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FOREVER PEOPLE #6 / Jan’72 – “THE OMEGA EFFECT!!”
This episode’s opening 4-page sequence features a squad of Glorious Godfrey’s “Justifiers” trying to destroy The Super-Cycle. Trying. As Jack puts it, “Programmed to ward off death, the Super-Cycle DEFENDS itself!” The whole thing completely re-configures, and becomes one big weapon. I’m reminded of TRANSFORMERS, but more than a decade early. I feel sure something like this probably showed up in some Japanese comics or cartoons, but someone else would have to nail down the details for me. Godfrey, making only his 2nd appearance so far (it was somewehat surprising after his intro that he disappeared from the narrative the way he did), sends some newly-recruited “Justifiers” to “Destroy that abomination!” One of his followers notes how really eager these Earthmen are to follow whatever orders they receive.
Back at Happyland, Sonny Sumo continues to use The Anti-Life Formula to order Desaad’s goons to free all remaining prisoners, while Mark Moonrider uses one of their weapons to take out the control center, which sets off a chain-reaction that winds up destroying the entire amusement park! As more prisoners are surprised to find themselves suddenly free, police are drawn by the explosions, and are shocked to hear stories of people having been held prisoner in the place.
As shuttles race to escape, one is stopped by Big Bear, who really gets to show off his special “powers” for the first time. “POWER is my game! I store an EXCESS of free atoms and send them where they’re NEEDED!!” The shot of one of the guards being propelled upward out of the shuttle is somewhat reminiscent of an old Warner Brothers cartoon!
Well, things turn NASTY when Darkseid, who, along with Desaad, is still hanging around Happyland, decides to strike back at the youths who are frustratng his plans. He uses... “THE OMEGA EFFECT”—which manifests in the form of twin eye-beams that seek out their prey and cause them to VANISH. One by one, The Forever People (and Sonny Sumo) fall victim to its power, and they and Desaad seem convinced they’ve been killed. However, Darkseid assures otherwise. “What you said about the others ISN’T true!! They DO exist!! --but NOT HERE!! NOT NOW!!”
Only Serifan remains, no longer considered a threat by Darkseid, who says, “I do no more than what HAS to be done!!” Serifan escapes just as the police are breaking in, and uses the Aero-Van to return to The Super-Cycle, which doesn’t recognize him without Mother Box. Finally convincing it by using one of his Cosmic Cartridges, he takes refuge in it, saddened and demoralized by the loss of his friends. Unseen, a group of Justifiers still hanging around prepare to strike.
Overall, the simplest episode so far, as it was mostly an action-filled interlude in the middle of what is proving to be one long, multi-part sequence.
“The Young Gods Of Supertown” back-up this time is “RAID FROM APOKALIPS”, a flashback showing a group of Darkseid’s troops using a Boom-Tube to invade New Genesis in an attempt to destroy the floating city, but stopped by the pair of Serifan and Big Bear.
I must commend Mike Royer for his inks this issue, in general he continues to do very sharp, slick work, with the notable exception of page 7, which is so BRUTAL in spots, I wanna scream at the guy, “DON’T JUST TRACE, DAMMIT!!!” In the midst of knocking out SO MANY pages of brilliant storytelling, action and visuals, I seriously doubt Jack Kirby ever meant for every single line to be treated as (you’ll forgive the expression) “Gospel”. Meanwhile, both the back-up story, and, surprisingly, the cover, were inked by Vince Colletta. (Somebody should tell the GCD, they have it listed wrong.)
This issue’s Sandman story is “THE VILLAIN FROM VALHALLA!”, from ADVENTURE COMICS #75 (Jun’42).
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“When the STORM OF BATTLE is over—who will be left on the GLORY BOAT?” Beneath a green sky filled with crackling energy, a rough-hewn wooden boat is being boarded by 2 green, scary alien warriors—while a figure, resembling a mummy, is tied to the mast. A pair of insets spotlight Orion and Lightray. (I’m really glad I’m doing a comprehensive restoration project on all of these covers; the GCD has some of the worst I’ve ever seen of NEW GODS.)
““BRING APOKALIPS TO EARTH!!” This terrible command by Darkseid has been done!! The DEEP SIX—MYSTIC MUTATORS OF THE DEEP have ressurected “Leviathan”, symbol of ancient disasters!! Which can only be stopped by THE GLORY BOAT!!” The splash shows a reverse shot of the last panel of the previous episode, as the gigantic PINK monster heads for a ship at ramming speed. (In the 1984 reprint, both full-page shots were side-by-side.) The 2-page spread shows devastation!! “This is a sea beast which dwarfs ANYTHING seen in the oceans since the dawn of time!! Beneath its throat is a GIANT ram!—which CRUELLY pierces the ship, as its gargantuan tusks follow to RIP aprt the remaining tonnage of steel!!” The following page reveals the monster destroying several other ships, including an atomic submarine, and a “private yacht of the rich”.
The 3 survivors of said yacht, business tycoon Farley Sheridan, his son Richard and his daughter Lynn, adrift on a rubber raft, witness Orion and his Astro-Harness rocketing straight up out of the water, the sight resembling a Polaris missile being fired. (It also bears an uncanny resemblance to the devices used by Sean Connery & Bernie Casey in the film NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, 11 years later. Once again Jack Kirby is many years ahead of the curve.)
Mother Box has led Orion to this area, and, with the family in tow, finds the “UGLY misshapen craft made of aged wood”, and discovers the figure imprisoned there is Lightray. “Well- well well--!! So the SMILING LAMB decided to try his hand among the WOLVES, after all!!” Lightray admits he broke his word to High-Father not to come to Earth, then ran afoul of “light absorbing kelp” created by The Deep Six. While investigating the craft, we discover that Farley (whose face and manner somewhat remind me of Ed Begley Sr.) is a World War 2 veteran who was on Normandy beach during the D-Day invasion, while his son is a conscientious objector. It seems the entire Viet Nam War era generational and idiological conflict is being played out between just this father and son.
Inside the craft, Orion & Lightray discover a horrible mutation being used to guide the Leviathan. Lightray stops Orion from simply killing it, choosing instead to use his own powers to mutate it further—first, into a cube-shaped “living basic life form”, then, as it continues to grow, into something else. “What did you guys DO??” “We’ve arranged a BATTLE—fit for the NEW GODS!!” I found this rather jarring. As far as I know, this was the first time any character in Kirby’s epic used the name of the book to refer to themselves.
Elsewhere, moments before it takes out another victim, the Leviathan, accmpanied by The Deep Six (well, five of them anyway), hear the “sonic call” now being sent by their mutate, and the monster is forced to return, followed by its masters. Inside the craft, Farley & Richard find the mutate “is shooting strange, MACHINE-LIKE forms through the walls and decking of the ship!! THIS must be what Lightray meant by the cube being—TECHNO-ACTIVE!!” Outside, Jaffar arrives, and gung-ho Farley finds himself scared out of his wits!!! He’s only saved from sudden death by his son Richard, who rushes in without hesitation—and pays for it with HIS life! Jaffar horribly mutates Richard in the process, leaving him with NO face, just as Orion returns to give battle. “COMPLETE DESTRUCTION Jaffar has PAID for his viscious acts!!! Anbd poor, young Richard—what did HE pay for?”
Orion uses his Astro-Harness to whisk Lynn to safety, while her father, whose mind seems shattered, refuses to leave. The remaining members of The Deep Six attack, but are brutally driven off. For his own safety, Lightray has tied Farley to the same mast he was lashed to earlier, and after revealing that Richard has been changed back to his previous appearance, they prepare for the final confrontation. As the Leviathan and its masters race toward them at high speed, Orion, Lightray, the dead Richard and the now fully-mutated creature, which has turned itself into a living missile, meet them in a massive collision and explosion!!!
“The trumpets blast on IMPACT with the enemy! THUNDEROUS notes!- WHITE-HOT, ELEMENTAL and ALL CONSUMING!! A Wagnerian offering to the SOURCE!!” But our hereos escape unscathed... “You DID it, Lightray! Only YOU could time ESCAPE at LIGHT SPEED!”
Behind, still alive, Farley comes to his senses. “When daylight comes, what is left in the wake of grand tragedy is MERE drifting wreckage!! A young man of conscience has chosen a warrior’s death!! The old warrioir has found NEW feelings in his suffereing!!! WHAT is MAN in the last analysis—his PHILOSOPHY- or HIMSELF!?” Wow.
This episode barely made a dent when I first read it around 30 years ago. Apart from racing thru the entire 4W saga in mere days, there’s also the fact that I was missing NEW GODS #5 at the time (and only picked it up a couple years later), and so, without the 2 issues that led into this, was probably left wondering what the HELL was going on. Since then I’ve read a great deal about the 4W, and about this episode in particular, a rather HUGE section of a JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR issue being devoted exclusively to 3 of the most long-winded reviews I have ever read of a single comic-book. (And considering how long-winded I can be, that’s really saying something.) This is still not a favorite of mine by any means, but at least now I have a greatly-improved appreciation for it.
Mike Royer does another GREAT job on the inks. Only page 16 rubs me the wrong way, and the figures of Farley & Richard cold be taken as simply jack letting his drawing be more “expressive” than usual, the wild, out-of-control linework matching the moment. Maybe. On just the previous page, the close-up of Lynn shows one of the prettiest women I’ve seen Jack draw, and that makes me wonder if it’s what Jack intended, or did Mike “clean her up” (something he caught hell for when he did it with Big Barda in MISTER MIRACLE). Meanwhile, Vince Colletta inked the cover. Nice job, too.
2 reprints this time: Manhunter in “BEWARE OF MR. MEEK” from ADVENTURE COMICS #75 (Jun’42), fun storytelling with some really HORRIBLE inks (as usual), and a “Just Imagine” feature, “THE ROCKET LANES OF TOMORROW”, from REAL FACT COMICS #1 (Mar’46). You know, from some of the stories I’ve seen in Greg Theakston’s THE COMPLETE JACK KIRBY books, this actually reminds me of some of Jack’s work from before he and Joe Simon were at Marvel. Very “FLASH GORDON”-inspired.
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LOIS LANE #118 / Jan’72 – “EDGE OF DARKNESS!”
On Dick Giordano’s cover, Superman flies away from a smiling Lois, warning her, “Careful, Lois! That madman’s loose somewhere in this area!” She replies, “Don’t worry, SUPERMAN! I can take care of myself!” (Decades of her being rescued by him have proven this. Heh.) She clasps a copy of the the Daily Planet in her hand, whose headline reads, “MADMAN AT LARGE!” And a few feet away, in an alley, we see a menacing shadow and a pair of shaking hands apparently waiting to grab her. Wave bye-bye, Lois! Heh heh heh.
Page 1 shows us Morgan Edge escaping from his own apartment. As the narrator says, “What gives?”
The next day, in a scene that could only happen in a SUPERMAN book (or one if its spin-offs, anyway), Lois is kidnapped in broad daylight by—no, I’m NOT mkaing this up!!—a gymnastic team building a human pyramid, and a helicopter. Doesn’t this woman ever have any “normal” days? They’re working for “The 100”, and Morgan Edge, secretly a boss of “Inter-Gang”, is happy when Superman stops his “rivals”.
And then, he thinks back, giving us an excuse to witness a strange flashback, to events we never saw before. That is, when Morgan Edge was KIDNAPPED, taken to The Evil Factory, and an EVIL CLONE was created by Mokkari & Simyan. An EVIL CLONE who would be loyal to DARKSEID!! What a shocker. Jack Kirby creates a character who’s a crook, and SOME EDITOR decides to completely re-think the concept, so, NO, Morgan Edge, the new owner of The Daily Planet, isn’t REALLY a crook—it’s his EVIL TWIN!!! Oy. Does this mean Werner Roth is DC’s “answer” to John Buscema?
The EVIL Edge’s 1st assignment was to KILL the original... but, somehow, he COULDN’T bring himself to do it. So, instead, he had a secret room in his penthouse built, and has kept the real Edge a prisoner, for months. (Wouldn’t a better use for such a room be to keep a “Penthouse Pet” as a houseguest?) But now, he finds out the real Edge has escaped! After some quick thinking, he recruits a bogus psychiatrist and some fake orderlies, and sets about having them convince Superman and Lois that Edge is under their care, mentally unstable, and dangerous. So Superman tracks down the REAL Edge, who doesn’t realize everything he says will be taken as the ravings of a demented mind. It works... until later, when the EVIL Edge gets a phone call from the bogus shrink, telling him the REAL Edge has escaped, by causing the ambulance they were in to run off a bridge into a river, where the guy swam to safety. Gee, just like Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN 4, except without all the bloody gory violence.
So now the EVIL Edge is in deep trouble. “I’ve got to find him before DARKSEID discovers I’ve disobeyed orders!” Like that would really make us feel bad.
My problem with all this is that neither version of “Morgan Edge” in this comic—the good one OR the bad one—feels like the “Morgan Edge” Jack Kirby has been portraying in JIMMY OLSEN all this time. Shades of “Norrin Radd”...
The Rose And The Thorn story this time is “HAND OF DEATH!” This one involves scuba-diving, sharks, a “ghost ship”, and stolen loot dumped at sea to be picked up by “Inter-Gang frogmen”. Oh yeah, and a Halloween party, at which Rose’s friend Danny Stone shows up dressed as The Thorne, while Rose comes dressed as Black Canary. As usual, Robert Kanigher doesn’t deliver much of a plot, but at least this time, the art, by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano, is more impressive than usual. Giordano really is better as an inker than a penciller, and he & Buckler prove a better team than many I’ve seen.
The reprint this time is Dr. Pat In “DR. PAT’S FIRST LOVE!” from SENSATION COMICS #95 (Jan’50), art by Carmine Infantino & Frank Giacoia. There’s also an ad for a brand-new feature debuting in ALL STAR WESTERN-- Jonah Hex!
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JIMMY OLSEN #146 / Feb’72 – “HOMO-DISASTROUS!”
“Stay back, SUPERMAN!! Jimmy has turned into a CAVEMAN! AND, he’s STRONGER than a wild bull! He’ll DESTROY YOU!!” Did someone let Mort Weisinger in here again?
I’ll blow this for you now. Jack Kirby was VERY sneaky this issue. Because, see, once again, that cover is NOT, strictly speaking, accurate. (NO!!!) Because—believe it or not—Supes only appears in 3 PAGES in the entire story, and it’s a completely separate sub-plot! But then, this is the 3rd issue in a row like this.
Personally, I think it’s cool how Kirby managed to turn JIMMY OLSEN and the New Lewsboy Legion into an early-70’s reincarnation of BOY EXPLORERS. For the 3rd issue in a row, Jimmy & the boys are in Scotland, and the action builds to a head here. In The Evil Factory, Simyan & Mokkari have captured Jimmy, and mutated him into a super-strong caveman. But he’s gotten loose, and attacks, stopped by Simyan’s stun gun only after Mokkari was in deadly danger. A not-so-friendly rivalry seems to be building between these two.
Back in Metropolis, Dubbilex’s mental powers are continuing to develop, and he practices lifting Terry Dean into the air and twirling her around upside-down. I just love the way Jack draws her, she’s currently my favorite female in the Fourth World books. (It’s kinda like comparing Cathy Gale to Venus Smith on THE AVENGERS. Cathy, like Barda, I’m very impressed with. But Venus, like Terry, I’d want to ask out to dinner!) Meanwhile, Superman is concerned by The Guardian’s report that the mysterious underground tunnel beneath the city seems to extend for miles, and Supes feels it’s connected to the war between New Genesis and Apokalips. Flying off to explore, he’s suddenly confronted by a bright light...
Back in Scotland, The Newsboys, in their Whiz Wagon, have been captured by the baddies, and attached to a moving chain dragging it down a tunnel into a FURNACE!! I think these guys must have gone to the same school of interior design as Vermin Vundabar from MISTER MIRACLE #5. In this case, it actually IS a car being dragged to its doom. However, Scrapper & Scrapper Trooper have found Jimmy, who, on awakening, picks up a small vehicle and smashes it against a cage containing monsters created by mutation. The first one to get free is a sabre-tooth tiger—and as it confronts Jimmy, one can’t help but think of Ka-Zar and Zabu! But there’s no love between this pair, and caveman Jimmy clobbers the colossal kitty.
Back in the death-trap, Flip wakes up just in time to take control of the car, free them with a concussion bomb, and get the HELL out of there! Seeing a crowd of people (technicians? prisoners? we never find out) running the other way, they soon confront a scene like something right out of a nightmare version of a Johnny Weismuller TARZAN film. Caveman Jimmy is riding herd over an army of unleashed monsters, bent on destroying the Evil Factory. Amid the chaos, Jimmy jumps down and tackles Mokkari & Simyan single-handedly, causing more and more damage as he goes. Next thing, a series of explosions start, and Jimmy vanishes thru an “ray screen”. The Whiz Wagon follows, and, as Jack puts it, “The EVIL FACTORY is torn asunder by one HUGE destructive blast!!” In the aftermath, we see Jimmy lying unconscious, and the front of the Whiz Wagon embedded into the side of a hill, both having returned to their full size.
“As for The Evil Factory—its atoms had LITTLE time to expand!! The crater where it once stood is SMALL!! And with PROPER magnification one could easily discern the SCATTERED remains of a complex structure, destroyed by its OWN evil!!!” I would say the baddies bought the farm—just like in NEW GODS #5 & 6. Except I know they came back many years later... but then, that was Post-CRISIS, so, in a way, it doesn’t really count here.
Meanwhile, Jack lets us know what’s in store next issue... “SUPERMAN GETS THE CHANCE TO REALLY LIVE IT UP!!! AND WHAT DOES HE DO—WITH THIS DREAM COME TRUE??? It’s all in the next issue!! Read--- A SUPERMAN IN SUPERTOWN!!” Oooh.
Tales Of The DNA Project brings us “ARIN THE ARMORED MAN!!!” In a mere 2 pages, we meet Arin, a being created to live in a completely airless envirnoment—space—and Professor Packard, the scientist who not only “engineered” Arin, but also trained him, in effect, brought him up as thugh he were his own son. Moments before Arin leaves on the mission he was created for, they have a sad, painful parting, and then, Arin is sent by rocket into deep space. According to Jack, his mission is to carry a container with Superman’s “cell tissue and genetic code”, “Where no enemy of Earth can find it”. Apart from yet another set of characters, concepts and circumstances that barely get the kind of development they deserve, what really strikes me about this is the two characters involved. Their relationship reminds me a lot of Aaron Stack and HIS scientist-creator-“father”, from Jack’s later MACHINE MAN series.
Something quite unexpected this issue was Mike Royer filling in for Vince Colletta. Vince would be back next time. When I re-read these in the JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES book (2003), it struck me that Royer’s inks looked VERY out-of-place in the collection. Not only were they jarring, surrounded on both sided by Colletta, but there seemed a definite lack of “visual depth”. They seemed FLAT. Oddly enough, I don’t get that looking at the original comics now. I guess the line quality in the reprints wasn’t as good as I thought they were.
This issue’s Newsboy Legion reprint is “PREVUE OF PERIL” from STAR SPANGLED COMICS #12 (Sep’42). In the back, there’s a full-page ad for “KIRBY UNLEASHED!” a portfolio “assembled from Jack Kirby’s personal collection”. WOW.
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Scott’s involved in another death-deying “Super Escape Artist” stunt on the cover, one where he’s manacled to a high-speed high-powered rocket-sled chair, which appears to have jumped its tracks. Oberon, cluthing the edge of a high cliff in the background, watches. How will Scott escape? But this is nothing compare to what awaits within...
“In the shadow world between success and failure, there lives the DRIVEN little man who dreams of HAVING IT ALL!!! --the opportunistic SPOILER without character or values who preys on all things like a cannibal!!!” In a rundown southern mansion, a skinny, bald guy in a robe, accompanied by a short, skinny, somewhat-long-haired bespectacled butler, wait for a statue’s mouth to open and spew out the first man’s “weekly allowance”. It seems the previous, deceased owner of the mansion liked lording it over others, and there seems to be mutual hate going round among all involved. And hypocrisy.
“By the POWER and the GLORY and the PATHOS that’s Funky Flashman, it’s TRUE, Houseroy!! It’s when you LITTLE people reach out to me that my spirits SOAR!!” “To KNOW you is to LOVE you sir!! When you go on to bigger things, as you so richly deserve, --and SIGN this place over to ME, I shall carry on here, with the standards you hold so DEAR!”
It turns out “Funky Flashman” is a talent agent—one who uses others’ skills for his own benefit and without any care. “So he breaks a leg or DIES!! I’ll just sip my martini by the ocean—and wait for the NEXT fish to jump!” He puts on a toupee and false beard and admires himself in a mirror. “IMAGE is the thing, Houseroy! Why—I look almost –HOLY! I’m ready for you AGAIN—world!!” “The world will take you to its HEART, sir--- that’s if you DON’T make too many slip-ups!! I must tell you that there are times whrn the REAL Master Funky comes through with SHOCKING results!!” At which point Funky grabs his butler by the THROAT! “And DON’T you forget it, SWEETIE! Just keep your place and don’t bug Master Funky with advice!!” “A-a-a-s-s-s- you wish, sir!” You’d think the guy would be angry that someone suggested he wasn’t sincere. NO! He KNOWS he’s insincere—he’s just annoyed that someone working for him should rise above their place.
This seems a good point to interject. The first time I read this, apart from some very bizarre character studies and commentary about sleazy Hollywood-type agents, I had no idea what the heck Jack Kirby was doing here. I mean, “weird” is par for the course in a Kirby comic, and sometimes I just shrug and go along for the ride. But in the decades since I read this, I have run across a multitude of articles and interviews referring to this one specific story, which I had very little memory of, and the more I read, the more I looked forward to eventually plowing thru this again. Well, here it is. And man, is this thing DISTURBING. It may looks like some kind of a dark comedy, but there’s more to it than that. In truth, it’s a viscious character attack, a shockingly all-too-accurate portrayal of a SPECIFIC person, who Jack got to know far too well for his own liking. The face, the personality, the mannerisms, the deviousness, the self-serving behavior, and the excessively-flowery language, it’s all a very finely-rendered (if fictionalized) portrayal of Jack’s ex-boss—Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee.
Not only that, but Funky’s flunky—er, butler—“Houseroy” (what a great name!!) is apparently based on Stan’s right-hand man, Roy Thomas. Except, while SHIELD recruit Jasper Sitwell was at times a dead ringer for Roy (in both appearance and diction), in this story, he looks like Woody Allen.
Funky’s former boss, the late “Colonel Mockingbird” is clearly a reference to Martin Goodman. There’s some more strange things, here. On page 1, we see Funky and what appears to be a crude, ancient statue of a bust. This rather brings to mind the UNUSED splash page of the intended (unpublished) FANTASTIC FOUR #102, the story Stan REJECTED as being (supposedly) “un-dialogue-able”. The method of Funky getting money could almost be seen as a visual play on the idea of “taking food out of someone else’s mouth”. The reference to Funky hoping to move onto “bigger things” reflects Lee’s long-stated attitude that, from the beginning, he always saw comics as just a temporary thing, to be discarded as soon as he wrote “the great American novel”, or was able to go to Hollywood and get involved in the movie business. And of course, the way he keeps insulting asnd even physically threatening his closest companion (and employee) shows just how thin the veneer of smiles and charm really are with someone this artificial. It’s sad. I used to LIKE Stan...
Elsewhere, Scott is trying out another suicidal death trap (previously seen on the cover). It kinda makes me think of the “rocket sled” seen in Jim Steranko’s NICK FURY AGENT OF SHIELD #1, except this one’s designed to kill, not rescue. Of course, Scott escapes, and Oberon says he’s just lost another twenty years off his allotted life span.
At home, Barda, in her fabulous bikini outfit, toys with a revolver while waiting with Funky for Scott’s return. “EARTH WEAPONS!—primitive on Apokalips!!-- but EFFECTIVE here!!! --EASY to handle, too!” “Make LOVE! --NOT war, chicky!! You’re packing MORE ammo than you can put in that gun!!” Barda begins twirling the gun. “If you’ve come to see Scott Free, Mister—just keep your THOUGHTS on Scott Free!!!” “Oh, that’s GOOD, chicky! That’s GOOD! “Women’s lib” dialogue an’ Bonnie Parker talent!! Great, chicky! Great ACT!!” Does it seem like this fool is just asking for trouble, talking to her that way? “But I CAN’T use you!! Perhaps you can audition for me again, sometime! –when you acquire more—CLASS!!” “Anything hanging on a meat-hook would meet YOUR standards, MISTER WONDERFUL!” I’m suddenly reminded of how, in Stan’s comics, most women are portrayed (at least in the dialogue) as being weak, helpless, frivolous, and overly-emotional. Even initially-tough-and-independant Sharon Carter, once Stan got through with her. One suspects Stan would write Princess Diana / Wonder Woman as a helpless wimp.
Barda suddenly wonders if Funky might be another spy from her home planet, but his blank expression at the mention of a Boom Tube clears that worry. In quick succession, Funky goes from making smarmy, sleazy comments, to showing surprise and worry at how she broke a gun in her bare hand, to being excessively friendly, to blurting out angry insults when he doesn’t get his way. “AAAA!! Why don’t you go and report to your DRILL SERGEANT?!” GEEZ. Who the hell would ever wanna work for someone like that? “You’re a CLASSIC, Funky!! Ego—ignorance—and hostility!! --A REAL powerhouse!! If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and take a BATH!!” Presumably, to wash off the stench of his company. (It bothers me that her description exactly matches someone I once knew in the engineering field—who spent three whole years trying to have me fired, because he was afraid for HIS job.)
The next 2 pages are incredible. While talking with Scott about setting up a tour around the country, Funky never shuts up, never stops spewing absurdist flowery lingo, and keeps switching posture and demeanor between overly-friendly, philosophical, and angrily threatening physical violence toward Oberon (does he just not like short people, or is it that he just likes pushing around those he has a physical advantage over? --WHY am I even asking??).
In a page apparently suggested by Mark Evanier, Barda takes a bath, THIS time wearing a LOT LESS than she did in the previous issue. I also get the strong feeling someone other than Mike Royer inked that page. The lines are much more delicate than usual. It actually reminds me a LOT of some of the Kirby-inspired work I’ve seen mnore than 15 years later from Keith Giffen & Al Gordon (the “good” stuff, not the wretchedly-awful stuff), but someone suggested it may have been the work of Dave Stevens, who lived in the same area as Kirby and liked to stop in from time to time. Oh yeah, page 15 also looks like it may have been done by someone else (maybe the same someone else, maybe not). It just has a very different “feel” to it than the rest of the story.
Well, things never stay quiet for long, and next thing you know, Barda’s own “Battle Unit” shows up, assigned to kill her and Scott. They include such wild-and-scary characters as “Mad Harriet”, with a nightmarishly-painted face, wild green hair and brass knuckles with 3-inch pointed spikes; “Stompa”, a heavy-duty figure whose boots can smash Barda into the floor; “Lashina”, a “bondage”-inspired terror whose belt can rip thru steel girders; and “Burnadeth”, who uses a dart-like “fahren-knife” which can “penetrate dimensionally” and barbecue someone “from the inside”!!
After driving off the first two, the following day, Scott, in costume again, shows off 2 new death-traps for Funky, who’s turned up in a “safari” outfit. When Scott foolishly shows Funky his Mother Box, Funky acts like he knows what the heck it is. “So THIS is a “Mother-Box”, eh? Heh-heh! I KNOW that they are!! It’s just that I’ve NEVER seen one this close before!” Scott clearly knows is a “transparent second-rater”, and doesn’t even react to this obvious lie. After a third attack, Scott & Barda realize they’ve been tracked via the Mother-Box—and Oberon finds it very amusing that Funky’s got it on him just now.
Funky has returned home, taking the Mother-Box with him. “If it ISN’T a musical SARDINE-CAN –what the hell is it?” Bored quickly, and totally full of his own overblown ego, Funky actually tosses it aside... moments before ALL FOUR of the hit-squad materialize, and determine that, “The death order COULD include ANY who befriend him!!” Showing the kind of loyalty to staff that has run America completely into the ground in my lifetime, Funky TOSSES Houseroy at the killers, then leaps thru a window to escape, seconds before the entire old mansion explodes in a colossal fireball!
“THERE IT GOES! –everything—up in flames! The Mockingbird Estate—and its HAPPY memories! Mint JULIPS! COTILLIONS! HAPPY slaves singing for the FAMILY!!! Looks kinda PRETTY, though—PASSION-RED flame against UNDULATING CYCLOPEAN BLACK smoke! A MARVEL of CONTRAST!” As the narrator tells us... “Whistling, with rising spirits, like all his endless kind, Funky Flashman strides with new hopes—new schemes—inthe the night!” “Oh, well! Got to cut AWAY from Scott Free!! LOVE the lad—but HATE his friends!! On t NEW conquests, Funky Flashman!! You WINNER, you!!!”
Scott, Barda and Oberon have arrived just in time to save the butler’s life, having seen how the man’s boss tossed him to his fate. Despite plans to travel around, Scott decides to change his tactics. “Our battle is with the forces of APOKALIPS! --and with OURSELVES!! We had the courage to break free of them! --Do we DARE to return—and FACE THEM DOWN!!” “If we dare—we DIE!! “Well, I’m a soldier, Scott!! I’m trained to die!! But, you—you’re beautiful inside!! They never got to you!! And now they’ll do things to you—“ “ENOUGH, Barda! There is NO freedom is running! I’m going BACK and win it THEIR way!! --in TRIAL BY COMBAT!!” Holy cow.
Another Young Scott Free installment shows Metron, unseen by all but Scott, advising him not to eat food saturated with “Brain Drain Chemical”. In the back, there’s a Boy Commandos reprint of “SATAN WEARS A SWASTIKA” from BOY COMMANDOS #1 (Winter 1942-43). This is a real stand-out, as it features cameos by Jim Harper, The Newsboy Legion, The Sandman, and, at their office, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby!!
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LOIS LANE #119 / Feb’72 – “INSIDE THE OUTSIDERS!”
On the cover, we see Lois & Superman at an outdoor arena, watchng a “Sky-Jump Contest”. One of the jumpers is having a problem. “SUPERMAN! My sister Lucy... her parachute won’t open!” “And I can’t possibly get there in time! What can I do?” Those Lane sisters...
Before the event, Lois tries to talk her sister out of jumping, but to no avail. “Don’t be a square, Lois! You only live once! I’m living now! Today! Tomorrow doesn’t count!” Lucky for her, Superman used his super-breath to straighten out Lucy’s knotted parachute lines, AND, his heat-vision to create warm up-drafts to slow Lucy’s fall. Good thing it’s Superman and not Ultra Boy, who can only use one power at a time, or she’d have been a goner. Afterwards, Lois is terribly upset, but Supes reminds her she’s a professional, so she fights back tears to go on-camera and report the story. “That’s my girl!”
The main story focuses the fake Morgan Edge still trying to get his hands on the original. In a 2-page flashback, we see Darkseid observing the work of Mokarri and Simyan at the Evil Factory when the Edge clone was created. While the editor notes this takes place before The Evil Factory was destroyed in the recent JIMMY OLSEN, what it doesn’t mention is how the place and everyone in it is miniaturized. Apparently Darkseid was also SHRUNK for the purpose of his visit.
We then see how Edge caused the ambulance he was in to run off the road into a river... and on climbing on to shore, we discover he was picked up by—The Outsiders! NO, not that later bunch of second-rate heroes led by a tyrannical hand by Batman... the BIKER gang, last seen in JIMMY OLSEN. “We’re searching for PEACE and LOVE in a world living on the edge of a volcano! Would you like to JOIN us, brother?” It’s been pointed out that, traditionally (if such a word has any meaning here), “bikers” and “hippies” are two very different things. But not here!
The fake Edge figures out that the real Edge might try hiding out in a crowd. So he gives Lois an assignment to take “documentary” photos of people in “groups”, hoping she’ll stumble on the real Edge. Lucy goes along to take the pics. In an incredibly unlikely twist, The Outsiders decide to start a farm community. And sure enough, the fake Edge recognizes the real Edge in one of the photos he gets back from Lois. (Why the real Edge didn’t contact Lois directly while she was there is just another one of those plot contrivances that can’t be explained.)
The former leaders of the gang, Iron Mask and Vudu, briefly show up, determined to take back the reins of leadership. However, faced with an attitude of peace and love and brotherhood, they’re unable to deal with it, and flee! Robert Kanigher quotes Proverbs at this point: “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; if be thirsty, give him ater to drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.”
Without telling them what he’s up to, the fake Edge visits the Evil Factory and has Mokarri & Simyan run off a batch of non-living human bodies. Assumng he’s working on Darkseid’s orders, they follow his. Soon, the local cops discover a mass grave near The Outsiders’ commune, and mistakenly conclude are somehow running a “murder cult”!! But Superman arrives and notes the bodies are too perfect, and in fact, were never alive in the first place.
Lois reports back to her boss, who, after she leaves, flies into a fit. “The real Morgan Edge is still alive—thanks to SUPERMAN, who doesn’t even KNOW he saved his life! I’ve got to get him, somehow—before DARKSEID finds out!”
This issue’s Lady Danger reprint is “LADY DANGER FIGHTS SEA PIRATES!” from SENSATION COMICS #85 (Jan’43). One annoying thing about almost every book from this period is, there’s this 2-page ad for DC subscriptsions, and they ALWAYS put it in the middle of a story, rather than in between stories where it wouldn’t be so intrusive.
Rose And The Thorn this time is “THE SILENT SNIPER!”, which features 2 rifle-weilding killers. One has been hired by The 100 to take out Danny Stone, the other, a criminal who hid stolen loot in the very costume shop where Rose switches identities to become The Thorn. She’s unaware the loot has been hidden somewhere in the shop since years before The Thorn came into being, while the sniper mistakenly thinks she does know about it, and has somehow made off with it. Lois cameos as a volunteer nurse’s aide at the hospital where Danny recovers from his bullet wound.
Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano do a nice job on the art this time, Buckler’s storytelling a noticeable improvement from the last one I saw. Giordano also does the book’s cover, while Werner Roth & Vince Colletta continues to do a VERY “nice” job on the lead feature.
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JIMMY OLSEN #147 / Mar’72 – “A SUPERMAN IN SUPER-TOWN!”
In a pose strikingly similar to that seen on last month’s LOIS LANE #119, Superman & Jimmy witness several flying figures, a woman using some kind of telekinetic power, and another figure actually lifing up a skyscraper. “Jimmy—this is IMPOSSIBLE! Every man, woman and child is as super as I am!” The LL cover was by Bob Oksner; this one is by Neal Adams and Murphy Anderson. I wonder if the same person might have designed both covers?
Still in Trevor, Scotland, Jimmy is recovering from his ordeal in the previous issue while the Newsboys relate how the Evil Factory was atomized. Just then, the monstrous “Angry Charlie”, said to be the “only survivor” of the creatures produced by the scientists from Apokalips, bursts into the room, and it’s up to Gabby to pacify him. For unknown reasons, Gabby’s presence calms the beast, and he then gives him a special tablet to knock him unconscious, so they can more easily transport him back to The D.N.A. Project near Metropolis. Jimmy once again looks forward to confronting Morgan Edge for having sent them on what very nearly was a suicide mission. It’s hard to believe this hasn’t come to a head yet.
Meanwhile, deep below Metropolis, Superman is following the mysterioius tunnel, when a Boom Tube appears, spewing out another oddly-garbed figure. But when Supes tries to tackle him, “Magnar” flips him into the Tube, and he winds up being pulled by a great force all the way through, until he winds up in a green pasture. “This CAN’T possibly be Apokalips!”, he thinks. He’s right! Attacked by security forces, then Magnar again, Superman eventually convinces them he’s NOT from Apokalips, the Magnar realizes they both mistook the other for an enemy. (This became a running theme in at least the first 2 entire years of MARVEL TEAM-UP, but here, at least, this sort of mistaken identity or intentions made sense.) And then he sees the “Satellite City”. “Of course! It CAN’T be anything else--!! It’s SUPERTOWN!!! I saw it once –for ONE fleeting moment!!” “Well, it’s open to FRIENDS! This is a WORLD of friends!!” “If you’re a friend to ALL—you BELONG among us!!”
While this is going on, Jimmy and the Newsboys finally depart Scotland in the Whiz Wagon, with the unconscious Angry Charlie strapped down on the hood of the flying car. But halfway across the Atlantic, something really inexplicable occurs, as a volcanic island seems to rise out of the water, and from the crater, a huge mechanical platform, which magnetically grabs the car and pulls it and its occupants down into its gaping maw. A group of flying robotic sentries attacks, stunning all into unconsciousness. On awaking, they find someone’s changed their clothes for them, and they’re the in the presence of Professor Victor Volcanum. He’s eight feet tall, dressed in old-fashioned clothes, and somehow drinks fire from a goblet! He’s also, as he tell them, “--soon to be your most belevolent and respected sovereign—THE KING OF EARTH!!”
Back on New Genesis, Superman stumbles into one situation after another where he mistakes normal occurances for trouble, and realizes he’s being more of a nuisance than a help. As this begins to sink in, he’s invited to rest on a bench beside an old man with white hair, a beard and a long, white staff. “To be frank, I’m a NEW arrival to New Genesis! And by EVERY rule I should belong here! --Yet, I-I’m finding it DIFFICULT to adjust---“ “There was a FIERCE young one with your problem! But we found a NEED for him here!! And it HELPED him mightily!!” “Well, I can see very LITTLE need for ME here!! Everyone’s doing fine without MY help!!” “And what of this place you left behind!?” “Earth is a TERRIFIC planet!! But it needs ALL the help it can get!! Including MINE!!” “”I think THAT’s your problem! You’ve left good friends ---in TROUBLE! To serve a friend is certainly to serve NEW GENESIS!! It would be a simple task to return you to Earth! –you have only to grasp the WONDER STAFF!” “You mean—ALL I have to do is--- ??”
And the next second, “POP!” –Supes finds himself, not just on Earth, but deep inside the volcanic island, where he finds Jimmy & the Newsboys trapped in a suspended metal cage. “That old JOKER!! He sent me to Earth, all right! INSIDE IT!!” “LOOK, FELLAS! THE MARINES HAVE LANDED! WE’RE SAVED!!” But before he can do anything, a pair of stone walls CLOSE tightly on Superman, pinning him. “KLOMP!” “UGH!” What a cliff-hanger!
It was quite amusing to see Superman in a place where he wasn’t needed, and where his every action was a result of misjudging the circumstances. Naturally, though he wasn’t mentioned by name, the “old joker” was High-Father. It’s also very obvious that High-Father was referring to Orion when he told Supes the story of the “firece young one”. As it happens, Orion’s story is finally recounted in THIS SAME MONTH’s issue of NEW GODS. I suppose the only question might be, did that revelation come out before or after this story? Was this a hint of what was about to come, or a reference to what readers had just seen?
This issue was almost a reverse of the last few, in that Supes & Jimmy had separate, parallel adventures, except this time, Supes got more of the spotlight, instead of a mere squeezed-in cameo. Victor Volcanum strikes me as one of Jack’s wildest ideas, and he may have been over-reaching himself with this one. But more on him next time. The scene where Supes is instantly teleported to the volcanic came beneath the Earth reminds me of a similar scene in the classic ancient legend, “ALLADIN AND THE MAGIC LAMP”. Jack sure loves mixing influences!
The Newsboy Legion reprint is “THE SCOOP OF SUICIDE SLUM!” from STAR-SPANGLED COMICS #14 (Nov’42). On the letters page, Bob Rozakis complains about Kirby creating “too many worlds”, while both Rich Morrissey and Harold May are working overtime trying to reconcile the continuity between Earth-2 and Earth-1 with regards to The Newsboy Legion, The Guardian, and The Boy Commandos.
Mike Royer inked this issue, and assuming he’s following Jack’s pencils closely, it would seem the quality of Jack’s pencils varied depending on the scene. Some of the panels with the Newsboys in Scotland are very cartoony, panels spotlighting Victor Volcanum have a rougher, cruder look about them (similar to some of the books Jack did for Marvel during his last year there), while the pages with Superman and the New Genesis crew are VERY sharp-looking.
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FOREVER PEOPLE #7 / Mar’72 – “I’LL FIND YOU IN YESTERDAY!!”
“WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE LOST IN TIME???” In the background, we see Big Bear, Vykin, Mark & Dreamer , racing toward us, while in the foreground, Serifan, laying on the ground, is being attacked by several “Justifiers”, while on stage left, the Super Cycle shoots back. Despite Serifan’s cowboy get-up, he’s the only one NOT “lost in time”.
On New Genesis, in one of the most visually spectacular scenes yet, Highfather is implored by a crowd of young people to find and help The Forever People. It seems their having gone to Earth has only just come to his attention! Metron is there, and according to him, in space, they could return home easily via Boom Tube. But, “The road back through time is a MAZE in which they could ETERNALLY stumble!!” Only when the youngest of the assembly—little blonde Esak (previously seen travelling thru time and space with Metron) adds his reqeust does Highfather agree to do something. “Esak—what is it that makes the very young –so very WISE--?” “TEE HEE!! It’s our DEFENSE, Highfather, against the very OLD!!”
Mark & Dreamer find themselves in Ford’s Theatre the night President Lincoln was assassinated. Vykin finds himself in Florida facing Ponce De Leon. Big Bear finds himself in England just at the point where the Romans decided to pull out of the country, leaving behind a native named “Arta” they trained in their ways. But rather than remain loyal to the departed invaders, “Arta” is accepted as the new leader of the natives—and is clearly the inspiration for the myth of King Arthur. While, back in the present, Glorious Godfrey’s squad of “Justifiers” decide to attack Serifan & The Super Cycle, intend in murder and destruction. It doesn’t work out. And before things are done, all 4 missing friends are abruptly returned to the present, and reunited with Serifan, thanks to Highfather’s use of the “Alpha Force”. They wonder what happened to Sonny Sumo... and discover a statue of him in Japan. Apparently, he was happy to find himself in the past, and lived out his days there, becoming a hero and legend in the process.
A very unusual episode in the saga, and the first time The Forever People have had to catch their breath since FP #3. (making this effectively the end of a 5-part sequence). The idea of a group of people, each thrust into a different time period, is a popular one among sci-fi writers. I’ve seen it used on episodes of THE TIME TUNNEL (“Chase Through Time”), STAR TREK (“All Our Yesterdays”), and, perhaps closest in actual plot to this one, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (“The Rogue Legionnaire”). Funny to see Jack Kirby somewhat doing a variation on an idea Jim Shooter did in another DC book several years earlier. Jack would return to the multiple-time-period type story when he did CAPTAIN AMERICA’S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES in 1976.
Although some of the linework bugs me (if I were Mike Royer, I probably would have “smoothed out” some of Jack’s more rough-looking, craggy hands for example), this is nonetheless one of the most stunning, beautiful 4W issues so far. From the really slick action cover, to the 2-page shot of the grand hall where the young of New Genesis ask Highfather for help, the profile shot of Abraham Lincoln, the wonderful, light-hearted action romp in ancient England, the full-age shot of the Roman Legions departing the country (WOW!!!), and the battle between the Super Cycle and the Justifiers, this is one DAMN good-looking comic!
And now that this sequence has finally come to a close, it looks like Jack’s gearing up for the next step. “EXPOSED IN ALL ITS HORRIFYING AND MALIGNANT MACHINATION!! --THE MIND SOUGHT BY GREAT DARKSEID HIMSELF!!! SEE THE STRANGE AND TRUE POSSESSOR OF THE ANTI-LIFE EUQATION!! THE MIND THAT WEILDS—THE POWER!” Ooooh.
This issue’s back-up is Lonar Of New Genesis and his Battle-Horse THUNDERER!!! In another flashback set before the outbreak of the current war, Lonar and his new companion (and steed) cross paths with Orion. Thinking at first the horse is a “construct” modeled in the image of the real thing, he then tries to pet Thunderer—only for the creature to rear up and race off at his touch. Clearly the battle-horse can sense more that is seen on the surface. Once again, as with this month’s JIMMY OLSEN, a teaser of what was coming up in NEW GODS #7.
This issue’s Sandman and Sandy The Golden Boy reprint is “THE MAN WHO COULDN’T SLEEP!” from ADVENTURE COMICS #80 (Nov’42).
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Just thought I'd pass this on... It suddenly hit me a couple days ago, as I was nearing the end of the stack (I'm way ahead on reading, and behind on reviewing), that, contrary to what I believed for quite a few years, I actually DO have EVERY ONE of the Fourth World issues!!!
See, what happened was, initially, I used a checklist in AMAZING HEROES to go buying back-issues. But there were several I wasn't able to get before I read thru the entire stack the first time (in the eatly 80's).
However, as I check the stack, and the stickers on the bags, it's become evident that I actually was able to find ALL the ones I was missing at my 2nd store (after the 1st one closed up). The exceptions being, JIMMY OLSEN #133 & 134. Those I never found.
I finally got to read JIMMY OLSEN #133 when it was reprinted in SUPERMAN IN THE 70'S (2000), and then #134 when it was reprinted in JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES (2003). I still remember what a huge charge it was being able to read that initial 6-parter all in one go for the first time!
But apart from those 2, I have ALL the others in the original printings. Wow.
Guess I won't have to go looking for back-issues when I do find my next job...
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This issue is a bit different—to say the least. The cover shows a scene of battle—utter carnage, in fact. Bodies lay strewn about, an eerie green flame burns in the background, while in the foreground, we see 2 warriors facing each other. One dressed in green with a tall, pointed hat (similar to early depictions of Elric) with strange yelow skin swinging an oddly-shaped sword and riding what appears to be a huge hound from hell; the other, garbed entirely in red armor, stands, waiting, with a long golden rod in his hands. The text reads: “A GREAT MYSTERY is explained—in the greatest battle ever fought by the—NEW GODS”.
As with issues #1 & #2, #7 opens with a flashback... “IN THE BEGINNING—“ (Shades of Dino DeLaurentis & John Huston!) But this one it turns out, is book-length. “The NEW GODS were formless in image and aimless in deed!!! On EACH of their TWO new worlds, their races had sprung from the SURVIVOR of the old!! The living atoms of BALDUUR gave nobility and strength to one!! –and the shadow planet was saturated with the cunning and evil which was once a SORCERESS!!” Gee, the only figures of myth who come to mind here would be Baldar of Asgard, and Karnilla, Witch Queen of the Norns (well, in Kirby’s mythology, at least). How does that work, I wonder? Wouldn’t it take 4 people to spawn 2 new races? Or did they somehow spring full-blown from the very beings of the survivors? Could be...
“For an age these new gods pursued their own destines—until the time of the GREAT CLASH!!! It would start on NEW GENESIS—with these two—IZAYA THE INHERITOR and his wife AVIA—and happiness—the FIRST sign of coming tragedy—in an IMPERFECT state!!!” At this moment we learn (if we’re looking close enough) that Izaya is the same warrior on the cover who was encased in red armor. (He carries the same staff.) Now I’m trying to remember if it was mentioned before that High-Father’s name was really Izaya. Here’s his hair’s still jet black, clearly much younger than we’ve seen him before.
Their relaxation is interrupted by a murderour “hunting” party. “STEPPENWOLF OF APOKALIPS—AND HIS DEMON RAIDERS!! Can’t you find enough of your BRUTAL sport among your foul kind!!” “He’s MY kill!! I’ll hang his SKULL in my TROPHY hall!! I hunt WHERE and WHAT I wish, Izaya! And I claim even LEADERS as my quarry!!” Is this man deluding himself into thinking he’s a warrior, when it would appear he’s little more than a blood-lusting murder-crazed mad animal? The Romans saw it as sport to set men against men or animals in a arena to fight to the death. Here, you have someone going around hunting and murdering other people, and calling it “sport”. Madness indeed!
Avia is caught in a blast meant for Izaya and killed. Before her husband can strike back, he’s taken out by Steppenwolf’s nephew—Darkseid, using what he refers to as “killing-gloves” designed by his “good friend”, Desaad. His uncle is suspicious that someone who “thrives on living victims would produce a device which kills with such SPEED”—yet he refuses to check for signs of life. His mistake—Izaya is alive, and his first move on recovering is to declare all-out war on Apokalips. Obviously, nobody on either side saw the value in having open diplomatic channels, or criminal extradition proceedings.
Well, war breaks out, and New Genesis attacks first, sending “monitors” (seen in some back-up stories) and “de-energizer” bombs which are dropped into the “planetary pits” which power the planet—although, if I went just by the artwork, it looks like the bombs CREATED the pits with their blasts. After 3 pages of carnage, we switch to a protective bunker (shades of WW2) where we see the ruling elite. Among them are Desaad, Darkseid, Steppenwolf, and Heggra, the Queen of Apokalips, who is Steppenwolf’s sister and Darkseid’s mother. She berates her brother for “constantly” forgetting to address her by her proper title. It suggests he must resent her being in charge rather than him—makes me wonder how THAT came about.
While Steppenwolf raves about smashing the enemy, Heggra praises her son for being “cool” and “wise”. Steppenwolf says to him, “Well, Darkseid! It seems you WANTED this war!! It might be well to LEARN how your interference would DEAL with it!!” A real perverse situation if ever there was one. Heggra doesn’t seem to have wanted the war, yet takes no actions against the TWO of her family who caused it. I also found myself wondering who her husband was, and what happened to him. (Perhaps she became Queen only because her husband was the ruler, so Steppenwolf was NOT in the running when the former ruler died?)
It gets even more perverse when he find Darkseid is obsessed with new technologies, including an unstable element created by accident, which can vanish and reappear on its own. Suddenly, Metron bursts into the room, demanding the element from Darkseid, on his word from an earlier “private” meeting. Metron wants the element so he can build his dimension-spanning Mobius Chair—Darkseid agrees to give it to him, on condition that metron supply Apokalips with a “Matter Threshold” thru which their troops can walk through and instantly invade New Genesis. In the pursuit of science and knowledge, Metron seems to care nothing for who reaps the benefits of his discoveries, or how much chaos and destruction and death may result. Was there ever a more pure expression of how amoral some scientists allow themselves to be?
Just thought I’d interject, while it’s mostly common knowledge that Metron was based on J. Robert Oppenheimer, who developed the atomic bomb (and look how much better the world is since thenm, right?), something that never occured to me before reading this story again today was how much Darkseid is beginning to remind me of Bela Lugosi. I know with 2 different TV cartoons featuring him you’d never think of Lugosi’s voice in connection with the character, but just looking at both his short stature and that FACE (under the dark color and craggy skin) is beginning to make me think Lugosi might have been the ideal actor to play him, had a film been made based on this story back in the 1930’s.
The war escalates. In 3 pages, we go from 5 panels to 3 panels to 1, with the climax for the sequence coming on a page with 6 panels. Izaya confronts Steppenwolf, who’s surprised to learn he’s still alive, moments before being killed by him. In any kind of sane world, this would have been the END of the war. In fact, this would have BEEN the war—period. But because Izaya launched a full-scale assault against an entire planet—just to kill ONE man—it can’t end here. And it doesn’t. He meets Metron on the battlefield, and the scientist tells him, “Darkseid knew he’d meet YOU here!! DARKSEID!! How I want HIM destroyed! And yet, he LIVES! He CLIMBS! Step by step! By intrigue, he got WAR! By war, he got POWER!! By power, he got STEPPENWOLF!!” And thus is the entire story explained up to this point. More or less.
And the war CONTINUES to escalate!! Until the man who started it can take no more. “We are WORSE than the old gods! They destroyed THEMSELVES!! We destroy EVERYTHING!! This is DARKSEID’s way! I am INFECTED by Darkseid!! To save New Genesis—I must find IZAYA!! WHERE is IZAYA?? –not the warrior!—the General!!—but, the TRUE servant of those he leads!!” I’m a bit reminded of Michael Reeves film WITCHFINDER GENERAL, which he apparently intended as a cautionary warning about the dangers of violence, and how it can infect everyone in touches. (I sometimes think if he’d been older when he made that, and had more self-control and restraint, he might have been able to get his “message” across better without actually offending most of his potential audience.)
Izaya, like Moses—or Jesus—walks out into the desert, alone, in search of answers. “I TEAR OFF MY ARMOR! I REJECT THIS WAR-STAFF AS A WEAPON!!! I REJECT THE WAY OF WAR!! DARKSEID’S GAME IS NOT MINE!! WHERE IS IZAYA!!!?? WHERE IS IZAYA!!!??” As the narration states, “The dry wind RISES and the elements DISTURB the sky!! Violent electrical flashes twist and STAB across the DARKENED land!!! The echo bnecomes a ROAR! The roar becomes a THOUSAND drums beating to the mad music of the wind-storm!!! – DRIVING—DRIVING the questing spirit-- ---TO THE WALL!!! Ageless, inscrutable!!!-- it stands—as if waiting—waiting in the sudden calm—for Izaya to communicate!” In the desert, Izaya finds a blank wall standing, crackling with mysterious energy. It’s like that early scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: SPACE ODYSSEY, transferred to a high plane, a more fantasy landscape, and certainly, a more LITERATE storyline. Kirby is taking elements from ancient mythology, religions, and modern science-fiction, and combining them into somethng NEW and EXCTIING!
And then, everything changes. The war is OVER. It was started with a murder and an excessive retaliation. It ends, with something very old-fashioned, from Earth history... the exchange of hostages to ensure peace. Izaya has contacted Darkseid, and the aggreement they reached—“THE PACT”—involves the exchange of their SONS. As we learn, like Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (see the film THE LION IN WINTER), Darkseid’s wife, Tigra—a “fighting, snarling KILLER-CAT”—who was chosen for him against his will by his mother (who is NOW DEAD—gee, how convenient!) has been living in EXILE for years, along with her son, who has never even met his father.
Darkseid surveys the ruins of his planet, and says, “Izaya wants PEACE! I—want—TIME!!--- time to RE-DEFINE power!!—to make this “bombed-out” waste a MEANINGFUL pursuit!!” What a monster. He doesn’t want to rebuild his planet, so much as leave it a ruined nightmare of a landscape, for his own sick, depraved, twisted purposes. (Gee, why am I reminded of East Berlin? –or much of the Soviet Union?)
In one of the most disturburbing—but revealing—scenes in the entire Fourth World epic to date—we see Granny Goodness take charge of Izaya’s very young son. “There is a SERENE and FRAGILE quality in his features!!” “We’ll STAMP that out, won’t we, Granny!!? We’ll JAM him into that CLANKING mechanism you call an ORPHANAGE!! All the rigors and trials heaped upon the training warrior shall be DOUBLED for HIM!! His spirit will flag and his bones will ache!! –until—“ “UNTIL—sire??” “He may CONVENIENTLY decide to ESCAPE from Apokalips, Granny! Of course, on that day—the PACT I agreed to—will be BROKEN!!” “That fine day will be DEAR to your heart, sire! Therefore, in its honor, I shall name the lad—SCOTT FREE!!! Ha ha hah---“ Horrors!!!
Meanwhile a squad of soldiers, beaten and bloodied, desperately shove Darkseid’s son, a “murderous little monster”, thru the dimension threshold. Knife in hand, he confronts an old man who’s bent over a table in grief. But his attack is stopped. “Hate is NO longer a word in this place!! PUT DOWN THAT WEAPON!! –son--!” “You! YOU are—my father??” “Only if YOU wish me to be! I am HIGHFATHER!! And you—are ORION!! We have NEED of each other, Orion!! This is a place of FRIENDS!! Here is my hand--!!” “NO! I—I—“ “The hand, or the WEAPON, Orion!! I, TOO, had to make that choice!!--- DECIDE!!” “Y-you speak to my liking! I-I TRUST you—for now!” “FIRST, trust, Orion! THEN—who knows-- ? A GREAT destiny, perhaps!!” As the narrator says, “THUS IT BEGAN!!! –AND WE MOVE FORWARD ONCE MORE!!!” Wow.
While it was revealed as far back as NEW GODS #1 that Orion was Darkseid’s son (but only certain people knew it), until here there was NO clue that Scott Free was Highfather’s son. I doubt the terms of The Pact were supposed to include Scott being mis-treated so terribly for the whole of his life growing up. But it surely casts a different light on Highfather, who must have known—or at least suspected—what might happen to him.
The art in this entire issue is a masterpiece. Not only is Jack Kirby at the top of his game, but Mike Royer, after a few shaky, inconsistent issues, did what could easily be called a “perfect” job this time. Amazing!
The Young Gods of Supertown this time is a 2-page spotlight on Vykin The Black, set before the new war, where he tackles an ugly mutation left behind from The Great Clash. This would serve to set up a story coming up in a few issues. This issue’s Manhunter reprint is “The Legend Of The Silent Bear”, from ADVENTURE COMICS #76 (Jul’42). Also in the back is “Here Come The Robots” / “A World Of Thinking Machines” from REAL FACT COMICS #2 (May’46).
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JIMMY OLSEN #148 / Apr’72 – “MONARCH OF ALL HE SUBDUES!”
The cover shows Superman struggling with the hanging metal cage Jimmy and The Newsboy Legion are trapped in. Tommy says, “SUPERMAN—it’s too strong for you! WE’RE FINISHED!” How absurd. Like mere metal could stop him!
Sure enough, inside, Supes first frees himself from the crushing pressure of the rock walls, then tears the metal cage to shreads, while casually telling its prisoners, “You rascals DESERVE a bit of shaking up!” Some friend he is!
In the long tradition of tacky villains, Victor Volcanum, now dressed in old-fashioned psuedo-military “royal”attire, gets on the video monitor to gloat, telling Supes & his pals “I am finally embarking on my campaign to CLAIM my planetary dominion!” He then proceeds to spill his “origin” story. It’s here that it most feels like Jack Kirby’s wild imagination not just goes into hyperactive overdrive, but completely off the deep, demented end. A balloonist who crashed onto the volcanic isle (shaeds of Jules Verne’s THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND), Volcanum, apparently a scientist, somehow used his “meagre equipment” to create “a method to DISTILL live-giving extracts from the FIERY energies about him!!” Wild enough for you? Wait! There’s more!
Using materials salvaged from wrecked ships, he forged a “mechanical servitor”—which he taught to build others—until he had a “sizable security-labor force”. Over the course of one hundred and ten years, he built his entire domain, within the heart of the volcano, including its numerous security devices, weapons, and scientific marvels.
Now, I’m sorry. I might accept the extrememly wild stretch of the imagination of the guy finding a way to “distill life-giving extracts”, and that it might somehow mutate him physically or mentally. But it’s just TOO MUCH to accept that he was able to build everything else seen on this island, COMPLETELY by himself, no matter how long he’s been there! Beginning with those robots! I have to suspect that any other writer, inspired to do a follow-up on this, might feel compelled to reveal that Volcanum wasn’t telling the entire truth. Like, that either he had outside help, or that he wasn’t from this planet in the first place. Had Kirby revealed that he was actually an exile from Apokalips, I could have more easily accepted it, and it would have tied this story in more neatly with the rest of Kirby’s JIMMY OLSEN issues.
Anyway, an army of robots attacks, and Supes pitches a rock at them as if it were a baseball, sending it THRU the heads of all of them (they just happened to be stupid enough to all stand in a straight line—hilarious!). Next, a flow of lava erupts toward them, apparently under the control of the baddie. Supes manages to divert it by creating a deep trench. Up next is a pale blue robot guarding their escape path named “Boxxa”. Four times I read this before it hit me how this thing reminds me of the similar robot named “Box”, also guarding an escape tunnel, in the movie LOGAN’S RUN. That robot was NOT in the book that movie was loosely based on, which makes me suspect whoever came up with it may have been reading this Kirby comic! Jimmy barely takes it out by finding its “de-activator” button. How convenient.
But then Volcanum uses a “brain blocker” ray to knock everyone unconscious, before preparing to depart in his flying gondola. It took this guy 110 years to build his domain, and now, not only is he leaving it, but for no apparent reason (other than being completely insane) he plans to destroy it when he leaves. Awakening, Jimmy, Supes & the Newsboys stumble across a miniature model of a city, set up to demonstrate how Volcanum’s weapons will destroy it. It’s a scene uncannily similar to one seen in the Richard Brooks film WRONG IS RIGHT, more than a decade later!
The boys barely manage to find the Whiz Wagon and escape, just as the island goes up in a collosal explosion (shades of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND again, not to mention YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE). The Whiz Wagon fires missiles at the gondola, which are brushed off with a force field, but Superman manages to break thru to confront their foe. Supes has some choice dialogue in this episode. “All those years of isolation have driven you to PARANOIA!” “GIVE UP your mad dream to dominate all things, Volcanum! You can be useful and productive in the SERVICE of humanity! It HASN’T hurt MY ego!!” But it doesn’t get through... “What I build, I build for MYSELF! For my OWN view of the world! To form the world in the shape of VICTOR VOLCANUM! But now that I’ve been frustrated, I’ll END things—and take YOU with me!” One switch pulled, and he blows up the gondola—and himself. “And so ends Volcanum’s madness!” NO KIDDING. The group head for Metropolis, and if you look real close, you can read, in tiny text at the bottom... “The End”. It’s like Jack was sneaking out the back door so no one would notice...
Although both Supes & Jimmy came across okay this time, the rest of the Newsboys were reduced to ciphers. Oy.
Tales Of The DNA Project this time is “GENETIC CRIMINAL”, a 2-pager in which a “DNA-human” seems to go berzerk, but really is stopping a spy disguised as one of the security guards. As revealed at the end, “Model Four” never turned anti-social, despite being grown from the cells of Floyd “Bullets” Barstow—a gangster executied for murder!
Vince Colletta returns this issue, and does another fantastic job (for him). Neal Adams flies solo on the cover.
The Newboy Legion with The Guardian reprint is “The Meanest Man On Earth”, from STAR SPANGLED COMICS #14 (Nov’42). You know, it’s a strange thing, but of all the Golden Age Kirby reprints included in this period, The Newsboy Legion was the ONLY series re-rpesetned chronologicaly from the beginning. In sequence, they did SSC #7-14. Even so, I’d have much rather seen them put out a single reprint volume with the entire series in one book. I just don’t like mixing new and reprint material in the same package.
On the letters page, both Dane Kalis and Matt Graham feel Jimmy would be better off without Supes, but those in charge apparently feel he’s needed to boost sales. Meanwhile, it’s announced Jack feels he’s stretched himself to thin, and so, next issue Joe Orlando is taking over as editor, with a new creative team. Well, there goes my reason to buy any more of these! Elsewhere, DC takes over publishing TARZAN comics, with Joe Kubert doing the art. I’ve never read a single one of these, but I can’t imagine them in any way holding a candle to the Russ Manning version then currently in the newspapers.
Registered: Aug 2003
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The latest over-crowded cover shows Scott in another of those patented metal-frame body-jackets attached to a metronome as a firing squad of armored troopers uses crossbows to fire explosive missiles at him. Gee, you’d think as close as they’re standing to the target, they’d get blown up when he does. Oh, yeah, and some dandy in Middle Ages-style clothes has Barda on her knees, forcing her to watch the hero’s execution. Is he kidding? “VISIT APOKALIPS AND DIE! Only a fool or a super-being would try!! You pin the label on... MISTER MIRACLE Super Escape Artist!” Here we go again...
Our first glimpse of Apokalips was in NEW GODS #1, and we just got to see more in NEW GODS #7. Now, we return there, to witness what happens when “the worms” (new recruits) arrive for Granny’s “Finishing School”. It’s mean, it’s viscious, it’s brutal, and it’s obviously Kirby commenting on everything from real-life orphanages to public schools to army basic training, and the way they tend to de-humanize people in order to strip them of their individuality and whatever makes them human in favor of people who simply obey whatever orders they’re given without question.
A very interesting scene is when Granny Goodness pulls aside “Hoogin”, one of her “Harrassers”, and reminds him she had to “break” him down in rank when Scott Free escaped. “For reasons of my OWN, I’ve been trying to recapture him, Hoogin! And I’ve got a hunch that Scott will VOLUNTEER –to come BACK!!” “I CAN’T wait—Granny!” I find this intriguing. As explained only last month in “THE PACT”, Darkseid deliberately had Granny brutalize Scott more than any of the other recruits, to inspire him to escape—knowing that, when he did escape, “The Pact” would be broken, giving him the excuse to resume the war. Granny admitting that every attack on Scott we’ve seen has been on her orders, NOT Darkseid’s, makes me wonder about her motivations. Is it purely personal? Does she resent his attitude and behavior toward her? Does she see herself as more important than Darkseid? Does she resent having to have a black mark on her record, just to satisfy Darkseid’s nebulous long-term plotting and scheming? Or is it just sadism as a matter of habit or principle?
Sure enough, as we saw last issue, Scott & Barda are planning to return to Apokalips. “You escaped from Apokalips ONCE! Do you think that Granny Goodness and her creepy pets will let you do an ENCORE??” “NO!! But STRANGELY enough—like all organized societies, Apokalips exists by RULES!!—made by Darkseid—and KEPT by his subjects!! This time I MUST escape from Apokalips—WITHIN those rules!!”
Oberon can’t stand to see them go, and Barda is also upset, in her way. “GET OUT! GET OUT! –you little sawed-off drip!” “I’m going!! For just a little while, I—I thought you were really a BIG, BEAUTIFUL WARM-HEARTED GIRL!! –instead of a LOUD-MOUTHED, MILITARY, MAN-KILLING HARPY turned out by those terrible Darkseiders!!” “Oh, SHUT UP—or I’ll—I’ll—“ As Barda is down on her knees giving Oberon a HUG as she says this, it’s obvious her words are not matching up with her true feelings. What a wonderful scene!
Scott wants Barda to stay behind, since he’s the one Granny wants. “No deal, MISTER MIRACLE! We’ll go down that old shark’s mouth TOGETHER!! --then I’ll beat her to death from ther INSIDE!!” “MORE than that, Barda! Living, or dead—you and I are PROOF to all of Apokalips –that it can FALL!!” “Well, then!! Victory BEFORE the battle leaves little left but to enjoy it!! Let’s tear the top off Apokalips!” Wow. What a build-up. This whole thing feels like the a natural step in the evolution of the “big story”, and an indication that, as planned, it would eventually come to a conclusion, where Apokalips would no longer be as it is here. (And such a shame not only that Jack Kirby was unable to finish the story originally, but, WORSE, that DC, to this day, has PERSISTED in keeping the status quo going!)
The pair use Barda’s Mega-Rod to make the trip. “It’s the LATEST from ordnance! Better than the BOOM TUBE!” “Yes!! It’s SMALLER and packs as much ENERGY BUILD-UP!!” Between this and last month, we’ve now seen at least 4 different ways of instantaneous travel—the Matter Threshold, Metron’s Mobius Chair, the Boom Tube, and now the Mega-Rod. I suppose it makes sense that Apokalips should develop newer, smaller, better ways of invading, but only give them to certain officers. It takes an entire page for the pair to depart Oberon’s house, which emphasizes how important this entire sequence is in the larger scale of things.
Materializing on Apokalips (so similar to how the crew of the Enterprise “transport” on STAR TREK), they’re instantly seen and challenged. “MEGA-ROD MATERIALIZERS!! STAND FAST! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!” “LOWER your voice, you pompous GNAT!!” “I said DON’T MOVE FROM THAT SPOT!!” “Barda, you UNPREDEICTABLE wildcat! If he runs a check on us, we may NOT make it to the orphanage!!” “Quiet!! YOU UP THERE!! I want some transportations, and none of your lip!! YOU RECOGNIZE AND OFFICER’S UNIFORM –DON’T YOU?” Talk about nerve! But the guard isn’t buying it, and opens fire with a warning shot. Whereupon Barda grabs hold of the guard-tower. “ARROGANT DOG OF A BORDER GUARD!! I’ll TEACH him the meaning of taking a shot at the uniform of the SPECIAL POWERS FORCE!!!” “KRAK!” “AAAAAA!” “KAARAAASSHH!!” “Run a check on THIS, you clod!!!—that is—if you can CRAWL out of the rubble!!” Seconds later, Barda flags down a Magna-Car, then stomps it with her foot, sending its occupants flying. “You’ve gone MAD, Barda! But I LIKE your style!!” “It’s all I’ve got left!!—and I’m going to RAM it down the throats of all Apokalips!!” This is probably my favorite scene with Barda since her introduction.
Kirby spends the next page showing just how nightmarish a place Apokalips really is, as wretched-looking workers wearing rags slave away while guards watch over them, amidst a dismal, dreary, burnt-out ruin of an area. It’s clear that in all the years Darkseid has ruled over the planet, he’s spent every moment of his time enforcing his power, and not the slightest effort on rebuilding or trying to improve the place.
The pair are attacked by Kanto, “The Weapon-Master”—“PERSONAL assassin to the great Darkseid himself”. Looking like something out of the Middle Ages, he’s a smiling dandy who apparently enjoys his work, and allows himself the luxury of admiring his opponents and their weaponry. After getting Barda out of the way by using her own Mega-Rod to weight her down with increased gravity, he has Scott captured and deposited in an obscene metronome, swinging back and forth in front of a large, painted target, while a squad of men take pot-shots at him. Scott only barely escapes death, and Kanto laughs, revelling in his skills. After then being dragged all over a courtyard by his ankle, Scott escapes again, only to be confronted by Kanto. Rather than fight, they talk, Kanto revealing he’d rather “mingle with Darkseid’s retinue”, but he’s “content” to have a “dominion and command” of his own. Kanto then actually hands over the Mega-Rod, with the advice, “Use this on yourself and the female—NOW!! Death at Kanto’s may be CLEANER than death fashioned by GRANNY GOODNESS!!”
“INTRIGUE, my friend! It’s my LIFE-STYLE!! Like yourself, I’m a student of Earth!!—and I live with all the daring phantoms who peopled and PLOTTED the Earth-years of the Renaissance!!” “ADMIRABLE!! You’re influential –and you can plot!! When I release Barda from mass gravity—I shall ask a BOON of you—DEAR FELLOW!”
Next thing, Scott & Barda have snuck aboard the latest transport to the orphanage, revealing themselves when they arrive. “Tell Granny I’m BACK!! Tell Granny I claim freedom—by RIGHT OF COMBAT!!” In her chamber, Granny sits, “taking her medicine”, dressed up in an absurd, old-fashioned set of night-clothes, yet her venom is not a bit diminished. “Granny’s been WAITING for this day, Scott Free!! –the day you would march back here and FLAUNT your impudence!! Well, you forget, sir!! – a trap made by Granny—is a trap of the GODS!!!” And sure enough—in “Section Zero”—a monstrous figure, “The Lump”, lays on a table, next to another, empty table loaded up with strange equipment. “I WOULDN’T like to be the one to occupy this table!” says one of the robed technicians at work. And in the narrative box below, Kirby promises for next time—“THE BATTLE OF THE ID!!”
This issue’s Young Scott Free installment shows his training as an aero-trooper, tanking on “The Mangle Machine”—the name given to a squad of murderous Para-Demons. He surprises everyne by being the only one in his squad to escape completely unscathed, with the help of some early escape-devices.
The Boy Commandos reprint is “Who Is Agent Axis?” from BOY COMMANDOS #3 (Summer 1943).
Registered: Aug 2003
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In a gloomy underground cavern, our heroes are being marched along in heavy chains or worse, by a groups of strange-looking characters who remind me the creatures Alec Baldwin & Geena Davis turned themselves into to scare that family in the movie BEETLEGUISE. I’m not makin’ this up! Pretty wild colors on this cover—I wonder if Jack did them himself?
In an opening page that reminds me of something Will Eisner might have done in one of his later SPIRIT stories, Jack shows us a vast, sprawling estate emptied of all people except for armed security guards, described in narration that pays tribute to the nursery rhyme “The House That Jack Built”. But in the bowels of the Earth under the estate, things are not even as the reclusive millionaire or his hired “army” plan. A group of strangely-costumed characters attack and kill one of the “soldiers”, then dump his body in a pit with many others. It seems “Mister Bates” is involved with some sort of mysterious group known as “The Sect”—except, someone has systematically been replacing its members, and then, doing the same with his guards! A millionaire and a recluse Mister Bates may be—but even that isn’t ensuring his safety.
“Shot after shot blasts through the damp, cold DARKNESS of the EERIE hollows that reach out like crooked spiders in the Earth below!! The secrets that surround the name of Bates are under ASSAULT by strange INVADERS—FOR THESE SECRETS HIDE A MAN IN POSSESSION OF A FORCE OF TERRIFYING MAGNITUDE—THE MAN WITH—THE POWER!” Wow. Sheer poetry. It’s funny, just last night, I was watching KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE, and the phrase “extraordinary magnitude” kept being repeated during the “FISTFUL OF YEN” sequence. Of course, when I hear the phrase “The Man With The Power”, I tend to think of THE OUTER LIMITS episode, but this has nothing to do with the school-teacher played by Donald Pleasence.
It seems the imposters in the caverns “materialized” there. And, above ground, in the nearby town forcibly emptied of all its former residents, The Forever People also materialize, to the extreme agitation of the armed thugs guarding the place. A few questions are quickly followed by attempted MURDER—but when Big Bear gets involved, these poor saps don’t stand a chance. With his “excess of free atoms”, he’s bulletproof—and strong enough to pick up and hurl a truck at his attackers! They eventually flee, saying, “The ONLY answer to these weirdos is MISTER BATES!” But just then, Serifan arrives, from Japan, retrieved Mother Box in hand. A happy reuinion is interrupted when the image of “Billion Dollar Bates” appears on a tele-screen. He tells them, “In the next few seconds, one of my officers will contact you!! YOU’RE TO OBEY ANY ORDER HE GIVES YOU!! ANY ORDER!!” They laugh it off, until the man arrives, tells them to get in single file and follow him... AND THEY DO!!!
In his mansion, we meet Bates in person. He’s a big, heavy-set, boisterous, arrogant, bossy personality, and he’s holding court over four members of a Senate Committee who were investigating his activities. That is, until he called them on the phone, and TOLD them to come to his home. One by one, he toys with them, his every order obeyed without hesitation, even though nobody there WANTS to. It’s like Killgrave, The Purple Man from the 60’s DAREDEVIL comics, reborn in the image of Ed Begley Sr. (see the Michael Caine / Harry Palmer film, BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN).
Bates gloats that he always had this power, but for years didn’t know it, until he met “The Sect”, and they explained it to him, and helped him develop it. Now, he plans to undergo a “ceremony” which will increase his power a thousandfold, and use it to take control of everyone on Earth!
In the caverns, our heroes know what’s going on. Big Bear tells Mark, “There’s NO doubt that he possesses the ANTI-LIFE EQUATION!! Don’t you realize the DANGER we’re in?” But Mark realizes that if they don’t find a way to stop Bates, Darkseid will get to him first. So they stay, allow themselves to be shackled, even when they realize that Earthmen have a tradition of mystic ritual that may involve “living sacrifice”.
As the ceremony begins, one of The Sect, then Bates, raves on and on about power, and how mankind if “free and aimless, shackled by disunity”, which the heroes compare with George Orwell’s “1984”. All goes as planned until a “Stimulus Hat” is placed on Bates’ head—at which point, its energy output sends him to unconsciousness. One of The Sect leans over him, saying, “PERFECT! He’s still in shock!--- but the ANTI-LIFE EQUATION lies ready to be PLUCKED from that living brain!” Uh oh... now WHY do these words sound familiar?
However, things go wild when Bates appears to float away, then The Sect discover they don’t really have the heroes in shackles—it was all an illusion created by Beautiful Dreamer! Racing away with the unconscious Bates, they suddenly find their path blocked by the leader of The Sect, who they realize must be none other than Darkseid! “If you still fear the OMEGA EFFECT you’ll hand over Bates!” But Big Bear thrusts Bates in front of him, at the exact instant one of the guards fires 3 shots. “Mister Bates—when I saw him in their hands—I—I—reacted—TOO FAST--!” “KRAK!” One unconscious (dead?) thug later... “That PRICELESS brain—with its anti-life equation—LOST!!” Desaad replies, “Forgive me, Sire! I brought the guard! I knew he was given POWER over The Forever People!! I—“ Ohhhh, I think there’s gonna be hell to pay over THIS bungled job...
Darkseid removes his disguise, then is confronted by The Forever People, who arrogantly defy him... until he orders them to be SILENT. “Are you warriors of NEW GENESIS—or some prattling, gaggle of half-grown fowls? STRAIGHTEN UP! LOOK LIKE WHAT YOU PRETEND TO BE!!!” Absurdly, what follows is a mock “inspection of the troops”—perhaps the youths being cowed into obeying showing they really are more out of their depths than they tend to think. It goes on until Mark decides to use his Megaton Blast—but it fails to have any effect, as he and his friends fade from sight at that very moment! “Th-they’re GONE sire! I-I hate to say this—but those brats managed to get too close to us! They could have—“ “I know, Desaad! We were in DANGER! Thus, my little act!--- my little MOCK troop inspection—Moonrider realized it too late!--- But I had already saturated his unit with INVIVISBLE Omega rays—and they began to vanish—even as this stone!” “But somehow I feel that you’ve SPARED The Forever People AGAIN!” “Greatness does NOT come from killing the young! I’m willing to WAIT until they grow!! NOW, WE DEPART!”
The Senate Committee wanders in, finds Bates’ body and the helmet, and realize they have a lot to report to Washington. Elsewhere, our heroes find themselves in the Super-Cycle. “Tricky Darkseid! We’ll meet AGAIN!” “We could have fared worse! He’s a STRANGE enemy!!” As they fly off... “This has been a STAND-OFF! And that’s better than DEFEAT!”
The Kirby-Royer art this issue is, for the most part, STUNNING on every page. But here and there I sense a bit more looseness in the figure-drawing, as if Jack’s attention is being lost. In some ways, due to behind-the-scenes manipulations, this would be the LAST issue of THE FOREVER PEOPLE that really continued the main story effectively. Since the beginning, Darkseid has been searching for the Anti-Life Equation, and in this issue, for only the 2nd time, he found it—then lost it. The first tme was due to his own actions, this time, due to Desaad’s. That can’t be making him too happy. Knowing what’s coming next, I almost find myself wishing the book had gone on hiatus HERE. Ah well...
The Sandman (with Sandy The Golden Boy) reprint this time is “Dreams Of Doom” from ADVENTURE COMICS #77 (Aug’42). It’s got more big panels in it than usual from that era, which only shows how constrained Jack was by having to cram too much story into a pitiful 10 pages. I wonder why they couldn’t be bothered to reprint these things in any sequence that makes any sense at all (not that there was much continuity to worry about).
Registered: Aug 2003
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NEW GODS #8 / May’72 – “THE DEATH WISH OF TERRIBLE TURPIN!”
Now this is one BRUTAL cover. A rooftop has been turned into a battle-zone, rubble everywhere, flames in the background, and, while a squad of police watch, we see Kalibak, club held in upraised hand, facing Dan Turpin, who looks like he’s been thru a meat-grinder, his clothes in shreads, and Orion, warning the cops to keep their distance. “I’m placing you under arrest—even if I DIE for it!” “STAY BACK, you men!! It’s forbidden to interfere in personal combat!” Holy cow!
3 issues back, in NEW GODS #5, we met Detective Dan Turpin. In that same issue, Kalibak arrived on Earth! The focus shifted due to the Leviathan at sea, and then the flashback to “The Great Clash”. But now that they’re out of the way, we pick up, right where we left off (even if it was 6 months earlier!). In search of Orion, Kalibak rampages thru Dave Lincoln’s building, finding and cornering him and Claudia Shane (those two seem to be spending a lot of time together!). Bullets have no effect... “HAHAHAHA! Your weapon barks but has NO bite!!—NOT against one breed in the SPECIAL POWERS FORCE!” You know, we keep hearing about this from Barda (over in MISTER MIRACLE). It makes me wonder, is there some kind of artificial / scientific process used on Apokalips to endow certain individuals with super-strength? If so, it would have been interesting to see it. (Perhaps it’s something like that used by The Inhumans, as seen in their back-up series in THOR.)
In the office of the Police Commissioner of Metropolis, Dan Turpin is having a meeting with his superior, Matt Kiernan. With a gang-war involving “super-weirdos” in progress and casualties mounting, Turpin’s determined to bring one of them in, but his boss would prefer he turn it over to one of the men he trained, so Turpin can retire with his “hide intact”. Despite threats to be busted down to street-crossing safety-guard, Turpin heads for the crime scene.
Meanwhile, Orion & Lightray arrive (perhaps direct from the battle seen in “THE GLORY BOAT”), and en route to Victor Lanza’s home, have a run in with a pair of rootop lovers, and a neighbor of Lanza’s. “So it is with the romantic young, Lightray! Part FANTASY, part TRUTH—ALL COMEDY!!” “Not to them, Orion! It’s REALITY to them!” Dolly Jarvis invites Lightray to a party she’s giving, and tells him “Bring HUMPHREY BOGART with you, too!”
Turpin arrives at the panic scene. “King Kong on a rooftop is no more dangerous than a nervous punk with a pistol!! The idea is to GIVE as good as you GET!!” Only a moment after spotting Kalibak in his binoculars, the patrol car is blasted by his war-club. Amidst the rubble, Turpin thinks, “That did it, SUPER-RAT! I’m gonna haul you in—or DIE trying!”
Lightray charms Victor Lanza’s wife to allay her nervousness, and winds up reminding her of her son away at law school. Just then, Orion sees Kalibak on the TV news report, and the pair knows where they must go next.
Now up on the rooftops, Turpin defies all logic and reason by first demanding Kalibak turn himself in, then racing to attack him with a machine-gun. Kalibak hurls a brick chimney at Turpin, and he responds by hurling a pair of high-powered shock grenades! The explosion manages to knock Kalibak off the roof, but not the building, and he strikes back brutally. “Had ENOUGH, Earthling? Destroying Kalibak is NOT an easy task! But finishing what’s left of you will be as simple as crushing a worm!” He fails to see Orion & Lightray arriving behind him. Orion manages to make Kalibak drop Turpin, then the two engage in viscious combat! Lightray’s solar-thermo-beams also prove useless against Kalibak’s club, so Orion grabs his wrist and nearly breaks it forcing the club from his hand.
“Now, by what I DO, you may well get a GLIMPSE of INNER fires that burn with forces UNMATHCED by your fire-pits!!” “My club—i-it’s beginning to—“ “To BEND! To CRACK! To break loose from the sinister energies that bind its atoms as ONE unit!” “NO! NO! IMPOSSIBLE! IT CAN’T BE HAPPENING!” “KRAAK!” “Behold a more PAINFUL truth! –the BROKEN fragments of your club!!” “It would take all the might of DARKSEID himself to do that!! You’re a MONSTER, Orion!!” “SKKATTTCH!” “See if you can survive your OWN fires, Kalibak!” “AAAAA” “All the pain and torment in the universe CAN’T stop what drives us!! I’m your EQUAL, Orion!!” “—but—NOT—my better---“ “Only your DEATH can prove that!! And you will DIE, Orion! You will—UGH!!!” “We fought when young, Kalibak! We fight FULLY GROWN! And we shall fight till death takes ONE of us!! There’s something we SHARE that’s always driven us to each other! ---what it is, I CANNOT say!! But we shall seek each other until it’s DONE! “Let it be NOW, then!! LET IT BE NOW!!” “KRAAASSH!!” Whoa.
Impossibly, Turpin tries to get to his feet, muttering, “Y-you’re--- under--- arrest---“ Lightray helps him to his feet, and observes, “How like THOSE two you are! Kalibak, Orion, and yourself—SEEKING DEATH—out of pride—fear—or thirst for immortality! Which---? Here come your men! This question must remain UNANSWERED for now!”
As the police set up the special equipment they’ve brought, the battle increases in ferocity. Orion is briefly knocked backwards and slowly climbs back up the side of a rooftop sign... “FIENDS OF THE PITS! No being on New Genesis ever spawned one like YOU!! You’re something OUT of any known realm!!” “HAHAHAH—I smell the seeds of FEAR sprouting in your stone heart, Kalibak!” “Let me see that handsome NEW GENESIS face—before it VANISHES in one blow—WHA!!??” “WHY do you retreat, Kalibak? You DID want to see my face!!” Orion’s “true face” has returned, and it’s clear Kalibak has never seen it before! “SUDDENLY, at that moment—“ Lightray flies by, yanking Orion away, seconds before the electric power of the entire city is used against Kalibak. “SKAZZZAASSKKK!!!”
“WOW! We almost “blacked out” the city to get this bird! –a-and he’s only stunned!” “TAKE HIM IN! We found a way to BUST him! Now, we’ll find a way to HOLD him!” Turpin collapses just as Dave & Claudia arrive. One of the cops observes, “Until we broke it up, my money was on the main eventer!!! –the muscle bender with the Irish name—O’RYAN!!” Claudia hopes he’s not hurt.
On another rooftop, Lightray & Orion brood alone. “You know, I somehow NEVER viewed the Earth individual as being that resourceful!!” “DON’T hide the real issue, Lightray! YOU SAW MY FACE!!!” “Yes! Er-I-I ALSO picked up your fallen helmet while in flight!” “YOU SAW MY FACE!!” “I saw SCARS—both new and old—taken in the cause of NEW GENESIS!” “You’re a good friend, Lightray!” So beautifully understated. Wow.
The Young Gods Of Supertown spotlights Fastbak in “BEAT THE BLACK RACER!!” It seems Apokalips has sent technological “traps” to orbit New Genesis, and young Esak has become caught in one. Fastbak races against The Black Racer and through a squad of Para-Demons to rescue him. At a mere 3 pages, one wishes if Jack was gonna do these at all, he could have taken more pages to flesh them out.
This issue’s Manhunter reprint is “The Stone Of Vengeance!” from ADVENTURE COMICS #77 (Aug’42). Meanwhile, a half-page ad promotes KORAK, SON OF TARZAN, which also features “Pellucidar” and “Carson Of Venus”.
[ October 09, 2011, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: profh0011 ]
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