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This story originally ran in 2017, when Joss Whedons version ofJustice Leaguehit theaters.
Yknow, the late Jack Kirby told his assistant, Steve Sherman, Im competing against myself.
But Sherman recalls the so-called King of Comics feeling dissatisfied at age 52.
In that year, Kirby jumped ship from Marvel and made a much-ballyhooed arrival at its blood-rival, DC.
The word from high is THE GREAT ONE IS COMING, read the companys house ads.
Things!So powerful in concept its almost terrifying!
That narrative bore an odd-but-memorable umbrella name: the Fourth World.
It was the first great work of auteurism in superhero fiction.
It was the biggest swing ever taken by historys greatest superhero storyteller.
And it became his most epic failure.
The unfinished status of the Fourth World is one of the great tragedies of comics.
Nevertheless, the Fourth World has had a remarkable afterlife, popping up in DC stories with increasing frequency.
Now, its being enshrined on the big screen.
But the ride it took to get there was as bumpy as any in comics history.
Indeed, it was a matter of a professional creator receiving proper recognition for the sweat of his brow.
Kirby had ideas about stories featuring these new gods, but was reticent to tell them.
No additional pay, no special credit.
- That didnt sit well with Kirby.
He remained at Marvel, glum but driven.
Infantino was awed and told Kirby he was game to bring the projects to DC.
Never again would he play the under-credited second fiddle.
Im gonna leave Marvel for DC.
He wanted to take comics further than they had gone, says Sherman.
He had seen European comics that had come out in printed hardback editions and he wanted to do that.
He wanted to do different stories.
He had also seen the contemporary love shown for J.R.R.
It, too, would be part of the nascent Fourth World.
When you flipped it open youd see on the first page that Kirby was billed as writer and artist.
The lack of credit and recognition that haunted him at Marvel was banished.
But new curses appeared at DC right away.
Some points of contention were small; others, large.
Internal creative fervor and external corporate pressure made for a potent combination.
And this wasnt even the original Legion; it was their kids.
To make matters worse, Kirby had no ear for naturalistic dialogue: Kill!
Destroy!I have beenprogrammedby the forces whocreatedme, toeliminatewhatever lies before me!You must die!
It was a hard pill to swallow.
But the introductory issues were often stunning in their grandeur.
Theres no better example thanThe New GodsNo.
1, which has one of the all-time-great first pages.
The noble perished, locked in battle with unleashed evil!
It was thelastday for them!
An ancient era waspassinginfieryholocaust!
Two new worlds were formed and populated by gods: heavenly New Genesis and satanic Apokolips.
(His real name was Scott Free,har har.)
Reaction to this cavalcade of new and oft-bewildering stuff was, as you might expect, mixed.
Jack Kirby, writer, is as good as Jack Kirby, artist …
In summary, may I say that youve got a great mag?
Keep up the great work, read a letter published inThe New GodsNo.
Alternatively, dig this line from a missive published inJimmy OlsenNo.
The Wild Area bit was terrible, and Jimmys new attitude especially toward Supie is lousy.
Debate over its merits rages on to this day, even among Kirby superfans.
I think Jack, without the constraining influence of Stan, was almost too …
I mean, he needed that constraining influence.
The feet of his work never touched the ground.
The results were impressive, and quite boring.
That said, there are those in high creative places who swear by the stuff.
Just that sentence really captured my imagination, and I just loved that stuff so much.
I became a confirmed Kirbyite.
They reached their apogee in three consecutive issues ofThe New Gods, numbers six through eight.
No one drew like Kirby, and Kirby never drew better.
It wasnt enough for DC.
Sales were fine, but Kirby was supposed to be better than fine.
They wanted it to really knock the block off Marvel when they got Jack, Evanier recalls.
Lets put it this way: He was not nearly as good a writer as he was an artist.
His run onJimmy Olsenwas to end, as well.
Kirby went to tell Evanier and Sherman what had just happened.
It was one of the worst moments of his life that I ever witnessed, Evanier recalls.
He looked like a guy who had been punched repeatedly in the face.
A momentstirs!A momentlives!A momentpasses on!
read narration in the final page ofThe Forever People.
Will they return someday?
Destiny will answer this question, too!
For the remainder of Kirbys time at DC, destinys answer was mostly just, No.
He dutifully didThe DemonandKamandiuntil they, too, were canceled.
He did a short-lived series calledO.M.A.C., short for One Man Army Corps.
He did war stories.
He did a single issue of a story about a barbarian warrior named Atlas.
He revived an old Simon/Kirby character called the Sandman.
HisKamandirun went 37 issues, but nothing else survived very long.
As an artist, he wasnt being put on anything that made a difference.
It didnt feel like that could last.
But the failure wasnt total or permanent.
By that point, Levitz was a senior official at the publisher.
That taste hes referring to was a sharing of revenue for the characters he created.
Someday,New Godswill be a hit, he said near the end of his life.
That was yet another example of Kirby seeing the future.
King is well aware that the series antecedent is an uphill climb.
People ask me, What do I need to read to prepare for yourMister Miracle?
It would be nice if I could just say, Go back and read the originalMister Miracle.
But if you straight read it, its like sticking your head into the id of the country.
Its like you get drowned under the ideas of it.
Jack Kirbys writing is not the subtlety of Hemingway, its the scream of myth.
He did not want people to imitate his style.
He wanted them to imitate his way of thinking and to take it and do something new.
Kirby may have been competing with himself, but to this day, no one quite competes with Kirby.
