Greetings From The Fourth World

Daulton Cruz
Aug 28, 2017 · 4 min read

It wasn’t until a month or two ago that I realized this year would have been Jack “The King” Kirby’s hundredth birthday, and to honor it I decided it was time to finally sit down and read through his legendary Fourth World Saga. Unfortunately even though Comixology has thankfully digitized a majority of it I couldn’t easily track down his issues of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen or the Hunger Dogs graphic novel so I did only read the three main series, Mister Miracle, The Forever People, and New Gods. That being said it was still a bit daunting reading something so highly regarded in one big chunk like this. Coming out on the other end of this though, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for everything that Kirby built.

So I will say there were maybe only a handful of issues in this 40 plus issue run of comics that I would actually revisit. There definitely is a point in both Mister Miracle and Forever People that lose a bit of focus and kind of just meander until more plot comes along. Normally this would be really frustrating and while reading through it certainly was, but in retrospect it sort of humanized Kirby a bit more for me. I’ve always heard of him as this perfect god of creativity, and to see even The King could some less than perfect stories made me realize at the end of the day he was still just a guy.

Those issues that work for me though, really really work. At its best the Fourth World is a cosmic epic that spans three worlds, two generations, and one great big war. Each book focuses on a different aspect of this war and each one plays with different themes still very relevant today. Forever People is the optimistic book about what the next generation is capable of in troubling times. The heroes are young but arguably play the biggest role in the entire war. They’ve come to Earth to stop New Gods protagonist Orion’s father Darkseid from acquiring the anti-life equation, a power that would allow him to control every living being in existence. It’s honestly the story that may be most still reflected in our modern day, a group of young adults fighting against a leader whose very words are dangerous to those he’s against.

New Gods is the front lines, featuring soldier Orion fighting not only the forces of hell planet Apokolips, but also dealing with a terrible truth that his greatest enemy is also his father. With every enemy he defeats he gets closer to one last fatal battle with his own flesh and blood. Because of his place of birth Orion is different from his allies on his home of New Genesis, but because of where he was raised is much different than his terrible family from Apokilips.

Mister Miracle deals with the flip side of that, if Orion is a devil raised in Heaven, Mister Miracle, Scott Free is an angel raised in Hell. Scott was raised from childhood to become another cruel soldier in Darkseid’s war. With the help of the woman who will eventually become his wife, Big Barda, Mister Miracle is able to escape the life he was raised in and become a good man despite his horrible upbringing. Scott and Barda become a symbol, goodness and love can come from anywhere, even the depths of Hell.

Looking at the output of DC comics since The Fourth World Saga ended in the 70’s it’s clear to see that I’m definitely not the only one that’s appreciated what Kirby created. Orion, Mister Miracle, and Big Barda have all joined the Justice League at some point or another, Darkseid has continued to be a major villain for every DC hero. The 2008 event series Final Crisis saw Darkseid finally get a hold of the anti-life equation and bring his war to every superhero in fifty two different DC universes. At this point who knows what the quality of the Justice League movie will be, but the villains for the very first live action team up of these iconic heroes will be the gods of Apokolips. It really does say something to the legacy that Jack Kirby left some forty years after he introduced these characters in books that were cancelled very early in their runs that they are so prominent in one of the most popular comic universes around. Happy Birthday mister Kirby, here’s hoping your stories are still remembered in another hundred years.

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I write about Comics so I don't have to annoy all my friends about them

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