1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #13
(Cover by Dick Giordano)
Published and © by DC, Apr. 1976
“Lest Night Fall — Forever!”
Synopsis: Orion battles Kalibak in an effort to stop Darkseid — an effort that might destroy the Earth!
Writer (plot): Gerry Conway
Writer (dialogue): Denny O’Neil
Penciler: Mike Vosburg
Inker: Vosburg
Review: Less than four years after pulling the plug on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World flagship, DC decided to bring back the New Gods — sans Kirby. The result is a sad affair by comparison. Everything about Kirby’s run was writ large. Here, Gerry Conway and Denny O’Neil reduce the title down to a spacey superhero book: lots of big punching, none of the epic grandeur. Mike Vosburg’s art doesn’t help, either; it’s not bad, but pales in comparison to Kirby. On its own, 1st Issue Special #13 isn’t terrible — but you’ve got to come stronger than this to follow the King.
Grade: B-
Cool factor: As sad as it is to see the New Gods back without Kirby, it is nice to see them back.
Not-so-cool factor: Orion’s new costume, with a big “O” on his chest. Very nice.
Notable: Includes a one-page “Justice for All Includes Children, 2” public service ad, featuring art by Neal Adams. … Also includes a one-page text feature titled “The Story Behind the Story” (which, sadly, doesn’t bother to mention Jack Kirby!)
Character quotable: “I glory in warrior’s work — in violence and destruction!” — Orion (God bless those internal monologues!).
Andrew, wait’ll you get to the Return of the New Gods revival that began publication over a year later. Writing and art (thanks to Gerry Conway and Don Newton, respectively) get a little better. Orion’s uniform doesn’t change, sorry. While ROTNG was not as good as Englehart and Rogers/Gerber and Golden’s Mister Miracle (which ran concurrently with New Gods), it still has some entertaining aspects.
Jim:
I’m pretty sure it was the Conway/Newton issues that I experienced first as a kid, not the original Kirby run. I wasn’t a big fan of the King as a young’n, but had a major coming-to-Kirby conversion in college. After that, it’s been hard to see others handling the New Gods (including later stuff by Byrne and Simonson, creators who know a thing or two about Kirby and gods, respectively!) Still, I’ll try to keep an open mind when I revisit the Conway/Newton material!
I have always felt the same way about latter-day (non-Kirby) New Gods material; it was so idiosyncratic, it just doesn’t click when done by anyone but the King. It’s very difficult to thread the needle between being missing the point and being redundant, even for decent creators. Besides, after Kirby effectively ended the story (thematically, anyway) in the Hunger Dogs graphic novel, most subsequent New Gods stories feel far more like exercises in copyright maintenance than anything else.