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Death of the New Gods #4

Death of the New Gods #4

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 26, 2007

Cover date: February 2008

Writer: Jim Starlin
Penciller: Jim Starlin
Inker: Art Thibert

Neal Bailey Reviewed by: Neal Bailey

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Superman, Orion, and Mister Miracle arrive at the home of the Forever People, only to find them all dead. Miracle, upset, conjures all of the Forever People from death and demands that they tell him who killed them. They disintegrate themselves instead of obey despite the compulsion of the Anti-Life equation.

Metron follows the killer's path back in time, through the Bleed, noticing that the killer has gone through metamorphosis.

Kalibak allies with Mantis against Mister Miracle.

Darkseid dismisses Desaad and speaks to using one of his projects to gamble his life.

Superman speaks with Himon, who finds that Orion may be the killer. Both Superman and Miracle disagree, but Orion is gone before they can question him. They find that the Mother Boxes have mysteriously stopped working.

Kalibak and Mantis blindside Mister Miracle as he grieves.

Metron finally finds the killer, a ball of white light.

3Story - 3: The story continues along at a pace I enjoy, and I'm even sympathetic to the characters, their plight, and I'm enjoying the execution, but there were two major issues that totally drug me out of the story. Firstly, Scott uses the ANTI-LIFE EQUATION, previously established as being immutable, and the Forever People tell him to go scratch. Lame. Secondly, there is a TON of the dialogue I absolutely despise, where, in order not to give away the mystery, a character speaks in dialogue that doesn't react normally. Like, for instance, I know Steve murdered a busload full of nuns. I'm speaking to Carol about it, and I say, "Hey, why did that person we know murder those nuns!?"

Offputting and odd. You'd say, "Steve murdered nuns! Holy crap!"

Beyond that, my suspicions are even more confirmed through dialogue that I'm right, and that the Black Racer is the baddie. It's also kind of poetic, death evolving beyond its host to take out the New Gods. My worry and fear is that they'll defeat "death" with the Anti-Life equation, and thereby all of the New Gods will return to life, negating this story, creating the Fifth World as some ancillary area, but who knows. Either way, it's interesting.

4Art - 4: The art is still awkward in places, for instance, Superman nearly smiling when discovering the dead Forever People in amusement, but there's a lot of detail and love in the paneling here that shows through and makes this issue very powerful and good regardless. The Anti-Life suit and many of the elements are very 90s and hokey to a degree, but it's still worth a look.

3Cover Art - 3: Representative of the issue, and decently drawn, but somewhat hokey looking to a degree that it detracts from the draw-in. Still, kind of scary seeing the Forever People in profile, dead.

Mild Mannered Reviews

2008

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

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