After co-creating the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk with Stan Lee at Marvel Comics in the 1960s, Jack Kirby left over a creative and financial dispute in 1970, and wound up at rival DC. At DC, he worked on Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen and created three new series: The Forever People, Mister Miracle, and New Gods. In these four series, he created and serialized the Fourth World, which dealt with the battle between Lightray, Mister Miracle, Orion, and other heroes on one side, and Darkseid, the dictator of the planet Apokolips on the other. At the time, Kirby was looking to expand comics beyond the 32-page comic book format, but he was ahead of his time. Indeed, he may have been the first to introduce the concept that comic characters shared a universe which extended beyond the covers of any one title.
The Forever People and New Gods were canceled after issue 11, while Mister Miracle hung on until issue 18. Without those three, Kirby couldn’t fully flesh out the storyline in only Jimmy Olsen, and the series died an early death.
The growth of graphic novels today has finally convinced DC that Kirby had something. Now DC is collecting the four series in chronological order as they originally appeared.
Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus: Volume 1 will be published as a 396-page hardcover on 2 May with a cover price of $49.99. Volume 1 features the debuts of Orion of the New Gods, the evil Darkseid, super-escape artist Mister Miracle and many others, as well as numerous appearances by Superman.
In Volume 2 (scheduled to be published 8 August), the evil Darkseid’s schemes continue to unfold while the New Gods, the Forever People, Mr. Miracle, and other heroes battle his many minions.