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coffeeisforpoopyhead

[Discussion] Is the forever people by Jack Kirby worth reading?

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Hello all. Recently I have been diving headfirst into the world of the new gods, with the John Byrne new gods content and of course Mister Miracle by Tom King. I've been interested in diving in to the Jack Kirby comics of the fourth world to start from the source, but have been hesitant to check out the forever people as that book specifically does not appeal to me compared to Jimmy Olsen/new gods/Mister Miracle.

My question is, is the forever people skippable if it is a slog to get through or is it any good? Haven't seen much or any discussion of forever people and curious if it holds up. Thanks for reading!

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Dayraven3

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I’d probably say it’s the least good of the Kirby Fourth World books, but not by all that much, and a couple of major Fourth World elements get introduced there.

redwolfben

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First of all, "Start from the source," I see what you did there. 😜

Second, when I did the same thing a few years ago, this was the reading order I used, and it was great. https://comicbookreadingorders.com/dc/events/jack-kirbys-fourth-world-reading-order/

Concrete_Giraffe616

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I thought it was okay, but of the four Fourth World books, it's the one I enjoyed the least. It does introduce stuff like the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid's Omega Effect, and the god-killing material Radion, which are all VERY important if you are planning on reading Final Crisis later on, so I'd say it's definitely worth reading. Keep in mind it ends on a cliffhanger, though.

SoThatHappened

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Yes

rickshitypity

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I've first read New Gods which I found amazing. Then I tried Forever People and while the art was good, I thought it was kinda boring and stopped midway through. But I want to comeback to it eventually.

TheMainMan3

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Hot take here, but most of the Kirby Fourth World stuff is a slog to get through if coming from modern comics. I tried reading it several times and just couldn’t get through it. I felt like I was reading it to check it off the list and was actually enjoying it. The artwork is absolutely stunning, but the storytelling is very much of its time. A lot of exposition, characters literally explaining the plot, thought bubbles etc. I also feel like if you already know the premise of the New Gods and the major players as well as how they relate to each other, there isn’t much you will learn from the Kirby stuff. I can certainly appreciate the high concept creativity behind it and see why it is considered to be so influential though.

If you plan on reading the Fourth World stuff I would include Forever People. All of the series intertwine and are best read that way as opposed to just straight through by series. I had the omnibus which has everything in order and I genuinely couldn’t tell which series was which during all of my attempted reads. They all read the same imo. I wouldn’t go into it expecting to be wowed by the story or learn anything new about the Fourth World, but more try to look at it through a “comic evolution/history” lens.

coffeeisforpoopyhead

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Thank you for the extensive response! I did not realize the level of interconnected storytelling at play that definitely changes things. Personally the comic history lens is something that does personally appeal to me quite a bit but hearing that the story was not a highlight is a tad disappointing, although Jack Kirby art is always a treat.

Thank you again for the advice and especially with the reading order, as my original plan was to read them Jimmy Olsen < new gods < Mister Miracle < forever people but I'll be sure to tackle the issues in release order which would have been a nightmare to keep up with lol.

RipleyofWinterfell

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For what it's worth, I'd only agree with the other commenter as far as Mister Miracle and Forever People go. The New Gods title on the other hand I think is still excellent, with a more nuanced take on Orion, the protagonist, than virtually any subsequent stories involving him. Orion has been absolutely trashed in characterization by most stories post-Kirby. The 70s titles are 70s titles and there's no way around that, but if you're okay with the style, I do think there's a lot of fun to have with New Gods. It's action-packed and epic and the narration, at least in my opinion, is rather well-done compared to a lot of Kirby's contemporaries.

DrunkenFist

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Right, stories like The Glory Boat, The Pact, and The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin are awesome, no qualifiers needed. The climax of Glory Boat, in particular, is like a heavy metal album cover spilling across the pages.

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TheMainMan3

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It’s not so much that the story isn’t a highlight, but just that the most interesting stuff has been recapped (for lack of a better term) or expanded on throughout the years. I feel like every book featuring Fourth World characters gives a brief breakdown of how their universe works, who everyone is and how they relate to each other; and all that is essentially the meat of the original Kirby stuff. So I wouldn’t say the story is bad, but just a long winded version of what you probably already know.