Fourth World by John Byrne

Fourth World by John Byrne Omnibus by John Byrne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fourth World by John Byrne Omnibus collects New Gods #12-15, Jack Kirby's Fourth World #1-20, and Genesis #1-4 as well as some bonus materials.

I was gearing up to read Walt Simonson's Orion when I learned of the existence of this. Fortunately, I found it for well below cover price.

I normally write reviews as soon as I'm done with a book but I've been chewing on this since yesterday. It's the standard Byrne "back to basics" approach. He takes 20 issues to leave everyone back at the starting line for the most part. Byrne was more than up to the task of playing with Kirby's toys, though. Everyone acted according to established character. Byrne's cosmic vistas were great. I think he spread himself too thin, though, and should have focused on a smaller number of characters.

The stories themselves are pretty good, particularly the Tales of the New Gods backup feature, usually drawn by other artists like Walt Simonson or Ron Wagner. The backgrounds of Darkseid and other characters in his orbit are fleshed out.

The main tales are cosmic in scope and Byrne has a handle on the characters' personalities. Apart from Takion getting a bigger role, not a lot happened. I felt like some interesting things were dropped or rushed and other things took too damn long to bear fruit. I said earlier that Byrne spread himself too thin. Orion was barely touched upon in comparison to Mister Miracle, Takion, and the Forever People.

I think Byrne did great work here but much like his Fantastic Four run, he didn't really color outside the established lines very much. Even after chewing on this for a while, I still don't know how to rate this so I'm slapping a three on it.



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