{"id":1195,"date":"2017-10-27T23:30:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T03:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=1195"},"modified":"2017-11-03T15:51:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T19:51:37","slug":"kirbys-fourth-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=1195","title":{"rendered":"Kirby\u2019s Fourth World"},"content":{"rendered":"

And Lo! There came a time when the King left the Marvelous and Fantastic place that he helped to shape and mold into the great firm that it had become.\u00a0 Onward did he travel to the distinguished competition, taking his point-fingered, curvy women and bombastically muscular men with him.<\/p>\n

If that ridiculous bit of melodrama sounds even mildly familiar, it\u2019s because I was channeling my inner Stan Lee as I wrote the introduction.\u00a0 And the King to which I was referring is none other than Jack Kirby.\u00a0 The event was the split between Kirby and Marvel comics in 1970 and his subsequent departure for DC comics.<\/p>\n

While these events are interesting in their own right, their particular relevance to this post is that, without this split, the world would never know of one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken in comics: The Fourth World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fourth World mythos<\/a> consisted of four comics titles that Jack Kirby wrote, illustrated, and edited for DC comics from late 1970 to 1973.\u00a0 During those 4 years, Kirby\u2019s grand tale was told across 4 separate titles: Superman\u2019s Pal, Jimmy Olsen<\/em> (issues #133-#148 from October 1970 to April 1972), The New Gods<\/em> (issues #1-11 from February 1971 to November 1972), The Forever People (issues #1-11 from February 1971 to November 1972), and Mister Miracle (issues #1-#18 from April 1971 to March 1974).\u00a0 All told, at the end of his tenure, over 1500 pages of comics storytelling had come to life to tell the story of the New Gods and their struggle against Darkseid and the villainous denizens of his hell planet Apokolips.<\/p>\n

Darkseid\u2019s machinations in the 30th<\/sup> century were covered in last month\u2019s column entitled Great Darkness, Great Tale<\/a>.\u00a0 This month, I thought it would be appropriate to trace the roots of that story to the mythology Jack Kirby invented in the early 70s.<\/p>\n

The basic premise of the story is best told in Kirby\u2019s own words:<\/p>\n

\n

\nThere came a time when the old gods died!\u00a0 The brave died with the cunning! The noble perished, locked in battle with unleashed evil.\u00a0 It was the last day for them!\u00a0 An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust.<\/p>\n

The final moment came with the fatal release of indescribable power \u2013 which tore the home of the old gods asunder \u2013 split it in great halves \u2013 and filled the universe with the blinding death-flash of destruction.<\/p>\n

In the end there were two giant molten bodies, spinning slow and barren \u2013 clean of all that had gone before \u2013 adrift in the fading sounds of cosmic thunder.<\/p>\n

Silence closed upon what had happened \u2013 a long, deep silence \u2013 wrapped in massive darkness\u2026it was this way for an age\u2026 THEN\u2014THERE WAS NEW LIGHT!<\/p>\n

Jack Kirby \u2013 The New Gods<\/em> #1<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In Kirby\u2019s new world (fourth one?), the two molten bodies, which started barren, eventually sprouted life, and in some cosmic Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde transformation, became New Genesis and Apokolips.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For another age, the two planets warred against each other, neither able to gain the upper hand.\u00a0 Finally, Izaya, the leader of New Genesis, struck a deal to assure peace with Darkseid, the tyrant of Apokolips.\u00a0 Each would send his only son as surety to be raised by the other.\u00a0 Thus Darkseid\u2019s bestial child Orion was raised on New Genesis and Scott Free, Izaya\u2019s boy, was doomed to a childhood in the orphanages of Apokolips.<\/p>\n

The beginning of Kirby\u2019s narrative occurs when the denizens of both planets start appearing on Earth and new hostilities begin between the two races of cosmic beings.\u00a0 The primary storyline centers on Darkseid\u2019s pursuit of the Anti-Life formula<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by violating the minds of certain humans<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

found to be holding the secret of Anti-Life.<\/p>\n

Against this central backdrop are dramas of Scott Free, who has escaped Apokolips and has put his celestial abilities to work as an escape artist working under the name Mister Miracle, and of the Forever People, a cadre of \u2018hippie\u2019 New Gods who are seeking a simpler life away from the strife associated with the war.<\/p>\n

Kirby\u2019s storytelling is certainly a product of his pop-art vision and the youth-centered counter-culture of the times.\u00a0 One such storyline has Superman and his pal Jimmy Olsen encountering a group of dropouts who\u2019ve created what must be the greatest of all treehouses<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The campiness doesn\u2019t end there.\u00a0\u00a0 There are examples of exotic deathtraps<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

psychedelic locales<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and eccentric characters<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirby\u2019s style and consummate skill as an illustrator are clearly on display on each and every one of those 1500 pages.\u00a0 Unfortunately, although his ideas really are cosmic and engaging, his storytelling execution left much to be desired.\u00a0 Plot points often lacked in logic<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and his dialog in style.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The rare moments of raw emotion were few and far-between but when encountered were truly touching<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As a result, the series were a mixed bag and the overall storyline suffered. Sales never lived up to the promise that no doubt was first conceived when Kirby left behind the string of hits he had at Marvel.\u00a0 Nonetheless, his mythology has endured in large part due to his original ideas, like the living computers known as Mother Boxes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and the enduring and unadulterated evil of Darkseid.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The romance between Scott Free and Big Barda,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

one of Darkseid\u2019s female operatives sent to retrieve him, was also one of the more intriguing of Kirby\u2019s concepts and, perhaps, explains why Mister Miracle ran the longest of all the Fourth World books Kirby created.<\/p>\n

Soon after the demise of the Fourth World tale, Kirby returned to Marvel but never quite to the glory or success that he had prior to his departure.\u00a0 But the New God seed he planted at DC would continue to bloom and wither and bloom again over the decades since \u2013 and all comic book fans are more enriched as a result.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And Lo! There came a time when the King left the Marvelous and Fantastic place that he helped to shape and mold into the great firm that it had become.\u00a0… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1195"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195\/revisions\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}