We return with a different kind of Kirby this time and a small repeat of another article I had written a few weeks prior. Like the previous instance, I had been reading through more of Kirby’s Fourth World omnibuses, but then there was a single issue that stood out due to what Jack was doing. This time, thankfully, it wasn’t another dread terror of Apokolips mirroring something in current politics, but an origin story—something we’ve yet to see despite being more than halfway finished with this saga. But it’s good to know our origins in The New Gods #7.

New Genesis is as peaceful as it had always been since the old gods had died. The New Gods of New Genesis had known peace as their planet had splintered from the more noble of those old gods, but that doesn’t stop Steppenwolf of Apokolips from conducting raids whenever the fancy strikes. But his fancy is bolstered by a suggestion from his nephew: why not attack two lovers idling in a field? What does it matter that they’re attacking the warrior Izaya and his wife Avia? It rather does matter when Steppenwolf kills Avia as she runs to her husband and her husband is similarly slain by Steppenwolf’s nephew, sparking a war between the two planets that has been long festering beneath the surface. Izaya, however, survived that encounter and his rage allowed him to defeat Steppenwolf, clearing the path to the throne of Apokolips for his nephew, Darkseid.

The New Gods #7 is one of the most consequential issues in the Fourth World saga—not to say the others are inconsequential, barring anything with Don Rickles—as “The Pact” has answers to questions we’ve been asking since the story began. Why does Orion have the face of someone from Apokolips? Where did Highfather find The Source? Who had developed the Boom Tubes? Why was Scott Free in one of Granny Goodness’s orphanages? Everything is laid out completely, from the beginning of the New Gods’ war to its eventual ceasefire as Highfather and Darkseid exchanged sons to keep them from annihilating one another. Every story line throughout the Fourth World begins with the machinations of a sniveling Darkseid that could only seethe and plot while his family vied for the throne of Apokolips—a stark contrast from the elemental force we see him as in the preceding stories.

Kirby was crafting Myths with this issue—each thread spinning off from this focal point that would show us how his story would play out. But, as we wind through these final issues, we wouldn’t see much more of how the story would play out. The New Gods would only exist for another four issues after this story, with many of the other series finding their sudden endings halting the momentum Kirby had been building up over the course of his saga. But even with that ending in mind, we still have a story with all the merits of mythological high drama that we come to comics for.

Get excited. Get known.

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