Initial 1970s comics 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. 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. As author Marc Flores, who writes under the
pen name Ronin Ro, described: '' #1 (April 1971), cover art by
Jack Kirby and
Vince Colletta. "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.
Origin of the name 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".
1984 reprint series In 1984, DC Comics reprinted Jack Kirby's original 11 issues of
The New Gods in a six-issue limited series. The first five issues each reprinted two consecutive issues of the original series. The mini-series' final issue was originally intended to include a reprint of
New Gods vol. 1 #11 and a new 24-page story which would conclude the series and end with both Darkseid and Orion dead. DC editors prevented Kirby from using his original intended ending. Kirby instead turned in a one-off story called "On the Road to Armagetto" which was rejected as well, due to the fact that it did not contain a definitive ending to the series. It incorporated several pages from the unpublished "On the Road to Armagetto" story and brought Kirby's
New Gods series to a close as the "hunger dogs", the citizens of Apokolips, overthrow Darkseid.
Later revivals Concurrent with DC's
New Gods reprint series in 1984, Kirby worked on two
Super Powers comic book limited series for DC Comics in which he continued the Fourth World characters and mythology. A
Forever People miniseries was published in 1988. Mister Miracle was featured in
Justice League International by
J. M. DeMatteis and
Keith Giffen and a series of his own written by DeMatteis. The Fourth World characters were prominently featured in
Cosmic Odyssey, which led to a third
New Gods series (February 1989 – August 1991), written by Mark Evanier, which fleshed out details about the history of many New Gods, most notably introducing Darkseid's father Yuga Khan. A fourth
New Gods series was launched in October 1995, and a third
Mister Miracle series in April 1996. Both of these were replaced in March 1997 by the ''Jack Kirby's Fourth World
series, written and drawn by John Byrne. Walt Simonson wrote and drew an Orion'' solo series from June 2000 to June 2002. Writer
Grant Morrison used some of the Fourth World mythology in various titles they worked on, including their run on
JLA, with Orion and
Big Barda becoming members, and in the
Seven Soldiers metaseries, in which the New Gods, especially
Mister Miracle, played a major role. They are seen creating
Aurakles, the first superhero. The
Death of the New Gods limited series (October 2007 – April 2008) was written and drawn by
Jim Starlin.
Final Crisis brought about the end of the Fourth World and the dawn of the Fifth as Darkseid was destroyed and several New Gods are resurrected. With the
reboot of the DC Universe following
Flashpoint, the deaths of the New Gods and Darkseid have been removed from canon and the characters are still active. In particular, Darkseid and his uncle
Steppenwolf and their attacks on the main DC Universe and
Earth 2 play a major role in the rise of the superheroes: the Earth-2 versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman die fighting Steppenwolf while the Earth-1 Justice League forms to fight Darkseid and thwart his invasion of Earth. A New 52 version of the Forever People debuted in the
Infinity Man and the Forever People series. Serifan is now Serafina, Vykin's sister, and Beautiful Dreamer has been renamed Dreamer Beautiful. ==Fifth World==