10 Things You Didn't Know About DC's New Gods
2. Their Conception Was Inspired By Carl Jung's Work
Following up from the story reveal that New Gods are actually living ideas, Grant Morrison revealed that Jack Kirby was inspired by Jungian archetypes while shaping the Fourth World for DC. It turns out that Kirby highly revered Carl Jung's psychological writings and they shaped his worldviews and storytelling sensibilities.
During an in-company interview, the comic book maestro stated that the King was specifically inspired by Jung's seminal work Memories, Dreams, Reflections. The semi-autobiographical piece focuses on the Swiss psychologist's childhood, relationships, travels and his studies of the human psyche (in particular his development of the now-renowned archetypes).
Therefore, Morrison states that the writer's understanding of Jung's work shaped the characters who would come to embody the very concepts that shape the human psyche. Additionally, they went to say that Kirby's penchant for "comic-opera dialogue" fit these transcendental beings, as he understood that such individuals would not communicate in relatively banal means.