"There came a time when the Old Gods died! The brave died with the cunning! The noble perished, locked in battle with unleashed evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!"
And so begins The New Gods, the chronicle of the epic battle between the New Gods of New Genesis and the evil Darkseid of Apokalips, who aims to subjugate all free will in the universe. Written, illustrated and edited by Jack "The King" Kirby, the Fourth World spanned four titles from 1970-1972-
The Fourth World was Jack Kirby's magnum opus, and into it he poured all his love and considerable skill as a creator. Sadly, due to several factors that are debated and theorized over to this day, three of the four titles were cancelled abruptly, with the fourth following not too long thereafter. This means that Kirby's Fourth World Saga, masterpiece though it is, remains uncompleted. Kirby himself wrote an ending over a decade later, but was limited by a rigid page count and editorial meddling.
Since then, in many ways, the characters and concepts introduced in the Fourth World have spread through the DCU. Many writers have attempted their own spin on Kirby's rich characters and universe, with mixed success. As such, there's the question of which, if any, of those later additions are considered "canon" to the Fourth World.
This site aims, first and foremost, to serve as a guide to the Fourth World as Kirby intended it. Other interpretations and appearances of the characters are included in their own archives for completion's sake, but the focus of this site is Kirby's canon. As such, Superman lore and canon will not be archived on this site, save where it is explicitly referenced in a Fourth World title.
For the purposes of this website, canon is anything produced by Kirby himself in line with the original publication of the Fourth World. Later additions such as Englehart's Mister Miracle run, or Conway's New Gods run, are not considered canon even if they are Pre-Crisis. The Hunger Dogs, while written and drawn by Kirby, was produced years after the original Fourth World titles, and is thus not considered by this site to be the canonical ending.
However, a single exception is made for "Even Gods Must Die!" from New Gods Volume 2, issue 6.
This site recommends reading the issues in release order. To this end, a reading guide has been prepared. To those who prefer to read by run, this site recommends the order listed above. Keep in mind, however, that for Forever People, Mister Miracle, and New Gods, news of cancellation hit Kirby by issue nine, and he had but two issues to wrap up the story. This site also understands why people may want to skip the Jimmy Olsen issues, but would recommend that issue 147 at least be, as that is the issue where Superman visits New Genesis, and issue 141 is a must-read for Lightray fans.