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Jack Kirby's Fourth World #5
The Jack Kirby Omnibus, Vol. 2: Starring the Super Powers
A New York Times Bestseller
In the 1970s, after his incredible run of comics for Marvel including Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor and more, Jack Kirby returned to DC Comics to create such groundbreaking series as Kamandi, The New Gods and more. During that period, Kirby also created a number of projects that lasted only a few issues, such as The Sandman, starring a super hero who delves into the world of dreams, as well as Atlas (from 1st Issue Special), Kobra, Kung Fu Fighter and more. Now, for the first time, these titles are collected in a massive hardcover. This volume also collects Kirby's 1980s work on the Super Powers series, based on a very popular toy line. These issues represent Kirby's only work on the Justice League of America, including Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and more.
In the 1970s, after his incredible run of comics for Marvel including Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor and more, Jack Kirby returned to DC Comics to create such groundbreaking series as Kamandi, The New Gods and more. During that period, Kirby also created a number of projects that lasted only a few issues, such as The Sandman, starring a super hero who delves into the world of dreams, as well as Atlas (from 1st Issue Special), Kobra, Kung Fu Fighter and more. Now, for the first time, these titles are collected in a massive hardcover. This volume also collects Kirby's 1980s work on the Super Powers series, based on a very popular toy line. These issues represent Kirby's only work on the Justice League of America, including Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and more.
624 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2013
About the author
Jack Kirby
2,823 books479 followersJack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 6, 2014
Now THIS is how an omnibus should be done! Great reproduction, great color and great artwork by the King himself, Jack Kirby! This edition covers Jack's work at DC Comics after he had created his Fourth World opus, and after he had returned to Marvel Comics, gone into animation, and become a free agent, as it were.
The selections here are a strange cross-section of DC Comics in the seventies and eighties. Black Magic reprints some old Kirby tales from the fifties, including some of his Dream Detective stories. Following that up was Kirby's revival of the Sandman, this time as a character who could control dreams, an issue of Kung Fu Fighter, the first issue of Kobra, some First Issue Specials (including the revival of Manhunter), Superman meeting the Challengers, and the first two Super Powers toy tie-in series.
My one qualm with the book is the addition of all the Super Powers issues; Jack did plot the series, but only wrote and drew the final issue. The first four had some truly atrocious art (which had the saving grace of some Alan Kupperberg inking on a few issues), and had little to do with Jack; it comes off as four issues of filler in an otherwise excellent volume. Having Kirby do the entirety of the the second series more than makes up for it, since we get Jack's take on Doctor Fate, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter and even the modern-look Green Arrow.
Speaking of GA, I've read a lot of complaining reviews on the first Kirby Omnibus, since it had Green Arrow on the cover and wasn't completely Green Arrow all the way through; apparently no one bothers to look to see exactly how much of the feature Kirby actually did - it was only about nine or ten eight-page stories. That's obviously not going to fill 300+ pages. If the rest of that book is anything like this, I'm definitely grabbing it as soon as I find an affordable copy.
If you like good comics, and/or if you like Jack Kirby, THIS is definitely a book for you!
The selections here are a strange cross-section of DC Comics in the seventies and eighties. Black Magic reprints some old Kirby tales from the fifties, including some of his Dream Detective stories. Following that up was Kirby's revival of the Sandman, this time as a character who could control dreams, an issue of Kung Fu Fighter, the first issue of Kobra, some First Issue Specials (including the revival of Manhunter), Superman meeting the Challengers, and the first two Super Powers toy tie-in series.
My one qualm with the book is the addition of all the Super Powers issues; Jack did plot the series, but only wrote and drew the final issue. The first four had some truly atrocious art (which had the saving grace of some Alan Kupperberg inking on a few issues), and had little to do with Jack; it comes off as four issues of filler in an otherwise excellent volume. Having Kirby do the entirety of the the second series more than makes up for it, since we get Jack's take on Doctor Fate, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter and even the modern-look Green Arrow.
Speaking of GA, I've read a lot of complaining reviews on the first Kirby Omnibus, since it had Green Arrow on the cover and wasn't completely Green Arrow all the way through; apparently no one bothers to look to see exactly how much of the feature Kirby actually did - it was only about nine or ten eight-page stories. That's obviously not going to fill 300+ pages. If the rest of that book is anything like this, I'm definitely grabbing it as soon as I find an affordable copy.
If you like good comics, and/or if you like Jack Kirby, THIS is definitely a book for you!
May 21, 2013
Perhaps not the best collection of Kirby but there's some great material here. I've always loved his 70s Sandman reboot, but that complete run is not printed here. A good deal of the stories are Kirby as author only but not the penciler. Still the second Super Powers mini-series is worth it alone the price of admission. I think this volume must be the final collection. Don't think there's any left to collect of the DC stuff. Losers. Challengers. Kamandi. 4th World. OMAC. It's a nice set of books and I'm happy to see them on my bookcase.
June 17, 2018
Una lettura decisamente interessante, ma anche straniante. In Italia, di Jack Kirby abbiamo letto moltissima, se non tutta, la sua produzione migliore, ossia quella dei decenni '60 e '70.
Qui trovo raccolte molte storie brevi degli anni '50 per la DC, tutte horror o weird stories per lo più dimenticabili, come se ne producevano a centinaia in quel decennio. Il tratto del Re era ancora immaturo, e chine pesanti piuttosto che colorazioni scadenti peggioravano certamente la resa.
Nella seconda parte invece ci sono le storie che scrisse e disegnò (in un caso che scrisse solo) per la DC negli anni '80, dopo la sua parentesi Hollywoodiana. Qui il suo tratto si era impoverito parecchio, e le chine non aiutano assolutamente a migliorare la resa.
Nel mezzo ci sono alcune storie minori per la DC degli anni 70, robe decisamente al vertice dell'arte come Atlas e lavori quali il numero di Kung-Fu Fighters e Dingbats, Cobra e il suo Sandman che graficamente sono di altissima qualità ma a livello di trama e specialmente dialoghi lasciano a desiderare.
Nel complesso questa è la produzione minore del Re dei Comics per la DC, e visto l'alto costo dell'omnibus è consigliabile solo per gli amatori di Kirby disegnatore poiché la sua parabola come artista è abbastanza completa.
Tre stelle mezza.
Qui trovo raccolte molte storie brevi degli anni '50 per la DC, tutte horror o weird stories per lo più dimenticabili, come se ne producevano a centinaia in quel decennio. Il tratto del Re era ancora immaturo, e chine pesanti piuttosto che colorazioni scadenti peggioravano certamente la resa.
Nella seconda parte invece ci sono le storie che scrisse e disegnò (in un caso che scrisse solo) per la DC negli anni '80, dopo la sua parentesi Hollywoodiana. Qui il suo tratto si era impoverito parecchio, e le chine non aiutano assolutamente a migliorare la resa.
Nel mezzo ci sono alcune storie minori per la DC degli anni 70, robe decisamente al vertice dell'arte come Atlas e lavori quali il numero di Kung-Fu Fighters e Dingbats, Cobra e il suo Sandman che graficamente sono di altissima qualità ma a livello di trama e specialmente dialoghi lasciano a desiderare.
Nel complesso questa è la produzione minore del Re dei Comics per la DC, e visto l'alto costo dell'omnibus è consigliabile solo per gli amatori di Kirby disegnatore poiché la sua parabola come artista è abbastanza completa.
Tre stelle mezza.
February 15, 2024
2.5/5
I went into this one with low expectations and it still under delivered. I knew going in that the "Super Powers" run wasn't an all time classic, but it's a billion times better than the Simon and Kirby horror reprints that make up a big chunk of this thing. The "Issue 1" one-shots are a mixed bag but most are fairly decent and the finale with the Super Powers is more fun despite a third of them not being drawn by Kirby.
If you're an obsessive collector where seeing a "Vol 2" makes you HAVE TO HAVE IT, that's about the only reason to get this. Pretty near any Kirby I've read has been more interesting or entertaining than this.
I went into this one with low expectations and it still under delivered. I knew going in that the "Super Powers" run wasn't an all time classic, but it's a billion times better than the Simon and Kirby horror reprints that make up a big chunk of this thing. The "Issue 1" one-shots are a mixed bag but most are fairly decent and the finale with the Super Powers is more fun despite a third of them not being drawn by Kirby.
If you're an obsessive collector where seeing a "Vol 2" makes you HAVE TO HAVE IT, that's about the only reason to get this. Pretty near any Kirby I've read has been more interesting or entertaining than this.
November 28, 2020
This one is a crazy mixed bag. We got some weirdish horror, two 1st issues a few Sandman’s and then the two Super Powers cartoon/toy based stories. It’s Kirby art so it’s amazing. The writing is good to OK.
August 31, 2020
Good overall survey of the work of comics legend Jack Kirby. I especially enjoyed the first half of this collection with macabre tales from the comic Black Magic.
November 19, 2020
Brilliant artwork from the master. The scripts were a bit mediocre.
August 24, 2014
La mayor parte de los lectores identifican a Kirby con la factoría Marvel, a pesar de que “el rey” transitase durante más tiempo en su carrera por los pasillos de editorial DC, para a la que creó infinidad de personajes y conceptos centrales a su mitología. DC ha reeditado ya cuatro Omnibus correspondientes a la totalidad de la saga El Cuarto Mundo; dos volúmenes que recogen el periodo de Kirby a cargo de Kamandi, el último hombre; un volumen dedicado al material de The Challengers of the unknown; uno a The Demon; uno dedicado a The Losers, uno a The boy comandos, uno a Sandman, otro a Newsboy legion y el primer Jack Kirby ómnibus, que reúne su producción de Green arrow y un cúmulo de material publicadio en colecciones como The real Fact comics, Tales of the unexpected, House of Secrets, etc. Este segundo volumen compila nuevas historias publicadas en Black Magic, l lanzamiento de personajes como Atlas, Manhunter, The Dingbats of Danger Streets, Claws of the Dragon, el relanzamiento de The Sandman y las dos miniseries de Super Powers en las que retoma los hechos del Cuarto Mundo.
October 5, 2013
If you've bought all of DC's other Kirby omnibuses (and you should), this one's worth it as a sort of completist exercise, but it's much more uneven than the others - largely because Jack is mostly just an illustrator here. The Black Magic (with Joe Simon) stories are largely very good, but the scripting on Sandman or Richard Dragon make for tough going. The Super Powers miniseries are fairly by the numbers, though the first (which Jack plotted, but only drew the final issue of) feels fresher and stronger. The second (all Kirby art, but the weakest of his pages since the 40s, but all Paul Kupperberg scripts) is a warmed-over rehash and tough going. Still, there's some interesting Kirby work here. It's the least essential, but it's still Kirby.
January 5, 2014
There's some moments of greatness here, but a lot of the work is pretty uneven. A good chunk of this was actually drawn by Pablo Marcos, which isn't bad, but isn't the King, either. There's a good deal of very early Simon/Kirby horror/weird material in the form of the BLACK MAGIC reprint book that DC put out in the seventies. I actually dug the second SUPER POWERS collection, even though it wasn't written by Jolly Jack himself, but it was fun to rad what was effectively a take on Silver Age DC crazy taking place in the early eighties. It's certainly not the strongest collection in the Kirby library, but fans of his will find something to enjoy.
March 10, 2015
Even with Kirby's sometimes minimal involvement, the Super Powers storyline of Darkseid versus the Justice League feels epic and a fitting epilogue of sorts to the Fourth World saga... and a must-read for fans of Grant Morrison's New Gods stories (Rock of Ages in particular). Lots of other spectacular one-off Kirby mini-masterpieces also!
October 23, 2013
An excellent compilation of some of Jack Kirby's finest works with DC Comics. Yes, the dialogue is corny and over descriptive. But, for the era and the average age range of readers it was appropriate!
I highly recommend this to any Jack Kirby fan and fans of the classics all round!
I highly recommend this to any Jack Kirby fan and fans of the classics all round!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews