The die has been cast… in a recent editorial by DC EIC, Dan Didio the statement was made that Mister Miracle and Big Barda are not long for the primary-colored comic book world.
Last week, a second roll was added to that casting as Jim Starlin was announced as the writer of the new DC Comics mega-event mini-series spinning wildly out of DC’s current mega-event series Countdown… ‘The Death of the New Gods.‘
Promising to answer all of the deeply burning questions that very longtime readers of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics have posed, writer Starlin does say that many fans will be outraged at the answers. Jim Starlin is no stranger to cosmic stories (he worked for Marvel Comics on Captain Marvel and Warlock), nor to the New Gods (he penned the ‘Cosmic Odyssey’ series drawn by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola)… yet after I’ve read about his plans… I got worry.
On the surface, this appears to be another nail in the coffin of Kirby ideas. Starlin feels that recent attempts to better utilize the New Gods have done more harm than good (John Byrne’s Fourth World series? Walt Simonson’s Orion the Hunter?… bad??) and this death will be a ‘mercy killing’… of all of the them.
Seems a waste somehow.
Suggested Reading:
Orion: The Gates of Apokolips
Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1
Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 2
Cosmic Odyssey
Production on the last season of the Sci-Fi Channel’s Peabody Award winning series, Battlestar Galactica, is currently underway in Vancouver. The 2-hour season premiere entitled Razor is set to air in November with the remainder of the season beginning in 2008.
