DC does a fairly good job of keeping the Fourth World material available most of the time. However, whenever I looked for a copy I’d find that I’d just missed the latest edition(s). Once they’re out of print their prices on site likes ebay can rocket up very quickly.
Which is to say that for once, I managed not to fall into this trap and this year and I bagged myself a copy of the 2021 edition of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.
It’s a bit of a beast!
The front of the dust jacket featuring Orion battling Darkseid 
Sideview of this huge book 
The binding looks pretty solid
Contents
So, this appropriately mighty tome clocks in at 1536 pages and collects:
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133-139 and 141-148, New Gods #1-11, Forever People #1-11, Mister Miracle #1-18, DC Graphic Novel #4: The Hunger Dogs (1985) and a story from New Gods #6 (1984)
I’m not an expert on Jack Kirby but that looks pretty comprehensive!
So What Is the Fourth World?
The Fourth World is an umbrella title for the connected comics that Jack Kirby worked on for DC in the early 1970s.
The story goes that Kirby was frustrated at Marvel at having his idea of winding up the Thor title in grand Ragnarok fashion turned down. (Other issues were at play of course, but I’m just covering the Fourth World here!) Once he was at DC, Kirby returned to that idea and came up with the New Gods.
As you can tell, I’ve pieced this together from tid bits I’ve read on the ol’internet. Do take the above with a pinch of salt!
The main title is fittingly called the New Gods. Here we’re introduced to the hero Orion, the arch villain Darkseid and a whole host of supporting characters from the opposing planets of good New Genesis and hellish Apokolips.
Improbably, Kirby kicked this all off in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133.
I’m not 100% sure why. I’ve read that part of his contract with DC required him to take on a set number of pages per week. To reach that number meant taking on an existing title. Not wanting to cause someone to lose a job, he went with Jimmy Olsen as it didn’t have a fixed creative team.
This slightly unexpected starting point fixes the Fourth World as happening within the DC universe with frequent appearances by Superman. Most often with his head redrawn to be more ‘on model’!
Superman’s redrawn face 
It’s a dreadful photo, but here’s Darkseid’s first appearance! 
The iconic cover to New Gods #1 
Mister Miracle #1
Why Is It Important?
It’s Jack Kirby’s first work for DC in the 1970s after he moved away from Marvel!
Oh, you want more? It introduces the idea of a developing and connected story across several titles. Today, these would have been published with an eye on being collected in a graphic novel or even published in that format from the start. Back then however, the term ‘graphic novel’ hadn’t been coined and there had only been a handful of early ‘prototypes’ of the concept. Gil Kane’s “His Name is… Savage” and “Blackmark” being two examples.
Either the sales figures weren’t as good as DC had hoped or they simply didn’t know what to do with Kirby once they had snagged him away from Marvel. Either way, but the Fourth World related titles didn’t run for very long. Mister Miracle having the longest innings at 18 issues.
Despite this, the characters, ideas and concepts introduced here are continually returned to by DC. Darkseid in particular has taken his place as one of DC ‘biggest bads’. Being not just a credible threat to the likes of Superman but the whole DC universe.
There’s also the small matter of Zack Snyder’s DC films heavily drawing on elements of the Fourth World.
So they had a short initial run, but were massively influential. Jack Kirby had proved that once again he was way ahead of his time.
What Else Did Jack Kirby Do in the 1970s?
Outside of the Fourth World, Kirby’s most notable work for DC is the Demon, a new take on the Sandman, Kamandi, OMAC just to name a few.
In the mid to late 1970s, Kirby was back at Marvel and worked on a 2001: A Space Odyssey adaptation that developed into the new character Machine Man and comic. Kirby also returned to Captain America and had a stint on Black Panther, created the brilliantly named Devil Dinosaur, produced loads of covers and oh yeah, The Eternals!
Back to this Book
At almost 1600 pages this is a huge book that some folks might find unwieldy. I was suckered in by having all of the Kirby Fourth World-related titles inside one cover. The dust jacket design is great and it’s fun to see that DC went with an illustrated hard cover design as well.
(Most of DC’s omnibus collections of classic material have a plain, matt black hard cover design which is a bit boring.)
100% Orion in the hard cover design! 
The spine design includes this neat Jack Kirby decal
The binding appears to be pretty tough, which it needs to be for such a chunky book. Skimming through the interior, the pages seem to lie quite flat with no gutter loss.
If you’re looking for all of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World within the covers of one book and can find this edition still in stock, I’d go for it. The size of the book isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s a comprehensive collection and a great looking book!
