DC Graphic Novel #4 (1985)
by Jack Kirby
We have reached the last comic in the Fourth World retrospective.
This was actually my first exposure to it, and the second time I ever read a comic book featuring Darkseid, after the Great Darkness Saga.
It’s been at least 33 years since I’ve read this Graphic Novel; I don’t recall ever reading it a second time… I was really unimpressed with it.
Mostly because I couldn’t understand anything of what was going on at the time.
But now, after going through all Kirby’s stories in the Fourth World AND reading his earlier attempt at continuing the original work… will Kirby finally, FINALLY give us a good finale?
We begin in Apokolips, where the titular Hunger Dogs… the lowest class of the planet… are rebelling.
This is not a surprise to Darkseid, who laments the loss of the good old days where people were terrified of his regime.
I think Darkseid is disappointed that technology is now advanced enough to keep his subjects in line without the need to terrify them.
Which is a weird but interesting perspective to explore, to be sure, but this results in really cheapening Darkseid’s role as the force of evil he was supposed to be… he’s supposed to be the absolute tyrant of Apokolips, but people under his command keep doing stuff on their own even if he disagrees.
I mean… I understand the wish to highlight the nobility in the villain, but… I still have a really hard time believing Darkseid has moral objections against war crimes.
Also Darkseid needs to be TOLD that the bad guys have the advantage of lacking a conscience!?
This is a direct sequel to New Gods vol2 #6: that one ended with Orion being shot and thrown into the fire pits, and this one starts with his return.
Himon, who we previously saw only in the Mister Miracle series, is also back. He’ll be a MAJOR figure in this story.
We also meet Himon’s daughter Bekka, who is in love with Orion.
Must be his hair.
I’ve been VERY harsh on Kirby’s pencils in his previous story, but credit where it’s due, he does get better here.
You can see this clearly in one of the few two-page spreads of this book (there’s only two of them).
Darkseid walking on a literal red carpet while surrounded by his abused subjects is a terrific image.
This is REALLY selling what a nightmarish place Apokolips is.
Continuing Darkseid’s distrust of technology, his generals introduce him to the Micro-Mark™: a device capable of mind control on a universal scale, without the need of the Anti-Life Equation.
I think, at least. Like most of the Fourth World, this comic can be incredibly simplistic on one panel and the one right next to it gets incomprehensible.
Wait, so now he LIKES the technology? I’m already lost.
Wait, no, the Micro-Mark™ is a weapon of mass destruction? So he was talking metaphorically about replicating the effects of the Anti-Life Equation?
Whatever the Micro-Mark™ is, Himon is able to spoff into Darkseid’s base and steal it.
If your story was your first exposure to the Fourth World, you would think that Himon’s battles with Darkseid were the main focus… whereas Himon is BARELY present in the 70s comics.
As mentioned this WAS my first exposure, and yet I completely forgot Himon’s existence.
Darkseid is being outmaneuvered by Himon to an absurd degree here.
Yeah if you are used to Darkseid’s current role as “Evil God Batman”, or even his powerful presence in the 70s comics, this is a VERY disappointing interpretation of the character.
Things are happening AROUND him, but he’s clearly not the one calling the shots.
Is… is Kirby trying to make us feel sad FOR DARKSEID???
In any other comic, you would expect Darkseid to be the one behind the Micro-Mark™ self-destructing in Himon’s hands… but this is entirely the work of his anonymous generals: Darkseid played no part.
Remember how Kirby did a couple of two-page mini-stories featuring Lonar?
I won’t blame you if you don’t, considering Lonar was a non-character even more so than all the other New Gods… which is saying something.
He’s been summoned by Highfather now, arriving in a very dignified manner.
He also decided to do some Thor cosplay with that helmet.
The emergency is that Darkseid is using Boom Tubes to bring pollution to New Genesis.
I would be more worried about THOSE ANNOYING QUOTATION MARKS that keep infecting your dialogue!!!
Say what you will about Apokolips, but they have a killer delivery service.
By studying the places where he’s found other bombs, Highfather is able to locate their exact point of origin.
So the Micro-Mark™ is manufacturing doomsday weapons in an assembly line? I still have no idea what the earlier scenes fit with that, but Kirby is definitely going for a Cold War metaphor here.
I typically follow the old-fashioned dialogue by the New Gods (or the Asgardians) just fine, but these two panels were utterly incomprehensible to me… to the point that I had to look at the translated version to understand what Lightray is saying.
Serious question for my native-English-speaking readers: do you also have trouble following the dialogue here? Or is this a language barrier thing?
Then Lightray Human Torches it.
He encounters a little more resistance than usual, but he’s able to get through the planet’s defenses when he goes nova.
I keep telling you: DC should make these two a romantic couple. Don’t tell me there’s no chemistry!
And then Bekka shows up to offer them some light to drink. Because that’s a thing now.
Some robots show up to grattch the heroes, and Kirby once again experiments with some creative layouts.
Lightray manages to reprogram the robots to follow his commands.
Again with the theme of Darkseid industrializing his army.
And that was Lightray’s contribution to the story.
In case you think I’m reading too much into Orion and Lightray being lovers:
I really don’t get this whole theme of Darkseid against industrialization or whatever it is.
I get the feeling Kirby is sincerely trying to say something, but to me it’s lost beneath all the New Gods trappings.
Also we’re at about the halfway point of the book now. We’re BARELY past the premise!
Darkseid is executing an increasing number of his subjects to test the Micro-Mark™, which might be the last straw for the Hunger Dogs.
Since Orion is helping in the fight, he’s hailed as a hero.
Hey he may suck as a protagonist, but sometimes he gets results.
Darkseid is too busy sitting on his chair to actually be in command of his own planet.
To be fair, sitting on chairs is his thing.
We finally meet the creator of this new technology: Esak, who despite looking like some weird alien is actually from New Genesis.
Who apparently defected because he wasn’t allowed to kill himself.
Now THIS is an incredible premise!!! A god who wants to die because of his deformity is denied a suicide ends up betraying the good gods and goes to work with the evil gods! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a story like that, and it’s utterly infuriating that Kirby comes up with this amazing gem of a concept… and then buries it within an uninspired story!!!
Just hearing the NAME Orion makes Darkseid flee!!! This is consistent with his previous appearance, where he BARELY stood up to his son… but this is quite pathetic for DC’s Big Bad Guy.
I just hope that this Neverending Orion Rampage doesn’t last for 30 pages like last time.
Again: Kirby is definitely TRYING to say something here. Not really sure WHAT, though.
Esak is actually a character we’ve seen before…
…but I don’t blame you if you didn’t recognize him.
The kid god was abandoned by Metron and ended up disfigured through some kind of accident.
Too bad for him that Orion is basically unstoppable in these stories.
All because he’s powered by anger. I can’t understand whether Kirby is trying to say that anger is bad, or that it’s good, or if he’s not saying anything and this is just a literary Rorschach test.
If you think this stuff is deep, more power to you.
I think it’s so shallow that it goes back to being deep and then shallow again.
Without Lighray around, will Orion eventually notice Bekka?
Well… yes and no. He does have feelings for her, but believes he’s too ugly to be loved.
Did you think I was joking when I said it was the hair?
Orion even reveals his true, terrifying, monstrous face… which I remind you is just his regular face with bushy eyebrows.
What Kirby is going for: “She loves him despite his monstrous appearance”.
What I get from this: “He could just trim his eyebrows”.
The fact that Orion is getting SOME character development is clearly a sign of the apocalypse, because the world starts to break.
And then NEW GENESIS BLOWS UP.
Well no wonder it couldn’t last, it was apparently filled with random junk.
This is the only Kirby Collage in color that I’ve ever seen in print… and I still think this sucks.
You mean to tell me JACK KIRBY wouldn’t have been able to draw something more epic???
You might think it was Darkseid’s weapons that did it, but even if that was the case it wasn’t his decision: HIGHFATHER blew up the planet.
Which isn’t as big as a deal as you’d think, considering that all the New Gods live in a flying city.
One bit that I really like is that Highfather doesn’t retaliate. He just instilled into his enemy’s mind the possibility that their own weapons might accidentally blow up Apokolips too.
Again, this is definitely a Cold War parallel, and this time Kirby does manage to say SOMETHING.
I don’t think that something was “the US show blow itself up to show to the USSR that nukes are bad”, but still, SOMETHING.
Okay Darkseid running away from Orion is one thing. But now he’s running away from regular people!
Yeah things have gone past the point of no return for the regime.
As everything he’s ever built falls around him, Darkseid still has one mission…
…kill Himon.
Orion even manages to rescue his mother, who AGAIN doesn’t get a single line.
And so Darkseid is left watching Orion leave Apokolips…
…right before his planet is left scarred by one of his bombs exploding.
Still, this leaves the New Gods without a planet.
Dude, NOTHING in this ENTIRE retrospective has EVER been “consistently clear and logical”!!!
That’s the last we see of the New Gods. I have no idea who Highfather is talking to.
The comic ends reminding us that Metron exists…
…and has recovered a lifeless planet, presumably to bring it to the New Gods where they can have other adventures.
Splash pages: 9 out of 62 (15%)
Splash + double splash pages: 13 out of 62 (21%)
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Does he actually eat light or is he being metaphorical? They’re equally plausible in this world.
Historical significance: ???/10
This is technically a pre-Crisis story, and Darkseid shows up in Crisis without any indication that Apokolips has been seriously damaged or that his reign is in ruins.
Some post-Crisis stories acknowledge this story happened, but most skip it over.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Darkseid’s godliness has never been this low. He’s mostly interchangeable with any number of tyrants.
Does it stand the test of time?: 6/10
A massive improvement over Volume 2 #6, and to give Kirby credit: this is at least a finale.
It’s not particularly satisfying, but it does attempt to close some plots and give closure to some characters.
The artwork is still not to the same level of the original series (Darkseid in particular always looks off-model), but it’s another big improvement over its immediate predecessor.
As I have mentioned multiple times throughout the review, there are so many points where Kirby ALMOST gets to an interesting point… and then pivots to something else.
Orion is still deeply bland as a protagonist, but he’s not the real focus and neither is Darkseid.
The real main character is Apokolips itself, with how it’s crumbling from within even as it amasses more and more power.
If there’s one word I associate with this comic, it’s “old”. Not in the sense of it being old-fashioned, even though it undeniably is.
There’s an underlying theme of a deep distrust of the times changing: Darkseid doesn’t do anything to stop the new era and just reminisces about his glory days, Highfather reluctantly embraces it but at the cost of something he cherished, and Orion just breaks stuff.
I don’t think this was the direction Kirby had in mind for the 70s series, AT ALL, but in his own deeply confused way he did manage to get to an actual point.
I suspect that Kirby might not appreciate the modern interpretations of Darkseid as an actual force of nature, a super-god of evil evilness that even demons find terrifying, considering the finale he had in mind for Darkseid was him wasting time in a pointless revenge while his regime crumbled around him, unable to keep up with the times.
I don’t think Kirby was enough of a good writer to fully explore this angle, but credit where it’s due, he can sell the IDEA of this plot.
And that’s it for the reviews of this retrospective.
There’s still a few codas to this: we’re going through the God Awards, an analysis of Kirby’s use of splash pages (why do you think I kept track), and finally the Kirby Awards combining ALL his series.
It’s been an interesting journey to say the least, but I’m glad this is almost over… I’m kind of Kirbyed out at this point.
