“N” Is For …
… The New Gods! (1971)
I’m going to cheat a bit here and include all of Kirby’s Fourth World under this entry. The New Gods is very good on its own, but it gets even better when you mix in the rest of Kirby’s Fourth World work into a single story (particularly Mister Miracle, another favorite book that got caught up in yesterday’s pile-up).
My hardcover copies of DC’s four-volume Fourth World Omnibus is one of the prize parts of my collection — not because they are especially valueable (though they may well be) but because I delight in taking them down from the shelf more than any other collection. I do a cover-to-cover re-read once every couple years, and I always find something new. I also drop in for a story or two in between my re-reads, and am always thrilled to spend an evening with Terrible Turpin, or revisiting The Pact. Truly, this is a series that burns off more incredible ideas on a single page than many books realize in a run of a hundred issues or more. Just genius.
Tell me a better “N” book, I dare you!
Honorable Mentions:
- Nova (1976)
- The New Teen Titans (1980)
- Nexus (1981)
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Posted on February 15, 2018, in Comics A-To-Z and tagged New Gods. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
I was always a fan of the New Mutants. Mainly the graphic novel and first issues. It became a little crazy in later issues.
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I was hoping someone would raise their hand for New Mutants. I have kind of a blind spot when it comes to X-book outside of Uncanny. Is New Mutants worth hunting up on Marvel Unlimited? What’s the best part of the run?
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My vote has to go with Nova, one of my Marvel favorite characters. I was too old to be around when Spider-man came out so for me, Nova was a teenage character that I could follow from issue #1 and call my own. (Loved me those #1s!) That first cover is fantastic! I also enjoyed the few Kirby covers we got. Not so great was the supporting cast including an annoying little brother genius who invented a detective robot. Also not great was the art in later issues (Carmine I’m looking at you).
I loved being in the inside from the ground floor. The rogues gallery was good: Sphinx (!), DiamondHead, Condor, Powerhouse. Yes, the origin was a copy of Green Lantern, but I did not care.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the everything Kirby and especially the Fourth World. I do not have the Omnibus editions but the softcovers that contain all of the stories. So awesome! I did not read any of this at the time it came out to be honest, except maybe little Mr Miracle.
My runner up would be the New Warriors, one of the few books I continued to read while in college. Of course, one major attraction was the inclusion off my man Nova in that group!
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I went all-in for Nova, too. I bought into that promie of “jumping on” for a new Silver Age-style superhero. I remember Marv Wolfman in effect saying he was going to clone early Spider-Man but bring it up to date for the 1970s. I had the first eighteen or so issues in my collection but they didn’t survive my Purge. I recall that the art (Sal Buscema?) was underwhelming.
(I also didn’t not read Fourth World as it came out — my DC blind spot, again — but I invoke the Rules of Nostalgia and declare myself an Original Fan).
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I’ve read the Kirby new Gods issues, and it is quite good, but I have to give my “N” crown to the New Teen Titans! I thought the New Mutants was pretty good for the first 17 issues, until Bill Sienkiewicz came on board, then it became almost unreadable for me.
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Hard to advise against New Teen Titans. Felt like the last Silver Age book to me (though it ran during the Bronze). In NTT I feel like Marv Wolfman was able to build the kind of nostalgic boon he tried to make with Nova at Marvel. Probably George Perez’s signature work, too.
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I agree about it being Perez’s signature work. When I think George Perez, NTT is the first thing that pops into my head.
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It is the nice, long, consistent run that makes it so. Perez did great work on Avengers and FF at Marvel (and I think that FF work was also with Wolfman?), but he never managed the kind of long run that he had on Titans. Don’t know if that was due to editorial or whatever, but Marvel really missed a chance to get him locked in.
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Yes, the New Gods / Fourth World by Jack Kirby is a huge favorite of mine!
By the way, along these lines, the upcoming Back Issue #104 from TwoMorrows Publishing takes a look at “The Fourth World After Kirby.” I wrote an article for this issue, examining the Forever People miniseries by J.M. DeMatteis & Paris Cullis that came out in 1987…
http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1354
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Nice, Ben, thanks for the link!
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Loved this
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