New Gods Special #1

   It's wonderful to see the comics companies rolling out a lot of love and respect for Jack Kirby, the King of Comics, who helped create many of Marvel's greatest comics in the '60s, and then he moved over to DC and crafted characters and concepts that continue to shape that universe, too.

   This month marks his 100th birthday, so there are quite a few comics out honoring his legacy - like this one, the New Gods Special.

   It includes two new stories - both feature Orion, the powerful son of Darkseid who fights against his father and for New Genesis, and a six-page reprint of a story by the King.

    The second story by writer / artist Walt Simonson is a little gem, loaded with big monsters and some brief insights on Orion and the New God named Seagrin.

   The opening story by writer / artist Shane Davis and inker Michelle Delecki pits Orion against his monstrous brother Kalibak and features Lightray and Bug. It feels like a standard New Gods adventure until the final battle, which takes a surprisingly graphic and unsettling turn, with broken bones and blood flying.

   For a story intended to honor Kirby, that's not something Kirby would have done. His stories were loaded with action, adventure and powerful fights - but never (to my memory) ventured into the realm of graphic violence.

   I would have enjoyed this issue a lot more if it had done likewise.

Grade: B-

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Wonder Woman #16

I'm crunched for time today, gentle readers, so let me cut to the chase.

Wonder Woman is an outstanding comic, assuming you can get past the fact that it's violent and not at all suited for young readers.

The expanding story keeps building on the pantheon of gods and the conflict that has Diana trying to find a peaceful solution to an escalating war.

Add in the first "New 52" appearance of the New Gods (or to be more specific, Orion), and you've got a great read.

Terrific art, compelling story - well worth your time, if you don't mind a few buckets of blood (and other disturbing images).

Not for kids, but mature readers will enjoy it.

Grade: A-

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Wonder Woman #15

It's interesting that the New Gods have had such an impact on the DC Universe, yet most writers struggle with the heroic gods.

Darkseid and the other villains created by Jack Kirby have been folded into various DC Comics, but no one seems to know what to do with Orion and the other heroic New Gods.

But perhaps that's about to change, as this issue of Wonder Woman features the first appearance of Orion in the "New 52" (not including his cameo in the last page of issue #14).

The problem is that the characters aren't (you should excuse the phrase) from around here. Villains can be odd and monstrous, but we have to be able to identify with our heroes, and in the past the New Gods haven't given us much of that - they just show up and start hammering the bad guys.

This issue is a good step in the right direction, although it's a long way from explaining Orion's sudden appearance.

The story brings him directly into the mythology of the "New 52," as he seeks help from one of the gods who have taken up residence in the modern world - and that brings him into conflict with a certain Amazonian princess.

As always, a strong effort by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chiang. If they can figure out a way to make Orion work in the DC Universe, they'll have managed something no writer has managed.

Impressive!

Grade: A-

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The Classics - News Gods #7

To continue from where we left off with last week's Classics review, Jack Kirby rocked the comics industry in 1970 with the announcement that he was leaving Marvel and joining DC Comics.

When his New Gods comic debuted, I was shocked to find that I wasn't that crazy about it. Today, of course, it's acknowledged as a masterpiece - but I didn't catch on to that until I picked up this issue.

The previous six issues had focused on Orion and his battles with evil threats from Apokolips - so imagine my surprise when I opened this issue and found a completely different story.

This issue, titled "The Pact," gave us what we had been missing - an origin story!

I'm a big fan of origin stories, myself (with rare exceptions) - they're the foundation for all future stories involving the characters.

We didn't really have one for the New Gods, other than the basic setup of two worlds inhabited by powerful beings - one good and one evil.

But here we meet Highfather when he was a warrior named Izaya, and we get more insight into Darkseid (nothing less than the greatest villain in DC history), his rise to power and the clever plans he sets in motion for his own purposes.

It's a tale that is very personal, as Izaya suffers a terrible loss, seeks redemption, and we learn about the fate of two young boys and how they brought an end to a destructive war.

It's also a story that works on a cosmic scale, as an incredible battle rages between two god-like races, with the only limits being that of Kirby's imagination (in other words, there are no limits).

Kirby's art features a raw power that had never really been seen before, as he used Mike Royer to faithfully ink his pencils, staying as close as possible to his original art.

It's an amazing, staggering bit of work - all the more impressive for being contained in a single, 24-page story.

But this is the story that made clear the epic nature of the story Kirby was telling - a story that spilled across four comics - New Gods, Mr. Miracle, The Forever People and (believe it or not) Jimmy Olsen.

Oh, some issues didn't live up to this one, but with the origin told, Kirby's saga took off - and I was hooked but good.

Sadly, within the next year DC would pull the plug on the New Gods series, and Kirby would move on to other creations. But he could point to this issue as the high water mark in the series.

The sudden cancellation was almost as shocking as Kirby's move to DC, and left comics fans everyone wondering that ever-painful question: what might have been?

Grade: A+

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The Classics - New Gods #1

I don't think any event in the history of comics shocked me more than the announcement in 1970 that Jack Kirby was leaving Marvel Comics and moving over to DC Comics.

Kirby had been at Marvel through my entire comics-buying life, and (in my mind) he was joined at the hip to writer / editor Stan Lee. Those two built some of my all-time favorite comics creations, including the Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk and The Avengers (to name a few).

So I anxiously waited for Kirby's debut - and New Gods #1 arrived like a cannon shot. Behind that fantastic cover Kirby kicked off a new mythology, new characters and amazing creativity.

Imagine my surprise when I finished reading the issue and I realized that I didn't much care for it.

Before you start organizing a tar-and-feathers committee for my heresy, let me quickly add that I eventually "got it." Just not at first.

Some expressed disappointment over the inking by Vince Colletta - I realize his work isn't everyone's favorite. I was always divided on his inking over Kirby - I loved his work on Thor, and didn't care for it at all on the Fantastic Four. Go figure. I thought it worked fine here.

The biggest complaint was that Colletta erased details and backgrounds, and that's supposedly why he was eventually taken off the book - but it wasn't readily apparent to my 15-year-old eyes.

The problem here isn't the artwork (at least not for me) - it's loaded with huge cosmic events, over-the-top battle sequences and incredibly original character designs.

The problem was with the writing. After more than a decade of reading Kirby with Stan Lee's friendly, accessible style, suddenly the dialogue was stilted, heavy-handed, even clunky. No one talked like Kirby's characters.

I would eventually realize that I had to adjust to Kirby's style, and while I would never call Kirby the smoothest writer, he was incredibly inventive (as always), and eventually I came to appreciate and enjoy his style of delivery.

What made each issue of New Gods (and his other comics at DC) well worth collecting was the way he loaded each issue with amazing ideas and concepts - there was enough ingenuity in each issue to fill a modern-day maxi-series.

So how long did it take me to realize Kirby's genius? As much as I hate to admit it, it took seven issues.

That's when Kirby unleashed his masterpiece on an unsuspecting world - and that's what we'll talk about next week in this space.

Grade: A-

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