Hardcore Station (1998) 1 2 3 4 5 6 NM (9.4) complete set JLA app Jim Starlin

Hardcore Station (1998) 1 2 3 4 5 6NM (9.4)complete setJLA appJim Starlin Joseph Rubinstein

Starlin and cosmic gods, should be 'nuff said.

This book's main attraction is the art. There are numerous spreads and panel layouts that clearly evoke the Jack Kirby style even to a non-connoisseur of Kirby like me. I have tried before to pick up and enjoy the King's material but I fail to get past the dialogue and aged writing style. For me Death of the New Gods was both a primer on and a modernization of the Kirby style that help my noob eyes to look at more of the original material and understand why it is so appreciated. This work is like a spiritual descendant of the original artist paying homage, but not one so many generations removed that he can only ape the original master. In my edition Jim Starlin gets the credit as the penciller. I could distinguish the team of inkers from each other, which is unusual for me. This makes me think they each probably deserve some extra credit for the final product. The color artist also does an excellent job.

I knew very little about Fourth World coming into this. Jim Starlin does a good job explaining the mythology enough for a regular comic reader to follow along. Bear in mind that clunky exposition is a feature, not a bug, of these dimension-spanning supra-galactic style tales! Starlin is a vet at writing the super-deity voice necessary for this cast of characters and for the apocalyptic plot to work. He rarely falls into making these demi-gods speak and come off like petty 20th/21st century mortals. The characters have a gravitas appropriate to allegedly divine beings but also that touch of the tragic and hubristic that goes hand in hand with their nature. There is an extreme reliance on inner dialog boxes but again this works in the context of these beings. Overall you get a solid tale combining a war of celestial powers with a murder mystery. The goal here is revealed to be about tying some larger loose ends of the DC universe together, but despite it's purposes as a continuity widget you still get an enjoyable cosmic level yarn that is self contained and doesn't rely on the reader knowing the various DC Crises of the 2000s.

It is not quite Infinity Gauntlet with a DC cast, however if that sounds like an appealing proposition do check this out. If like me you don't entirely get why the old hands at comics do flips over Kirby also pick this up and see what might have been if glossy paper and more than four colors had been available back then.