Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Darkseid

Jim Starlin — Superman Among The Gods

Original Art and The Artists

Death of the New Gods #7, May 2008

We continue to celebrate Jack Kirby’s legacy at DC Comics with a special two-week look at Jack’s characters and concepts as envisioned by other creators. 2021 is the Fiftieth anniversary of the Fourth World storyline. *

Superman (with Mr. Miracle’s help) gets into it with the Infinity man in this great splash page and well-crafted mini-series by Jim Starlin.

Starlin of course created Thanos, the not-quite knock-off of Darkseid, who became one of the most popular super-villains in the Marvel Universe, and ultimately the ultimate “Big-bad” of the MCU. So it’s fitting to have him play in the Darkseid’s  sandbox as well.

Ironically, it took Darkseid a bit longer to achieve the same level of popularity in the DC Universe, but his own crown as DC’s ultimate super-villain has been amplified by his inclusion in the Zach Snyder “cut”of Justice League.

As for the series title? Let’s just say that reports of the New Gods’ deaths are greatly exaggerated.

*Purists will note that some of the characters and titles actually made it onto newsstands before the close of 1970, but the fully integrated series (Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle) — doesn’t fully materialize until the following year.

Darkseid and Thanos, not as similar as you might think. (Darkseid doesn’t need a cosmic cube to be a god — he already is one.)

Eddy Barrows — Darkseid At World’s End

Original Art and The Artists

Earth 2: World’s End, June 2015

Darkseid dispatches a number of earth’s greatest heroes in this great looking title page of the final issue of Earth 2:World’s End.

If you like your superhero universe grim and gritty, (as per our last post), this series, set in an alternate universe, should do nicely. 

Darkseid is inarguably Jack Kirby’s greatest legacy at DC comics.  Although his “fourth world” books didn’t last long at DC, Darkseid untimely became the “big bad” of the DC Universe. Shockingly, before Jack’s era, there was no over-arching multi-title super villain. This, despite the fact that by 1970, Marvel had at least a few. (Doctor Doom, Galactus, Kang, The Super Skrull, et al.) 

Marvel had focused on continuity well before DC figured it out.  In fact, Jack’s fourth world books, introduced the first cross-title continuity to the DC Universe.

But, as always, we digress.

Brazilian Artist and DC mainstay Eddy Barrows regularly combines quality draftsmanship and creative storytelling into a highly compelling story. Another Brazilian artist, Eber Ferreira, known for his detailed and meticulous brushwork, typically inks Eddy’s pencils.

More on Jack Kirby’s legacy at DC in the next few posts.

Jack Kirby — Hello and Goodbye, Rinse, Repeat

Original Art and The Artists

DC Graphic Novel #4 – The Hunger Dogs, June 1985

Jack Kirby’s tenure at DC was ultimately a mixed bag — for both Jack and DC. 

The Fourth World saga was one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in comics at that time; yet, the books were cancelled well before they had a chance to fully realize Jack’s vision.

And yet…  there was something about those characters and premises that continued to resonate.

Jack’s Post DC career included a three-year return at Marvel (Think Eternals, et al), his own creator-owned comics (Captain Victory, Silver Star) and a home at animation house DePatie-Freleng studios and then later Ruby-Spears.

And then, another opportunity arose at DC to finish his New Gods saga. DC would reprint the original series in “deluxe” format and give Jack a chance to end the saga with new material.

But, unfortunately Jack wanted to end the saga in a way that would kill off the main characters, and by then DC had grown accustomed to having them in the line-up. 

So, Jack was again denied the chance again to finish it in his vision. And somehow the end of the saga morphed into a standalone graphic novel, Hunger Dogs, which also didn’t bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion.

And the graphic novel itself was a mess on the production end. Pages intended for the standard comic books were reworked for the graphic novel using photocopies, corrections, new “border” art and a host of other techniques to turn standard size pages into graphic novel pages.

Fortunately, Jack did create brand new large art pages for the GN, and they are pretty terrific in terms of page layout and composition, as evidenced here.  They are his final work for either of the “big two” publishers.

As for the New Gods? They lived on, and more importantly, Darkseid arguably became the most important villain in the DCU. Jack shared in some of that commercial success, and his family continues to share in that success today.

A fitting ending after all.