In all things, there is an origin point—the space in which the void at the center is filled with something inexplicable and all work that comes after is inevitably inspired. While Jack Kirby had his own origins working for Marvel—maybe working a bit more than his chief collaborator would claim—it was when he landed at DC in the early seventies that he would do something for comics that many creators have struggled to achieve since. We’ve bits and pieces when we’ve looked at The Invisibles and Promethea in the past months, but it’s now we begin at the beginning with Kirby’s Fourth World.

To open the saga that would come to define much of modern comics and every kind of mythologizing that comes to superhero stories, we have to start the series Kirby launched his cosmic odyssey with:Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. In the 133^rd issue, we begin by seeing Olsen coming into contact with a newly-formed Newsboy Legion, traveling to a land known as the Wild Area, punching out the leader of a biker gang called the Outsiders, becoming leader of said group for said punching, and beginning a race toward the Mountain of Judgment by the new owner of the Daily Planet. This is, of course, all one issue. From there in this first leg of the Fourth World saga we’re introduced to the Forever People, a whole pantheon of New Gods that would come to define the cosmic destiny of the DC Universe in perpetuity, and an escape artist that may not be from around here.

What stands out most in these first few issues is the density of characters and information conveyed. While the initial Fourth World was only fifty-five issues, these first dozen read as though we’re multiple runs into four different series. But this density is what made Kirby’s work so impactful when looking back at it now—his imagination was able to pack so many story beats and ideas into twenty-two pages that we could feel the material nearly spilling out. And even with this just being the beginning, we’re getting a complete picture of many of these characters and the mythologies they’re symbolizing already. Looking at a character like Orion in the first issue of The New Gods, we can see the story of an embattled warrior that would love nothing more than to fight for the rest of his days and likely will due to prophecy.

And it’s that prophetic point that makes just the opening of the Fourth World feel like we’re looking at re-tooled mythology for the comic medium. Kirby was working with massive strokes and ideas, letting his own love of myths and legends and parables guide him, while still keeping an eye for the people on the street. His work was cosmic in nature, but he knew how to contrast that Earth-shattering power with the fears and desperations of a couple humans pulled into a cosmic odyssey.

Get excited. Get kinged.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, 651, & 674) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.