https://www.blackgate.com/2017/01/21/jack-kirbys-fourth-world-45-years-later/A nice sampling of Kirby pages from the Fourth World series.
To specifically define Kirby's canonical Fourth World, it ran from Oct 1970-Nov 1972 across:
JIMMY OLSEN 133-139, 141-148FOREVER PEOPLE 1-11NEW GODS 1-11MISTER MIRACLE 1-9and one last story in MISTER MIRACLE 18, Jan 1974.
(MISTER MIRACLE 10-17 abandoned the Fourth World Storyline and focused on escape artist
adventures, ignoring the Fourth World characters).
(And then, unfortunately, THE HUNGER DOGS in 1985. One of the greatest disappointments
in my almost 50 years of comics reading.)
These two covers for FOREVER PEOPLE 1 and NEW GODS 1 for me encapsulate everything
I love about the Fourth World series.
The series just kept you floored with an endless stream of new characters, new worlds,
wild panoramic landscapes, and secret societies. Like the Wild Area, The Project, Transilvane,
and the Promethean Giants.
Pure adventure, but if you choose to read into it, plenty of symbolism of Biblical/spiritual
warfare between good and evil, and a smattering other gods mythology from across human history.
As expanded on by the likes of Englehart/Rogers, Gerber/Golden, Conway/Newton, Conway/Perez,
Byrne, Claremont/Simonson, and Simonson by himself in the ORION series.
And ultimately for me, Levitz/Giffen in LEGION 290-294.
Even I can acknowledge that the Fourth World canon, even just the Kirby portion, is
fractured and flawed. But still so enjoyable.
I kind of like that it's gone off in so many directions under different hands.
You can pick and choose for yourself what fits your personal definition of "canonical" or not.
