New Gods Book One - Bloodlines!

In 1988 the New Gods returned yet again. This time it was in the hands of Mark Evanier, Jim Starlin and artists Paris Cullins and Willie Blyberg. This is a pretty robust revival with Cullins' artwork doing a lot to recapture some of the potency of Kirby's original art. Blyberg gives the pages depth and added drama. But it's the writing that really shines. By having Evanier write the series, it's the closest thing we will get to more Kirby without the great man himself. Evanier was there when the Fourth World first unfolded and bore witness as much as anyone an even wrote a page or two back then. 

The debut issue follows on after Cosmic Odyssey by Starlin and artist Mike Mignola. In that mini-series the New Gods had halted the assault on our dimension by a entity identified as the "Anti-Life". With the assistance of Superman, Martian Manhunter, and other DC supeheroes the denizens of New Genesis and Darkseid himself carry the battle to four worlds. One doesn't survive. But perhaps worse despite victory at great cost Darkseid becomes even more dangerous. In this issue Orion battles the Bugs, an underworld society led in part by Mantis, one of Darkseid's servants. He enters their territory to return the body of Forager who had died in the battle against the Anti-Life. 

The next three issues are written by Jim Starlin and have Orion become more comfortable with the Bug culture. This is due somewhat to the ally he finds in the new female Forager. Further he learns that people of New Genesis are responsible for the dire straits of the Bugs who suffered poisoning from long ago activities of the Gods to defend against Apokolips. Orion is infuriated and breaks with Highfather before becoming more deeply involved in the battle against Mantis and his faction of the Bugs. Meanwhile Metron slowly recovers from his catatonic state which started at the beginning of Cosmic Odyssey. Highfather finds a political rival in the military minded Commander, a member of the small committee which governs New Genesis. Also surprising was the return of Lonar who was killed in the 70's revival. I guess he got better. 

In the fifth issue Evanier returns and brings the Bug saga to a tragic and deadly end. Orion reverts to his warlike ways creating a situation in which the new Forager must abandon their partnership. This is a very powerful ending to this story line and I wonder if it was the one Starling anticipated. 

The sixth issue introduces the "Dreggs", walking dead creatures from the era of the Old Gods. In fact these shambling, mostly mindless zombies are those gods hovering on the edge of existence in this new world. Orion goes to Apokolips to confront Darkseid but finds himself the victim of the latter's Omega Rays. Lightray is busy trying to rescue Eve Donner, an Earth woman who needs the support of a strong personality. 

Then begins the "Bloodlines Saga". This is an extended story which sees Orion transported to a differernt part of Apokolips where he makes the decision to find his mother Tiggra who is held captive in Section Zero. To find this area circumstances lead Orion to pose as a recruit in Darkseid's legions where his savage nature marks him as a star. Right under the nose of his father he seeks his mother, aided by a hidden faction called the Hunger Dogs. We learn that both Desaad and Kalibak have schemes of their own and Kalibak's in particular is mysterious. Meanwhile in New Genesis the political struggle for control continues resulting in a plebiscite that strikes at the very foundations of "Supertown". We are treated to much of the back story for many of the key characters in the New Gods saga also as this sprawling saga unfolds. 

After the revelations of the previous issues we turn our attentions to Earth where both Orion and Lightrary find themselves. Eve Donner has returned too but unwittingly brings along a menace called a Reflektor, an Apokolitian creature that confronts people with their deepest fear. There is a reference to an earlier Forever People limited series in which they confront this creature. (More on that later in the month.) Lightray and Orion must confront their fears to defeat this menace, but it is not without incident or disagreement. 

I very much enjoyed this rendition of the New Gods save for one critical factor -- Orion's personality. Kirby was able to render Orion as a complex figure with oceans of suppressed anger, but with a calm and even cold demeanor. Too often in my opinion this series shows Orion as a raging creature, something Kirby also did but in limited ways. This seems to be the way DC saw the character at the time, and it's less effective than Kirby's more sedate Orion. 

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Into The Fourth World!

Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" is his magnum opus, his masterpiece. He was at the height of his powers, and he was driven by years of being a second banana to prove he was a significant artist in his own right. With the Fourth World he proved it in spades. After being kicked out of DC back in the 50's and forced to scrounge for work, he found it with Stan Lee at Martin Goodman's lackluster outfit. He'd worked with Stan before when the latter was a kid working for his uncle back in the "Golden Age", when with partner Joe Simon, Kirby had made Marvel very successful with the monster hit Captain America. Seeking to maximize their worth, the duo went to DC and repeated that success with the best-selling Boy Commandos. Then came the army, and after that some gypsy years of trying to find success with their own company Mainline and later with other projects for Harvey Comics. 

After a split from Simon, Kirby found himself back at DC but left on hostile terms after editor Jack Schiff sued him over a newspaper project. He left behind the successful Challengers of the Unknown. Once again, he was out with an artistic style which was a favorite of readers but seemed unpolished to DC editors. Partnered with Stan Lee he created scores of monsters then later the most famous Fantastic Four which kicked off the "Marvel Age". There was no denying Kirby's power to sell comics then as Marvel crept up on the elder DC. Soon DC was confronted at once with a generational change and with the need for new ideas. When Kirby felt slighted by Stan "The Man" he decided to hold back some big creations. Those new creations became the Fourth World and he offered it to DC and they said yes. 

The Fourth World is made up of the three main new titles New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen is a fourth title in the tetralogy which sought to tell four independent stories within the framework of a larger over-arching saga. As was his wont, Kirby created two new worlds, each an opposite reflection of the other. One was dedicated to good and the other to evil. Pretty simple stuff really, but of course the stories soon showed that simple ideas of good and evil were much more complex than normal comics had allowed. The heroes were conflicted, the villains confident, especially their leader the notorious Darkseid. To put it mildly, the Fourth World blew my mind. It still does. Sadly, before he could complete the epic, Kirby was forced by DC to abandon it and turn his attentions to other projects which while often quite good lacked the scope of the Fourth World. 

And that explains why I keep buying it. Most recently I picked up the handsome sleeved Absolute volumes which present the saga in its proper way, as it was published. This allows a reader to enjoy not just the magnificence of the single series but the majesty of the whole epic. And now I'm going to read it again. I try to read the saga every few years, to savor it and remind myself of its glory. It's never let me down. 

Since its earliest days I have always adored the Fourth World. When Kirby returned to DC for a fourth time in the 80's to put a finale on the project he'd been forced to abandon it was okay, but clearly the great man was past his prime and the ending was adequate but hardly up to the standard of the saga itself. For its part DC seemed of two minds about the concepts, little interested in making the originals available for new readers but exceedingly keen to use the concepts and characters for new stories by new talents. 

The Fourth World books New Gods and Mister Miracle were revived mere months after Kirby left DC in the 70's and sturdy talents such as Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, and Steve Gerber wrote new stories with art by reliable artists such as Don Newton, Marshall Rogers and Michael Golden. It was good stuff, true in many ways to what Kirby had imagined. He'd always thought these books would eventually by done by new talents, but he also imagined he'd be the one overseeing the operation. 

Later still, after Kirby's return and finale had appeared the books were revived yet again. This time with the writing being done by Marve Evanier among others. Evanier had been an assistant to Kirby when he first worked out the concepts for the Fourth World and seemed a reliable candidate to carry it forward. 

Later still Walt Simonson brought out a new book starring Orion. Simonson is also an exceedingly worthy talent, fully capable of approaching the vision that Kirby first imagined. 

Before Simonson, John Byrne had taken at stab at the Fourth World. Just as Simonson had recaptured some of the glory Thor after Kirby's departure, so had Byrne done on the Fantastic Four. Sadly Byrne's work has not been made available in a handy trade, though it has been reprinted in an omnibus. Some of the back up stories have been reprinted though and feature many modern exceedingly good folks such as Frank Miller, Steve Rude, and Steve Ditko among others. 

Jim Starlin had a few cracks at the Fourth World. First he took the heroes of the New Genesis on a Cosmic Odyssey to save the universe and later wrote some early issues of the second revival. This was drawn by Mike Mignola.  Over two decades later he both wrote and drew the unusual The Death of the New Gods series which was a great read but eliminated from DC's constantly shifting continuity almost as soon as it was written. 

It's all of this I want to revisit this month which just happens to be Kirby's birthday month. All month long expect each day to offer up a sometimes heaping helping of Fourth World goodness. For context I'm reading the Twomorrows Publishing special Old Gods and New which lays in some background for the epic as well as Ronin Ro's compelling read Tales to Astonish which documents Kirby's career including those tumultuous years in which the Fourth World was at the center of his attentions. 

And if it all does as planned I will take a brief break from the Fourth World to take another look at Kirby's 80's project Destroyer Duck. By this time Kirby had given up on the comics industry to no small extent and was making his money in animation. But he was drawn back to the fold a little bit by this and other projects such as Silver Star and an unofficial sequel to the Fourth World from Pacific Comics titled Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. 

All this and maybe even more as the hot summer draws to a close. 

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