Category Archives: Apokolips

Day 27: The Penetrator Beam!

Have ya wondered how Simyan and Mokkari are able to steal through the super-tight security of The Project to swipe cloning technology and DNA samples? Ponder no more as the caveman-looking Apokoliptian agent whips out the handy Penetrator Beam ray cannon, which Simyan uses to zap the berserker, a not-so Jolly Green Giant rampaging through the Evil Factory, out of their hair and into The Project to kill… (gulp!) The Man of Steel!

(To catch up with our tale: While Superman continues his tour of The Project with Jimmy, The Evil Factory’s keepers are applying a finishing touch to the oversize being they’ve grown from pilfered genes, spraying the caged humanoid with synthesized Kryptonite, which now gives the guy the ability to conquer the Last Son of Krypton (and just happens to turn his epidermis green). Mokkari and Simyan report by television to Darkseid, who berates the pair with a lecture on duality: “…Who can deny the power of the other side? Death can eclipse life! A great lie can smash truth! And the answer to a finely disciplined Superman is what you have created — a chaotic fury of a thing…” But, alas, the monster decimates his confinement cell and attacks the pair, and Simyan realizes he can save his partner with the right Kirby kontraption!)

Day 23: Mokkari & Simyan!

The proprietors of Darkseid’s earthbound DNA experimental lab, The Evil Factory, are, we presume, recent arrivals from Apokolips via the Boom Tube, and have set up shop in The Wild Area. Their mission: Steal cloning secrets and cell tissue from the nearby top-secret scientific organization, The Project, and “grow their own.”

While making only a handful of appearances in Jimmy Olsen, the mismatched pair make a delightful impression as almost comedic Fourth World villains. They’re craven cowards before Darkseid’s admonishments, bowing on their knees, head to the floor… Maybe it’s droll to suggest, but when Mokkari, the yellow-skinned tall fella with neato facial tatts, is being attacked by Jolly Green Jimmy later on in this ish, his desperate whining for Simyan (the shorter, Neanderthal-lookin’ gent) suggests perhaps a more intimate relationship between the duo…? I mean, they are all alone, besides the mindless clones, in that dark house of horrors…

ANYWAY, there’s a slight bumbling aspect to the pair — like they are always screwing things up and desperate to avoid Daddy Darkseid’s punishment — and for bad guys engaging in horrific experiments to serve the Greatest Threat To Earth EVER, hand it to Jack for some innovative character development!

Given his apish looks and knuckle-dragging saunter, Simyan is obviously named for “simian”; Mokkari, besides the resemblance to Mercury, I’d reckon Jack just thought it was a cool sounding name… [Consensus, on the FB community page and this blog, suggests that Jack was actually deriving Mokkari from “mockery,” which certainly makes sense, as the dude is making a mockery of The Project by perverting its aims with The Evil Factory.]

I still can’t get over what a cool facial design the Yellow Man sports! Nice stuff for a third-tier cast member.

(Yeah, I skipped over a villainous character in this chronology, but the Big Green Guy has a much more startling reveal later on in JO #135, and, anyway, Mokk and Sim have been lurking under masks these past few entries… It was time! And, one more thing, sorry if I missed posting yesterday; it’s hard to tell as I, on occasion, pre-post and looks like I mixed up… LOTS going on at Casa Cooke…)

Day 21: The Z-Ray!

Like kids grabbing a handful of candy while trick-or-treating Apokoliptian agent Simyan snags a fistful of mini-clones while his partner Mokkari zaps the tiny human replicas with the tranquilizing Z-Ray, which they hope will be as effective with (ahem) larger, more aggressive duplicates.

Yeah, Jack used just about every letter of the alphabet — English and Greek! — to name his myriad devices, whether weapons or whatnot. No doubt his criteria was: As long as it sounds cool and futuristic, it works!

If I may make an aside here, I need to confess I pondered over whether to include such apparently superfluous items as the Z-Ray in this ongoing chronological catalogue of Kirby Fourth World creations. First I considered (self-servingly) I might need to get pretty darn minute to fill 365 daily entries… I mean, c’mon, three hundred and sixty-five!… but then it occurred to me, it’s only proper and respectful of Jack’s creative output to put it all down, to begin to establish an encyclopedia, if you will, down to the nitty-gritty details of his imagination. You may say, “Really, Cooke: A ‘Green K Paralysis Ray’?” But I contend it speaks not only of his ceaseless fertile mind, but also to the actual value of his work. Super-hero accessories are potential merchandising; just ask George “The Source, I mean, Force” Lucas. So maybe, by being exact and as precise as can be, this can be a resource for multiple use — as scholarship, as testament, as inventory — all fit for a King.

Day 19: Darkseid!

Such a low-key introduction for the most important figure in Jack’s Fourth World mythos, the Master of the Holocaust, leader of Apokolips, the Revelation and all-round Tiger-Force of All Things… ladies and gentlemen, I give you: DARKSEID!

Jack’s closing caption in the last panel of JO #134 (that’s right, Kirbyheads: 19 entries and already two issues down, 53 to go!), doesn’t begin to allude to the cosmic epic to come: “‘Darkseid!’ With the mention of that name, the outline of a vast, ominous intrigue begins to take shape!…”

Darkseid (pronounced “Dark-SIDE“), breaking the Pact with New Genesis, has surreptitiously arrived on Earth seeking nameless earthlings who unwittingly retain in their minds the secret to the Anti-Life Equation. Once decoded, the equation will make the malevolent ruler master of the entire universe, with the hellworld called Apokolips reigning supreme. His agents on our planet assigned to do his bidding include corporate snake Morgan Edge and Inter-Gang, an worldwide network of mobsters…

Here, in the early stages of the Super-War to come, Darkseid hopes to destroy the threat of Superman and, in the process, the Man of Steel’s allies, Jimmy O. and the New Newsboy Legion (as well as The Hairies, The Project, The Outsiders and Habitat, and whoever else is in the Dark Lord’s way or has something he wishes to possess)…

Darkseid just might be the greatest comic-book villain of them all. Galactus is a superb candidate, except there is an ambivalence, a melancholy about that “God” stand-in which allows for a modicum of sympathy. Not so with the ashen-faced, stoic, helmeted nemesis of all that is good… Empathy? Not a chance! But respect? You betchum, Red Ryder! Ol’ Darkseid doesn’t have to scream and stamp his feet (though he’s known to bellow a little at times), he just stands there, cold as stone, and that’s enough to scare the poop out of anyone in his presence. An inspired and resonant creation, created by an artist seeking answers to deeply profound questions — The Meaning of It All — in the pages of that much-maligned art form, the comic book. Who’da thunk it?