If you read comics maybe you know that the DC is doing another Crisis and that the deus ex machina this time will be Grant Morrison, with art done by one of the best DC has, J.G. Jones (who made also the 52 covers for “52”).
The whole thing starts this 28 May, with an introduction that set the basis, written by Morrison and the Bendis of DC (Geoff Johns) that is out in a few days. I wonder if any of this will make into the story…
Since I never read a lot of DC I made a grand plan of following the whole story since the first Crisis. Then go through Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and finally to this Final Crisis, to be published soon. A whole lot of reading that I never did. I’m still stuck at about issue 10 or 11 of the original Crisis. Very fine story, though, that didn’t feel stale at all.
Recently I stumbled into this one series “The Death of the New Gods”, 8 issues all already out with story and art by Jim Starlin, who is part of the old guard and made a lot of those epic, cosmic crossovers for Marvel. I’m not entirely sure, but I suspect the plot of this series is also the premise of the Final Crisis. Something about the new-new gods and Darkseid.
What I didn’t know is that this segment of the DC universe, known as the Fourth World, was built by The King, Jack Kirby. And in fact in that cover you can see his typical insane heroes. Squint enough and you can see one in the background flying on skis. When is the last time you saw a so large groups of ridiculous heroes? Well, I couldn’t miss the opportunity.
In fact it is a wonderful series. Perfectly old-style but with a surprisingly good (and cosmic) story. There’s all the naiveté of the Kirbian age, but the author doesn’t take it too seriously and there are plenty of inside jokes about the cliches. The first issues are complex and confusing as they introduce so many heroes I’ve never seen and tie them back to years of continuity. But I love this old style stuff and the story is really intriguing, setting a number of mysteries that will keep you reading to discover them. Toward the end it loses a bit of quality as the story seems to slow down and you just get through a series of pompous fight scenes and info-dumps, but as a whole it’s a really interesting read that makes you look at these classic style stories with nostalgia.
A better introduction is written by Dan DiDio himself. So read it if you are interested. And then read all the eight issues as the series is a little gem of perfectly preserved classic.
