Day 57: Mobius Chair!

The “miraculous” Mobius Chair (though it’s been called “devilish,” as well) is the device by which Metron of New Genesis traverses the “dimension winds” of space and time. The academic god boasts, “Walls and distance mean little to me! I can be anywhereeverywhere — when I wish it!”

“There are no barriers to the Mobius Chair of Metron, the knowledge seeker of New Genesis! No world or universe seems unreachable!” Well, truth to tell there is one boundary he has yet to cross: The Final Barrier.

“It can defy any barrier –BUT the one which guards the secret of the ‘Source’!” mulls Metron.

On the edge of the Promethean Galaxy, with the still figures of failed giants who attempted to pass through the Final Barrier and discover the secret of The Source, Metron travels on his Mobius Chair, contemplating the mysteries beyond. “I’ve leaped the stars toward the final barrier!! A lesser celestial would begin to show fear in this area.” (But, alas, before he makes an attempt, Metron is called back to New Genesis.)

On a previous occasion, Metron has taken the child god Esak across the corridors of time-space to visit a world resembling prehistoric Earth, with giant saurians and savage, primitive men waging battle with reptilian humanoids. The pair from New Genesis shirt the volcanic landscape, low to the ground, as Metron instructs his young charge on the evolution of life.

(Patrick Ford, in a reply to my “Metron” entry here, astutely tells us there’s only one instance where we see Metron not in his Mobius Chair, and that is prior to its creation, in the backstory tale “The Pact.” This begs the question: Is Metron now unable to use his legs or is he permanently attached to the vehicle for other (cyborgian?) reasons?)

In the midst of the “Great Clash,” Metron develops his Mobius Chair after bargaining with Darkseid for possession of the X-Element (discovered by Himon of Apokolips), material that is also used by Metron to develop the “Matter Threshold” and later, its successor, the Boom Tube, technological leaps that change the course of new god history.

“In my Mobius Chair,” the “icy mask” of Metron tells us, “I master Time! Space! Infinity!”

Story update: Allow me to take a minute to finally give you an idea of what is transpiring in the opening pages of The New Gods #1:

In an orgy of self-destruction the old gods perish and their world is ripped in two, and those molten spheres cool to become the sister worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips. We meet Orion, summoned home to New Genesis, to “thwart the ultimate destruction.” He is greeted by LIghtray, faithful companion, who escorts him back to the floating city of Supertown, which Orion notes “still glows with eternal splendor!” A talk with ebullient Lightray shows us Orion is plagued by a darkness not dissimilar to the one covering Darkseid’s sinister planet.

Orion meets with New Genesis leader Highfather and they visit the Chamber of The Source to receive a message. They are joined by scientific god Metron and they discuss The Source, which gives them the dispatch “ORION TO APOKOLIPS — THEN TO EARTH — THEN TO WAR.” As Orion departs to fulfill the Wall’s edict, Metron hints at the shadowy origins of “Orion the MightyOrion the Fierce — could this be one born of New Genesis?” Highfather tells him to hush up as it is not time to reveal such a dark secret to Orion.

Aboard his Astro-Harness, Orion takes a cosmic “journey which is to lead him to a strange destiny…” The warrior ponders, “Ahead lies Apokolips — in the shadow of New Genesis –! There’ll be no cheery greetings there.”

Tomorrow: Planet Darkseid!

2 thoughts on “Day 57: Mobius Chair!

  1. patrick ford

    Metron has been missing all during the Apocalyptic events seen in The Hunger Dogs only to show up one the very past page.

    Jack leaves The Fourth World (and us) with an image of Metron towing a freaking planet behind his chair.

    My first thought upon seeing this page many years ago was that the planet was the very one the Forever People had been banished to, but the caption explains it is a lifeless planet (perhaps meaning there is no animal life since the planet is green and blue).

    New Genesis has been completely destroyed and the New Gods are on their lifeboat city adrift in “a dark unfriendly cosmos.”

    One would assume Metron’s intent is to leave his captured planet as a new home world for Supertown.

    Has Metron been waiting for events to play out, perhaps just as he anticipated, so that he will have a chance to play god the creator. Is he moving on from metal, and circuits, to flesh and blood?

    As Jon speculated was Metron’s seeming alliance with the forces of good, benevolent or Machiavellian? If Metron had designs of his own, would it best serve him to side with Darkseid or would it be better to remove Darkseid from the board?

    1. John S.

      I guess it’s true that great minds think alike, Patrick (or at least the minds of many Kirby fans do), because believe it or not, I had the same idea about that planet Metron was towing being the same one on which the Forever People had been banished.

      It really is a great idea, too, because it would have tied everything together so perfectly, and it’s a damn shame Kirby never used it.

Comments are closed.