Monthly Archives: April 2006

In “Darkseid and Sons” Kirby is forced to quickly wrap up part of the saga of the New Gods, confirming that Orion and Kalibak are half-brothers, both sired by Darkseid, along with some details about their past and the history of betrayal and assassination in the royal family of Apokolips.

The story sees Kalibak escape from where he was held by the authorities and head straight for Dave Lincoln’s place to confront Orion. Lightray decides to take a crack at him first, but proves fairly ineffective, so Orion attacks. The battle stirs the spirit of the Black Racer, who senses and impending death and rides to do his duty. The battle goes poorly for Orion until Darkseid realizes that DeSaad is feeding Kalibak energy while feeding off the emotion of the combatants, earning death by the Omega Effect. Orion and Kalibak face off for the final time, with the Black Racer ultimately taking Kalibak, and Orion finally accepts his birthright as son of Darkseid and vows to confront his father and end the war….

And then the last panel is an ad for KAMANDI. Go figure.

I’m pretty sure Kirby was aware that the series had been cut short while he was working on this issue, and it’s pretty remarkable that despite that he’s still fills it with a lot of energy and interesting character bits while bringing the story to as satisfying a conclusion as we have any right to expect under the circumstances.

Mike Royer inks the 22-page story and the cover.