Cards on the table, I have not read all of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.
I know, I know. I definitely should. It’s an all-time great saga, and I definitely will eventually. But even so, even in the absence of that, I understand, broadly speaking, what the New Gods are about, and it helps that I’ve read books like Final Crisis and Mister Miracle to support that. A friend of mine, Comic Krackle, did a crash course on New Gods that you should definitely watch if you want more context, but I didn’t because I’ll experience it all for myself.
Nonetheless, all of that doesn’t matter. I know Ram V’s writing. He’s one of my favorite writers in the industry right now, something that I’ve made very aware if you’ve read my interview with him or my various pieces on his Detective Comics run. I adore his Swamp Thing too, as well as the indie work he’s done over the years.
Evan Cagle is someone I’m familiar with almost exclusively through the context of V’s work, but I am constantly enamored by his art. His covers for Detective Comics are, to me, the best cover run in all of comics, and Dawnrunner is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read all year.
Based on my understanding of Kirby’s Fourth World, Ram V seemed the perfect fit for The New Gods. Even just looking at his most recent DC book, Detective Comics – that’s a book that’s all about mythology as a concept framed through the superhero lens, and The New Gods fits within that purview. Now enhance all of that with Evan Cagle’s work, and you’ve got something very different from their previous book, Dawnrunner, yet a book that is so uniquely them.
The New Gods is Ram V operating in a mode I can only describe as Hickman-esque. If Gotham Nocturne was playing with a good, even split of “human” dialogue and more dramatic theatrics, The New Gods leans towards the dramatic a lot more, and it works so much in its favor because that is what the scope of the book invites. The feeling of expansion, the feeling that everything is at stake, and having theatrical narration and dialogue that reflects that makes that feeling grab your soul and hold it tight until you close the book.
Of course, none of that works without Evan Cagle and Jorge Fornés’ art. The opening pages are drawn by Fornés, dialogue-less, juxtaposed with the narration. The second and third pages are a spread that perfectly encapsulates why the story could only be told in this medium, where the panel lines fade into nothing as Metron reaches the source to really express how “all eventually return to that from which all of this had begun…”
Cagle’s art populates the rest of the issue, and it’s beautiful. The visual contrast to Fornés is very effective, as the dialogue refers to what feels like scripture, while Cagle is operating on the present. Every single location has so much character, New Genesis looks like the most advanced kingdom you have ever seen, while the two locations on Earth are as different as they come. The beats Orion and Scott Free get, where the panel effectively communicates who they are and what their job is absolutely rule.
But the art isn’t complete without colors, and that’s where Francesco Segala comes in. Segala infuses every single panel in this book with so much atmosphere, all of which perfectly allows the reader to fully absorb themselves in this comic and feel what it wants you to feel. The somber lighting when Orion and Scott talk encapsulates that tone, and the color of the galaxy, when Highfather speaks, frames his theatrical dialogue perfectly, and those are just two examples of many in this book.
And then Tom Napolitano’s lettering is the cherry on top. There isn’t a moment in this book where it took away from the art, instead using various shapes and fonts to sell the tone and impact of every word. This is especially visible in that one conversation between Orion and Scott (the highlight of this issue, truly), where Orion’s dialogue is kept in the more ‘standard’ dialogue, while Scott’s gets to run wild to show the difference in how they speak.
On Orion and Scott, that’s another beat that makes the writing feel so Hickman-esque to me. To date, this is the Ram V book that feels like it’s going to center around the ideological clash, something that is so relevant to Hickman’s work, and you can see that through them when Orion tells Scott his task and what Scott needs to do to stop him. From page one I was lurched forwards, but that conversation is what made me lurch extra forward, and I cannot wait for what’s in store going forward.
This is greatness in the making, folks. You don’t want to miss it.
