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I finally saw why people hype up Jack Kirby's original Fourth World run
I always thought the newer New Gods stuff was better because the art looked cleaner. Then last week I read a post on a comic forum breaking down how Kirby was literally inventing the cosmic superhero genre panel by panel in 1971. The guy linked scans showing how he used double page spreads to show scale in a way nobody had done before. Made me go back and actually read the original Mister Miracle issues. Totally different experience. Has anyone else had a classic run they wrote off until someone showed them the context?
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johnson.paul4mo ago
There was a podcast interview with Scott Snyder where he talked about rereading Kirby's Fourth World after years of dismissing it. He mentioned something specific about the way Kirby drew Darkseid's face in those early issues. Said the guy looked legitimately alien, like his features didn't quite fit right on a human skull. I went back and looked at a few panels after hearing that, and yeah, Darkseid's eyes are too wide apart, his mouth sits wrong. It's unsettling in a way the modern artists don't capture because they draw him like a handsome villain. That little detail made the whole run click for me. It's not dated art, it's intentionally weird to make you feel uneasy.
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emery1995mo ago
Honestly I was the same way with Frank Miller's Daredevil. I always thought the Netflix show was the best take because it felt more real. Then a friend made me look at how Miller drew the city itself as this crushing character, like the rain in those fight scenes isn't just weather, it's the whole mood of the book. Seeing how he used shadows to hide and show parts of the action totally flipped it for me. It went from looking old and rough to feeling heavy and perfect for the story.
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