Everything you need to know about the New Gods, so you can board the hype train early for Ava DuVernay’s foray into the superhero genre!

News broke this week that Ava DuVernay’s New Gods project has picked up quite the writer to co-write the film — none other than longtime Batman and Mister Miracle writer, Tom King.

It’s great news for a few reasons. First, even though it had been announced back in March that Ava DuVernay was set to direct New Gods, we hadn’t heard anything about the project since then and I was beginning to get worried that the project had stalled out in pre-production limbo.

Secondly, Tom King has done some pretty solid work with his run on Batman overall and, more importantly, has done absolutely tremendous work on Mister Miracle, a character who comes from the world of The New Gods, called The Fourth World.

If everything I just said in that previous paragraph confused you, don’t worry — most casual comic book fans and viewers aren’t all that familiar with The Fourth World, even if you might recognize one of its most famous denizens — Darkseid.

And never fear — that’s exactly what this article is for! Here’s an explainer to introduce you to the New Gods and get you excited for what’s sure to be a fantastic superhero epic.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World

Even if you haven’t heard of legendary comic book creator Jack Kirby, I’m positive you’ve heard of at least a few of the heroes and teams he’s helped to create for Marvel — Captain America, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men.

After being a Marvel guy for decades, Kirby left Marvel for DC, and there created the fantastical, expansive, and mythology-inspired Fourth World comics.

In this Fourth World, we have the New Gods — who are literally just that. They are new gods who replaced the old gods. In Kirby’s world, the old gods of classical (Norse) mythology were destroyed in Ragnarok and their world was split into two different planets and repopulated with a new generation of gods and heroes.

These two worlds are Apokolips, a nightmare world of fire and torture, and New Genesis, a verdant and idyllic paradise. Yes, they’re broadly like Heaven and Hell, but not everyone on Apokolips is completely evil and not everyone on New Genesis is completely good.

They also bear the the distinction of existing outside the increasingly confounding DC Multiverse, which is to say that while Superman of Earth-prime and Superman of Earth-2 can be vastly different, there is only ever one version of Darkseid, one version of Orion, one version of Highfather and so on down the line.

Highfather, Darkseid, and their sons

Apokolips and New Genesis both have their respective rulers — the compassionate and benevolent Highfather for New Genesis, and the cruel and ambitious Darkseid of Apokolips.

While Darkseid has the powerful Female Furies and an army of parademons at his disposal, Highfather and the heroes of New Genesis have incredibly powerful and advanced tech — like Boom Tubes and Motherboxes — at their disposal.

And each side needs them, as Apokolips and New Genesis have waged war on one another for about as long as they’ve been in existence. Darkseid, like all tyrants, wants to rule the universe and extinguish free will (his big goal in life is to procure the Anti-Life Equation, which basically destroys a person’s free will), and Highfather, like all reasonable people, does not want that.

At some point, the two leaders decided that constant war wasn’t really what either of them needed to be doing and so decided to come to a truce. However, millennia of warfare doesn’t really make you especially trusting of the other side, so the two leaders came to an agreement — they’d each give up a son to the other.

So Scott Free, son of Highfather, was sent down to live in the torment and torrential fire of Apokolips, while Orion, son of Darkseid, was sent up to live in the peace and paradise of New Genesis.

Orion was a difficult child — deceitful, angry, and ruthless — but through the love, care and patience of Highfather and the denizens of New Genesis, he grew to be a man who was slightly less angry, slightly less ruthless and completely dedicated to the ideals and preservation of New Genesis.

There is an inherent darkness and rage to him that he gets from his father, but as he’s grown, he’s been able to control it (though at times, he’s needed help from his good friend Lightray) and channel that anger into becoming “The Dog of War” — the fiercest warrior in and for New Genesis.

Scott, on the other hand, grew up tortured and abused in the fires of Apokolips, forced to endure a childhood under the malevolent watch of Granny Goodness in her “Terror Orphanage.” However, the goodness and light of New Genesis never fully abandoned him, and he resisted the totalitarian training and regime of Apokolips.

During this time, he became an expert in breaking free from any lock or trap — hence the name Scott Free. His warmth and kindness — even in the face of the dark brutality of Apokolips — draws Barda (known as Big Barda) to him, the strongest and most powerful of Darkseid’s Female Furies.

Big Barda and Mister Miracle

Scott Free, also known as Mister Miracle, and Barda, known as Big Barda, are, as the kids say, #relationshipgoals.

As Tom King is largely responsible for bringing their relationship back to the forefront of pop culture because of his writing in his Mister Miracle series, and Ava DuVernay herself has said that Big Barda is her favorite of the New Gods characters, I am fairly certain that their New Gods movie will feature them pretty heavily.

And why not? They have a great story, both individually and together.

Like Scott, Barda was raised on Apokolips, and was therefore subjected to same pain, torture and mental and physical abuse designed to break her and make her a mindless subject to Darkseid.

Add on to this the fact that Barda’s treatment was actually considered training, as she was taken from her parents as a young age and given to Granny Goodness in order to join the Female Furies — Darkseid’s fiercest and most loyal strike force. And while she emerged as the leader of that elite team, her own goodness drew her to Scott and the two fell in love.

Together, they escaped Apokolips and defected to Earth, where they became a superhero team in their own right and eventually married. And while Scott Free aka Mister Miracle is a master escape artist, it is Barda who brings the muscle, strength, and fighting prowess to any fight.

Of course, their defection set off a bunch of different events — one being that with Scott gone from Apokolips, it rendered the peace treaty between New Genesis and Apokolips void and gave Darkseid the opening he needed to attack New Genesis.

Which is exactly why even though he long saw Scott’s escape coming, he didn’t stop it. However, what he didn’t foresee was the leader of his Female Furies defecting with Scott. He also didn’t foresee what a formidable opponent his own biological son, Orion, would turn out to be.

It’s hard to say where in the continuity Ava DuVernay’s New Gods film will start and stop. After all, the Fourth World comics debuted in the ’70s and have had a variety of stories and arcs since then. There are a good half dozen places she and writer Tom King might choose to begin and end their movie, and ample material even then for a sequel or two.

No matter what, though, a New Gods film would be epic, fantastical and larger than life, a narrative of good versus evil, nature versus nurture, and the power of love to triumph over all. I can’t wait to see it all on the big screen!