I recently got a copy of Final Crisis (New Printing) for very cheap, so naturally I dove right in. I'm very confused. Fortunately, I've found a few annotated Final Crisis blogs, so I'm slowly working my way through all that now. I quite love it.

However, I've found that I really don't know much about the New Gods at all. This is primarily because I'm a newish reader, having joined up after the launch of the New 52. I've certainly read stories that have featured Darkseid before (JL: Origins, Earth 2, stories seen in the JL/JLU cartoon, now Final Crisis), with him being so prominent and all, but I don't really get the New Gods/Old Gods/Apokolips stuff. I know Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibuses are a thing I could buy, but I would really prefer it if I could read something with more modern storytelling sensibilities.

I've been reading Didio's Infinity Man and the Forever People, and I actually really love it. The art, the slightly campy dialogue, the general story, it's all really striking the right notes for me. I just don't want to wait a month to read more New Gods stories.

Additionally, I'd like to find out what the Legion of Superheroes are all about. I know people were a little upset about the New 52 series being cancelled, but I never read it. I've heard that Legion continuity is super complicated and driven by retcons, so I really need help figuring out where to start with that. Again, I prefer more modern storytelling sensibilities. I know Mark Waid wrote a Legion run quite a while ago (which I'd read because I love Waid), but I remember something about it being not as well received or full of continuity issues... I'm not sure.

Thanks for any guidance!

TL;DR I want to read stories about the New Gods and the Legion of Superheroes but I don't know where to start.

You start at the beginning, the New Gods were at their best under Kirby.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol.1-Vol.4
For more Simonson's Orion, this will be more difficult to find.

As for legion.
Mark Waid's run on Volume 5(very good for new readers)
Superman and the Legion of Super-heroes from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.
And of course The Great Darkness saga by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen which is a classic but I don't know if it is new-reader friendly.

Thanks for the post. I've already requested copies of the first two volumes of Kirby's Fourth World from my library, as well as volume 1 of Waid's Legion.

I did look into Simonson's Orion, and you weren't kidding. I found another forum where people were collecting all 25 issues, then custom binding them into large collected editions. I think I'll look more into that.

After I read Kirby's stuff (and maybe Simonson's if I decide to find it), where can I look next for Fourth World stuff? It doesn't seem like there have been many Fourth World centric stories published over the years.

The new gods have ongoings after Kirby but they were mediocre at best. Some good appearances include Mr.Miracle's issues from Seven Soldiers of Victory. Orion and Big Barda appear in Morrison's JLA. And Orion appears regularily on Azzarello's current run on Wonder Woman as a supporting character. In the New 52 there are various appearances of the new gods in Superman, Earth 2 and in Villian's month Darkseid (the new 52 origin of the New Gods).

Also a New Gods/Green Lantern crossover starts this october.

Yes, I saw the news about the GL/New Gods crossover. I'm really excited about that despite my disdain for Vendetti's writing.

Is there any particular reason the New Gods have limited showings, maybe because no one is willing to try and expand on Kirby's work?

Yeah, I don't like that it will build up on Light's out, I didn't like that premise either.

Kirby is a tough act to follow and again the other attempts to bring them back failed. Even the latest New god event "Final Crisis" was a bit controversial and the "Death of the New Gods" which build up to that was plain bad.

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@squalleon: Okay, so I just spent the last few hours doing research on Legion continuity. That's seriously confusing stuff. I think I've got it sorted, but I'm gonna write it out just to make sure I've got it right.

The Original Legion is the longest running version of the team, with its best stories written by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen. This version of the team is "destroyed" during the Zero Hour event, or LoSH v4 #61. They reappear in The Lightning Crisis, a JLA/JSA crossover after Infinite Crisis, then Superman and the LoSH, then the Final Crisis tie-in. Afterwards, they got an ongoing title which survived into the New 52.

The Reboot Legion is what appears immediately after Zero Hour, also written by Mark Waid. This seems to be the most confusing of the three teams in terms of continuity because of the multiple series following the team. Volume 4 of LoSH ended ended with #125 in March 2000, as did Legionnaires with #81. There was a Legion Lost limited series which bridged the gap into a new Legion vol 1 ongoing by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Legion v1 was cancelled with #38. The Teen Titans/Legion Special rebooted the franchise, bringing us to the Threeboot Legion.

You recommended I read Waid's v5 LoSH run, which is the beginning of the Threeboot Legion team. He writes it through to Supergirl and the LoSH #36, when it reverts to the original title and a new creative team. The Amazon reviews on the rest of the series are pretty low, so I would stop at #36. The third incarnation of Legion reappears next in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds.

So, seeing as the Original Legion is what appears in the New 52, I fully intend on reading The Lightning Saga, Superman and the LoSH, and Legion of 3 Worlds, as well as volumes 6 and 7 of the ongoing. I'll also find the best parts of Paul Levitz's Original Legion stories (like the Great Darkness Saga) for my enjoyment.

I sorta like Dan Abnett's writing, so I might seek out Reboot Legion stories. I'll certainly read Waid's Threeboot stories. My question is, can I read the second and third versions of the Legion of Superheroes as if they were Elseworlds style stories, seeing as they are no longer the main team in continuity? Or do they clearly reference their legacy and therefore are a little more tied down by the old issues?

New gods can be tough to follow. Definitely read Kirby's work but after that it's all pretty bad except for Simonson's Orion. I'm reading the new gods run by Mark Evanier and it's tear jerkingly bad. I'm struggling to finish it. Hopefully someone (like Azzarello) expounds upon their mythos in the new 52.

@stevencarver_: No every Legion reads as a different version so you could read them seperately. The only comic were all three legion's co-exist is the legion of three worlds.