The New Gods of Jack Kirby are apparently being targeted for death by DC comics, with hired gun Jim Starlin brought in to do the dirty work. To me this seems an odd move, but then the New Gods are an odd sort of franchise. To begin with, the whole thing is part of Jack Kirby's Fourth World concept, which included not just New Gods, but The Forever People, Mister Miracle, and, yes, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Mister Miracle appears to be fair game for the series, and even Jimmy got in the way of Lightray and appears to be coming down with powers in Countdown.
The Fourth World, then, consisted of four titles, one of which was not only firmly in the DC Universe and continuity, but also firmly entangled in DC's flagship character. So the New Gods were bound to collide with DC Universe proper. Sometimes this worked as with "The Great Darkness Saga" but sometimes it didn't. I have never been exactly sure what the new Gods are supposed to be. Are they truly new gods, and thus, they should really be busy creating worshippers or being manifestations of qualities in the universe? Or are they just new gods who are busy creating a mythology of heroic and infernal deeds to inspire legends. Surely Kalibak has better things to do than fight with Dan Turpin?
In fact, when Tom Peyer did the New Gods in the 1990's, I suggested to him that Brainiac 5, being from the future of the DC Universe, should worship Metron, the god of knowledge and science, since he did know who Darkseid was in the Great Darkness Saga, I thought it would be a cool call back to that story to show that Darkseid and Metron were actually part of his religion. No dice.
But therein lies part of the problem, as gods go, the New Gods come off more as though they are a superhero group than as a pantheon of deities. In contrast, Marvel's Thor while clearly a superhero, always had a bit of tension with Odin disapproving of his crime fighting exploits to a greater or lesser extent. While Darkseid is clearly a threat to Superman, it is just as clear that Superman can physically beat him, and he has. It's never clear just exactly what the New Gods are supposed to be.
But that's not why I find this new approach odd. I find this new approach odd because I don't see how it makes any economic sense whatsoever. The idea of killing them off seems to imply that people want to see them die so much, they'll buy eight issues with that in mind. When Supergirl and Flash were killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths, they were killed off in the context of a great story. People were buying it anyway, and the two characters who were not necessarily that popular were not the drawing cards. But here, it's gonna be "death of the New Gods and pray for rain." So, if the New Gods are popular enough to support an eight-issue miniseries, why kill them off? And if they are unpopular, why devote eight issues to killing them off rather than just not using them. Additionally, nobody who has read more than twenty comics thinks they are going to stay dead.
Of course, Marvel did have Starlin on "The Death of Captain Marvel" graphic novel, but then again, that was a fresh comic for a fresh format. At this point, killing the New Gods in a miniseries strikes me as neither.
It is interesting to note, by the way, that Jack Kirby also created some new gods for Marvel in the Eternals. Marvel recently gave those guys to Neil Gaiman who decided that rather than kill them off, he'd try to do a story about them.
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It's the well known "out of ideas syndrome." The current DC philosophy is that only big events can sell, and only illogical tragedy can power a big event.
Yes, but how is this a big event? If they are popular enough that killing them off in a stand alone miniseries will sell as much as a crossover, then why kill them? If they are not that popular, how is it a big event?
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