Well the flurry of excitement over Avengers: Infinity War has faded, the disk is now available in retail outlets everywhere (on a whim I bought my in a grocery store), and the tale of the evolution of the Infinity Gems\/Stones from the early introduction of the unnamed gem on Adam Warlock\u2019s brow to the culmination of 6 gems decorating Thanos\u2019s fist has run its course.<\/p>\n
In this post, I want to return to the prior thread and close out the final stages (at least so far) of the New Gods and Kirby\u2019s Fourth World.\u00a0 Earlier posts traced the conception and execution at the hand of the King in the 1970s, the fallow years from the mid-1970s to 1988 (despite some shining moments involving both the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Teen Titans & X-Men) and the reawakening at the hands of Jim Starlin in Cosmic Odyssey.<\/p>\n
But before moving forward, a single detail of the past should be noted for completeness.\u00a0 In anticipation of the success of Cosmic Odyssey or in an attempt raise awareness, DC issued a 6-issue limited series of The Forever People in 1987 and 1988.\u00a0 As limited series go, the art was good (perhaps even very good) but the story was notably forgettable.\u00a0 A trait that sadly would be a too often reoccurring one in next twenty years.<\/p>\n
After Cosmic Odyssey had closed out in 1988, DC Comics relaunched both Mister Miracle and The New Gods titles.\u00a0 Both series ran for 28 issues each and came to an end in 1991.\u00a0 Both series were distinguished by the good writing of Peter David and Mark Evanier, respectively.\u00a0 Mister Miracle was especially amusing and was tightly intertwined with the Justice League books being written by David during the same time frame.\u00a0 Evanier\u2019s tenure on The New Gods was marked by a more serious tone concerning the aftermath of Cosmic Odyssey (especially Bug\u2019s death) and the universal struggle to make sense of war.\u00a0 Nonetheless, neither series provided storylines that stuck with the reader well after the reading was done and DC\u2019s entire Fourth World efforts came to a close in 1991.<\/p>\n
Between 1995 and 1998, DC took another swing at the Fourth World, with an entire spate of new books.\u00a0 Five in fact.\u00a0 Of those two books, New Gods (1995)<\/em> and Jack Kirby\u2019s Fourth World<\/em>, lasted over a year.\u00a0 Neither book made it to two years.\u00a0 The other three \u2013 Mister Miracle (1996)<\/em>, Takion<\/em>, and Genesis<\/em> \u2013 were limited series with limited appeal.\u00a0 The entire enterprise came and went without making much of an impression despite fine writing and art on the two main works.\u00a0 I\u2019ll return to this observation below.<\/p>\n
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