Oh, what brave Fourth World, to have such people in it!

My local library recently got in volumes 2-4 of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus. My first thought, of course, was "Darkseid! Bad ass!" And then I read them. Whoof. Just, whoof. What a lot to process. I think I actually owe Grant Morrison an apology; I'd been very hard on Final Crisis for being a rather spacey read. Now, I recognize that he's really only being true to the original spaciness that fills the pages of these omnibuses. (Omnibi?)

Now, I originally became familiar with the New Gods through the Superman animated series; it featured mostly the denizens of Apokalips, and Orion, with the rest of New Genesis being a dues ex machina (or perhaps a dues ex dues?) when Darkseid tried to invade Earth. Of course, DCAU Darkseid is one of the most awesome villains in animation history, so expectations were high for these volumes.

I'd read several times that the New Gods were Jack Kirby's unfinished masterpiece, and one of the best examples of his work. I've already commented on my preference for Steve Ditko's Marvel work as opposed to Kirby's, but that's not to say that I don't appreciate the prodigious output Kirby created. It seems to me that Lee and Kirby had a similar philosophy when it comes to creating comics: throw as much at the wall as possible to see what sticks. For the most part, this worked out pretty well; even concepts that didn't work with Lee or Kirby would be picked up by later creators and turned into winning titles. (I'm looking at you, X-Men and Daredevil.)

However, I don't think this somewhat scatter-shot approach worked with what Kirby was trying to do. He launched his new epic with three titles and the Jimmy Olson tie-in, and I can't say the New Gods pantheon might not have benefited more from being confined to a single book. Forever People was ultimately rather plain, with said Forever People being rather uninspired. Mister Miracle was a great idea for a character (escape artist as a super hero? Brilliant!) but seemed out of place as a traditional superhero title among its unconventional peers. (And apparently, I'm out of step in this opinion, as it was the title to last the longest.) The constant need to put Miracle into elaborate death traps began to stretch credibility after a while, and after Barda's introduction and subsequent storyline, the book seemed to lack direction.

New Gods was the series I thought held the most promise, because of its great premise, (demi-god working with humans and law enforcement to stop a semi-covert invasion force) and its great lead in Orion. The climactic duel with Kalibak and the well-placed revelation in the final issue was a perfect tease for future stories, however long it would take to be written. The Forever People and Mister Miracle would have been better served as supporting characters in Orion's book, rather than headlining their own. (I think it's telling that Orion would get his own series some time later.)

A huge problem throughout the entire work is that the denizens of New Genesis, for the most part, are fairly bland compared to their evil counterparts. I think it's a bit unavoidable, though; Darkseid is clearly presented as the embodiment of fascism, meaning there is a clear and there's a consistent philosophy behind his lines and actions. The New Genesis gods, supporting more general ideas as freedom and love, are less well-defined. Orion and Barda are the exceptions, and they're both split between worlds. It's no coincidence that the DCAU would use the dark gods so much more extensively than the light ones.

Ultimately, though a bit uneven, these books are still a great read. According to one of the afterwords, "The Pact" is Kirby's personal favorite of his works, and I can see why. It actually raises another irritation I have regarding Final Crisis; why did Morrison feel the need to split attention between the totally awesome Darkseid storyline and the totally pointless Monitor storyline? Like everything else in the Fourth World, it's a bit of a missed opportunity.