Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Volume 2

This book is fantastic. A faithful reproduction of Jack Kirby's wonderful art and creative stories. I love it. My 11-year old son loves it.

This is some of Kirby's finest work. Has anyone created more epic characters than Jack? Nope. It's a great visual feast and I very much like the way it's produced. Anyone who complains about the paper should step back and give it another chance and look at the merits of this paper choice. I personally think this paper should be used for all these types of reprints of old material - Masterworks, Archives , etc. In my humble opinion this paper presents this material with beautiful color but without the over slickness of the paper used on many Marvel Masterworks editions. It preserves the feel of the old comics but with much better color saturation and registration. There's something about the really slick paper that just doesn't lend itself to these classic works. It's hard to articulate but I have been won over by this format. Great job DC - keep it up!

The first thing I did after removing the shrinkwrap was to check the format of this book against volume 1. It is exactly the same, the same paper, the same binding, so if you hate volume 1 you will hate volume 2 as well. The stories seem to be getting better and better, and the only word I could come up with to describe it is "Awesome!" I really like having some of Kirby's pencils as a bonus at the back of the book, and the comentaries by other artists at the beginning and end give context and insite into what Kirby was trying to accomplish. I think he succeeded and I can hardly wait for volume 3.

I had debated getting this book for sometime, as with the first volume my impression was, upon handling it, if felt light for such a thick book, but after removing the shrink wrap I was pleasantly surprised.The paper felt just right, and while reminiscent of the type of paper used in comics, it was clearly of a higher quality. Then lets talk color, they were beautiful, you feel like you are back in the 1970's buying the comics right off the rack. Some collections recolor the colors of the book in a garish manner, not here, though I don't have the originals to compare them to directly the way this book was colored was a joy to behold and felt true to the artist's intentions. The binding was not tight, easy to read and stayed open. Though all the stories in this volume have been reprinted before, remember all but the Jimmy Olsen were printed in horrid black and white (what other DC collections, except for their showcase line, are in black and white) with the added insult of tones being added to the art to rendering it murky. What is really impressive is how the story reads when collected in the order it is published. Unless you bought the books off the racks in the 1970's or you actually made an effort to find their publication dates nobody has recently read them as Kirby had intended. The cut from one section of the saga is interesting, Jimmy Olsen is at the fringe, Mister Miracle a little bit closer, Forever People even deeper, and the New Gods at the center of it all. You can see more and more characters getting drawn into the story. A lot of people will decry the silly story with Don Rickles, but when read in context it shows that everyone was being drawn into this cosmic war, plus some comic relief is much needed when you have the high melodrama of the New Gods going on. Extras include a hefty helping of original kirby pencil art at the back of the book. I wish they would have included the house ads, oh well. The next volume (#3) will pack the most punch as you come to some of Kirby's strongest stuff yet (The Pact) and Scott Free's escape to earth is shown in a flashback story you will not soon forget. See you there.