Day 50: Orion!

by
Posted in Day Entries, Heroes, New Genesis, The New Gods #1.

The titanic warrior of New Genesis, son of Tigra and Darkseid of Apokolips, wielder of the Astro-Force and all-around eternal with the most rage issues, folks, let me introduce Orion, greatest of the New Gods.

Honestly, it’s not easy to conjure up the adequate words for this superb Kirby character, a complex, brooding, angry and (quite literally) two-faced hero of Jack’s Fourth World masterpiece especially because he plays such an integral role in the epic. And Orion’s destiny, to bring an end to the Super-War between New Genesis and Apokolips, is hinted at early on in this chronicle of his cosmic adventures.

“Of all the celestials,” his companion (and opposite) Lightray says, “you are the one most plagued by shadows!” Orion concurs, telling his friend, “I am two worlds — like New Genesis , and that demon’s pit — Apokolips! — One drifting forever in the shadow of the other–”

Highfather explains to Lightray, “He, alone, has been fighting his monsters from birth!” For Orion is “savage offspring” of Tigra and Darkseid, the fruit of a prearranged marriage, and as a boy, the fierce “murderous little monster” is used as barter in the Pact between the Master of the Holocaust and Highfather. Orion is traded for Scott Free, the man-child of Highfather himself. “Our son was raised without knowing his father!!” cries Orion’s mother, and Darkseid replies, “But I know him, Tigra!! He’s like you! — A fighting, snarling killer-cat!!”

Orion is raised in New Genesis, and though he doesn’t know of his sinister lineage, he suffers depression and seeks solace on the pristine planet. All we see of his time before the Super-War is an encounter with Lonar and the battle-horse Thunderer, when Orion spooks the living artifact of last monumental holocaust, striking alarm in the steed, which doubtless senses the warrior’s Apokoliptian heritage. Orion laments, “Fear! Fear at the touch of Orion!! Is it not always so?!”

Orion is forever conflicted by his bloodline. His Mother Box gives the illusion that he has a handsome, flawless face, but when Orion is in brutal combat that deception evaporates and we see the true snarling, ugly visage of a merciless warrior. Orion knows that he, at his core, is deeply defective though he has yet to discover the truth. When Orion delays an attack on Darkseid, the demon despot observes “Finish me — and you finish yourself!You hesitate, Orion! You can sense why — but you don’t know — do you?”

We will learn the prophecy that the ultimate battle in this Super-War will be waged in Armagetto, a sector of Apokolips, where father and son will face off in the “Last Battle of the New Gods!” Playwright Eve Donner, Deep Six Slig, half-brother Kalibak, they all sense that Orion will not survive the war because of the conflict raging inside his own soul.

Orion is singular possessor of the dreaded Astro-Force, a powerful, destructive beams which is emitted from his transport device, the Astro-Sled (which also houses his Mother Box). He is also mighty effective with his fists and, of course, is a born combatant. His nicknames include Orion the Hunter and Orion the Fierce. “A free and angry Orion is more than a menace! — He is the ultimate in mayhem!”

In a rare moment of slight levity, Orion takes on a disguise as a Metropolis gangster, cleverly named O’Ryan, with his earthling compatriots, who join in the subterfuge as (what else?) O’Ryan’s Mob.

Nearing the end of the initial run, when Orion and Lightray find some peace on the terrace of Eve Donner, aforementioned playwright, her hand reaching to the brutalized face of sleeping Orion, and she muses, “There is something in that fierce and mangled face beyond anything I’ve ever written about! The sleeping monster — the raging heart — a vessel of fire — which consumes — even love.”

The red-headed warrior awakes and replies, “As for love, madam — I find love in battle hotly fought! — In vengeance fulfilled!!”

Before the new gods depart, Eve shares with Orion her fear that “You’ll never survive your war! You’re big –! But not bigger than what’s eating you! Your enemy, Darkseid, will use it against you!”

He joyfully lifts her off the ground and says cryptically, “And, though I pay for victory with death — I shall seek you out in that final moment!”

In the end, with darkness descending, will Orion finally find what he needs most of all, the soothing caress of a loved one…?

Day 49: The Birth of the New Gods!

by
Posted in Apokolips, Day Entries, Heroes, Locations, New Genesis, The New Gods #1, Villains.

Their world torn apart in an orgy of self-destruction, the old celestials pass onto Valhalla and make way for the new eternals, as the globe’s violent rendering form two spinning, molten spheres, worlds that will cool to become planets named New Genesis and Apokolips, one a Eden-like paradise, the other consumed with fire and brimstone.

And so Jack Kirby sets the good-and-evil duality of his saga, as these worlds are the respective homes of Darkseid and Highfather, worlds about to be engulfed in a Super-War.

These planets are the homes of the New Gods, and they are the stage where we will learn of the many fascinating and engrossing characters that will be cast in the Fourth World epic. We will meet Orion, son of Darkseid and hero supreme of New Genesis; Scott Free, the soon-to-be Mister Miracle; Kalibak the Cruel, Orion’s half-brother; Metron; Himon; Desaad; the Female Furies; Esak; Granny Goodness; Fastbak; Steppenwolf… Oh, you get the idea! We are in for a fantastic journey, a multi-layered saga of Shakespearean proportions, chock full of Dickensian touches, Faustian lessons and Faulkneresque family drama.

We, my friends, are about to go cosmic…

Day 48: The Death of the Old Gods!

by
Posted in Apokolips, Day Entries, Heroes, Locations, New Genesis, The New Gods #1, Villains.

Who but Jack Kirby would begin the masterwork of his life with an epilogue, and one that (metaphorically, at least) eliminates his prior legendary characters in a conflagration of death and inferno, closing the book on the myths he created for a certain House of Ideas. Look closely at the hammer-wielding warrior about halfway down and to the left on this page-one splash page of his New Gods #1 and you tell me that doesn’t resemble a God of Thunder. (You want more evidence? Check out the artifacts Lonar discovers, particularly the winged-helmet, in “The Young Gods of Supertown” back-up vignette in The Forever People #5, when he chances upon a city of the old gods.)

Yes, here we finally witness the End of It All: Ragnarok! Warring gods battling for pride and possession and resulting only in their mutual destruction! “An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!”

(Allow me a quick aside regarding Jack’s frequent use of the word “holocaust”: It needs to be understood that the term, as we know it today, pretty much singularly refers to Germany’s war against the Jews (and other folk despised by the Nazis). The U.S. Holocaust Museum, for instance, is devoted to the genocidal events on the 1930s and ’40s in Europe. Though frequently a term used to describe the attempted extermination, the connection between the word and the event wasn’t etched in stone until, of all things, the broadcast of a U.S. television mini-series, Holocaust, in 1978. (The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word as “Great or total destruction by fire.”) So please note, the former Jacob Kurtzberg, acutely aware of the Nazi atrocities against his people, the Shoah — as you will see in the allegories to follow — was not using the term lightly.)

Besides the ruins of an old city chanced upon by Lonar and The Source, all that survives the great destruction are the “living atoms of Balduur” and the evil “which was once a sorceress” (Karnilla, Balder’s lover in The Mighty Thor?), which respectively settle upon the two worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips, planets sprung from the split sphere of the dead celestials.

As in the real world, life follows death and the eternal cycle begins again, and so it is from the ashes of the Old Gods rise the New.

The Forever People #1

by
Posted in Cooke Looks, The Forever People #1.

Cooke Look: “In Search of a Dream!”

“They’re from a place that men have sought, but never found — we’ve seen their like before — in different ages — in different guise — but never like this — Yet, always like this — when man’s civilization faces destruction…”

Thus Jack Kirby introduces his ’70s version of a modern-day kids gang. Coming on the heels of his initial three issues of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, Jack gives us his first true edited-drawn-and-written comic book in that era, and it’s an audacious debut. Again, as he did in JO, Jack presents a flurry of new characters and concepts — The Boom Tube, Forever People, Super-Cycle, Mother Box, Supertown, Infinity Man, etc. — with nare a chance for the reader to stop for air.

And this, the “official” starting point of what we would come to call his Fourth World opus, is a breathless beginning and Jack is expert in adapting DC’s longest-running super-hero to the mythos, as Superman fits in perfectly with the overall scheme of the creator’s immensely ambitious plan. It’s a connection that is still only being periodically recognized by the publishing house, but Jack often thought in such grandiose terms, so it is hard for us mere mortals to comprehend, at times, a glimmering of his overall intent.

I’ve read this comic book at least a few dozen times in my life but only now is it becoming apparent that (despite the presence of The Infinity Man) Jack did indeed have finite plans for this and his other Fourth World titles. In this very first issue, we are given a foreshadowing of the (no doubt cataclysmic) conclusion, of a final showdown that would take place between Darkseid, the Master of the Holocaust and Seeker of the Anti-Life Equation, and timid, loving Beautiful Dreamer, as “Both hold the key to victory in the strangest war ever fought in comicdom’s history!” (or so says the exquisite Darkseid/Beautiful Dreamer pin-up in #4). Ahh, the gorgeous irony…!

Predestination and sacrifice are written all over these kids if we contrast their innocent exuberance and boundless optimism with the savage conflict only just now unfolding. These are the end of their salad days, with the group’s devotion to love and peace about to be cruelly tested, as Darkseid and his “Secretary of Torture,” Desaad, will take special pleasure in attending to The Forever People.

I suspect that while some characters would have tenaciously held on to their certainty of the Good in Man, others might have changed considerably as the saga ran its course. But, alas, this can only remain a suspicion as the gang had a mere two years of life in this title…

There was criticism that The Forever People is an off-key, corny and wonky depiction of super-hippies — they are so goldarned cheerful in those days of Vietnam and social unrest! But Jack is a masterful storyteller, completely self-assured, and I’ll bet you he had plans to incrementally change the tone and characterizations of the team before bringing them to a bombastic finale. After all, he was trying something dramatically new in comics: series with beginnings, middles and endings.

And, if I may, this was one hell of a beginning!

Day 47: Radion Bombs!

by
Posted in Apokolips, Day Entries, The Forever People #1, Weapons & Devices.

And we thought Darkseid was giving up when he released Beautiful Dreamer to Supes and the Infinity Man! The Duplicitous One has placed explosives of his own making, radion bombs, underneath the woman’s platform, set to explode and destroy our heroes!

Well, that’s all that needs to be said about those weapons, folks! Now, let’s get caught up on our story thus far:

The Gravi-Guards attack Superman and are about to tackle The Forever People when the boys levitate Mother Box and transform into The Infinity Man. IM saves Supes from a Darkseid minion and the pair meet up with the Master of the Holocaust himself, who tells them he cannot get the secret of the Anti-Life Equation from Beautiful Dreamer’s unique mind. He rises forth, from underground, a platform with the sleeping figure of the telepathic beauty, under which are strapped what looks like four radion bombs.

Superman, using light-speed flight, saves Beautiful Dreamer and Infinity Man, and IM changes back into the boys who ecstatically greet the revived girl. Supes queries the kids on how to reach Supertown, though they caution him that he’ll be needed on his adopted planet for the coming conflict with Darkseid. But Superman is insistent and flies into the dimensional bridge appearing before him. Yet in flight he begins doubting the timing of his cross-dimensional sojourn. “Am I going the wrong way?” the Man of Steel ponders. “Is Earth the battleground for some strange Super-War? It could be as real as the Boom Tube! — And I may be deserting mankind when it needs me most!” So, while he catches a “glimpse of distant, gleaming towers,” he abandons his trip and, forlornly sitting about a boulder, contemplates, “Perhaps, someday, I’ll try again…”

Coming next: The Forever People #1 wrap-up and then on to The New Gods debut issue!

Day 46: Beautiful Dreamer!

by
Posted in Day Entries, Heroes, New Genesis, The Forever People #1.

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world, heard in the day,
Lull’d by the moonlight have all pass’d away!
— Stephen Foster

Though she appears to be the weakest and (aside from physical attractiveness) least envisaged character of The Forever People, Beautiful Dreamer is likely the most potentially powerful player in their battle against Darkseid. Jack immediately sets a stark and intriguing contrast when we first see them together. She, with her beguiling, prostrate form and alluring, serene face, compared to the cut of the Master of the Holocaust’s arrogant stance and butt-ugly countenance. And the pin-up in FP #4, too, hints at her importance with its stunning artistry and caption that reads, “Beautiful Dreamer versus Darkseid! Both hold the key to victory in the strangest war ever fought in comicdom’s history!”

One marvelous aspect of Jack Kirby is his obvious liking of the female gender, a contrast itself with the overall outlook of too many comics creators of his and later generations. Perhaps it stems partly from the necessity to focus almost exclusively on the feminine point of view during Jack’s considerable — and outstanding — work in romance comics (a genre he co-created with Joe Simon), and I also suspect his respect and affection for his devoted spouse, the indomitable Rosaline Kirby, and the fact he had two daughters, are parts of that equation. (I’ll betcha dollars to doughnuts, Jacob Kurtzberg was also a mama’s boy, to boot!)

If you combine, in his Fourth World mythos, Jack’s conceptualization of brutish and bodacious Big Barda, the Female Fury of Mister Miracle, one of the most vivacious and self-assured (hence, downright sexy) characters in the history of the form, with the latent cosmic war-ending power of girlish, apparently meek, most definitely lovely Beautiful Dreamer, there’s a delightful complexity here putting women front and center in this otherwise hyper-testosteronated masculine super-conflict. If you ask me, I reckon Jack Kirby was a feminist!

When first we meet Beautiful Dreamer, we find her unique consciousness (“one of the few whose mind can fathom the Anti-Life Equation! The ultimate weapon!” The Infinity Man tells Superman) is impervious to Darkseid’s probing, and the evil ruler surrenders her to her friends. We learn that Beautiful Dreamer’s power is to create telepathic connections with others to generate illusions, whether making a hallucination that they’re a harmless bunch of earth kids for old Uncle Willie, deceiving a Justifier into believing the gang is one of his kind, or appearing as a haggardly old dwarf to cut short a fashion shoot with Breckenridge the photographer.

(There’s a breathtaking juxtaposition of beauty and beast in Jack’s full-page depiction of a remarkably rendered Desaad, tenderly brushing her comatose figure with a riding crop, appreciating Beautiful Dreamer. “Ahhhh — My vision of beauty! — and a beauty of visions, too, I might add! A mind so sensitive that it makes illusion seem like reality! What my scrambling machine must huff and puff to produce — Beautiful Dreamer can do by a mere thought!” KAH-reepy!)

Despite the fact her physical attributes — buxom and curvaceous — are considerable, Beautiful Dreamer knows that the secret of being human isn’t just in the corporal world, as she explains, “After all, the body is merely a three-dimensional identification vehicle! It’s our ‘total’ selves that beautify us!” (Still, she’s not above having her zoftig form being objectified, whether as a swimsuit model or when Serifan, via a cosmic cartridge, atomically re-shifts an old-fashioned gown the girl is wearing into a oh-so-mod go-go, short-short mini-skirt — replacing the ragged dress she wore for eight issues prior.)

Beautiful Dreamer defines the team for Donnie the invalid in #2: “Of course we’re real! truth is real! Truth lives forever — We’re the Forever People!” Which remains perhaps the best description for this most original group, said in the simplest and sweetest of terms.

I’ll admit, as a kid, I pretty much dismissed Beautiful Dreamer, thinking her more a burden to the group rather than an equal asset. But I now get a glimmering of Kirby’s intent with the character, something that is now obvious at the very start of The Forever People. That whatever the apparent triteness of her powers of deception, her abeyant abilities loom large in the saga: this woman is headed for some serious business which will take her to her place in the heart of the raging storm between New Genesis and Apokolips.

Day 45: The Infinity Man!

by
Posted in Day Entries, Heroes, New Genesis, The Forever People #1.

“There is an awesome, indescribable crash of cosmic thunder! Then –”
“Those who summon the Infinity Man — summon justice!”

When Mother Box levitates, and the young members of The Forever People place their hands on her and recite the mantra, “TAARU!” they disappear and in their place materializes The Infinity Man.

The conceptualization of The Forever People, that of being a basically non-violent group of young people, however fantastical, might have proven a slight quandary for Jack Kirby, the king of violent, bombastic comics, and it could be The Infinity Man was his clever solution. The character, who bides his time in another dimension until called forth by the super-kids, is obviously a warrior for justice. Sure, you could say, the FP/IM connection has an antecedent with the Captain Marvel/Billy Batson switcheroo, right down to the magic word (Shazam!). But so what? It’s a device that works.

Somewhat unfortunately, I think, The Infinity Man wasn’t used enough — or explained with much depth — as he had but few appearances in the mere 11 issues of The Forever People. A gorgeous pin-up page in #4 is captioned, “From the far reaches beyond space and time, where real and unreal have no meaning, emerges a champion whose powers are not governed by the laws of our universe!” He is a joy to behold, with golden skin (could he be “Him”?) and wonderfully Total Kirby Costume.

Still, why exactly do the kids have this changing-places “arrangement” with The Infinity Man, using a word Big Bear says in #1? Certainly, though they profess peaceful interaction, the group is plenty powerful given Big Bear’s ability to concentrate his atomic structure into almost invulnerable strength, Mark Moonrider’s “Megaton Touch,” Vykin the Black’s “Magna-Power,” and Serafin’s multi-purpose “Cosmic Cartridges.” (Beautiful Dreamer? Well, she can convey scary images…).

Anyway, for whatever reason, Jack omits The Infinity Man from the action in the majority of issues, #4-10, but his reappearance in the final issue (which sports a nifty “Infinity Man Returns!” blurb on the cover) contains a great, old-fashioned slugfest and, let’s just say, IM goes out in style…

His powers? Well, he gained them from “distant regions — where natural laws do not apply,” and they include: He can fly in our atmosphere and survive in space without mechanical assistance; pass through solid objects (a very cool moment in #3 has the character gliding through rock, telling us, “Earth and stone become as fluid as sea waters — and I move through them as does a swimmer in the blue deeps!” I mean, just imagine that ability!); cancel out detection beams; possesses super-strength; has powerful “Infini-Beams” emit from his hands; manipulates the atoms of objects to restructure them… yikes, what can’t this guy do?

Day 44: TARRU! TAARUU! TAARU!

by
Posted in Day Entries, New Genesis, The Forever People #1, Weapons & Devices.

Whatever the spelling, with one magic word…

The incantation, exclaimed by The Forever People while they lay hands on Mother Box, that brings forth, in their place, The Infinity Man!

“They may be ready for us! But not for the Infinity Man!”

“Mother Box reads you! She rises in readiness for the ‘ritual‘!”

“It is the ritual through which the Infinity Man can come here!”

“Mother Box sends out the signal to the farthest reaches of infinity! Mother Box links us with him!”

“We’re one with the Infinity Man! As one we say the word of exchange!”

“Rise, Mother Box! Send out your signal to the farthest reaches — where even all natural law thins and fades!”

“Yet, life exists!”

“Make us one with that life! Let him displace us — let him enter on the power of the word–”

“–Even as we vanish when the word is said–”

“Say the word! Say it! — And send it across the vast infinite!”

“TAARU!”

Day 43: The Mother Box!

by
Posted in Apokolips, Day Entries, Heroes, New Genesis, The Forever People #1, Weapons & Devices.

It’s difficult to find the proper words to express my enduring admiration for this wonderfully resonant Kirby koncept, the Mother Box. She — never, never “it”! — is a living mechanism, a sentient computer, a machine with a soul who performs many, many tasks for her possessor, among them the abilities to sense danger, relieve torment, create protective barriers, sooth pain, transport her charges to another dimension, make friendships, scold sonically, navigate the cosmos, and being alive, she can be hurt, tortured and killed. But most of all she is capable of love, the power Darkseid fears the most.

In our story at hand, Mother Box is guardian of The Forever People; “The Mother Box protects us all,” are her protector Vykin the Black’s first words in the saga. In this incarnation she is a red rectangular cube, maybe 18-inches high, 10- or 12-inches wide per side, with a lens (or is it a screen?), a carrying handle and she emits sounds, “pings” in various tones, depending on her comfort or distress. (Apparently she can even apologize, or so says interpreter Vykin.)

Her main role in this premiere Forever People chapter is for Vykin to release her to levitation mode, as the Gravi-Guards are closing in, and for the boys to lay their hands on her for what Kirby might have called “The Great Interdimensional Swap!!!” (Oh, fear not, effendi! All will be revealed in the days to come!)

Back to the overarching Fourth World concept of Mother Box. She exists on both New Genesis and Apokolips, most prominently assisting these super-kids, Mister Miracle and Orion, the latter two who possess smaller “shoulder harness” versions, no less powerful or affectionate. (As I recall, I don’t think any version appears in the earthbound tales of Jimmy Olsen.)

Mother Box, we will discover, is the invention of Himon, scourge of Darkseid, roamer of the universe and mentor of Young Scott Free who created the device in the slums of Armagetto on Apokolips (and also, by the way, pioneered The Boom Tube). In the “Great Scott Free ‘Bust-Out'” issue of Mister Miracle, #9, the portly savior explains, in one of the most powerful single pages in the entire opus, that Mother Box is linked to The Source (a Great Good where resides the Meaning of It All). Simply put, Mother Box channels the good that is The Source into her user.

Himon says, “The Source! It lives! It burns! When we reach out and touch it — the core of us is magnified! And we tower as tall as Darkseid!” Scott Free, just beginning to see the supreme power that is love and now understanding his destiny, responds, “Then Darkseid fears us all! He fears what he can’t control!”

There is nothing I can add to this magnificent and portentous moment in Jack Kirby’s chef d’oeuvre. The deeper and deeper one delves into The Fourth World, greater and greater rewards are unearthed. We can argue all day about whether his work is genius, perhaps, but we can’t deny he was a Good Soul, Jack was.

Day 42: Darkseid’s Faithful Gravi-Guards!

by
Posted in Apokolips, Day Entries, The Forever People #1, Villains.

For, I believe, their singular appearance in the Fourth World opus, up from the underground come the magenta-colored Gravi-Guards, those who “transmit gravity waves from heavy mass galaxies” strong enough to “hold any super-being!” And the particular super-being enduring their crushing weight and obnoxious boasts? Why, Superman, of course!

Our tale thus far: Upon seeing evidence of Supertown and listening to Jimmy Olsen’s description (heard from Bobby the shutterbug) of The Forever People, Clark Kent steers the cub reporter out the door, changes into the Man of Steel and takes to Metropolis skies “…to find those kids!” Inter-Gang agents in a helicopter spot Supes and, sensing a threat to their mission, contact Darkseid, who orders them to attack with their Sigma-Gun.

Just as the super-hero lands to introduce himself to Big Bear & Co., Sigma-blasts zzzaps and zzzaarraaps him and he flings a telephone pole that destroys the chopper. The youngsters think Supes is a fellow Supertownie and explain their intent on rescuing Beautiful Dreamer, and he ponders, “I must gain the confidence of these super-kids — if I ever hope to achieve what I came for!” The Last Son of Krypton senses a trap but the Forever People rush in and poison gas envelopes all. Superman creates a mini-twister, dispersing the vapor, and suddenly the yellow-helmeted Gravi-Guards (clad in fetching gold-and-purple trunks) lunge from out of the ground!

Superman being crushed, Gravi-Guards descending on them, The Forever People call upon a maternal device to unite them as one…