Mister Miracle 4th World

[blutobc]

Just picked up a near complete run(3-17, 19-24) of Mister Miracle Vol. 1. Going back and rereading the series as a whole has been a hoot. I previous had only about 5 of the books.

 

It's funny, but I thought that reading the series all at once would help explain some of the "Fourth World" stuff. Now I know that there really wasn't much continuity in the Kirby issues. It seemed like Kirby was just having a good time doing single issue themes.

 

The Marshall Rogers art on the later issues is just beautiful. It challenges the Byrne/Austin art from the same period. Michael Golden's not a slouch either.

 

Best of all the run is in great shape with most 9.0s and 9.2s with a couple of 9.4 candidates and all with white pages.

 

Anyway, just wanted to praise this series and also ask "whatever happened with Shilo Norman".

[Rocketeer]

Yeah,...I think the major problem was that DC never was one for continuing story-lines like Marvel was...I mean once in a while you would have a two-parter story but for the most part the story line had to be summed up in 24 pages.....so they probably didn't give Kirby a lot of choice in the matter,.....

 

...I read the Jimmy Olsen/Newsboy Legion/ KirbyTPB last year and that was pretty much the same thing....

[Zonker]

What continuity there is, is pretty subtle. For instance, it helps to have read New Gods #7 "The Pact" to understand Mr. Miracle #7, #8, #9. The latter Kirby issues #11-17 are extremely standalone, and a reaction against what cross-continuity there was between the 3 Fourth World books. It also marks the beginning of the end of Kirby as a creative force to be reckoned with. After the main Fourth World titles-- New Gods and Forever People-- were cancelled, the fight had pretty much gone out of him. By the way, noticed #18 was missing from your run: you'd be well advised to seek it out-- a melancholy swan song for Kirby's Fourth World concepts.

[blutobc]

By the way, noticed #18 was missing from your run: you'd be well advised to seek it out-- a melancholy swan song for Kirby's Fourth World concepts.

 

Yeah, seeing as how #18 is the end of the Kirby run and probably the jumping on point for the relaunch in #20. It certainly felt like a hole was missing going straight from 18 to 20. Already had #1 so all I need now are #2 and #18.

[Zonker]

Yeah,...I think the major problem was that DC never was one for continuing story-lines like Marvel was...I mean once in a while you would have a two-parter story but for the most part the story line had to be summed up in 24 pages.....so they probably didn't give Kirby a lot of choice in the matter,.....

 

...I read the Jimmy Olsen/Newsboy Legion/ KirbyTPB last year and that was pretty much the same thing....

 

 

Just mulling this over some more, I think Kirby's Fourth World actually was an attempt by DC to leapfrog Marvel in the cross-continuity department. Clearly Infantino's mandate was to reverse Marvel's momentum in the market, hence his hiring away of one of the founding fathers of the Marvel Age.

 

Here you had a storyline Kirby was attempting to tell across 4 separate bi-monthly books:

- New Gods

- Forever People

- Mr. Miracle

- Jimmy Olsen

 

Mr. Miracle and Jimmy Olsen were the most disconnected of the four. But having thought about it some more, here are examples of cross-continuity between titles:

 

- In New Gods #2, there is a full page describing scenes from Jimmy Olsen 133-134.

- Also in New Gods #2, Mantis-- introduced in the recently-published Forever People #2-- makes a behind-the-scenes single page appearance. Then Mantis takes center stage again in New Gods #9-10.

- Superman's attempt to reach New Genesis in Forever People #1 is finally successful in Jimmy Olsen #147.

- One of the Forever People characters shows up in a back-up story in New Gods #7.

- Orion of the New Gods shows up in the back-up story of Forever People #7.

- Metron is introduced in New Gods, but also plays a role in the flashback sequences of Mr. Miracle.

- As noted above, the plot threads from the New Gods origin story wind through Mr. Miracle #7-#9. And aspects of the New Gods origin are foreshadowed in earlier issues such as New Gods #2.

- Forever People #4-#7 tell one long story, a 4-parter being pretty unusual at DC at the time.

- And you have the whole theme of Darkseid and what his agents were up to on Earth, a plotline that runs through all the original 11 New Gods issues, the Forever People issues apart from #9 and #10, the Jimmy Olsen issues apart from #142, 143 and 148, and the Mr. Miracle issues up through #9.

 

It's not particularly tight cross-continuity by later standards, but in 1971, at least at DC, it was pretty revolutionary!

[Rocketeer]

....I agree,...it was their attempt to capture the Marvel readers,...unfortunately it didn't work because the average DC reader wasn't used to continuity and cross-title story-lines....and if I remember correctly (and I may be off cause I didn't read any of the titles at the time of publication ), they all got the axe at around the same time,...when the price of the books went from 25 cents (bigger is better) to 20 cents....

 

............after that Kirby was assigned to projects that had more success like Kamandi and Omac, but the cross-title jumping ceased....

 

...I really don't think DC knew what to do with Kirby once they got him,...case in point when Kirby first started drawing Jimmy Olsen, Infanto (or maybe it was Schwartz) had a conniption-fit because he didn't like the way Kirby drew Superman,.....from that point on Kirby was only allowed to draw Superman from the neck down,...they actually had Curt Swan draw all the heads on Supes after Kirby did his draft...

[blutobc]

In the box with the Mister Miracle run were semi runs of New Gods, & Forever People(also Omac & Demon). It seems to me that New Gods was the main storyline with an emphasis on action. The Forever People seems like an attempt by an "old" guy trying to be hippie, uh, hip. They only flesh out the overall Darkseid plotline.

 

Mr. Miracle is the cream of the crop. It has an engaging side story(escape artist) along with the direct confrontation with Darkseid.

 

Also, Vince Colletta kicks Mike Royers butt when inking Kirby.

[Zonker]

It seems to me that New Gods was the main storyline with an emphasis on action. The Forever People seems like an attempt by an "old" guy trying to be hippie, uh, hip. They only flesh out the overall Darkseid plotline.

 

Mr. Miracle is the cream of the crop. It has an engaging side story(escape artist) along with the direct confrontation with Darkseid.

 

 

I agree up to a point. New Gods was the action-oriented book and largely drove the plot, but it did get philosophical, especially #6 ("Glory Boat") and #7 ("The Pact"). Forever People was indeed the counter-culture seen (sympathetically) through the eyes of 50-year old WWII veteran Kirby. It had its own philosophical moments, particularly #3, with proto-televangelist Glorious Godfrey and explicit parallels between the "anti-life equation" and whatever it was that made Nazi Germany run.

 

But I thought the original Mr. Miracle run was the weakest of the three, at least up until #7, #8 and the origin issue #9, which were indeed very very good. Then after that high point, the series pretty much fell apart.

 

I do agree though that the Englehart/Rogers and Gerber/Golden revival was wonderful stuff, probably the best post-Kirby take ever on the 4th World characters.