Kirby's Thor* vs Fourth World vs Eternals

Which is your favorite and why? Which holds up even today?

...

Haven't read Kirby's Thor apart from JiM. Supposedly the best/second best Thor run.
Fourth World is one of my favorite comics. I've only read a few issues of the Eternals but it's essentially New Gods 2.0 so...

Would you continue reading Eternals or was it only okay?

Which non-Kirby FW runs would you recommend?

Avoid Starlin and Byrne. Starlin is a terrible fit for FW stuff, as evidenced by Death Of The New Gods and Cosmic Odyssey. Cosmic Odyssey is held up only because of John Stewart's arc and Mignola's artwork. DOTNG is interesting ideas executed terribly.
Byrne did some cool things with his Tales Of The New Gods backup stories, but overall, his Fourth World run was garbage, and even his friend Walt Simonson ignored as much as he could sanely do from it when he did his Orion series. Byrne's Fourth World coincided with his terrible Genesis event, so if you know anything about that, you know that the promise the first few issues of Fourth World he wrote quickly shits the bed and goes into overwrought and overthought John Byrne-with-no-other-collaborator bullshit. The man always has to make his version "definitive" at the cost of anything else, even when he says that only the 70s had good comics.

As far as good FW by other writers, Orion by Simonson is pretty awesome. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, and it echoes his Thor in many ways, but Simonson truly feels more like Kirby in terms of execution of ideas than a lot of other writers who handled Kirby's creations. Simonson puts care and effort in, at least. DiDio and Giffen's New 52 OMAC (not FW, but still Kirby-derived) is worth a read, too. I haven't gotten to their Infinity Man and the Forever People yet, but if it's more of the same, it'd be non-Kirby FW stuff worth reading. I liked Giffen and DeMatteis' usage of Barda and Mister Miracle in JLI, as well, so there's that.

>echos his Thor in many ways
I'm in
Thanks user I'll pick up OMAC too

>Avoid Starlin
It feels like the only characters he can write decent are adam warlock and thanos

Orion by simonson
Kirby's 100 special if you're desperate

justice league, justice league unlimited, superman, batman beyond, justice league action episodes

justice league gods and monsters, superman and batman apocalypse

>It feels like the only characters he can write decent are adam warlock and thanos

He's only good with his own creations, and even then, he overpowers them or overstates them in some other way. I love the Infinity Trilogy, and his Silver Surfer and Warlock runs (haven't actually read Captain Marvel outside of the Death Of Captain Marvel), but the man pretty much makes everyone else a drooling imbecile most of the time. Quasar alone should've been capable of holding Thanos off, given what the Quantum Bands are capable of.

This. Fucking made the Avengers job hard

I agree with that Quasar statement

>CN won't renew Justice League Action

My favorite of his are Kamandi, FF and OMAC. Didn't like his New Gods very much and his concept of Thor makes me want to avoid it. I don't think Kirby can into mythology.

Thor. I really liked the imagery and how mythological the plot was.

Eternals is nowhere near anything Kirby's done. Personally, I think it's his weakest work for either of the big two. The art's nice, but the story drags along at a snail's pace and none of the characters are at all engaging.

It has Action in the name, it was doomed before it began. If it was Justice League Gag Comedy it'd get at least 10 seasons.

user, it's not really jobbing when you're the supreme power in the universe.

>I haven't gotten to their Infinity Man and the Forever People yet, but if it's more of the same, it'd be non-Kirby FW stuff worth reading

Infinity Man and the Forever People starts solid but quickly becomes a life boat for FW concepts within the garbage Godhead crossover. So, it stays well done, but it becomes less story driven.

The final issue is a great use of retconning/salvaging though.

>Didn't like his New Gods very much and his concept of Thor makes me want to avoid it. I don't think Kirby can into mythology
I didn't think it was possible to have taste this shit.

Came here to say pretty much this.
For me, New Gods is comics at their finest.
I've read a little bit of Kirby Thor but not enough to really compare it to Fourth World.

Not the best thread but I don't want to make one just for this.

How is his Mister Miracle? I've seen it's out now and considering buying it.

The original? Great.
The new miniseries? Divisive.

I'm reading the original currently, from the recent re-release.

Definitely really fun, though its a fair bit less high-concept than New Gods or some of the Jimmy Olsen stuff (I haven't read Forever People so my Fourth World knowledge is somewhat limited).

Big Barda is great, and the interactions between the characters are definitely enjoyable. The villains are mostly one-offs, but because it's Kirby they're all strange and memorable in their own right.

I'd recommend it. It feels very much like a more mature silver age comic rather than a full-fledged bronze age book, so bear that in mind.

Thanks, think i'll pick it up then.

>(I haven't read Forever People so my Fourth World knowledge is somewhat limited).

Forever People really loses steam in the back half, although is front loaded with great concept issues.

When should I stop reading Kirby's Thor? As I understand it, he actually wrote/published a "finale", but the series continued anyway. I think it covered the apocalypse/ragnarok. Which issue was this, and should I stop there?

Fourth World by far.

I think the second half is still rally good and gets a bit too much of a bad rep. The first half is fantastic though and #2 is where the godtier tiger force page comes from.

The Desaad issues are fantastic. Happyland is brilliant.

I don't dislike the back half, but it does feel like it's lost some luster.

I might give it a read at some point then.

I always feel a tad sad reading Fourth World though, knowing that Kirby's original vision for it was never completed and that the "true" ending in The Hunger Dogs is actually pretty crappy.

Any pictures yet of the Fourth World omnibus coming out next month?

>and that the "true" ending in The Hunger Dogs is actually pretty crappy.

The ending of the Hunger Dogs is really great though. It works with incredible thematics.
Orion truly asserts himself as Highfather's son through undergoing the same sort of revelation as Izaya did in the desert.

Just OP's pic and the pic Bendis posted.

Yeah Hunger Dogs kinda sucks. I guess I can see why some might like the final pages(I hate them) but the actual issue is... eh. Good pages here and there but some really crappy stuff and rushed shit. Bekka sucks.

Reading Fourth World in the omnibus format will be the first time I've read Fourth World but I'm really looking forward to it. Still I'm curious how the spine is going to hold up considering it is 1500 or so pages and would be pretty delicate to hold.

Hunger Dogs isn't really long enough to cap off the entire saga, and from what I actually read of it, Kirby's plotting (and even artwork to an extent) had drastically dropped in quality.

The spine will not hold up.

The first omnibus I owned was Uncanny X-Men by Claremont. It's only ~800 pages but basically shitty to read anywhere that isn't a desk. It's why I'm hesitant to buy more omnis, they're just sort of a pain to read and the spine is more likely to break.

The artwork is... mixed. Some page look wonky but other looks fantastic.

Oh yeah, Hunger Dogs isn't perfect - but the events that occurred in it I think are really the best way the FW could have ended. Kirby originally intended for Darkseid and Orion to die fighting each other in battle...but that seems less weighty than tying the saga together in paralleling "The Pact".

But yeah, Kirby was told there would be more pages and then he had to do the prologue and shit in Hunger Dogs was switched around. But for what it is...it's a great ending.

>The artwork is... mixed. Some page look wonky but other looks fantastic.

Some of the artwork is repurposed from the original prologue "On the road to Armaghetto!" which was then scrapped for "Even Gods Must Die"