106 books
—
9 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus” as Want to Read:
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus
(Jack Kirby's Fourth World #Omnibus #1-4)
by
After co-creating comic book heroes such as THE FANTASTIC FOUR and THE HULK, legendary writer/artist Jack Kirby came to DC Comics in 1970 to write and illustrate four interlocking series known collectively as -The Fourth World.-Now, as part of the celebration of the 100th birthday of Jack Kirby, DC collects Kirby's entire runs on these four series--THE NEW GODS, THE FOREVE
...more
Hardcover, 1536 pages
Published
December 12th 2017
by DC Comics
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus

Jack Kirby's Fourth World was a wonder of creativity. Given free-reign on Jimmy Olsen and three new books, Kirby created a whole new world. Or rather several new worlds, including Apokolips, New Genesis, and the Cadmus (DNA) Project. What Kirby did is absolutely amazing and still very readable and very exciting in the modern day.
Today it feels like DC's Fourth World has gotten pretty calcified. We can expect to see the same relatively small group of major characters, the same several artefacts, ...more
Today it feels like DC's Fourth World has gotten pretty calcified. We can expect to see the same relatively small group of major characters, the same several artefacts, ...more

Ah, Kirby! When ever I'm down and need some lifting up, I know I can always revisit one of Jack Kirby's innovative creations and the long lost joy of youth and sense of unashamed wonderment will be restored. Kirby was one of a kind. His record for creating new characters, concepts and even genres in the comic book industry is unparalleled. This omnibus volume of the Fourth World introduces more new characters in the first half dozen issues than most comic book artists create in their entire care
...more

I started reading this because I had picked up Tom King's Mr. Miracle series based on the recommendation of yaboi Zack (of the Comics MATTER YouTube channel) which, by the end of the run, Zack had turned on. Mr. King seems to have openly admitted at this point that he's using Mr. Miracle, Batman and all the superheroes to work through his depression, but at the time we were unaware of this and expecting a boffo breakout ending to his series.
So I stopped reading that and pick up this massive volu ...more
So I stopped reading that and pick up this massive volu ...more

Beautiful, creative, classic. Not much else to say. I loved it.
Would be 5 stars if the Jimmy Olsen issues didn't drag as much sometimes and if all the initial series didn't have such abrupt endings. ...more
Would be 5 stars if the Jimmy Olsen issues didn't drag as much sometimes and if all the initial series didn't have such abrupt endings. ...more

Mar 16, 2019
Nate
added it
Mind-blowing. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World saga is a torrent of creativity and imagination that has rarely, if ever, been equaled in mainstream American comics. Kirby penciled and wrote all 55 issues that constitute the saga, creating an entire mythology in the process. The caliber of ideas in every issue - on every page - is astounding. I audibly gasped many times while reading this. Kirby’s art leaps off the panels, and you can feel the creative energy at every turn. The Fourth World is littered
...more

I’ve been wanting to dive into this for quite some time, and I’m glad this Omnibus finally gave me the chance to do so in one Volume. The Fourth World is unlike anything else in the history of comics. Jack Kirby left Marvel and some of his biggest creations to craft an entirely new universe at DC. We have comic artists today that can hardly crank out 4 issues a year. Meanwhile, Kirby was writing, drawing, and inking 4 comics at the same time. I love how each comic told their own stories, but wer
...more

There's a boundless imagination found in these pages, incredibly constructed worlds and colourful characters, Kirby was a truly talented cartoonist. Not the greatest writer though, and by he all accounts he didn't want to write this so I suppose one should be surprised that a lot of this can be quite meandering, a bit of a slog and never fully comes together in a satisfying way. It's a shame because the good stuff here can be pretty great, as he mixes space opera family drama with sci fi war act
...more

Please read my complete review here. A sample:
Kirby's actual drawing style, though, blunted his composition's putative power, at least in my youthful experience. Among my dad's stacks of old comics from the 1960s and '70s, I much preferred the cinematic experiments of Steranko and John Buscema's magazine-ad elegance, Neal Adams's attempts at trompe l'oeil and the cross-hatched grotesqueries of Bernie Wrightson, not to mention Heavy Metal, with Moebius's grainy Euro-delirium and Richard Corben's...more

Apr 03, 2019
MH
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Any Jack Kirby fan or a general fan of comic books
I am a Kirby fan and I enjoyed his work at Marvel and DC. I can give this my unequivocal highest recommendation.
In my estimation, except for his work on Fantastic Four, this is the greatest series of stories he told. The quality of the printing and the fact that the whole series of books is here make this better (for actually reading) than having all the originals (although I do).
The only downside to this Omnibus volume is that it is very physically heavy. It’s definitely a laptop read, no layin ...more
In my estimation, except for his work on Fantastic Four, this is the greatest series of stories he told. The quality of the printing and the fact that the whole series of books is here make this better (for actually reading) than having all the originals (although I do).
The only downside to this Omnibus volume is that it is very physically heavy. It’s definitely a laptop read, no layin ...more

Any comic book lover who doesn't read this at some point in their life is missing out on a wonderful story and some of the most incredible art the medium has ever seen. This HUGE tome collects all of Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga in the one place, and while it can be difficult to read (both physically and the Jimmy Olsen stuff is a bit rough), it is a rewarding experience. Characters that have since gone on to have significant impact on the DC multiverse are introduced here, and it is wonderful
...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

New Gods is absolutely amazing (flawed, but amazing), Forever People starts incredibly strong but weakens a lot around 3/4ths of the way through, Mister Miracle is consistently solid, and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen is interesting but gets tiring once the other titles pick up steam, minus “Superman in Supertown” which is real good. Brilliant and genuinely epic stuff though. Orion is one of my favorite characters now, and his relationship with Lightray is the best (LET THEM KISS), and I’ll forever
...more

I spent a year and a half working through this, and, well, it's completely insane. The amount of sheer invention is staggering, if occasionally incoherent, and the result is nothing resembling a cohesive story. Still, you can't fault Kirby for being unambitious - he created his own entire mythology, which is moving at times, maddening at others, always moving at full throttle. Having only seen dribs and drabs of this material before, it was fascinating to read it all together - I won't be forget
...more

This was an absolute roller coaster ride of insanity. Nearly every page is full of this raw uncut creativity, be it through the art or Jack Kirby's batshit crazy story ideas. Because Kirby was just pulling ideas out of his ass it tended to be inconsistent and hard to follow at times, some of it is dumb as hell, but for every dumb idea, there's a dozen examples of absolute brilliance. It's at it's best when it's a big space opera, going all out with the mythology. Sure it's dated nowadays, but it
...more

This, to me, despite its quirks--the pomposity of so much of the language, the dated ties to a barely-understood hippiedom, the fact that there are probably ten times more two page spreads than pages with more than six panels on them, the depressing lack of creativity regarding the names of the characters--is a master craftsman's true masterpiece. Everybody with any interest in comics should read this. Carefully, because it's a book that could easily kill small creatures.
...more

This collection spans a story too big to give an all encompassing rating to, in my humble opinion, so I'll just say that holy crap I've finally finished reading all of Jack Kirby's The Fourth World.
It was really good. I liked some parts more than others. The ending wasn't super satisfying, but I knew it wasn't going to be going into it.
Maybe Final Crisis will make a little more sense now. ...more
It was really good. I liked some parts more than others. The ending wasn't super satisfying, but I knew it wasn't going to be going into it.
Maybe Final Crisis will make a little more sense now. ...more

So I’m probably being a little too harsh in my rating. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed the book. But part of me wonders of I would have been better off picking up individual trades of the four books, rather than trading them chronologically as presented in this book.
Still, I did enjoy it. And Kirby is definitely as good as advertised here.
Still, I did enjoy it. And Kirby is definitely as good as advertised here.

I love how bold, creative, and sometimes just wild this omnibus was. Fascinating to view in the larger context of Kirby's time at DC and his attempt at creating this vast, connecting universe of "The Fourth World."
...more

Jack "The King" Kirby, after he left Marvel he moved onto DC and wrote one of the greatest mythological stories I have ever read it's an epic battle between Gods and a must read for DC and Jack Kirby fans
...more

Jack Kirby's Magnum Ops in its full entirety is a brilliant, weird, odd and fully exploration of the comic medium as whole, the classic story of gods doing battles and good vs evil.
...more

Jan 15, 2018
James Zanghi
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Every solid DC Comics fan
Shelves:
2018-reading-list
Jack Kirby is widely regarded to be one of the greatest writers of the comic book medium, mainly from his contributions to Marvel and DC Comics, and the Fourth World of DC Comics is widely considered to be his Magnum Opus. Guess what? I totally agree.
I got a first edition of the Omnibus for Christmas and pretty-much finished it in a month. The book itself is rather big in size. It's about two inches smaller in height than my copy of Absolute Final Crisis and weighs a lot from its 1535 pages. The ...more
I got a first edition of the Omnibus for Christmas and pretty-much finished it in a month. The book itself is rather big in size. It's about two inches smaller in height than my copy of Absolute Final Crisis and weighs a lot from its 1535 pages. The ...more

Kirby’s Fourth World is a sprawling, epic, emotionally resonant saga about finding beauty in the darkest of times. Packed with heart, humour, grandeur, melodrama, and charm as only Jack 'the king' Kirby can deliver it, The Fourth World stands as a testament to what the imagination of one individual can achieve. Kirby's artwork leaps of the page as he introduces character after unforgettable character, and stories that will live forever in the annals of comic book, and entertainment, history.
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nick
...more
Other books in the series
Jack Kirby's Fourth World
(5 books)
Related Articles
Author and illustrator Alice Oseman is known to her long-time fans for her young adult novels about—as she calls them—"teenage disasters,"...
318 likes · 23 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »