Fourth World (comics)

"Fourth World" is a metaseries of connected comic book titles written and drawn by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics from 1970 to 1973. Although they were not marketed under this title until the August–September 1971 issues of New Gods and Forever People, the terms Fourth World and Jack Kirby's Fourth World have gained usage in the years since. Kirby created the Fourth World concept in the 1970s. The series is a science-fiction based mythology that revolves around ancient space deities known as the New Gods. The New Gods are similar to the gods of Earth lore.

As the newsstand distribution system for comics began to break down, Jack Kirby foresaw a day when comics would need to find alternate venues for sale. Toward this end, Kirby envisioned a finite series that would be serialized and collected in one tome after the series had concluded. He began the "Fourth World" in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (Oct. 1970). DC Comics had planned to introduce the "Fourth World" titles in the November 1970 issue of their preview omnibus title, Showcase. Kirby reportedly objected to this, and Showcase was cancelled. This delayed the introduction of the "Fourth World" titles until the following year. The three original titles constituting the "Fourth World" were The Forever People, Mister Miracle, and The New Gods.

Unhappy with Marvel Comics at the time, as he had created a plethora of characters without having copyright or creative custody of them, Kirby turned to rival publisher DC Comics, with his sketches and designs for a new group of heroes and villains. He had first showed them to Stan Lee, who liked them, but wanted to fold them into already existing titles. So Kirby decided to keep them for himself. When Carmine Infantino visited Kirby and his family for Passover, he showed him his designs and ideas. Infantino told him that he wanted to bring them to DC. Worsening conditions at Marvel and promises from DC made Kirby decide to switch company. As author Marc Flores, who writes under the pen name Ronin Ro, described:

The idea of the New Gods had come to Jack years earlier, when he was plotting 90 percent of the "Tales of Asgard" stories in Thor. He wanted to have two planets at war and end with Ragnarok, the battle that would kill Thor's lucrative pantheon. Instead, he tried the idea in his Inhumans stories. Now he was presenting it in its original context. Though he wouldn't ever say it publicly, the New Gods books started right after the gods in Thor killed one another. The first page of Orion of the New Gods showed the same scenes from Thor—a planet torn in half and armored gods holding swords and dying on a fiery battleground.

"The Fourth World" dealt with the battle between good and evil as represented by the worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips. Darkseid, the evil lord of Apokolips, seeks the Anti-Life Equation which will allow him to control the thoughts of all living beings. Opposing him is Orion, his son, who was raised on New Genesis. Other characters caught in the battle included the Forever People, an extension of the kid gang concept from the 1940s with a group of adolescents adventuring without an adult supervisor; Mister Miracle, a native of New Genesis raised on Apokolips who triumphed over a torturous childhood to become the world's greatest escape artist; and Lightray, the heroic warrior of New Genesis. Their adventures would take them to Earth where the war continued.

Comics historian Les Daniels observed in 1995 that "Kirby's mix of slang and myth, science fiction and the Bible, made for a heady brew, but the scope of his vision has endured". In 2007, comics writer Grant Morrison commented that "Kirby's dramas were staged across Jungian vistas of raw symbol and storm... The Fourth World saga crackles with the voltage of Jack Kirby's boundless imagination let loose onto paper".

The Fourth World characters reappeared in various titles. In 1976, the New Gods were featured in the last issue of 1st Issue Special. The New Gods series relaunched in July 1977, and with 1st Issue Special still a relatively recent publication, it picked up where the storyline of that issue left off. Although the title remained "The New Gods" in the indicia and retained its original numbering, launching with #12, the covers used the title "The Return of the New Gods". Gerry Conway wrote the series and Don Newton drew it. Mister Miracle teamed-up with Batman three times in The Brave and the Bold, and the Mister Miracle series was revived in September 1977 by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers. Steve Gerber and Michael Golden produced three issues ending with #25 (Sept. 1978), with several storylines unresolved. Mister Miracle teamed with Superman in DC Comics Presents #12 (Aug. 1979) and the New Gods met the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America in Justice League of America #183–185 (Oct–Dec 1980). "The Great Darkness Saga" storyline in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 featured the team battling Darkseid a thousand years in the future.

Mark Evanier, who worked as Kirby's assistant in the 1970s and later wrote an award-winning Kirby biography, has said that there are multiple, mutually-exclusive explanations for why Kirby chose the name "Fourth World", adding that "if you'd asked Jack eight times, you'd have gotten eight more"; ultimately, Evanier concluded that none of the suggested explanations are plausible, and that it is most likely "just a term that popped into [Kirby's] head and he liked the sound of it. Later on, he came up with several different retroactive explanations".