Broken Frontier

And there came a time when the gods died! The brave died with the cunning! An ancient era passed into fiery holocaust! Once more, such a time is upon us…

A mysterious assassin has been murdering the New Gods, picking off the inhabitants of New Genesis and Apokalips one by one. Even the Black Racer, the embodiment of divine death, is not immune. From his dread throne room, Darkseid seeks the answer to this mystery and how he can turn it to his advantage. Metron, eternal seeker of knowledge, senses that something in the cosmos is slightly…askew. And slowly but surely, the gods perish….

Jim Starlin has made a career out of telling epic, cosmic sagas with universe-spanning events. As such, he is a logical choice to helm a story about the New Gods, a set of characters that practically defines epic and cosmic. Even so, I can only express serious misgivings about this particular tale. While I can certainly understand the concept of a dramatic Ragnarok-style ending to the New Gods’ world, it seems a colossal waste to wipe out what are arguably some of Jack Kirby’s greatest creations. Granted, few creators can write them like the King did but that hardly seems cause for wholesale slaughter.

Is this what storytelling at DC Comics is coming to, shocking "event" series and ever-growing body counts? This recent trend from my favorite publisher has left me rather ambivalent and numb to the drama. Rather than a shocked gasp or swell of poignant emotion, each new death seems to engender merely a weary sigh. Not the effect they’re hoping for, I imagine.

Regardless of my unease with the series concept, Starlin does a fairly solid job with this first offering. He falls easily into the Kirby-style narration and melodrama that are hallmarks of the New Gods without losing sight of character along the way. Mr. Miracle and Big Barda’s playful relationship and the juxtaposition of the divine and mundane in their life make for some of the issue’s more amusing moments. Starlin also does a nice job with Darkseid’s blustery scheming and Metron’s passive, amoral curiosity.

Artistically, the issue hits some strong marks as well. The two page spread of New Genesis is breathtaking and the flashback sequences seem almost to come from the pen of Kirby himself. Jeremy Cox’s colors and aftereffects make the art pop off the page. However, Starlin strays a bit when it comes to anatomy and many of the characters end up looking rather tall and gangly. Jimmy Olsen, in particular, looks gawkier than I’ve ever seen him.

So is this really the beginning of the end? The world of the New Gods was born from that of the Old Gods and Highfather himself points out here that energy cannot die. Could this destruction in fact be setup for a re-imagining of the Fourth World mythos, rather than its elimination? Too soon to say. If, however, this is indeed the last we’ll see of the New Gods, this could end up being one of the more shortsighted editorial decisions in some time.