10 Comic Book Weapons That Broke All The Rules

8. Everything In The Fourth World Saga

Fourth World
DC Comics

Jack Kirby made an indelible contribution to Marvel Comics, arguably being the single biggest creative force at the company when its most iconic characters came to life, but he also had an equally legendary stint at DC Comics afterwards, where he created what would come to be known as the Fourth World Saga.

The Fourth World was Kirby at his best and most bonkers, a series that kickstarted with the writer and artist literally killing the old gods he'd helmed while at Marvel and replacing them with the New Gods, immortal beings of Kirby's own creation who inhabited the worlds of New Genesis (a planet comprised entirely of all that was good and noble), and Apokolips (a place that was everything New Genesis was not).

At the core of this new mythos was the conflict between these two worlds, the former led by Highfather and the latter by Darkseid. The New Gods employed all kinds of weapons and technology in their war against each other, whether it be Darkseid's own omega beams, Metron's Mobius chair, Orion's Astro-Harness, Motherboxes and Boom Tubes or the Anti-Life Equation the Lord of Apokolips desperately coveted.

The Fourth World Saga changed the fabric of the DC universe forever, and it's yet another thing readers have Kirby to thank for.

In this post: 
Wonder-Woman
 
Posted On: 
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.