Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1
In 1970, DC lured Kirby, cocreator of the Fantastic Four and X-Men, from rival Marvel Comics by promising free rein on his imagination. The monumental Fourth World emerged from that promise. Depicting a cosmic struggle between the godlike denizens of the planets New Genesis and Apokolips, it unfurled in four separate serials: the flagship, New Gods; The Forever People, focused on a hippielike band of young godlings; Mister Miracle, featuring the super escape artist of that name; and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, in which Kirby linked Fourth World to the preexisting DC Universe. The ambitious project was soon derailed by disappointing sales, though many characters Kirby created for it appear in various DC titles to this day. The first of four volumes collecting the whole megillah presents Kirby at his least distilled and most unfettered, generating outlandishly inventive concepts and larger-than-life characters to suit his dynamic drawing and feverishly overwrought dialogue. His vast mythmaking at last receives respectful, hardcover treatment, something unimaginable when it first appeared in the days when comics were considered disposable pulp. Flagg, Gordon