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Orion (2000) #3-4, 6-8, 10, 12, 15, 18-19
Tales of the New Gods
In 1970, after years of unforgettable work on The Fantastic Four, The Hulk and other super-heroes, legendary comic book writer/artist Jack Kirby came to DC Comics to introduce a new set of characters: The New Gods.These heroes waged an epic cosmic battle and inspired numerous other comics creators.The best of those stories are collected in TALES OF THE NEW GODS. Darkseid, Orion, Mister Miracle and many other members of the New Gods cast star in these tales by the leading lights of todays comics scene, including Frank Miller (Sin City, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS), Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN), Jim Lee (BATMAN, SUPERMAN), Jeph Loeb (BATMAN), Eddie Campbell (From Hell) and many others, who bring their own unique visions to these iconic heroes.
Collects stories from Mister Miracle Special, Jack Kirby's Fourth World #2-11, and Orion #3-4, #6-8, #10, #12, #15, #18-19.
Collects stories from Mister Miracle Special, Jack Kirby's Fourth World #2-11, and Orion #3-4, #6-8, #10, #12, #15, #18-19.
207 pages, Paperback
First published January 23, 2008
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,959 books360 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 11, 2018
Jack Kirby's artwork and stories, has always been unique. He has many other stories under his belt and comic books. One may have enjoyed his Kamandi series, the Eternals, and of course the new gods. He works both at DC Comic and Marvel. Many of the comic books are based in science fiction.
The new gods are no exception. This particular book annoys me in the sense that even though it is tales of the new gods, the deals more wood background stories of Apokolips than New Genesis. It would have been more interesting if there would be a balance between both of the fourth world.
The new gods are no exception. This particular book annoys me in the sense that even though it is tales of the new gods, the deals more wood background stories of Apokolips than New Genesis. It would have been more interesting if there would be a balance between both of the fourth world.
August 3, 2017
A good introduction to these godly characters from the DC Universe. They were unknown to me until now, with the exception of Darkseid and Steppenwolf.
The origin of how Darkseid came to be, is illustrated in this volume. I found the personality of Darkseid conflicting with how most villains ought to be. He is evil, but sometimes spares his enemies, if reasoned well.
The origin of how Darkseid came to be, is illustrated in this volume. I found the personality of Darkseid conflicting with how most villains ought to be. He is evil, but sometimes spares his enemies, if reasoned well.
April 25, 2018
No one will ever be Jack Kirby. Heck, on some books even he wasn't so "Jack Kirvy" as I would like!
Jack Kirby's Fourth World was a 90s attempt to make a go at it with top-tier talent that had a true love of the material and respect for Kirby. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't so much.
This collection is a mixed bag. It features mostly backup stories, which makes it a nice anthology, but you don't get much of an overarching narrative. Check out the credits for all the great talents who contributed and you'll definitely want to give this a try.
I have more thoughts on my blog at www.getoffmylongbox.wordpress.com/in-...
Jack Kirby's Fourth World was a 90s attempt to make a go at it with top-tier talent that had a true love of the material and respect for Kirby. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't so much.
This collection is a mixed bag. It features mostly backup stories, which makes it a nice anthology, but you don't get much of an overarching narrative. Check out the credits for all the great talents who contributed and you'll definitely want to give this a try.
I have more thoughts on my blog at www.getoffmylongbox.wordpress.com/in-...
March 16, 2017
A lot of nice ideas totally wasted with unsteady writing, slow and uneven pacing, inconcluse plots, tons of useless characters and irrelevancy regarding other DC titles. What a waste of good material.
January 15, 2025
In my 2024-2025 Fourth World reread, I'm adding a star to this from my previous assessment. It stands at three stars now.
Most of what I wrote below still stands - Mister Miracle Special is great fun, and all the Simonson stuff is perfect, including most of the tales by someone other than Walter (although the Loeb/Liefeld tale was utterly pointless). The Millar/Ditko missive didn't land. The extra star, however, comes from reassessing John Byrne's contributions. I still think his "young Scott Free" tales didn't add anything to the mythos and the couple stories Ron Wagner drew (quite well) were meaningless. However, I did enjoy the "Victorian soap opera" of Darkseid's origin and his connection to the Infinity Man this time around. Maybe in a decade I'll read it all again and turn back against this little backstory melodrama, but this time through, it was an interesting wrinkle to the characters' histories.
+++++++++++++
Short Fourth World stories from four separate creative moments:
1. Mister Miracle Special, by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude, is well paced and shows powerfully warm affection for the characters and concepts. Rude's art is terrific, as usual. Evanier's script doesn't have any of Kirby's power or majesty, but it's still a nice story about Scott and Barda's relationship.
2. Back-up stories from John Byrne's run on Jack Kirby's Fourth World, mostly written and drawn by Byrne, with a couple drawn by Ron Wagner. It's deadly dull stuff; somewhere along the line, Byrne seems to have gotten obsessed with filling in moments of continuity that don't need filled in. His Golden Age Wonder Woman arc in Wonder Woman; X-Men: Lost Years; Spider-Man: Chapter One. Here he spins a few pointless yarns about Scott Free's days in olden-time London and the American West, and turns the histories of Darkseid and the Infinity Man into Victorian soap opera. Byrne also revisits Forever People #1 and Kirby's final Jimmy Olsen issue, and shoehorns in New Gods #1, from Superman's perspective, and though it all dovetails into a cohesive story effectively, Byrne doesn't add anything of note to the original, superior Kirby comics. Yech.
3. Back-ups from Walt Simonson's Orion run, including a four-part Kanto origin with art and writing by Simonson that ran in Byrne's JK4W (for which Simonson did covers). These short stories are better (except, predictably, the Loeb/Liefeld collaboration), though they're still just snippets of a larger picture and lose the impact of seeing them in the context of Simonson's unfolding epic in the main storyline. Simonson writes all the shorts, except one each from Eric Stephenson, Jeph Loeb and Kevin McCarthy. Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons, Erik Larson, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, John Paul Leon, Eddie Campbell and Allen Milgrom draw, so most of them look very good. But a couple of them do not.
4. A strange Mark Millar/Steve Ditko short story about Granny Goodness and Desaad preparing Darkseid's birthday gift. I have no idea where this story first appeared, if it appeared at all. Kind of amusing, but as with all of the non-Simonson stories, it doesn't have the scope and majesty to be truly Kirbyian.
Most of what I wrote below still stands - Mister Miracle Special is great fun, and all the Simonson stuff is perfect, including most of the tales by someone other than Walter (although the Loeb/Liefeld tale was utterly pointless). The Millar/Ditko missive didn't land. The extra star, however, comes from reassessing John Byrne's contributions. I still think his "young Scott Free" tales didn't add anything to the mythos and the couple stories Ron Wagner drew (quite well) were meaningless. However, I did enjoy the "Victorian soap opera" of Darkseid's origin and his connection to the Infinity Man this time around. Maybe in a decade I'll read it all again and turn back against this little backstory melodrama, but this time through, it was an interesting wrinkle to the characters' histories.
+++++++++++++
Short Fourth World stories from four separate creative moments:
1. Mister Miracle Special, by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude, is well paced and shows powerfully warm affection for the characters and concepts. Rude's art is terrific, as usual. Evanier's script doesn't have any of Kirby's power or majesty, but it's still a nice story about Scott and Barda's relationship.
2. Back-up stories from John Byrne's run on Jack Kirby's Fourth World, mostly written and drawn by Byrne, with a couple drawn by Ron Wagner. It's deadly dull stuff; somewhere along the line, Byrne seems to have gotten obsessed with filling in moments of continuity that don't need filled in. His Golden Age Wonder Woman arc in Wonder Woman; X-Men: Lost Years; Spider-Man: Chapter One. Here he spins a few pointless yarns about Scott Free's days in olden-time London and the American West, and turns the histories of Darkseid and the Infinity Man into Victorian soap opera. Byrne also revisits Forever People #1 and Kirby's final Jimmy Olsen issue, and shoehorns in New Gods #1, from Superman's perspective, and though it all dovetails into a cohesive story effectively, Byrne doesn't add anything of note to the original, superior Kirby comics. Yech.
3. Back-ups from Walt Simonson's Orion run, including a four-part Kanto origin with art and writing by Simonson that ran in Byrne's JK4W (for which Simonson did covers). These short stories are better (except, predictably, the Loeb/Liefeld collaboration), though they're still just snippets of a larger picture and lose the impact of seeing them in the context of Simonson's unfolding epic in the main storyline. Simonson writes all the shorts, except one each from Eric Stephenson, Jeph Loeb and Kevin McCarthy. Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons, Erik Larson, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, John Paul Leon, Eddie Campbell and Allen Milgrom draw, so most of them look very good. But a couple of them do not.
4. A strange Mark Millar/Steve Ditko short story about Granny Goodness and Desaad preparing Darkseid's birthday gift. I have no idea where this story first appeared, if it appeared at all. Kind of amusing, but as with all of the non-Simonson stories, it doesn't have the scope and majesty to be truly Kirbyian.
December 2, 2010
This would have been 5 stars if it were just the first Steve Rude 42 page Mr. Miracle story at the beginning but then there are 108 pages of John Byrne utter shit to crawl through to get to the last 50 pages of really great material if you forget the Liefeld and the Mark Millar/Steve Ditko (sorry but the Millar/Ditko story looks and reads like shit) turds so out of 207 pages you get 70 pages of good to greatness and nearly 130 pages of junk. It is worth $20 just to own the Rude story in a bound book. Instead of this John Byrne garbage why didn't they just collect the great Walt Simonson Orion issues that these turds were backup's in?
May 30, 2009
All the art except for Rob Liefeld's junk is good. The stories are unsteady. Byrne's stories are overwrought and overthought. Walt Simonson's are like Kirby would have liked them.
April 8, 2014
Garbage!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews