Customer Reviews

Jack Kirby's New Gods

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first time I read this book, I found it a bit boring. I'm not saying it was unreadable, but the style of writing is old-fashioned and Kirby uses many cliches and conventions that seem out of place today. But somehow, when I re-read it about a year later, I found that it is one of the best 70s comics I have ever read, on par with Thomas and Buscema's Conan, Wein and Wrightson's Swamp Thing, Howard the Duck, O'Niel and Adams' Batman and other classic stories of the period. I don't know how to explain it, but my oppinion of it changed drastically. With the exception of the story The Pact (also Kirby's favourite story) I found it much more entertaining the second time.

Anyway, New Gods is important to have if you are a DC fan simply for its historical importance. Here is where such classic characters as Darkseid, Orion, Desaad, Mister Miracle, Lightray, Highfather and dozens of others got their start. Kirby created New Genesis and Apokalips (no this is not a spelling mistake) as a complete world unto itself but tied to the DC Universe. Similer to JRR Tolkein's work, it has different races of inhabitants, each with its own physical and cultural characteristics and histories. Such a feat should not be underappreciated because it clearly took a lot of work on his part to create such a complete concept. It usually takes years and a variety of creators for comic myths to grow into what they are today (look at Superman and Batman for example) but Kirby did it virtually on his own and in a very short period of time. I think that the word "genius" is overused, but there is no other way to describe Kirby. He was a comic book genius.

His arwork, though dated, retains a unique charm and its easy to see how many current artists continue to be influenced by his work. The plots are also well-thought out, though weak at certain points. For example, I just don't buy how easily the humans that Orion saved join his cause. Most of them are one-dimentional characters anyway and their motive is extremely weak. Having said that, they are probably the only weak characters you will find in the entire book. The above example aside, Kirby has the ability to make throwaway characters very interesting. A good example is the issue where Orion and Lightray are trying to save a family abandoned at sea. While these characters never appear again to my knowledge, each has a well-defined personality and serve as metaphors for issues of the time (ie the Vietnam war and the peace movement). As mentioned above, The Pact is a brilliant story that should not be missed. In addition to telling the origins of Mister Miracle and Orion (they have been re-told many times since, but never this well), it also provides a rare glimpse into the nature of the Darkseid. It also makes you wonder how much of an influence it had on George Lucas's Star Wars, which followed these classic stories.

Ironically, although the decision to discontinue the series may have disapointed Kirby, it was, in retrospect, a good move by DC. Had Kirby been allowed to see it through to the end, Darkseid would probably have been killed by his son Orion in a Skywalker/Darth Vader like confrontation and DC and comic fandom would have been robbed of one of one of the greatest superstar villains. Desaad, one of comicdoms few true sadists, would probably also have been killed too, which also would have been a great loss. If this had happened we would have missed out on some great future stories such as Legends and countless others.
For those of you who may not know, The New Gods was part of a trilogy that Kirby was working on in the 70s and the story is incomplete without Mister Miracle and The Forever People, also available in trade paperback form. After reading this, go on to Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle, then to Jack Kirby's Forever People and finally to Jack Kirby's Fourth World trade.
And for the record, the Black and White format didn't hurt my enjoyment of the story in anyway because its not that important. The story and art are all there whether in colour or black and white and that's what really matters.

I wrote previously (down below somewhere) that this book was reproduced in black & white because of the limitations of reprinting color comics, and I still believe that's true. However, I wrote what I did before I bought the actual book. Now that I have one in hand, I can see that not only did DC print this in black & white (which would be fine), they printed it on poor, old-fashioned comic book, newsprint-style paper. And they added monochrome benday-dot washes to approximate the original colors. And it looks pretty lousy.

The poor paper is bad enough. By the time this was printed in 1998 we as a species knew enough to treat comics with some measure of respect. I've got a first edition trade paperback of Frank Miller's "Ronin" on beautiful bright white paper printed in 1987, over ten years earlier. Once again, the industry is giving Jack Kirby short shrift.

The coloring job is pretty poor, too. If only this had been reprinted in line art from the original inks, on real paper, it would have been really great. As it is, only the art and story -- all Kirby, flaws and brilliance intact -- make this a worthwhile buy.

....Jack Kirby's much ballyhooed, much anticipated move to the Marvel Universe's arch competitors--DC Comics--was an event that shook the entire comic fandom world. The question most asked--could King Kirby succeed without the scripting of his Marvel comics co-conspirator, Stan Lee?

These great stories from his DC tenure showed that he obviously could.

These are a bit reminescent of his own Silver Surfer stories done for Marvel and the great 'Star Wars' franchise (before it was even a franchise)...without the universe consuming demigods and laser sabres. They are stories of the evil Darkseid and his minions trying to imprison the forces of good--fought and frontlined by his battlescarred, motherboxed, boomtubed son, Orion. They are fabuloso stories. In recent times a brief exposure to his Fourth World series was done in the WB cartoon series "Superman".

Kirby, alas, was unable to develop his dream universe at DC--my opinion is because of the dreaded "industry think" of the comics at the time. No profit, no PR, no support. And so, one can detect a faltering of the quality and the confidence this great series promised. One of the things I did notice was that when Superman was sketched in his great Jimmy Olsen series, the powers that be always redid the Man of Steel's face by some other in house artist like Al Plastino or Curt Swan or Anderson. (This practice did produce some stunning covers by Kirby and fan favorite Neal Adams--I think I also saw a stunning drawing by Kirby and Barry Winsor-Smith.) But overall fan reaction was "How dare they mess with the King?" Yeah--HOW DARE THEY?

But before he sucuumbed to the industry think, he, along with Vince Coletta, Mike Royer, et al, put out some great sagas here, in "The Forever People", in "Mister Miracle" and those great "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen" comics. Kirby, dig, WAS the inventor of the modern day superhero comic book. I get the feeling that we were in the presence of greatness which will never, ever be seen again....

For those of you who love Jack Kirby....Skip this one. It takes his classic New Gods and deprives the reader of the colorful atmosphere and mood that made the series so special. Did DC think that new readers would purchase this in black and white? That color would be too expensive? I cannot imagine why the suits at DC decided to publish Kirby's work in this format. Wait for the color version!

This is the centerpiece of Kirby's Fourth World Series and the best work of his career. There is power and intensity, especially in stories such as The Pact, The Death Wish Of Terrible Turpin, and The Deep Six. This set of stories pre-dated Star Wars by almost a decade and I also believe that a lot of the New Gods inspired George Lucas. In fact, after being used to comics such as this, I was not surprised by revalations in the Star Wars saga. The New Gods was groundbreaking for its time. It was originally released as a tetralogy with Forever People, Mister Miracle, and Jimmy Olsen (three parts of the tetralogy are available in this format). Jack was one of the pioneers of the writer-artist in comics and, to this day, many comics professionals acknowledge a great debt to Mr Kirby.

Jack's legendary New Gods is must reading for any comics fan. Intense storylines and highly entertaining characters. Too bad DC cancelled the series before he could finish it. At the time, it was the best in comics.

picardfan007 complains that this book is in black & white; I thought I'd explain what I know about this, which I learned reading an interview with John Totleben which I can't find right now.

Before the mid-1980s or so, comics were colored for a certain kind of printing press. After comics switched to new printing processes, the old presses were mostly destroyed. The only color for older comics like Jack Kirby's exists in the form of plates for these old presses; since they don't exist any more, the original color art cannot be reproduced.

And you probably wouldn't want them to be printed that way anyway, because, let's face it, old comics were printed pretty poorly.

The only solution is to re-color the entire comic, which Marvel has done with some of its Masterworks series. It's probably expensive and difficult to get someone to re-create the color schemes for these old comics, so it's only done with high-profile titles (the Incredible Hulk comes to mind).

Titles like Kirby's New Gods and Moore, Bissette, and Totleben's Swamp Thing get released in black & white. I personally think they're better for it.

In the mid-60's, comics veteran Jack Kirby was at the absolute height of his creative powers, knocking out more new characters and wild concepts in a few years than most creators are capable of in their entire careers. But he was also frustrated, as his collaborator (& editor & boss) Stan Lee was not only failing to give him writing credit (and the pay that would go with it) but more and more had been "taking away" Jack's ideas and steering them in directions far different than what Jack intended (see SILVER SURFER for the boldest example). As a result, Jack "held back" most new ideas after 1967... until he had the chance to switch companies, be in charge of his work and "do it his way".

It didn't QUITE work out that way. Poor inks dragged down the first year's worth or art, and a better scripter who could have maintained Kirby's intent while polishing the result (perhaps Roy Thomas) would have been a help. But Kirby's 4 connected titles, of which NEW GODS was the centerpiece, remain a ground-breaking epic of unmatched inventiveness & wild fun. Not unlike George Harrison after The Beatles' breakup, Kirby let loose with everything he had-- possibly too much at once! Dozens of characters and concepts that are STILL being used (and perhaps overused or abused) by DC Comics to this day, all appeared in around a 2-year period. Orion, Darkseid, Highfather, Lightray, Desaad, Kalibak, Metron, New Genesis, Apokalips, Mother Box, The Boom Tube, The Anti-Life Equation, "The Pact"...

Anyone who'd prefer COLOR but can't find or afford the original issues (now 30 years old!) should seek out the 1984 reprint series-- especially since that contained a new 12th episode not found here. And for those looking for fun of a more tangible kind, DC Direct has just released a "Deluxe Action Figure Set" of Orion & Darkseid! (Not to be missed!)

Star wars had many sources, this was one of them. That Kirby was a source of Star Wars is fairly well known. I do not know whether Lucus admited this, but he seemed to go out of his way to leave all sorts of clues. It is fun to look through this work to pick out the things that show up in Star Wars.

I love Jack Kirby's art and the work he did on the New Gods is some of the very best in comic book history. However a lot of the effect is lost with no color. I have read comic books for more then 40 years and I feel a little cheated when a comic that was originally in color is reprinted in black & white. How cute of DC to put a color cover and have no information on the cover for the buyer to know the inside is black & white. False advertising on DC's part. I do not blame Amazon.