The New Gods #1
The New Gods #1 is the cornerstone of Jack Kirby's 'Fourth World' saga — arguably the most ambitious act of world-building in Bronze Age comics — and serves as the formal debut of an entire pantheon of characters, including Orion, Highfather, Lightray, Metron, and Kalibak, all in a single issue. Its opening two-page spread, depicting the death of the Old Gods and the birth of twin successor worlds, established a cosmological mythology unlike anything DC had published before, blending Norse myth, science fiction, and Cold War allegory into one sweeping narrative framework. The characters introduced here — above all the tyrant Darkseid and his obsession with the Anti-Life Equation — went on to become foundational pillars of the wider DC Universe, influencing dozens of crossover events, animated series, and the work of creators from Grant Morrison to Jim Starlin. The series Kirby launched with this issue won him a Shazam Award for Special Achievement in 1971, and a 1998 archival collection of the run took both the Harvey and Eisner Awards for Best Domestic Reprint Project, confirming the issue's enduring critical stature.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
After years of creative disputes with Marvel Comics over authorship credit and intellectual-property rights, Jack Kirby departed in 1970 and signed a contract with DC under editorial director Carmine Infantino, who had personally visited Kirby and expressed enthusiasm for his new designs. Kirby had been gestating the core concept for years — a story of two warring planetary civilizations rising from the ashes of dead gods — having first attempted versions of it in his 'Tales of Asgard' Thor work and later in his Inhumans stories at Marvel. DC initially planned to preview the 'Fourth World' titles in a November 1970 issue of Showcase, but when that fell through, the titles launched independently; New Gods #1 was published on December 22, 1970, with a cover date of March 1971, simultaneously with Forever People #1, and Kirby served as his own writer, penciler, and editor. A one-page text feature inside the issue — 'A Visit With Jack Kirby' by a young Marv Wolfman — explicitly framed all four of Kirby's interconnected DC titles as a single unified mythology for readers.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearances of Orion, Lightray (Solis), Metron, Highfather, and Kalibak — all created by Jack Kirby — as confirmed across the Grand Comics Database, GoCollect, Key Collector Comics, and the DC Database.
- Also marks the in-story introduction of New Genesis, Apokolips, the Source, the Boom Tube, Para-Demons, and the civilian characters Dave Lincoln, Victor Lanza, Claudia Shane, and Harvey Lockman.
- The lead story is titled 'Orion Fights for Earth!', written and penciled by Jack Kirby with inks by Vince Colletta; the cover was penciled by Kirby and inked by Frank Giacoia.
- The issue contains a one-page text feature, 'A Visit With Jack Kirby,' written by a young Marv Wolfman, which served as an editorial manifesto explaining the interconnected scope of Kirby's four simultaneous DC titles.
- The original series ran only 11 issues before DC cancelled it in 1972; it was relaunched in 1977 under a new creative team and the series was retrospectively recognized as the centerpiece of Kirby's Fourth World saga.
- DC reprinted the contents of this issue (paired with New Gods #2) as the first installment of a six-issue 1984 mini-series, with wraparound covers by Kirby, making this the first material collected in that reprint project.
- Kirby's design for Lightray's costume in this issue directly influenced Al Milgrom's creation of Firestorm for DC in 1978, per Milgrom's own 2019 acknowledgment.
- The Fourth World titles as a whole — New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle, and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen — earned Kirby the 1971 Shazam Award for Special Achievement by an Individual; a 1998 archival collection of the New Gods run won both the Harvey and Eisner Awards for Best Archival Collection.
Cast · 8 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Ages ago, good and evil gods alike perish in the destruction of the home of the old gods. Now Orion, wielder of the Astro Force, is summoned to New Genesis by High-Father. Joined by Metron, they learn the task set for Orion by the Source. Orion is sent to Apokolips, New Genesis' opposite, where he learns that Darkseid, its ruler, is on Earth preparing to conquer it. Orion frees Lanza, Shane, Lincoln, and Lockman and flees to Earth. Orion's task is to stop Darkseid, who plans to mind-scan every human on Earth until he finds the one whose mind holds the secret of the coveted Anti-Life Equation.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).