New 52 Third Wave Pitch: Jack Kirby's Fourth World

Over the next few weeks, I am going to try and post a few proposals for DC's eventual New 52: Third Wave. Mostly, they are the dream comics I would like to see, but have very little chance of actually happening. This week: Jack Kirby's Fourth World!

Tagline: Jack Kirby's most epic creations are back! You saw Darkseid attack earth in Justice League, now witness the world he lives on and the heroes that are in a never-ending struggle to hold him back!

Pitch: Jack Kirby's Fourth World is one of the textually rich locales in comic books.  Twin planets—one light, one dark—locked in the ultimate battle of good versus evil.  With one of DC's biggest bad guys in charge of Apokolips, the denizens of New Genesis must constantly be prepared for war. With potential themes like familial relationships, realpolitik, and nature versus nurture, Jack Kirby's Fourth World is a wide open concept for a writer to sink their teeth into.  It has been nearly two decades since the New Gods had an ongoing comic book, the New 52 seems like the perfect time to bring them back.

Potential writers:  There are only a handful of writers with whom I would entrust the care of Fourth World.  There are dozens of writers out there that rank somewhere between competent and good but the New Gods are the kind of characters that require an even bigger than superhero presence. As usual, Grant Morrison resides near the top of my list.  After all, the last time the New Gods were interesting was his Final Crisis mini-series.  Neil Gaiman is another intriguing possibility, but the source material might be too similar to his run on another Kirby creation, Marvel's The Eternals.   Keith Giffen is a writer that would be a good choice and he would be capable of hitting the right tone, but he's already had one attempt at restarting a Kirby creation in the New 52, O.M.A.C., cancelled.

Potential artists:  While I think Doug Mahnke and Patrick Gleason would be able to capture the strange looking landscapes of the Fourth World, I really (really, really, really) want them to stay on their current books.  One intriguing possibility is for Keith Giffen to just pack up his Kirby pastiche from the recently canceled O.M.A.C. and move it to Fourth World.  DC could also attempt to lure Jan Duursema away from Dark Horse.  She's spent a large chunk of her career illustrating alien worlds and would have no trouble bringing New Genesis and Apokolips to the page.

A small sampling of the denizens of New Genesis:

Highfather- Leader of New Genesis, biological father of Mister Miracle and adopted father of Orion.

Orion- Son of Darkseid, given to Highfather to raise on New Genesis as part of an attempted peace pact.

Big Barda- She was a member of Darkseid's Female Furies, but helped her husband Mister Miracle escape from Apokolips back to New Genesis.

Mister Miracle- Master escape artist. Son of Highfather but raised on Apokolips.

Lightray- Cheerful but arrogant light manipulator.

Forager- The hero of the average inhabitants on New Genesis, he's proven himself to be a hero on par with the most valiant of the New Gods.











A small sampling of the denizens of Apokolips:

Darkseid- One of DC's biggest of the big bads.

Kalibak- Darkseid's warrior son.










Granny Goodness- Leader of Darkseid's Female Furies.

Steppenwolf- Darkseid's General

Desaad- Apokolips' master torturer.