The New Gods will act as a grand unifier for the new DC universe "bringing unexpected characters and consequences into play"

One of the hottest announcements out of this year's San Diego Comic Con was the news that Jack Kirby's New Gods would be making an explosive return at the end of the year, from the creative team of recent Detective Comics writer Ram V and artist Evan Cagle. Now, ahead of this month's DC solicitations, we can exclusively reveal Nimit Malavia's main cover, plus a slew of beautiful variants.

"In picking things up from Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Evan and I are following in his footsteps by taking wild, imaginative swings with The New Gods," Ram V told Newsarama. "The series will play a key role in this new DC universe, acting as a kind of grand unifier, bringing unexpected characters and consequences into play from the far reaches of the fourth world and universes familiar and new. But underneath this grand scope are the intimate dramas, fallible heroes and petty gods that we cannot wait for DC fans to experience!"

"An old god has died, and the reverberations of his passing are felt across the universe, setting forth the soldiers of an intergalactic army and awakening the latent powers of a mysterious child on Earth," reads DC's official solicitations copy for the first issue. 

"But this has all been foreseen – prophesized by the Source and fed as enigmatic images to its agent, Metron. Now, as Metron brings word of this cosmos-shattering prediction to the residents of New Genesis and Apokolips, both worlds are thrown into chaos and conflict. On Earth, Scott Free and Barda find themselves unaware of this incoming chaos while consumed with their most daunting task yet: parenthood."

In the gallery below you can see variants from (left to right) Evan Cagle and Carmine Di Giandomenico, plus Pete Woods' previously revealed cover. A limited to 3000 copies Birth of a New God acetate variant by Evan Cagle will also be available (not pictured).

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As Ram V's quote above suggests, the new series is heavily linked to DC's upcoming DC All In relaunch, which will split the publisher's comics into two main strands, the regular ongoing DCU, which will relaunch with a full set of new #1s, and the freshly-minted Absolute Universe, which will offer alternative takes on some of the publisher's most popular heroes, including Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman.

The New Gods #1 is published by DC on December 18.

Eager to learn more about Jack Kirby's Fourth World? Start here.