pause & think about them. And of course it's also an incredibly gripping, exciting story! If only, if only ...
Totally agree. I thought John Byrne got close, but he too fell short. Even Kirby's assistant Mark Evanier gave a good effort, but it didn't have that old magic. Jim Starlin tapped into the Fourth World magic a bit with his Thanos material in Captain Marvel and elsewhere, but it lacked the global thrust that Kirby somehow achieved. This post and responses have made me hungry to read it all over again.
DeleteThe Fourth World was indeed wonderful. So, too, was the tribute to your late wife. Thank you, Rip
ReplyDeleteYou're exceedingly welcome.
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