Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus

AUTHOR: Kirby, Jack

ARTIST: Jack Kirby (illustrator); Greg Theakston (inker); D. Bruce Berry (inker and letterer); Vince Colletta (inker and cover artist); Mike Royer (inker, letterer, and cover artist); Drew R. Moore (colorist); Dave Tanguay (colorist); John Costanza (letterer); Neal Adams (cover artist); Murphy Anderson (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1970-1974

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2007

Publication History

After a successful career at Marvel, where during the 1960’s he and Stan Lee co-created the characters of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Silver Surfer, and the Incredible Hulk, Jack Kirby left to work at DC Comics. DC gave Kirby free rein to create a universe as vast as his imagination, and so he did. The epic tale of the New Gods, celestial beings who live on the peaceful planet New Genesis and its counterpart, the hellish Apokolips, spanned four different comic book series.

When tasked with creating three bimonthly titles, Kirby decided on The Forever People, The New Gods, and Mister Miracle. Additionally, DC wanted Kirby to take over one of its ongoing titles. Though it did not appeal to him, he eventually chose Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen because the title had no stable creative team. Kirby wrote and drew Jimmy Olsen for three issues before introducing the new titles, which he wrote, drew, and edited himself.

Kirby worked diligently on his new characters from 1970 until 1974, when his titles were canceled with little warning or explanation. In 1984, under new leadership at DC Comics, he was asked to return to write a conclusion to his New Gods series. The first part of Kirby’s conclusion came at the end of a six-part reproduction of the original run, and his final word on the New Gods came the following year in a graphic novel titled The Hunger Dogs. In 2007 and 2008, the comics were collected in four volumes.

Plot

Jack Kirby’s original plan was to make a sprawling epic that would be collected, as it eventually was, in hardcover color volumes. As such, his dreams were larger than DC was able to support, and the series was cut short well before its time.

Darkseid’s search for the Anti-Life Equation, a theoretical formula that robs people of their free will and enslaves them to the keeper of the equation, is the main conflict that drives the four books. The Jimmy Olsen books act as peripheral stories that incorporate the ideas of the Fourth World and Darkseid.

The New Gods is the main source of background information on New Genesis and Apokolips, the sister planets where the New Gods of the Fourth World reside. It begins by explaining that the Old Gods perished in a great battle, one that ended with their world being blown in two. In time, the New Gods came into being. Among them is the main protagonist, Orion, who is destined to thwart the ultimate destroyer: his father, Darkseid.

“The Pact,” an issue originally intended to come earlier in the New Gods series, explains that many years previous, when Highfather was known as Izaya and Darkseid’s mother Heggra was Queen of Apokolips, there was a war between the two planets. This came to be when Darkseid’s uncle, Steppenwolf, killed Izaya’s wife. Izaya murdered Steppenwolf; then, feeling he had lost his true self in his quest for revenge, he wandered the desert in search of answers. He came upon a slab of wall, at which point he asked what his inheritance should be. Upon the wall, a flaming hand wrote, in likewise flaming letters, “the Source.” Desirous of a time of peace in which to rebuild Apokolips, Darkseid formed a pact with Highfather, the leader of New Genesis, whereby they would trade sons, Orion and Scott Free, to ensure peace between the two worlds.

Years later on New Genesis, Highfather summons Orion to the Source Wall, where he is told he must visit Apokolips and Earth, and then go to war. Metron appears to Orion and announces that Darkseid has departed to Earth in search of the human mind that holds the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid has also broken the pact by bringing humans back to Apokolips for experimentation. Orion frees the humans and takes them back to Earth, where he and they become allies.

On Earth, Orion defeats the savage Apokolips warrior Kalibak. Orion and company then defeat Mantis, another of Darkseid’s elite, before Kalibak breaks loose from captivity and pursues Orion again. While watching the battle with Desaad, Darkseid confesses that he married another before Orion’s mother, and from that first marriage, Kalibak was born. Hoping to please Darkseid, Desaad secretly enhances Kalibak’s power during the battle. When Darkseid discovers this betrayal, he kills Desaad. Without the extra power, Kalibak is unable to keep up with Orion, who kills him.

The Forever People—Big Bear, Vykin the Black, Serifan, and Mark Moonrider—come to Earth to rescue their last member, Beautiful Dreamer, who has been taken prisoner by Darkseid. With them comes a Mother Box (a living supercomputer) and boom tubes (portals that can be used to travel between dimensions). The Forever People use Mother Box and speak the word “Taaru” to switch celestial locations with an extremely powerful hero, Infinity Man.

Soon after, Desaad and Darkseid trap the Forever People. Their Mother Box seeks Sonny Sumo, a successful human fighter who unwittingly harbors the Anti-Life Equation in his mind. Mother Box guides Sumo to free the Forever People and grants him access the Anti-Life Equation, in turn forcing Darkseid’s minions to surrender. In retaliation for this, Darkseid unleashes the Omega Effect on all the Forever People but Serifan, who makes his escape.

In the Forever People’s final adventure, Darkseid sends Devilance the Pursuer after the gang. They are unable to defeat him and use Mother Box to escape. The Forever People switch places with Infinity Man and end up on Adon, an idyllic planet in a universe around which Darkseid has created an impenetrable barrier. On Earth, Infinity Man and Devilance fight on an island until their overpowering energy causes a catastrophic explosion, seemingly killing them both and leaving the Forever People stranded.

The Mister Miracle series begins by introducing Highfather’s son, Scott Free. He is wandering on Earth when he stumbles across Thaddeus Brown, an old escape artist who goes by the name of Mister Miracle. Scott befriends Thaddeus, who is soon assassinated by an enemy. Scott then dons the guise of Mister Miracle to avenge Thaddeus’s death.

Soon, Granny Goodness, the evil old woman who runs Darkseid’s orphanages-cum-training camps on Apokolips, seeks to reclaim Scott, her first escapee. After Scott slips from her clutches again, some of Darkseid’s minions pursue him, without success.

Through short tales of the young Scott Free, it is revealed that Metron, Himon, and Big Barda, the latter being the leader of the Female Furies of Apokolips, helped Scott escape his home world. Barda finally escapes also, and after several attempts on their lives, she and Scott return to Apokolips and win their freedom through combat.

In the final issue, Scott proposes to Barda, but his enemies from Apokolips quickly attack them. They are saved at the last second, and Highfather presides over their wedding. Just after the two are wed, the New Gods feel Darkseid approaching and leave Earth.

In the prelude to the graphic novel The Hunger Dogs, Orion goes to Apokolips to kill Darkseid and free his mother, Tigra, who has been imprisoned since Darkseid came to power. Using new technology, Darkseid resurrects Desaad, Kalibak, Steppenwolf, and Mantis, but they seem to be mindless shells of their former selves. In the end, Orion is on the verge of killing Darkseid when hidden soldiers take aim and repeatedly shoot Orion, who falls off a cliff, seemingly into the fire pits of Apokolips.

In The Hunger Dogs, Orion is shown to have barely survived. Himon of New Genesis saves him, and Orion falls in love with Himon’s daughter, Bekka. Meanwhile, Esak, Metron’s former child apprentice from New Genesis, creates for Darkseid the Micro-Mark, a tiny rod capable of destroying a continent. Darkseid is presented with a sizeable collection of Micro-Marks cased together in a bomb powerful enough to wipe out a planet, but Himon phases in and steals it from him. Darkseid’s scientists continue making Micro-Mark bombs and plant them via boom tube all over New Genesis. One of Darkseid’s minions uses a boom tube to personally deliver a Micro-Mark bomb to Highfather.

Orion seeks Darkseid but first kills Esak. Orion rescues his mother as the Hunger Dogs go after Darkseid, who flees and kills Himon. Orion, Bekka, and Tigra leave Apokolips in an escape pod as Micro-Mark bombs detonate across the planet. Highfather makes the decision to blow up New Genesis once all its inhabitants are safe within the flying city Supertown, which floats off safely into space. In the end, Darkseid is stranded upon the planet that has turned on him, while Metron flies through space in his Mobius Chair, towing a lush new planet behind him.

Volumes

•Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 1 (2007). Collects Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, issues 133-139; The Forever People, issues 1-3; The New Gods, issues 1-3; and Mister Miracle, issues 1-3. Introduces nearly all the Fourth World characters and concepts.

•Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 2 (2007). Collects Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, issues 141-145; The Forever People, issues 4-6; The New Gods, issues 4-6; and Mister Miracle, issues 4-6. Features the Anti-Life Equation in action and introduces several new villains.

•Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 3 (2007). Collects Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, issues 146-148; The Forever People, issues 7-10; The New Gods, issues 7-10; and Mister Miracle, issues 7-10. Features “The Pact,” one of Kirby’s personal favorite issues of all his work. Also contains his last issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

•Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 4 (2008). Collects The Forever People, issue 11; The New Gods, issue 11; Mister Miracle, issue 10-14; New Gods (reprint series), issues 1-6; The Hunger Dogs; and Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, issues 2, 3, 6, 8-18, 20, 22, and 25. Features Kirby’s final issues of the main Fourth World books and The Hunger Dogs, his last word on the characters. Also features character profiles and the last official Kirby versions of the New Gods.

Characters

•Darkseid is distinguished by his granite form, red eyes, and blue helmet. The ultimate evil in the universe and the ruler of Apokolips, he came to power after successfully engineering the death of his mother, Heggra, and his uncle, Steppenwolf. His ultimate quest is to obtain the Anti-Life Equation.

•Orion is the son of Darkseid. He was raised on New Genesis as part of the pact between New Genesis and Apokolips, whereby Highfather and Darkseid swapped first-born sons to ensure peace between the warring worlds. Despite his upbringing and his kindness to others, he has a true warrior’s heart and is a more savage being than nearly any found on Apokolips. He finds love in the end, and in defiance of prophecy, he does not kill his father.

•Kalibak the Cruel is Darkseid’s eldest son, a savage beast with a face framed in wild black hair. Unlike his half brother Orion, he was raised on Apokolips and trained in the Special Powers Force. He nearly defeated Orion with the help of Desaad but was killed when Darkseid revoked his advantage.

•Highfather, a.k.a. Izaya, is the leader of New Genesis. When Steppenwolf murders his wife, he begins a war with Apokolips. After avenging her death, he wanders alone until he makes contact with a piece of the Source Wall, whereupon he finds a new purpose. He returns home and agrees to the pact with Darkseid. After the pact is broken, he becomes a guide to Orion and Lightray in their fight against Darkseid.

•Metron, seldom seen without his Mobius Chair, is a master of time and space whose primary concern is the accumulation of knowledge. He provides Darkseid with the teleportation technology used in his invasion of New Genesis in exchange for the X-Element, which he needs to power the Mobius Chair.

•Mister Miracle, a.k.a. Scott Free, is the son of Highfather, swapped with Orion and raised on Apokolips. After fleeing Apokolips, Scott arrives on Earth and assumes the identity of Mister Miracle. He frequently is called upon to escape from seemingly impossible situations.

•Big Barda was once the leader of the Female Furies, one of Darkseid’s elite forces. She wields the Mega-Rod, a multipurpose instrument that defies gravity and shoots energy blasts. Her brute strength and heavy armor make her one of the strongest of the New Gods. She eventually leaves Apokolips to find Scott Free. Together, they return and win their freedom from Apokolips.

•The Forever People are a group of New Genesis youths in flamboyant outfits who live by their home world’s ideals of love and peace. Big Bear, Mark Moonrider, Serifan, and Vykin the Black come to Earth seeking Beautiful Dreamer, whom Darkseid believes may hold the Anti-Life Equation. Upon being rescued, Beautiful Dreamer rejoins the Forever People in their fight against Darkseid.

•Infinity Man is a nearly unstoppable cosmic fighter clad in blue sleeveless armor, gauntlets, shorts, and a helmet with a dark visor. He shares the knowledge and objectives of the Forever People but is almost invulnerable. His powers include atomic manipulation and telekinesis. His past is unknown, though he remains imprisoned by Darkseid on the planet Adon until the Forever People summon him. His apparent destruction by Devilance the Pursuer leaves the Forever People stranded indefinitely on Adon.

Artistic Style

Kirby had to work at an incredible rate to keep up with writing, drawing, and editing four simultaneous ongoing series. To his credit and benefit, he had an established style that he had perfected throughout his decades of making comics; Kirby’s characters feature highly exaggerated, stylized anatomy and always look the same physically, whether they are Jimmy Olsen, Orion, or Mister Miracle. Almost without exception, his characters feature strong, square jaws offset by two curved lines for cheekbones. They generally have wide-set eyes and open mouths that expose the top row of teeth under a single line representing the upper lip. In an average page, the art is divided into a series of squares or rectangles, as were most comics printed in the 1970’s.

To rush out approximately fifteen pages per week, Kirby usually drew only one complex background per page, with the rest of the backgrounds being either one or two colors and having little detail. On occasion, Kirby also drew his characters on photocopies of psychedelic backgrounds. Another Kirby trait prominent in the Fourth World books is the use of “Kirby dots,” as seen on the cover of Volume 4. These black dots, often clustered together to form larger, dense black spaces, are featured prominently in scenes of energy emissions, space and boom-tube travel, and fire.

Themes

The eternal battle between good and evil is the main theme of the Fourth World books. Although most superhero comics deal with this, generally in single-issue stories with good overcoming evil, Kirby’s New Gods had more real-world reflection. As noted in the epilogues by Mark Evanier, his former assistant and eventual biographer, Jack Kirby’s comics were always somehow personal.

Kirby, a World War II veteran, focused his epic saga on a group of heroes coming together to stop an evil dictator who brainwashes his citizens and whose end goal is to rob all life of free will. The leader’s high officers specialize in torture and scientific experiments on their own citizens. The large band of protagonists is united in their battle against this ultimate evil, some through peace and others through violence.

Though a New God, Mister Miracle embodies the human spirit: free will, a desire to better oneself, and concern for loved ones. He always finds a way to survive. In the end of each series, as well as in The Hunger Dogs, the good guys “win” in a manner that either changes who they are or leaves open the possibility of their eventual defeat. Kirby makes it clear that the battle is eternal because there are no absolute winners or losers in war.

The power of love is another current that runs through the saga. The Forever People represent Kirby’s take on the hippie movement. They are free spirits from New Genesis who promote the ideals of peace and love and frequently chastise evildoers when they are forced to use violence. The Mister Miracle series ends with the wedding of Scott Free and Big Barda, and even Orion finds love by the end of The Hunger Dogs. Highfather loves all the inhabitants of New Genesis and greets newcomers with an open heart. Darkseid, their antithesis, is only concerned with power and control through force.

The books also contain meditations on the concept of nature versus nurture. Orion chooses goodness while struggling to escape the warrior’s rage within himself. Conversely, Scott Free rejects his violent upbringing on Apokolips and embraces his internal yearning for freedom.

This internal struggle to find oneself can also be seen in Izaya’s story. After losing his wife and having his revenge, he feels lost and unsure of his identity until he finds the Source. The residents of New Genesis, and particularly Highfather, feel a strong connection to the Source, the entity that is recognized as a higher power. Highfather’s staff is linked to the Source, and a piece of the Source Wall rests within his home, where the Source occasionally writes messages to him. Darkseid and the residents of Apokolips ignore the Source and have no apparent contact with it in their bleak existences.

Impact

The Fourth World saga had a lasting and significant impact on comics. Before Kirby’s epic, stories were self-contained within each comic book title, and having four books share characters, ideas, and an antagonist was unheard of. In addition, Kirby was given an unprecedented degree of creative freedom that remains unequaled to this day.

The dark, reflective themes were characteristic of the Bronze Age. Though not exploitative of the perils of drugs and alcohol, as many trendsetting books of the era were, the New Gods series includes characters that experience great personal conflicts and a broad spectrum of emotions. The notion of Earth as the battleground of such a large pantheon of gods was never before presented in comics on such a grand scale.

Although the series was only moderately successful at the time, the characters remained fan favorites. Orion, Mister Miracle, and the Forever People each had their own series in the decades that followed, although none of them were as popular without Kirby at the helm, and Darkseid’s control of the Anti-Life Equation was the focus of a major story for DC Comics, Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis (2008-2009). With the publication of the Omnibus, Kirby’s masterpiece finally received the kind of release for which he had always hoped, garnering critical praise and fan approval more than thirty years after its first appearance.

Further Reading

Lee, Stan, and Jack Kirby. The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience (1978).

Morrison, Grant, and J. G. Jones. Final Crisis (2008-2009).

Starlin, Jim. Cosmic Odyssey (1992).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Death of the New Gods (2007-2008).

Bibliography

Evanier, Mark. Kirby: King of Comics. New York: Abrams, 2008.

Foley, Shane. “Kracklin’ Kirby: Tracing the Advent of Kirby Krackle.” TwoMorrows, April, 2008. http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/33krackle.html.

Kirby, Jack, and Mark Evanier. Afterword to Fourth World Omnibus, Volumes 1-3, by Jack Kirby. New York: DC Comics, 2007.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Afterword to Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 4, by Jack Kirby. New York: DC Comics, 2008.