Ava DuVernay has a new partner to help her take on DC’s New Gods: comic book writer Tom King.
DuVernay on Wednesday revealed that King had joined the project via a tweet. King’s connection to the mythology of New Gods is well-known: His Mister Miracle comic book series, illustrated by Mitch Gerads, was a revival of one of the four core 1970s “Fourth World” comic book series, alongside New Gods and the lesser-known Forever People and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen series.
The so-called “Fourth World” comic books centered around the conflict between two alien planets, New Genesis and Apokolips, which spilled over onto Earth when Darkseid, the ruler of Apokolips, discovers that the key to eradicating free will across the universe can be found in the minds of certain humans. The mythology was the work of Jack Kirby, who had earlier helped create Captain America, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man and Thor for DC’s competition, Marvel Comics.
King and Gerads’ Mister Miracle series, which featured multiple New Gods characters and took the mythology further than it had gone under Kirby in terms of plot development, won multiple awards throughout its 12-issue run, which ended in November.
DuVernay was announced as the helmer of the New Gods adaptation in March of last year. It might have been an unexpected choice for the Selma director, but not entirely; months before she was attached to the project, she revealed on Twitter that Big Barda was her favorite superhero for “many reasons.”
Barda — one of the Female Furies, an elite squad of warrior women trained to fight for New Gods arch-antagonist Darkseid — is one of the most popular characters in the Fourth World mythology. Not coincidentally, she was one of the main characters in King’s Mister Miracle series.
News of King’s hiring was first reported by The Wrap.