Books : Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- KIRBY'S LAST "GREAT" WORK
Thirteen years after his passing, Jack Kirby continues to amaze me. Kirby's move to DC in 1970 and his work on the Fourth World titles was a couple of years before I got into comics so I had never read these stories before. DC, in their "infinite" wisdom is now presenting Kirby's entire Fourth World stories in a series of hardcover Omnibus editions and the first has just recently been released. This massive 400 page book reprints Jimmy Olsen # 133 - 139, along with the first three issues of the new series' that Jack created: The Forever People, The New Gods, and Mister Miracle.

It's clear in reading these stories now that Kirby was still at the top of his game despite many who claimed he wasn't. As I read through the book I could see a number of similar themes between Jack's work on the Fourth World books to work he did at Marvel Comics on titles such as The Fantastic Four and Thor. In fact, the twin worlds of the New Gods were created as a result of The Ragnarok, which destroyed the world of the Old Guys. This work rival's Kirby's work on Thor in the late 60's when Thor was going through his cosmic period, traveling in space and confronting Galactus, Ego the Living Planet, The High Evolutionary and more. Kirby was creating a cosmic mythology several years before Jim Starlin would make his name doing the same thing over at Marvel.

The stories in the Omnibus are a mixed bag. The Jimmy Olsen stories are the weakest as Kirby was trying perhaps too hard to sound hip with the 70's hippie vernacular. I'm not sure anything could ever make Jimmy Olsen "hip". The Olsen stories did allow Kirby to reintroduce the Newsboy Legion, those loveable street kids that Kirby had created nearly thirty years earlier. I think by far the best tales were the New Gods and Mister Miracle stories. In New Gods #1 we learn of the twin worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips...opposite sides of the coin...day and night...The Highfather and Orion seem to parallel Odin and Thor. Kirby starts things quickly learning that Darkseid is already on Earth, setting his plans conquer Earth, even as Orion attacks his forces on Apokolips. The fight continues to Earth...Later Kirby introduces us to The Black Racer, a character who flies about on snow skies...hey, we thought a silver guy on a surfboard was pretty silly at first, too, didn't we? With the whole New Gods saga there is just this powerful cosmic scope that was so far ahead of it's time back in 1970 that it doesn't surprise me that the titles we cancelled after only a handful of issues. Kirby would go back to Marvel and essentially recreate the New Gods as The Eternals. Even one of Kirby's final series, Silver Star for Pacific Comics, was another turn of the same themes as the New Gods and The Eternals.

Mister Miracle is a fun title and that is so involving. Scott Free appears to be any other ordinary human when he meets the original Mister Miracle, Thaddeus Brown. Free takes over the guise when Brown is murdered. Free is the Son of The Highfather, ruler of New Genesis but in a peace agreement with Darkseid, Scott is raised on Apokolips while Orion is raised on New Genesis. He was raised in one of Granny Goodness' orphanages, eventually escaping and fleeing to Earth and using the technology of the Mother Box to perform his amazing feats of escape. Probably my favorite of all the Fourth World titles!

Now I know some people have complained about this book being printed on newsprint paper as opposed to the heavier, glossy stock of the usual DC Archive editions and it is a valid complaint. At the same time, this book is nearly twice the size of the Archive books and would have either had to have the page count reduced or had the price raised over $50, to be released in this format. And I don't know, there's just something special about Kirby's work on newsprint, I guess. Five out of Five Stars.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

Rating:

- My 4 cents worth.
Buy it. Its good art good story lines and writers are still using the material 35 years latter.

The nuts and the bolts. The retail price is 50 dollars. However on Amazon its 33 dollars. That's about two dollars and thirty six cents ($2.36) per issue. You don't have to hunt down the individual issues, plus its in a nice hard cover. Some of the colors have been redone in the Volumes. Mostly to correct laziness or errors made in 1971. Example, some pages I'm Mister Miracle issue 2 show the costume with red lips (first 2 pages only) but was correct in the volume.

People complain about the paper and how it should be done as one of DC archives editions. Their right. However An Archive edition takes about a year per Volume (give or take) to come out (due to the process and love to restore). DC is putting these out to cash in on their 8 part comic "Death of the New Gods" (my option). I think the reason are pleased but want an even better version, because they with to pass it along to the next generation, something that will last.

So buy these now and hold tight till the Archives come out, years latter

Rating:

- Kirby is King and so is this Hardcover
Listen - I've been collecting comics for thirty years and let me tell you that this is a great edition not just in terms of content but format. I don't understand the negative reviews due to the paper. In my opinion this paper should be used for all books of this type where classic stories are being reprinted. It doesn't have that annoying high gloss like the Marvel Masterworks do. It keeps the colors so vibrant but yet gives you that old school feel. Bravo - I just ordered volume 2!

Rating:

- A Collection Worthy of the New Gods
I waffled a lot before buying the volume (hearing tales of the paper quality and such).

My first impressions upon handling it were that if felt light for such a thick book, but after removing the shrink wrap I was pleasantly surprised.The paper felt just right, and while reminiscent of the type of paper used in comics, it was clearly of a higher quality.

Then lets talk color, they were beautiful, you feel like you are back in the 1970's buying the comics right off the rack. Some collections recolor the colors of the book in a garish manner, not here, though I don't have the originals to compare them to directly the way this book was colored was a joy to behold and felt true to the artist's intentions.

The binding was not tight, easy to read and stayed open.

Since the way this book is supposed to run is in chronological order the way the original comics were published, you get Kirby's fantastic run of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen as handled by Kirby. The only irony I find in this is a few years ago when they reprinted the New Gods, Forever People, and Mister Miracle, along with Jimmy Olsen, only Jimmy Olsen received the color treatment, the rest were in horrid black and grey with some sort of tone added to them which I found distracting to say the least. Now they are all in beautiful color

Even if you have bought them before in other formats, this is the definitive edition.

We can only pray DC will do the same with The Demon and Omac, two short lived Kirby Classics.

Rating:

- If Quality Is King--Treat the King With Respect!!!
I have to say, I'm as surprized and disgusted by the defense certain reviewers have shown this volume as they are that others would complain about the shoddiness of it.

This book deserves a bad review; it serves as a blatant example of how little respect Marvel and DC have for the work they've continued to mine and desecrate for the better part of three decades. (And do the big two really need to hear these gourmands defend printing classic works on toilet paper for Fifty Dollars? They seem to be content enough on their own.) I'll add only two more remarks to the many that have already been made on the matter--the first of which is a quote from the volume in question. From Mark Evanier's afterword, regarding Jack's apspirations in doing the work reprinted in this very book:

"He [Kirby] just wanted to do something successful and lead comics away from the cheap, disposable format in which they were then published. It was partly a matter of believing the material deserved better and partly a prohpecy that the old format was doomed...So he talked of larger comics, better paper, more sophisticated printing--product that could be sold in bookstores and other heretofore-untapped outlets."

Lastly, in light of that testimonial how are we to think, in this age of Mouse Guard, Absolute Kingdom Come, and Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant reprints, Jack would like to know that his work is deemed deserving of paper, ink, and printing plates of even lesser quality than he was afforded in 1970?

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