Hopefully Fortunes Will Be Better In The Fourth World...

A few preamble notes before today's official blog entry.  I'll even shorten them to bullet points, so I can avoid rambling overlong!

• FINALLY went out with my girlfriend to see "Guardians of the Galaxy".  I can safely say I wish to see it again, because as I described to her today, it reminds me of the adventure spirit of "Star Wars" crossed with the comedy writing of "Ghostbusters".  Everybody was spot-on for their roles, and FINALLY we get a full-on view of Thanos!  Plus, speaking solely as a guy, Gamorra and Nebula... H-O-T!  And can't write without saying, "I am Groot"!  But all was not perfection for our viewing...
• ... Because I was reminded how much a pain in the BUTT going to the theaters to watch movies can be.  A entire brood of Morlocks decided to sit behind us in the theater, and just would NOT shut up for the entirety of the movie.  Imagine a DVD commentary track playing for a movie you've not seen yet, only it's not being performed by a director, or an actor, or any crew member of the movie... but just some mouth-breathing moron that has to comment on EVERYTHING happening on the screen?   That's the kind of movie theater behavior that deserves a "HULK SMASH"!
• ... And another day that's been kind of rough on the job hunting front.  If it weren't for this blog, the woman in my life, my friends, and the time I spent playing around with Sarah's nephews today, I really would be much more of a personal wreck.  Still... I CAN'T give up.  No matter how much things hurt, or feel like I make nil progress, I just have to keep on going.
• FINALLY, I wanted to take some space in the blog to wish my friend, Wendi F., a very Happy Birthday, today.  She's been a wonderful voice of support, and a VERY fun person to talk comics with!  Today's entry even ties in to her, thanks to a very awesome tattoo she picked up, this year!  If you REALLY want to make her happy, check out Double Page Spread, which is her podcast.  There are TONS of awesome interviews she conducts with comic creators, and trust me... SHE KNOWS!  And tell her I sent you!

Going back to my girlfriend's nephews, I'm glad I chose a somewhat "easy" topic to tackle, today, because I am WIPED from playing with them!  But in case you missed the "tease" for today's intended entry from yesterday, it came up VERY specifically in my "Scott Free and Big Barda" relationship piece.  Because it's about time I dipped into the Jack Kirby well, once more, and talked about my experiences with a certain notable saga of his.

According to that Sean Howe book I read, "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story", Jack Kirby sealed a deal with DC comics after a growing dissatisfaction with his artistic contributions being stifled by Marvel.  These irritations of Kirby's lead to meetings with Carmine Infantino around 1968.  At DC Comics, the company gave Jack Kirby carte blanche to unleash a flood of new concepts, because this was one of the VERY first times that a creator was THE star attraction behind a series of projects.  Now, some of his miscellaneous non-connected titles for DC I will explore at a latter date.  (For example, I've only JUST started a read-through of "OMAC", and those library copies of the two "Kamandi" omnibi DO strike me as just a little bit intimidating!)  But I wanted to discuss my main attraction to Kirby in the DC Universe... and MAYBE the keys to my true understand and appreciation for his artistic stylings, "The Fourth World" Saga.  Ranked in ACTUAL particular order, I bring you thoughts on the four titles that encompassed the "Fourth World" Saga.  Starting with...

1. New Gods: Maybe it's bias because this piece of the Kirby puzzle was my VERY FIRST exposure to his DC work, via a series of reprints from 1985 as a tie-in to his "Super Powers" miniseries.  But this series was, in my eyes, Jack at his most elemental best.  Grand cosmic conflicts, deceptions, "Death" on astral skies in the body of a crippled man, and DARKSEID-DARKSEID-DARKSEID!!!  What's not to love?!?  For me, as much as I DO love this title, I do personally feel it lost a bit of steam after "New Gods #8", which was the epic "Death Wish of Terrible Turpin".  I'm sorry, but that "Bug" two-parter just felt rather flat to me.  But leading up to that particular issue where Darkseid's son, Kalibak, tears an entire city apart to seek brutal combat with Orion, there were PLENTY of other highlights.  Such as the introduction of the Black Rider, the two-issue battle with the "Deep Six", and issue seven, "The Pact", which to me is one of the BEST single-issue comics ever published.  Jack Kirby was firing on all storytelling and artistic cylinders for this contribution to the Saga.

2. Mister Miracle: AKA The adventures of Jim Steranko!  Seriously, while I enjoyed the almost apocalyptic feel of "New Gods" more, the smaller-scale battles that Mister Miracle faced were no less important to the storyline.  I've already mentioned how much I appreciate the relationship that blossomed between Scott Free and Big Barda... and this WAS the series that introduced the Female Furies, Granny Goodness, and the AWESOMELY named Virmin Vundabar... but you also see how Scott finds a friend in soon-to-be-manager Oberon.  And it was also in this series that comic-dom saw its wackiest threat... Funky Flashman.  I won't spoil the surprise for the character if you've never explored him, but let's just say Flashman bears a... SLIGHT... resemblance to a former Kirby colleague.  All in all, there's still plenty of thrills with the "Super Escape Artist" to explore in his series that still earns a high recommendation.

3. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: An interesting fact about Kirby's time at DC was that in order to create his new titles, he had to pick an established title he wished to work on.  The story goes he wanted the book that was down in the sales dumps, and work on that.  "Jimmy Olsen" drew that straw, because by the 1970's, people were beginning to have ENOUGH of that braggart red-headed dork.  So while this is still fairly low in my Kirby DC regards, Jack did WONDERS for "Jimmy Olsen"!  There were a lot of adventures that were fun to follow with "Superman's Pal", that even managed to offer the "Earth" side of the "Fourth World" conflict!  Have some adventures in the "Evil Factory" with Mokkari and Simyan!  See how The Guardian was resurrected, and how Dubblex came into being!  Meet the Hairies and the Newsboy Legion... including the fun-to-say Flippa Dippa!  There's even a bonkers adventure to another planet that features citizens that resemble Universal monsters!  (Which makes me think Jack Kirby was fond of rolling up a few "boom tubes" for inspiration for stories, at times...)  Another fact about the book: Jack Kirby NEVER was allowed to draw Superman's face for any stories.  The editorial staff always hired another artist to draw the "house style" Superman face over his pages.

4. Forever People: ... And we reach the weak link of the chain.  When I begin to wonder if the "Letter People" were more awesome in comparison, you're on unstable footing.  This details the adventures of a wandering group of New Genesis youths that travel our world... and that's about all I remember.  They really NEVER had an overriding goal, it felt like.  And their members were FAR from being interesting or special.  Let's rattle these suckers off:

• Beautiful Dreamer- Team psionic, and token female.
• Big Bear- Giant ginger hippie that has tremendous physical strength.
• Mark Moonrider- Um... He does things, and has a Rick Steiner-esque headpiece on.
• Serifan- This "cowpoke" admirer carried "cosmic cartridges" in his hat band that do... eh... whatever the story calls for.
• Vykin- I never even knew, until I read the Wiki entry, that he possessed magnetic powers!  He was mostly just "there" for my recollection of the team's adventures.

What may be best known about the "Forever People" is the team has the shared ability to go into some kind of trance, and use their physical beings to summon into reality the "Infinity Man".  So we have a bunch of goofy people that are, by their nature, Voltron.  I will give SOME credit to two particular stories: One involved explaining just what Darkseid's Omega Beams actually do when they connect with a person.  (It's not NEARLY as simple as outright death.)  Another involved Desaad... Darkseid's sadistic scientist lackey... designing a booby-trapped amusement park to destroy our wandering youth heroes.

And outside of "Mister Miracle", the other "Fourth World" titles died an untimely published "death", with Jack Kirby not even getting CLOSE to his interconnected title conclusion.  I believe "Mister Miracle" made it up to 20-some issues with Kirby's direct involvement, until he ultimately departed DC to return to Marvel.  But when Jack Kirby was called upon by the "Distinguished Competition" to help redesign his characters for the "Super Powers" toy line, he was allowed to write his conclusion to his "Fourth World" saga.  ... Which was a rather mixed blessing.

I still support "The Hunger Dogs", because it tells an engaging story about rebellion on Apokolips, and the downfall of Darkseid as its ruler.  BUT the main issue with the story is that you had such a steady and slow build for his original 70's "Fourth World" Saga, that to ask a man to wrap up an ENTIRE UNIVERSE in a 60-some page graphic novel is rather disingenuous sentiment.  Plus, even I have to admit Jack Kirby did lose a step between 12 years of not being involved with the DC characters of his creation.  But I will still recommend you all give "Hunger Dogs" a shot to see even just a HINT of what his "Fourth World" conclusion had to offer.

On and off, over the years, the "Fourth World" has seen new life in new hands.  Even as early as the 70's, "New Gods" and "Mister Miracle" underwent relaunches under new creative teams.  After the first "Crisis", "New Gods" experienced another brief run as a title.  But it was also during the 80's that another artist whose work was VERY influenced by Jack Kirby started experimenting with the universe through occasional one-shots dealing with the "Fourth World", and cumulating with a brief-lived ongoing series in the early 2000's.  I speak of Walt Simonson, and his "Orion" series.

This series was actually rather underrated, and I recommend those of you that have not experienced it give it a shot.  We see just what it's like for Orion to accept his legacy, after the defeat of his father Darkseid, and become a leader to Apokolips.  Things don't go QUITE as smoothly or ideally as he would prefer it.  I believe Grant Morrison's "Final Crisis" also deserves special mention for designing the next phase of the "New Gods" existence.  And Kirby's creations continue to see various appearances and interpretations LONG after "The King" has left our world.  Some could say this was abusing his specifically designed creations, but I feel that he contributed something special and vital to the DC Universe, and... while it should NOT be overused... I feel the power of Kirby's creations should still place an impact in the company universe.