Tales of the New Gods

An eclectic collection of stories featuring Jack Kirby's Fourth World. Some of the tales were originally explored by the King himself whereas others expound or even completely develop some the origins of the various background characters that inhabit New Genesis and Apokolips. Featuring the awesome writing and artistic talents of John Byrne, Mark Evanier, Frank Miller, Steve Rude, Art Adams, and dozens more, this is a volume you don't want to miss.

    The episodes in the volume were originally printed in Mister Miracle Special, Jack Kirby's Fourth World, and Orion. That in no way means that you shouldn't collect Fourth World or Orion because with the exception of the Mister Miracle Special, the other chapters reprinted here were backup features to those titles. If you was to omit them from your collection would mean that you would be missing out on two dynamic titles from the 90s as each story is only about 4-8 pages long (and the titles Tales of the New Gods were contained are about 4 times more in length.) So if you were to find Orion or Fourth World in a dollar box or cheaper, you would still be making a wise investment in completing your Fourth World collection.

    I knew about this when I bought this book at a used bookstore a while back. I was so desperate to read more adventures about the New Gods, that I gladly shelled out some hard earned cash knowing very well, I will probably sell this book once I collect the previously mention titles that contain these legends.

    If you are new to Kirby's Fourth World, I strongly encourage this book as a primer. Some of Kirby's work isn't easy to dig into, particularly New Gods. This work is the perfect way to learn of the backstory of such important characters like Darkseid, Highfather, and the Infinity Man; all of which Kirby plotted out their origins but never got around to diving into in his Fourth World titles in the 70s as the entire line was cancelled in less than 2 years due to poor sales.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.