Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: 5g, dan didio, dc comics, fifth world, first 5g rumours, grant morrison

Did DC Comics and Grant Morrison Try to do 5G in 2009 as the Fifth World?

Bleeding Cool has established that 5G is DC Comics' new plan to replace their most iconic characters with other characters taking the role – and not the ones that might, in other years, have expected.

Luke Fox as Batman, Jonathan Kent as Superman, a child of Captain Boomerang as the Flash, and either Teen Lantern or the Far Sector lead as Green Lantern. It's known as 5G, the fifth generation of the DC Comics Timeline.

But is this the first time DC Comics tried? Let's go back ten years, before Flashpoint and the New 52, that was what Grant Morrison was teasing.

Back in the noughties, we saw the Death of the New Gods, as The Source of the Source Wall used The Infinity Man to assassinate the New Gods and collect their souls inside a second wall to be reincarnated as the raw materials for its Fifth World.

In December 2007, then-DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio was discussing the aftermath of Death of the New Gods and pointed to the creation of Fifth World,

The story started with, 'The Old Gods Died!' which made room for the New Gods—we're picking up that thread and launching the DCU into the future."

And so in Final Crisis we saw a merging of the Fourth World of New Genesis and Apokolips in order to create a perfect Fifth World, the next evolution of their Gods. Final Crisis also gave us the Super Young Team, a group of young Japanese superheroes who were the 5th World incarnations of the Forever People.

That series led into Final Crisis. DiDio clarified things further, saying "the Fourth World is over. The battle between the forces of Darkseid and those of Highfather is over, and a new direction is in place for the characters in what will be deemed the Fifth World."

Grant Morrison, added, "In Jack Kirby's Fourth World books… it's pretty clear that the New Gods have known about Earth for a long time and in JLA ten years ago, I suggested that part of their interest in us was rooted in the fact that Earth was destined to become the cradle of a new race of 'Fifth World' super-divinities—an eventuality Darkseid is eager to prevent from occurring."

Back in 2009, when talking about her run on Birds Of Prey, writer Gail Simone wrote,

Barda was not my choice, Dan asked me to put her into the book, but I fell in love with the character pretty hard. People just were really seeming to dig her when they did that whole Fifth World thing, which I have to admit I don't care for at all.

At the time the rumour was that The Fifth World would see the main DCU characters be elevated and replace the New Gods. And for their sidekicks to grow up and take the heroes role on the DC Earth. And everyone was waiting for Grant Morrison to write it. At the time I wrote,

That plan was abandoned internally at DC and reduced to a Bat-storyline by Grant Morrison. So look for Bruce Wayne New God to go head-to-head with Darkseid in "Final Crisis."

But then we got the New 52 instead, and Grant Morrison wrote Action Comics for it.

Could 5G, could the DC Timeline Fifth Generation, be the now-DC Comics publisher Dan DiDio's attempt to revisit those plans?

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