Editorials
John Hodgman
…a weird saga of warring gods that for a brief moment hijacked the normally staid line of DC Comics and plunged it into bracing, beautiful oddness…in this collection, [Kirby's] at the height of his powers. His characters are always in motion, leaping and punching at impossible angles, straining at the panels that try to contain them. Kirby's writing was the same way. His stories were linear—even primitive. But there is something powerful and melancholy and personal…—The New York Times
Library Journal
After leaving Marvel Comics, where he cocreated the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and other famous characters, comics giant Kirby moved to DC in 1970 with a plan for a cosmic-scale epic. Through four different series-The New Gods, The Forever People, Mister Miracle, and Jimmy Olsen-Kirby explored the titanic struggle between the utopian world New Genesis and the dystopian Apokalips. Their main battleground is Earth, where Apokalips's tyrant Darkseid ransacks human minds for the Anti-Life Equation, which can negate all free will. This third of four full-color volumes chronologically presenting all of Kirby's Fourth World work contains several of the saga's highlights, including its linchpin, "The Pact," which tells the origins of New Genesis's tormented hero Orion and the super-escape artist Mister Miracle. Kirby's imagination is immensely fertile, with each story introducing vivid characters and expansive concepts. His best artwork here is astonishingly powerful and his larger-than-life storytelling achieves mythic resonance. Sadly, Kirby's saga was never completed as he had envisioned. But it's still a hugely entertaining and compelling landmark and remains essential for students of comics history, fans of epic fantasy (superheroic or otherwise), and anyone wishing to see a master at peak performance. Highly recommended for all collections.
—Steve Raiteri