If You Blinked You Missed: The Return of the New Gods

Most all of fandom knows all about Jack Kirby's New Gods and its greatest character, Darkseid. In fact, Ol' Groove has posted on that wondrous series here. But how many remember the comic that filled the New Gods void between 1972 and 1982, The Return of the New Gods? RotNG first appeared in DC's 1st Issue Special #13 (January 1976), plotted and edited by Gerry Conway, scripted by Denny O'Neil, and illustrated by Mike Vosburg. They managed to give off a pretty good Kirby vibe despite the annoyingly more superheroic threads they gave Orion (did they really need to put that big "o" on his chest?), but the mag seemed to sink, unnoticed. Was DC's heart really in returning the New Gods to us? 'Tis a good question, especially when you consider this was the final issue of 1st IS.
Darkseid and a few other New Gods characters took up residence, for a time, in (of all places) Secret Society of Super-Villains (issues 2-5, April-October 1976), so somebody up there still liked 'em.

Then, in April, 1977, the New Gods actually did return, picking up the numbering from their Kirby days. The mag ran for 8 issues, numbers 12-19, ending exactly one year later, in April, 1978, with what would have been ish 20 being split into two chapters and running in the first two Dollar Comics issues of Adventure, #'s 459-460 (June-August 1978). DC called it The Return of the New Gods, but Ol' Groove calls it The Forgotten New Gods, 'cause when Kirby came back to DC in the early 80s to finish his Fourth World magnum opus, he totally ignored Conway and company's contributions. Hey, it was Kirby, it was his creations, so that's totally cool. Still...


A lot of fans don't dig this version 'cause it's so different from what Kirby would have done. That's true, but Conway, who would write the entire Return series was not a bad sci-fi writer at all, and had proven himself as being not-too-shabby with mythological/fantasy when he wrote Thor for Marvel. Gerry wrote some fun, if not earth-shattering, stories on this series, and showed great respect for Kirby's koncepts. The art by Don Newton (usually inked by Dan Adkins) was outstanding. Again, very different from Kirby, much more naturalistic, but still, Newton could masterfully convey the nobility of the New Gods. And I really, really dug the female New God Conway and Newton introduced, the blue-skinned and deadly Jezebelle "of the fiery eyes". Ol' Groove likes to think that somewhere in the multiverse this less bombastic version of the New Gods still exists.


Dig the first Conway/Newton collaboration from The Return of the New Gods #12 and see what you think, Groove-ophiles!

Famous First Fridays: The New Gods #1

I know that enough has been written on Jack Kirby's 1970 move from Marvel to DC to fill several volumes. I also know that enough has been written about Kirby's legendary Fourth World mags (New Gods, Forever People, Mr. Miracle, and to some extent Jimmy Olsen) to fill another several books as well. But Ol' Groove just has to get in his two cents on the fabulous, far-out Fourth World, too, dig? But I wanna do something different.

What to do? Well, I says to myself, "Self, you were just a pup when Kirby left Marvel for DC." And I was right! At 7 years old, you don't really pay attention to the trials and tribulations of comicbook creators. You really don't even think about writers and artists at all. You just focus on the comics and the characters. The coolness factor of how they look is the deciding factor on whether or not you buy 'em. So yeah, I'd seen the DC ads that told us that "Kirby (was) Coming", but it didn't mean a thing to Young Groove.

So why did I get hooked on the Fourth World comics at age seven? Two words. Jack. Kirby. But you say, "Waitaminnit, Groove! You just said Young Groove didn't notice stuff like that!" True. I didn't pay one whit of attention to names in the credits. Until New Gods #1 came out in November of 1970. See, at first, the cover (strange coloring and all) screamed for my attention from the ol' King Kwik spinner rack.

Then I flipped it open to see what the insides looked like. These images grabbed me and wouldn't let me go:

I handed the comic to my dad so he could pay for it. I seem to remember that the irony of buying a comic called New Gods while coming back from a Wednesday night church service wasn't lost on him, but it didn't strike me as odd at all. The title, the names, the words didn't matter. It was the pictures! Those glorious, in-your-face graphics that totally blew my young mind.

When I got home, I went straight to my room and absorbed the worlds of Kirby while those worlds absorbed me right back. New Genesis...
Metron and his Mobius Chair (he really kinda creeped me out at first...)
The Source (also kinda creepy, reminding me of the Bible story of Daniel and Belshazzar and the writing on the wall)
Apokolips (how ugly and depressing it looked compared to New Genesis)...
Orion's battles... with the para-demons (who always reminded me of Mighty Comics' Fly-Man--little did I know at the time that they had the same costumer!)...
...Darkseid's soldiers...
...the Dog Cavalry...
...Kalibak (who, to me, looked like a cave man, which was cool) and his "beta-club"...
Orion rescuing the earthlings...
The complete awesomeness of the Boom Tube...
...And that last page, where we finally see Darkseid. Man, that gave me chills. He looked like a living statue. The kind of statue that would come to life and kill you!
When I finished, I went back to page three. That close-up of Orion always knocked me out. I thought that helmet was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in a comicbook. Then I noticed the name in the credits box. "Written, Drawn, and Edited by Jack Kirby". Even the signature looked tough! It was then I started to realize that people made comics. Changed my whole outlook on comics. But then, didn't Kirby and the New Gods change a lotta peoples outlook on comics?