World Famous Comics: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 3
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 3
By: Jack Kirby, Mike Royer By: Jack Kirby Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 396 Publication Date: November 07, 2007 Reading Level: Young Adult Release Date: November 07, 2007
In Volume III, Kirby's best work on the Fourth World appears. Even Jimmy Olsen picks up due to Royer's inks adding a sense of action formerly missing. This is the volume where Kirby hits his peak and all of the books reach high points in both story and art. Jimmy Olsen- "Caveman" Jimmy seems to be throwback to the old Jimmy Olsen stories where strange things would happen to him issue after issue. It is a fun bit, but the highlight of the entire run appears in this volume. "Superman in Supertown" finds the man of steel in New Genesis, seeing what life might be like in a place where his power is not needed to constantly save the day. Although he decides to return to help Jimmy and the Newsboys, I think while the dialogue firmly makes the reader think Superman wants to go back, there is a body language message of how relaxed Superman could find himself in this realm where everyone has power and few need defense from the universe's dangers. The Forever People- Starting off with a history lesson as The Forever People return from various points in Earth's history, including the Lincoln assassination (where of course they can't stop it), Serifan's stand off against the minions of evil and then tricking Darkseid out of finally gaining control of the anti-life equation, The forever people starts well but falls off drastically by the forced use of Deadman for two issues. It would be hard to imagine a worse combination and as you can imagine it doesn't work at all. Mister Miracle- Finally Mr. Miracle confronts his early tormentor Granny Goodness and the readers get to see how the war between New Genesis and Apokolips began when "The Pact" (more on that later) was broken in "Himon." These stories move the concepts behind the series along and provide some opportunity for the characters of Scott Free and his love Big Barda develop and creates an emotional setting that the other books lack. The New Gods- This book continues to be the cornerstone of Kirby's Fourth World. "The Pact" a story that shows how the peace was first brokered between New Genesis and Apokolips is a wonderful example of the scope of Kirby's storytelling. The art and epic scope of the story remains one of Kirby's strongest and when combined with "The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin" and "The Bug" they make up Kirby's strongest string of books in the series. The art and story were now firing on all cylinders and just as the book was reaching its beast the end was looming. This is the last book where the true Kirby effort was coming through. Jimmy Olsen was mercifully ended, albeit with the best story in the series and the other books, with the exception of Mr. Miracle were on their way out. This volume gives you a hint of what might have been accomplished if Kirby was bale to continue unfettered, but this was not to be.
A Collection of the Very Best! Any fan of the late Jack Kirby should treasure this volume. It includes some of the very best stories ever produced by Mr. Kirby and the volume itself is beautifully reproduced. Hats off to DC for doing such a fine job.
among the best work KIRBY ever produced. the blurring problem mentioned in the above review (by AGONISTES) is NOT PRESENT in the copy of JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 3 that i have just received from amazon. the book seems to be mistake free for once. along with FANTASTIC FOUR, THOR and some other great stuff for MARVEL, this series represents some of the best work KIRBY ever did. the stories, written by KIRBY are very wild and reflect the scope of the KING'S imagination and the wild times in which they were written. the artwork as always with KIRBY is fantastic. originally some, including myself were very unhappy with the form in which these reprints where presented. over time and 3 volumes i've come to like this format more and more. the artwork looks very much like the original comic books and the color reconstruction is excellent. when KIRBY moved to DC for a time he was allowed to do whatever he wanted. the results (this series) are among the very best comic books KIRBY ever produced. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Some minor problems I noticed that pgs 69-76 were printed slightly out of focus. This is a problem that I've come across many times during 20 yrs of comic collecting. I sent it back and the replacement had the same problem. If the whole batch is like that then I guess I'd rather have the book w/ the out of focus pgs than not at all. The story that contains this error is "The Pact" from New Gods, one of the best issues of the whole series unfortunately. Also, the index lists that Mister Miracle #10 is included as the last story on pgs 379-401. The story isn't included at all. The stories in the book end on pg 378. This problem I consider minor as well and I'm sure we'll get MM#10 in Vol. 4. As for the content, I think it's all up to the standards of Vols. 1+2. Great stuff!
Anything Goes Trivia
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