Issuu

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond! ™

June 2018

No.104 $8.95

FOURTH WORLD AFTER KIRBY J ack K i rb y ’ s Ne w Go ds in Comic s and M e d ia

82658 00123

An all-star lineup, including the work of: Byrne • Cullins • Englehart • Evanier Golden • Hoberg • Mignola • Rude • Simonson • Starlin • Timm & more!

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comics-based media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for other issues, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

BACK ISSUE #95

BACK ISSUE #96

BACK ISSUE #92

BACK ISSUE #93

BACK ISSUE #94

“Bronze Age Halloween!” The Swamp Thing revival of 1982, Swamp Thing in Hollywood, Phantom Stranger team-ups, KUPPERBERG & MIGNOLA’s Phantom Stranger miniseries, DC’s The Witching Hour, the Living Mummy, and an index of Marvel’s 1970s’ horror anthologies! Featuring the work of RICH BUCKLER, ANDY MANGELS, VAL MAYERIK, MARTIN PASKO, MICHAEL USLAN, TOM YEATES, and many more. Cover by YEATES.

“All-Captains Issue!” Bronze Age histories of Shazam! (Captain Marvel) and Captain Mar-Vell, Captain Carrot, Captain Storm and the Losers, Captain Universe, and Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Featuring C. C. BECK, PAT BRODERICK, JACK KIRBY, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, DON NEWTON, BOB OKSNER, SCOTT SHAW!, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover painting by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Indie Super-Heroes!” NEAL ADAMS Ms. Mystic interview, Continuity Comics, BILL BLACK Captain Paragon interview, Justice Machine history, STEVEN GRANT/ NORM BREYFOGLE Whisper “Pro2Pro” interview, and the ’80s revivals of Mighty Crusaders and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. With BUCKLER, DEODATO, ELLIS, GRINDBERG, GUSTOVICH, ISABELLA, REINHOLD, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, & a NEAL ADAMS cover!

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

BACK ISSUE #97

BACK ISSUE #98

BACK ISSUE #99

“Creatures of the Night!” Moon Knight’s DOUG MOENCH and BILL SIENKIEWICZ in a Pro2Pro interview, Ghost Rider, Night Nurse, Eclipso in the Bronze Age, I…Vampire, interviews with Batman writer MIKE W. BARR and Marvel’s Nightcat, JACQUELINE TAVAREZ. Featuring work by BOB BUDIANSKY, J. M. DeMATTEIS, DAVE SIMONS, ROGER STERN, TOM SUTTON, JEAN THOMAS, and more. SIENKIEWICZ and KLAUS JANSON cover!

“Marvel Fanfare Issue!” Behind the scenes of the ‘80s anthology series with AL MILGROM, interviews and art by ARTHUR ADAMS, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, STEVE ENGLEHART, MICHAEL GOLDEN, ROGER McKENZIE, FRANK MILLER, DOUG MOENCH, ANN NOCENTI, GEORGE PÉREZ, MARSHALL ROGERS, PAUL SMITH, KEN STEACY, CHARLES VESS, and more! Cover by SANDY PLUNKETT and GLENN WHITMORE.

“Bird People!” Hawkman in the Bronze Age, JIM STARLIN’s Superman/Hawkgirl team-up, TIM TRUMAN’s Hawkworld, Hawk & Dove, Penguin history, Blue Falcon & Dynomutt, Condorman, and CHUCK DIXON and SCOTT McDANIEL’s Nightwing. With GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GREG GULER, RICHARD HOWELL, TONY ISABELLA, KARL KESEL, ROB LIEFELD, DENNY O’NEIL, and a GEORGE PÉREZ cover.

“DC in the ‘80s!” From the experimental to the fan faves: Behind-the-scenes looks at SECRET ORIGINS, ACTION COMICS WEEKLY, DC CHALLENGE, THRILLER, ELECTRIC WARRIOR, and SUN DEVILS. Featuring JIM BAIKIE, MARK EVANIER, DAN JURGENS, DOUG MOENCH, MARTIN PASKO, TREVOR VON EEDEN, and others! Featuring a mind-numbing Nightwing cover by ROMEO TANGHAL!

“BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES’ 25th ANNIVERSARY!” Looks back at the influential cartoon series. Plus: episode guide, Harley Quinn history, DC’s Batman Adventures and Animated Universe comic books, and tribute to artist MIKE PAROBECK. Featuring KEVIN ALTIERI, RICK BURCHETT, PAUL DINI, GERARD JONES, MARTIN PASKO, DAN RIBA, TY TEMPLETON, BRUCE TIMM, and others! BRUCE TIMM cover!

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History.

BACK ISSUE #100

BACK ISSUE #101

BACK ISSUE #102

BACK ISSUE #103

100-PAGE SPECIAL featuring Bronze Age Fanzines and Fandom! Buyer’s Guide, Comic Book Price Guide, DC’s Comicmobile, Super DC Con ’76, Comic Reader, FOOM, Amazing World of DC, Charlton Bullseye, Squa Tront, & more! ALAN LIGHT, BOB OVERSTREET, SCOTT EDELMAN, BOB GREENBERGER, JACK C. HARRIS, TONY ISABELLA, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, BOB LAYTON, PAUL LEVITZ, MICHAEL USLAN, and others!

ROCK ’N’ ROLL COMICS! Flash Gordon star SAM J. JONES interview, KISS in comics, Marvel’s ALICE COOPER, T. Rex’s MARC BOLAN interviews STAN LEE, PAUL McCARTNEY, Charlton’s Partridge Family, David Cassidy, and Bobby Sherman comics, Marvel’s Steeltown Rockers, Monkees comics, & Comic-Con band Seduction of the Innocent. With AMY CHU, JACK KIRBY, BILL MUMY, ALAN WEISS, and others!

MERCS AND ANTIHEROES! Deadpool’s ROB LIEFELD and FABIAN NICIEZA interviewed! Histories of Cable, Taskmaster, Deathstroke the Terminator, the Vigilante, and Wild Dog, plus… Archie meets the Punisher?? Featuring TERRY BEATTY, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PAUL KUPPERBERG, BATTON LASH, JEPH LOEB, DAVID MICHELINIE, MARV WOLFMAN, KEITH POLLARD, and others! Deadpool vs. Cable cover by LIEFELD!

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com

Volume 1, Number 104 June 2018 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Steve Rude (Variant cover originally produced for DC Comics’ Covergence #5. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.) COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Karen Berger Karl Kesel Jerry Boyd Paul Kupperberg Alan Burnett James Heath Lantz Marc Buxton Paul Levitz John Byrne Brian Martin Gerry Conway Mike Mignola Paris Cullins John Morrow DC Comics Tom Peyer J. M. DeMatteis Joe Phillips Steve Englehart Rachel Pollack Mark Evanier Mark Reznicek Funky Flashman Steve Rude Grand Comics Walter Simonson Database Jim Starlin Larry Hama Roy Thomas Tim Hauser Bruce Timm Ben Herman James Tucker Heritage Comics Rick Veitch Auctions Rick Hoberg Dan Johnson Dan Jurgens

If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website or Apps. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR DEVICE and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded within our Apps and at

www.twomorrows.com

BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 FLASHBACK: The Post–Kirby New Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 An exhaustive examination of the never-ending efforts to reboot the Fourth World BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Darkseid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 A look inside the mind of the Tyrant of Apokolips THE TOY BOX: Jack Kirby, Super Powers Toy Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 The King’s designs for a Mister Miracle figure and an unproduced Darkseid playset FLASHBACK: Miracle Master: The Post–Kirby Mister Miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Why can’t the World’s Greatest Escape Artist escape cancellation? FLASHBACK: The Forever People Miniseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Kirby’s super-hippies become super-yuppies in this DeMatteis/Cullins/Kesel mini ART GALLERY: Forever Your Girl: Beautiful Dreamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 A superstar-powered lineup of sketches of the Forever People’s fetching flower child BACKSTAGE PASS: The Animated New Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 The Fourth World, as seen on TV and in direct-to-video cartoons GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The New Gods Animated Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 The story of the full-length animated epic intended for the big screen BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $76 Standard US, $125 International, $32 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Steve Rude. Superman, Jimmy Olsen, the New Gods, and related characters TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2018 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

by M

ichael Eury

In 1970, the Bronze Age of Comics was in ascendance. A new burst of Kirby didn’t just land at DC—he detonated an explosion of creative creativity was enlivening the spin racks and newsstands. It started on energy whose fallout, we now know, has yet to dissipate. He introduced February 24, 1970, with the release of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ his so-called Fourth World on August 25, 1970 in—of all places!—the landmark Green Lantern #76, pairing the titular, conservative space cop pages of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133. This saga soon expanded with the bleeding-heart liberal, modern-day Robin Hood, Green Arrow, throughout three new titles: The Forever People, The New Gods, and for the first of a series of socially relevant adventures. Soon, on July Mister Miracle. As his one-time assistant Mark Evanier has frequently written, Kirby’s plan at DC 21st, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s Conan the was to create concepts to Barbarian #1 was released, pass off to other writers and and while it took a while artists, under his supervision. to find an audience, Conan Corporate pressure, howheralded a new era of ever, kept Jack anchored dynamism that quaked the to his four fantastic titles. business to its core. Around Those books ultimately had short life spans and that time, Superman editor Mort Weisinger retired, Kirby moved on to other drawing to a close his dynasty projects… but the prescience that had previously defined not of comics’ greatest visionary only the Superman franchise once again rang true as but also DC Comics itself Kirby’s Fourth World titles throughout the Silver Age. (save Jimmy Olsen, a long-running DC book Times, they were a-changing’. which had reached its Yet, none of those signifexpiration date) were icant events could match the excitement engendered revived with other writers by a trio of words peppering and artists at the helm. DC Comics titles: These are the series Jack “King” Kirby, from the 1971 one-shot Kirby Unleashed. © the Kirby estate. “Kirby is coming!” we examine in this issue. Jack “King” Kirby, principal among the architects of the Marvel While Jack Kirby did not oversee the myriad revivals of his Fourth Universe, was vacating the House of Ideas and establishing residency World books, he certainly—as you’ll read again and again in the at its “Distinguished Competition.” The tale of Kirby’s transition has pages following—inspired their creators. been oft told—in these pages, in TwoMorrows’ own tribute zine, The Jack Kirby Collector, and elsewhere—but it was about as big a news Very special thanks to BI reader Mark Reznicek for suggesting this issue’s theme. headline as any comic fan could imagine in ’70.

Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle TM & © DC Comics.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

“The great one is coming! The Boom Tube! So powerful in concept it’s almost terrifying!”

by B

rian Martin

Those words appeared in full-page ads in DC comic books dated August 1970. They were trumpeting the arrival of “the King.” Jack Kirby was coming to DC and bringing with him a number of concepts he had been holding back during his final days at Marvel. The triumvirate of books that Kirby initiated, The Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle, combined ® with him taking over the already-existing Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, introduced a staggering number of concepts that have since become universally known as Kirby’s Fourth World. The problem was, according to most sources, the books didn’t sell phenomenally. And books that don’t sell get canceled. [Editor’s note: After strong initial sales, Kirby’s titles commanded mid-range sales, but not the huge numbers that were expected due to the King’s Marvel profile.] Despite that, pretty much all of the characters, situations, and core concepts introduced in those books have been fixtures in the DC Universe ever since, and along with the original Kirby issues are viewed with almost universal reverence. So when everyone loves the creations, it makes sense that people will use them and even try to revive them in standalone books. Again, though, it is pretty much the common belief that while a few have come close, no one has handled them as well as their creator. Maybe the concepts are just too big, too… “Kirby” for anyone else to get a grip on. Of course, that doesn’t mean that over the years a lot of people haven’t tried!

THE LAST FIRST ISSUE

1st Issue Special was the brainchild of Carmine Infantino during his tenure as publisher of DC. The series was given the BACK ISSUE treatment in issue #71 in which Gerry Conway, who edited some of the series, explained its premise. gerry conway “Carmine came up with this rather brilliant notion that first issues sell better than subsequent issues, so why not put out a magazine that’s entirely first issues?” Though the concept did not fly in the ’70s, you have to wonder how it would have done in later years when first issues and appearances became all the rage. With the 13th and final issue of that series (Apr. 1976), it was decided to try and revive the Kirby concept of the New Gods, but the impetus for that decision may have come from a very unlikely source. None other than Roy Thomas reveals, “Sometime soon after Kirby left DC entirely, Gerry Conway, then back at DC, said Carmine would love to meet with me. So the three of us got together briefly at DC. We talked about a lot of things, including Carmine’s desire to see me come over to DC, which I wasn’t ready to do just yet. Just to see if I could influence Carmine to do something, I told him that one

Kirby Kontinued 1st Issue Special #13 (Apr. 1976), featuring “The Return of the New Gods.” Cover by Dick Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Fourth World Revival (top) The New Gods, back in print. A Kirby-conjuring, bombastic Al Milgrom cover graced issue #12 (July 1977). (bottom) Return of the New Gods’ versatile penciler Don Newton (who was profiled way back in BACK ISSUE #19) was adept at both the tranquility of New Genesis (left) and the cosmic chaos of intergalactic warfare (right). Page 3 of New Gods #14 (Oct. 1977), inked by Dan Adkins, and page 4 of issue #16 (Feb. 1978), inked by Joe Rubinstein. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

4 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

good thing about Kirby leaving was that now he was free to being back New Gods, etc., with a different writer/approach. Carmine sparked to the idea, and soon afterward the revival was published.” Gerry Conway received the writing assignment for the issue with dialogue help from Denny O’Neil and art by Mike Vosburg. The story attempts to follow Kirby’s final issue, referencing events from it several times while also mentioning a truce that is surely intended to explain what the characters had been, or rather, had not been doing since the original series was canceled. Most readers were probably a little shocked, though, as the characters seem to take a definite turn towards being portrayed as superheroes more than gods. There is no better indication of this than early in the issue when a pack of Parademons attack New Genesis and Highfather calls on Metron to create a Boom Tube to dispose of them. Later, the duo engages in some plotting together, certainly not things the scholarly character would have done under Kirby. From there the story moves on to Orion tracking Darkseid. He first travels to Earth, where he battles Kalibak and Granny Goodness, then to Apokolips and a confrontation with Darkseid, which ends in a stalemate. Though it took a while, a later letters page did mention that the issue of FIS did “prompt” the full revival that followed.

OH GODS, BOOK II

That revival would follow beginning with a 12th issue, coverdated July 1977. The series was written by Conway with Don Newton as penciler for every issue except one, while continuing the numbering from the original series. So even though the title on the covers begins with “Return of…,” the series is still considered just New Gods in the ever-official indicia. The move towards a superhero book is further exemplified within the first few pages of issue #12. Orion no longer requires his harness to fly or wield the Astro Force, and was refitted with a costume much more in line with the rest of the long-underwear set. He is leading a group from New Genesis to Apokolips, and any fan of the original series must immediately have done a double take. In the hands of his creator, except for his forays with friend Lightray, Orion generally confronted trouble alone, especially on those occasions when he ventured to his father’s home world. Augmenting this assault force is, of course, Lightray, but also Kirby creations Lonar, Forager, and Metron. Forager, also known as the Bug, is a member of a New Genesis subspecies held in dubious regard by Orion and others. Though treated as an equal here, subsequent writers would play up this cultural disparity in their work. Metron is again taking an active role in proceedings as is the norm in this edition. Finally, a new character joins the cast in the person of Jezebelle of the Fiery Eyes, simply, “To get a woman in there so Big Barda was not the only female,” according to Gerry Conway. Though she would play a large part in this series, subsequent writers have not utilized the blue-skinned female to any extent. The changes to Orion and Metron had occurred in the FIS issue, but these first pages of the official revival truly let us know we are no longer following in Papa Kirby’s footsteps. “If you are going to bring the New Gods back,” relates Conway, “and the previous version of it had not been commercially viable, it would be silly to do it the same way.

The Odd Coupling (top) Gerry Conway had the Flash and the New Gods join forces in Super-Team Family #15 (Mar.–Apr. 1978). Original art (courtesy of Heritage) to the issue’s final story page, penciled by Arvell Jones and inked by Romeo Tanghal. (Come back in two issues as Arvell Jones joins Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway for an All-Star Squadron Pro2Pro interview.) (inset) Its cover, by José Luís García-López. (bottom left) After the cancellation of The New Gods, the Fourth World saga continued briefly in Adventure Comics. Issue #459 (Sept.–Oct. 1978) cover by Jim Aparo. (bottom right) Lightray’s origin was revealed in 1978’s DC Special Series #10, featuring Secret Origins of Super-Heroes. Cover by García-López. TM & © DC Comics.

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

Mister Miracle’s Last Stand From Death of the New Gods #7, Scott Free runs into trouble on this unlettered Starlin/ Banning original art page, courtesy of Heritage. TM & © DC Comics.

encountered in Cosmic Odyssey was in fact not connected to the Anti-Life Equation at all, it was the dark half of the Source and a barrier had been built between the two halves. The light half that remained created the Fourth World and has now realized that since it was only half of itself when it created them, they are flawed. Its agent is taking back their energy while the Source plans to unify itself and use the slain gods’ essence to create a perfect Fifth World. Orion decides to use himself as bait to attract the killer, but his plan succeeds beyond his scheming and he is killed. Superman and Mister Miracle travel to inter his soul in the Source Wall where, suspected throughout the series, the Infinity Man reveals himself to the duo as the killer. By this point Scott Free has become a much angrier character and attempts to take his revenge. In that ign.com interview Starlin stated, “I have put Mr. Miracle through a lot of changes. Because Mr. Miracle is just basically this good guy. I think I’m going to get more sh*t for what I do to Mr. Miracle than anyone else.” Miracle is tricked into destroying the barrier between the two halves of the Source, allowing it to reunite. But Darkseid has a plan. Being aware of the Source’s scheme, he realized what the unification of the Forever

People into the Infinity Man has always meant. When the souls of New Gods are combined, their power increases exponentially. So Darkseid steals the power the Source was storing in that second Wall. Meanwhile, the Source is not without its wiles as well. It has held the soul of Orion in reserve to battle Darkseid. The dark lord does escape, but the Source’s plan is completed as the worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips are once again driven together into a world meant to house the Fifth World beings. Starlin ran into a few problems as the series approached its end. On ign.com he related the issue this way: “DC had certain requirements, which changed considerably as the series has gone on, because it’s connected with Countdown. We’re still meddling with the very end of it. I’m on the eighth issue right now, and I’m having to hold back a bit until we settle up some minor points between Countdown and the New Gods.” Still, this was to be the end for all the characters Kirby created, save Darkseid and possibly Orion. In that ign.com interview Starlin wrapped up his role in things by stating, “I wanted to end Jack’s story, and this pretty much ends it. Not the way I’m sure some people would like, but it does tie up who everybody is. You discover what the Source is, and that’s something Jack would have eventually done himself. There’s no telling whether he would have gone anywhere near where I’ve gone with it, but you know….” Though it is too involved to go into the whole thing here, the loving father-and-son story would carry over into the concurrently running weekly series Countdown where in issues #3–1 (it was called Countdown, after all) Orion finally defeats Darkseid and literally rips his heart out! It didn’t last, though, as that series led into Final Crisis, in which Darkseid’s essence is cast to Earth and takes over the mortal body of Kirby creation Terrible Turpin and Orion is once again killed. Starlin did say there were some minor points to settle up between the two series, didn’t he? After that, DC produced the Flashpoint event in 2011, which it used to restart all the titles within the New 52. Darkseid was the villain in the flagship title Justice League, Orion quickly returned in Wonder Woman, and almost all of the gods returned in the Green Lantern titles for the “Godhead” storyline in 2014. All of them seemed to be the same characters that were killed in Death of…, so we will see where they go from here. As this article was being written, in August 2017, in celebration of Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday DC Comics published a number of Fourth World– centric Specials and launched a new Mister Miracle 12-issue limited series, following its Young Animal imprint’s miniseries Bug!: The Adventures of Forager, which launched in May 2017. All of this certainly reinforces the belief that Kirby’s creations will live on as long as there is a DC Universe. And probably longer. They are gods, after all. The author wishes to thank Gerry Conway, Paris Cullins, Paul Kupperberg, Tom Peyer, Rachel Pollack, Walter Simonson, and Roy Thomas as well as Michael Eury, James Heath Lantz, and Bill Walko for their assistance in composing this article. BRIAN MARTIN continues to find the Source of pure comic-book enjoyment with each new comic he reads and each BACK ISSUE article he writes or reads.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

by J a m e s

“People of Earth, I am Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips! Here is your savior, bound and broken! I have crushed him as easily as I have crushed all who have dared to oppose me throughout the cosmos. I am power unlike any you have known: absolute, infinite, and unrelenting! You have no choice but to prepare for a long, dark future as my subjects… and my slaves.” – Darkseid, from the Superman: The Animated Series episode “Apokolips… Now!” Few beings in comic-book fiction can be called pure evil. Yet, Darkseid, tyrannical ruler of Apokolips, can be described in such a way. In addition to striking fear into the hearts of his subjects and using his powerful Omega Beams, Darkseid’s need for universal domination and his obsessive quest for the Anti-Life Equation make one wonder if he wants to destroy all that exists in his efforts to control it. BACK ISSUE will look at ol’ Stone Face’s post–Kirby history in the Bronze Age of Comics while, at the same time, look inside the character to see what makes him such a diabolical villain.

APOKOLIPTIC HISTORY

Heath Lantz

When looking at the mind of DC Comics’ most malevolent despot, one needs to also look at his history. It’s been said that Darkseid’s look was based on actor Jack Palance, who had played his share of baddies in television and cinema, including Gotham City’s mob boss Carl Grissom in Tim Burton’s 1989 blockbuster Batman. [Editor’s note: As reported in BACK ISSUE #6, artist Gene Colan also drew inspiration from Jack Palance with his original illustration of the bloodsucking protagonist of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula.] However, the King of Comics modeled the Fourth World villain’s character after the most evil dictator of the 20th Century, Adolf Hitler, whose atrocious acts of genocide still have an impact on humanity today. Jerry Boyd’s “Fascism in the Fourth World” in The Jack Kirby Collector #22 examined Kirby’s interpretation of Adolf in Darkseid in detail. “Hitler is mirrored somewhat in Darkseid,” Boyd wrote. “In writings on and recollections of the Fuehrer, his desire for war is apparent. In his book Mein Kampf, the young Hitler expresses his desire for a large Germanic living space—Lebensraum—which would take place not in

The Omega Man The diabolical Lord of Apokolips, as rendered by Chris Burnham for the cover of the 2017 Darkseid Special #1, part of DC Comics’ Kirby 100 celebration. TM & © DC Comics.

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Come to the center ring, ye old gods and ye new, and behold the daring wonder of the World’s Greatest Escape Artist—the man known as Scott Free, the astonishing Mister Miracle! No trap can contain him! No prison can hold him! A hero! A showman, created by the boundless imagination of the King of Comics, Jack Kirby! Mister Miracle! A hero that can escape anything! Except for one thing—cancellation! That’s right—since Jack Kirby exited DC Comics in 1975, one year after his Mister Miracle ended with issue #18 (Feb.–Mar. 1974), DC has tried and tried again to recapture that old Kirby magic and forge Mister Miracle into a solo success. So now, let us turn our house lights to center ring, where we examine the post–Jack Kirby history of one of DC’s most fascinating and colorful characters—the great Mister Miracle!

BIG SHOES TO FILL DURING THE SECOND GREAT ESCAPE

DC must have known that any character created by “the King” could lead to great creative and financial success. After all, Marvel Comics is indeed the steve englehart House that Kirby helped build. So it stands to reason that DC tried to steveenglehart.com. squeeze more juice out of the Fourth World family of characters, and leading the way was Mister Miracle… sort of. Two months after the cancellation of Kirby’s Mister Miracle, the World’s Greatest Escape Artist teamed with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #112 (Apr.–May 1974) in a Bob Haney/Jim Aparo story that is probably best considered out of continuity—especially since it paid no heed to events in Kirby’s last MM issue. Mister Miracle also was seen in a Fourth World revival in the “Return of the New Gods” tale in 1st Issue Special #13 (Apr. 1976), which gave way to a New Gods revival (as detailed in this issue’s lead article), and shortly thereafter Haney and Aparo re-teamed Batman and Mister Miracle in B&B #128 (July 1976). DC’s Fourth World revival was now underway. The first writer to get a post–Kirby crack at a solo Mister Miracle series was scribe Steve Englehart, freshly arrived at DC. “I came to DC to do Batman and Justice League of America,” Englehart revealed via his blog at steveneglehart.com. “But Marshall Rogers and I had some free time so they revived Mister Miracle for us (continuing the numbering from where Jack Kirby had left off years before).” Which begs the question, did Englehart feel any trepidation in following in the footsteps of Jack Kirby? “Not really,” Englehart reveals to BACK ISSUE. “I’d followed him, in some sense, on Captain America, and then Avengers, and so forth. Though his Fantastic Four was directly responsible for my wanting to do comics, I wasn’t in awe of him. And in the case of the Fourth World, I’d been severely disappointed to discover what a bad writer he was. So I knew, as a professional writer, I could outdo him there.

Miraculous Comeback The World’s Greatest Escape Artist returns, in the pages of Mister Miracle #19 (Sept. 1977). Cover art by Marshall Rogers. TM & © DC Comics.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

by M a r c

Buxton

Meanwhile, On Earth-B… The first two Batman/ Mister Miracle team-ups, written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Jim Aparo, in The Brave and the Bold #112 (Apr.–May 1974) and 128 (July 1976). TM & © DC Comics.

I guess my only trepidation was, the Fourth World was very identified with pages—not bad). Granny Goodness appears as a hologram and tells him, and I would be showing him up. But as I say, I was assigned to it by DC.” Scott that if he wants to ever see Barda again, he must strip himself of Nothing if not bold, Englehart journeyed into the Fourth World with the Mother Box and enter the mine without his greatest weapon. This loss mission statement of taking what Kirby created and bringing it to the next of Mother Box allows Englehart to address a weakness the writer level. DC was willing to let Englehart do his thing. “DC had hired me to perceived in the character. “Kirby’s problem, throughout the Fourth World, revamp every character I could,” Englehart says. “And I’d made clear that was he thought good ideas and good visuals were all he needed,” I could only do that right if I had the same freedom I’d been given at Marvel, Englehart contends. “Thus, Mister Miracle could do almost anything so they just wanted Englehart on Mister Miracle, whatever that meant.” and, if he bothered to explain how, it was just hand-waving. I tried to Aiding and abetting Englehart was his frequent collaborator, the great get to the reality of the escapes, and really, the reality inherent in the Marshall Rogers. Englehart and Rogers would go on and do a legendary whole series. That was my goal in rejuvenating the book.” Mister Miracle #20 (Oct. 1977) presents a tale that sees Scott Free race run together on Batman in Detective Comics, but the writer and artist team supreme cut their DC teeth on bringing Mister Miracle back to to the Moon to rescue Barda. Where issue #19 is grounded in character and prominence for DC. conflict, issue #20 starts out with that ol’ cosmic Kirby magic. As Miracle While Kirby was brash and unrestrained, delivering mind-bending frees himself from the mine, he quickly tries to reconstruct his discarded creations at the speed of thought, Englehart was meditative and took more Mother Box. Scott Free taps into Mother Box and converses with his of a contemporary sci-fi take on Mister Miracle and his extended family greatest ally. Mother Box tells Scott that the power of a god was within of allies and adversaries. Englehart recollects that “Kirby’s creativity on the him all along, and all of a sudden, Mister Miracle no longer needs to rely non-writing side was still working great. I just had to find the essence of on gimmicks and gadgets as Mother Box awakens his godlike powers. those guys inside the word-salad they’d been wrapped in,” and in Some might think that simply giving Mister Miracle superpowers Mister Miracle #19 (Sept. 1977), Englehart and Rogers, along strips him of what makes the character so special because with with editor Denny O’Neil, began to attempt to do just that. powers, Scott Free isn’t a superhero Houdini anymore, but an A Rogers cover featuring an exaggeratingly huge atypical cosmic hero. Whether one likes a superpowered Granny Goodness battling Mister Miracle greeted readers Mister Miracle or not, the idea is still an interesting direction as Mister Miracle returned to comic racks. The issue kicks to debate. One month after Mister Miracle #20, Scott Free returns to Brave and Bold for another continuity-blind off with a splash-page reintroduction of Scott Free as Batman team-up (in issue #138, Nov. 1977). Englehart informs readers that Mister Miracle is really Englehart was not the only creator bringing daring four beings: a god, a man, a superhero, and an escape artist. The writer opens things on New Genesis with Scott changes to the world of Mister Miracle. Marshall Rogers’ Free and Barda lamenting that they cannot participate art was almost sedate when compared to Kirby’s, but in the war between New Genesis and Apokolips. his visual stylings added a level of relatable humanity Highfather shows up to remind his son that he once to the pedal-to-the-metal Fourth World adventure. willingly gave Free to Darkseid and the tortures of “Marshall brought the same craft he’d brought to larry hama Apokolips and will not do so again. Then, the familiar the Batman,” Englehart says. “Marshall’s pencils were “BOOM” fills the bottom panel of page three as the sort of gray overall… But in terms of working with action begins. Dr. Bedlam, Granny Goodness, Vermin Vundabar, and Kanto Marshall—we were a well-honed team by then.” all emerge from the Boom Tube and take the fight to Scott and Barda. Issue #21 (Dec. 1977) features Larry Hama’s debut as editor as Quickly, Mister Miracle and Oberon use Mother Box to track the Mister Miracle’s search to cure his wife begins. Hama was a relatively evil gods to a mine in Utah (from New Genesis to Utah in just a few new editor at DC and was assigned a range of titles. Hama tells BACK Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

ISSUE that Mister Miracle “was part of the package of books I took over—Wonder Woman; Warlord; Super Friends; Welcome Back, Kotter; Jonah Hex, and some odd special projects like The Wiz [an unpublished movie adaptation, as revealed in BI #11— ed.]. An eclectic collection.” Rogers truly shines as he channels more Al Williamson than Kirby and creates an unforgettable rendering of Apokolips that really scratches that traditional sci-fi itch. In addition to the amazing art, it is interesting to see Darkseid make an appearance before he became the ultimate DCU big bad. The Mister Miracle post–Kirby revival serves as a bridge between the era of the King and the era where Darkseid would be propelled into the supervillain stratosphere. Mister Miracle #22 (Feb. 1978) would see the end of the Englehart and Rogers era, as the writer headed oversees. “I told DC going in that I’d only be available until a certain date,” Englehart says, “and so, I only did a few MMs. In the abstract, I’d have liked to have seen what Marshall and I could have done with him over the long haul, but that wasn’t in the cards.” Englehart and Rogers’ time playing in the Fourth World might have been brief, but one could argue that it helped the Fourth World characters in general and Scott Free in particular remain vital parts of the DC Universe. As for Englehart and Rogers’ last hurrah, in MM #22, Mister Miracle makes his way through Darkseid’s minions to take on the master himself. Instead of allowing the hero of the book to shine, Englehart makes Darkseid the ultimate cosmic badass and leaves readers with the words: “There are gods, and there are gods—and then—there is Darkseid.” A unique way to end the run on the book he helped revive, but then again, Englehart has always been a daring writer. When asked if he had any long-term plans for the book that he never got to see come to fruition, Englehart replies, “No, I was moving the story forward issue by issue, knowing that after those few issues, I’d be gone.” It would be up to others (in this case, Steve Gerber) to shoot for long-term goals.

marshall rogers

Marshall Miracle (top) Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions, original art to Marshall Rogers’ cover for Mister Miracle #20 (Oct. 1977), featuring a liberal amount of Zip-A-Tone. Cover inks by Vince Colletta. (bottom) Rogers’ dynamic layouts and sound effects bolster the excitement of this tussle on page 16 of MM #20. TM & © DC Comics.

A STRANGE TRIP BEGINS

And indeed, Gerber would arrive on the book next issue, along with artist Michael Golden. Portrait by Michael Netzer. As a writer, Gerber was anything but boring. His time on The Defenders and “Guardians of the Galaxy” in Marvel Presents stands as a testament to the fact that when he put his endlessly creative mind to it, Gerber could spin one hell of a cosmic yarn. In Mister Miracle #23 (Apr. 1978), Gerber picks up where Englehart left off. In the final panel of issue #22, Darkseid sends Scott Free spinning via Boom Tube off Apokolips and into the unknown. Gerber instantly brings in the cosmic surrealism he was known for as Mister Miracle lands on a giant cosmic chessboard and meets the androgynous alien known as Ethos. Things get even stranger when Ethos tells Scott that in order to become the messiah figure he wishes to be, Mister Miracle must escape his own perceptions of self and of reality. All of a sudden, Miracle is transported into a middle of a literal death race as all the New Gods, including Darkseid, are in the midst of a Wacky Races–like competition around a cosmic track. If you ever wanted to see Darkseid tooling around in a jaunty jalopy, well, here’s your chance. The cosmic strangeness continues in Mister Miracle #24 (June 1978). This issue opens with Mister Miracle rejoining and saving Oberon from Darkseid’s Photon Patrol on Apokolips. Scott Free’s power fluctuations continue as he defeats the minions of Apokolips by channeling the anger and panic of a nearby legion of ants and harnessing it to defeat the patrol. Scott stands amazed as he realizes he now can mimic the abilities of a Mother Box, and readers are left wondering what exactly Scott’s abilities consist of. In this issue, Gerber explores and parodies one of his favorite topics, the ever-expanding role of media in society. Scott Free wants to be viewed as the new savior of the human race, so he plans to perform an impossible escape on live TV. Miracle and company travel to Las Vegas, where Scott Free is welded into a casket and dropped into the Colorado River. Of course,

38 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

Michael Miracle (top) Michael Golden— as inked by Russ Heath!— on the page 2–3 spread from Mister Miracle #24 (June 1978). (inset) Cover to Mister Miracle #25 (Sept. 1978), what turned out to be the series’ final issue. Cover layout/pencils by Al Milgrom, with re-penciling and inks by Russ Heath. (bottom) A poor photocopy of the Golden/ Heath cover intended for MM #26; from Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2. TM & © DC Comics.

Mister Miracle escapes and appears in front of the gasping onlookers in a very Christ–like pose. Gerber postulates that the next messiah will be created on TV, and his idea of a media messiah is explored through the actions and escapes of Mister Miracle. As for the art, Golden mirrors Rogers by crafting classic sci-fi visuals that serve as a perfect blending of space opera and michael golden superhero action. As awesome as the artwork © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. is, not everyone internally at DC was a fan of Golden’s copious skills. “I had two (in my opinion) very strong artists on the book—Marshall Rogers, and Michael Golden,” Hama recollects. “So nobody was all that intimidated. But neither Rogers nor Golden had big names at the time. In fact, I got a lot of flak about Golden because the old guard thought his work looked too ‘cartoony.’ So, yes, I was trying to move things forward, but maybe the stuff was too ahead of its time.” The idea of Scott Free as a media messiah is a good one, but alas, Gerber and company would not have time to fully explore it, as issue #25 of Mister Miracle (Sept. 1978) would sadly be the last. In this finale, Scott Free pontificates about the nature of freedom, but this message of freewill disturbs Darkseid, who is observing his wayward adopted son from the confines of Apokolips. Scott Free takes down Granny Goodness as the brutish old woman promises to find his nemesis—his Lucifer, his antiChrist—to finally defeat his messianic notions. The next-issue blurb teases a 26th issue entitled “Freedom is a Four-Letter Word,” but fans would never experience this Mister Miracle adventure. As Hama puts it, the quick cancellation of Mister Miracle was due to a “total lack of interest from readers and management.” There may have been a lack of fan interest in 1978, but we intrepid voyagers in comicbook history are still interested, and as Hama informs us, there was work completed that has remained hidden behind the Source wall for Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

Celebrate KIRBY’s 100th birthday with

KIRBY100

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

TWOMORROWS and the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate JACK KIRBY’S 100th BIRTHDAY in style with the release of KIRBY100, a full-color visual holiday for the King of comics! It features an all-star line-up of 100 COMICS PROS who critique key images from Kirby’s 50-year career, admiring his page layouts, dramatics, and storytelling skills, and lovingly reminiscing about their favorite characters and stories. Featured are BRUCE TIMM, ALEX ROSS, WALTER SIMONSON, JOHN BYRNE, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE RUDE, ADAM HUGHES, WENDY PINI, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE GIBBONS, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and dozens more of the top names in comics. Their essays serve to honor Jack’s place in comics history, and prove (as if there’s any doubt) that KIRBY IS KING! This double-length book is edited by JOHN MORROW and JON B. COOKE, with a Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER. (The Limited Hardcover includes 16 bonus color pages of Kirby’s 1960s Deities concept drawings)

(224-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-078-6 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 (The LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER is SOLD OUT!)

NOW SHIPPING!

Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, SpiderMan), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and many more!

(272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1 • NOW SHIPPING!

It Crept From The Tomb Just when you thought it was safe to walk the streets again, FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics) digs up more tomes of terror from the century past. IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB (the second “Best of” collection) uncovers atomic comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more from the darkest of the horror genre’s finest creators!

(192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6 • DIGITAL EDITION: $10.95

NOW SHIPPING!

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Jack Kirby’s Forever People made their debut in the first issue of their ongoing series, cover-dated Feb.–Mar. 1971. Five teenagers from New Genesis who journeyed to Earth to oppose the tyrannical machinations of Darkseid, the Forever People played a key role in Kirby’s ambitious Fourth World saga. Unfortunately, as with the other series Kirby had created to chronicle his modern-day myth arc, The Forever People was abruptly canceled by DC Comics, bringing the saga of the young gods to a premature end. Issue #11 (Oct.–Nov. 1972) concluded with the Forever People stranded on the mysterious paradise world of Adonn, their ally the Infinity Man seemingly destroyed in combat with Darkseid’s agent Devilance the Pursuer.

BIG CHILL-ING KIRBY

by B

en Herman

Over the next several years DC would attempt to revive a number of the characters and concepts from the Fourth World with different creators. But the Forever People would remain in limbo, both figuratively and literally, for the next decade and a half. When the Forever People finally did return, it was in a six-issue miniseries (Feb.–July 1988) written by J. M. DeMatteis; penciled by Paris Cullins; inked by Karl Kesel (#1–2, 4–6), Bob Smith (#3), and Roy Richardson (inking assists on #4–6); and edited by Karen Berger. In his text piece in the first issue of the miniseries, DeMatteis revealed he had been a fan of Kirby’s original Fourth World comics, especially The Forever People: “But to my sixteen-year-old eyes, the real magic was in The Forever People. They were cosmic hippies, super-powered flowerchildren: the embodiment of youth and naïveté and idealism and dreams.” DeMatteis still feels just as passionj. m. dematteis ately about the Forever People today. As he explains to BACK ISSUE, “Kirby’s Fourth World comics are among my favorite comic books of all time. Kirby at the absolute peak of his powers. And, of all those books, The Forever People was closest to my heart. The energy, the idealism, of those characters always touched and inspired me.” How did DeMatteis come to write the 1988 revival of Forever People? “If memory serves,” recalls DeMatteis, “I approached Karen [Berger]—a superb editor and an old, dear friend—with the idea (born out of my love of the characters). She liked my proposal, got it approved, and we were off!” DeMatteis, speaking warmly of his working relationship with Berger, reveals that she allowed him a great deal of latitude: “Karen’s not the kind of editor who sits over a seasoned writer’s shoulder, questioning every decision. So I was allowed to tell the story the way I wanted to, always knowing that Karen was there to catch me if I went off a cliff, offering her wisdom and advice whenever it was needed.” The miniseries needed a penciler, and Berger reached out to an artist she had worked with recently. “My editor Karen Berger, who I dubbed ‘the burger,’ asked me if I

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

by D a n

Johnson

When Jack Kirby came to DC Comics in 1970, he brought the blueprint for a saga that reshaped the landscape of Marvel’s Distinguished Competition and elevated it onto a cosmic level. The Fourth World was a sweeping masterpiece of intertwined series that brought a new mythology to the already-rich DC Universe and added to it in a way that was underappreciated at the time. Originally deemed a commercial failure, the characters that Kirby created, such as Mister Miracle, Kalibak, Orion, Desaad, Granny Goodness, Highfather, and the figure at the heart of it all, Darkseid, were eventually given their rightful place in the DC pantheon. As DC began to aggressively branch out into other mediums, especially animated shows and movies, Kirby’s creations were obvious choices for adaptation. This article explores their history in animated form, going back to where it all began on ABC in the Fall of 1984…

SUPER FRIENDS: THE LEGENDARY SUPER POWERS SHOW AND THE SUPER POWERS TEAM: GALACTIC GUARDIANS (1984–1986)

Super Friends had been a staple on Saturday mornings for over ten years when Kirby’s characters were added to the mix. The addition of Darkseid, Kalibak (both voiced by voice actor legend Frank Welker), and Desaad (voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois) helped to breathe new life into the series and helped create some of the strongest episodes in the show’s final two seasons. Darkseid, along with the recently revamped versions of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, brought a real sense of danger to the previously “safe” world of Super Friends. Also, since the show was now tied in with the recently released Super Powers line of toys from Kenner, there was a push to have the program

mirror the actual comics, especially in the final season when the original Alex Toth designs for the main characters were discarded for all new ones based on the work of José Luis García-López. The Legendary Super Powers Show was made up of two stories per episode. Many of these were short mini-episodes, but Darkseid and company took centerstage for this season’s only two-parters, “The Bride of Darkseid,” which saw the lord and master of Apokolips trying to claim Wonder Woman as his own, and “Darkseid’s Golden Trap,” where Darkseid comes in possession of the most valuable item on the criminal black market: gold kryptonite, the one substance that can rob Superman of his powers. Other appearances in mini-episodes during this season saw Darkseid teaming up with Brainiac in “The Wrath of Brainiac” and Luthor in “No Honor Among Thieves.” He would return in one final episode before the season finale, “The Royal Ruse.” Galactic Guardians saw Darkseid used only four times, first in one of the mini-episodes, “The Ghost Ship”; in a pair of two-parters, “The Darkseid Deception,” where he tries to trick Wonder Woman into thinking he is Steve Trevor, and “Escape from Space City,” where he takes over an orbiting Earth colony, Star City; and the final episode produced, “The Death of Superman,” where he strikes against the Super Friends after the apparent death of the Man of Steel. Even with the action amped up, these versions of the Fourth World characters were toned down considerably from what readers were used to in the comic books. Still, even with these alterations, getting Darkseid on screen was an especially bumpy road for the show’s producers. “The Broadcast Standards group thought he looked too scary, even in an animated model, which tends to soften features,” says Alan Burnett,

64 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

The Odd Couple Production cel from “The Bride of Darkseid,” from The Legendary Super Powers Show. Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

a writer and producer who began working in the DC Animated Universe with Super Friends. “They also thought, and I kid you not, that the spelling of his name would offend ABC’s German viewers. The first issue we dealt with. The second, we stood our ground, and I was told that the decision on the name went all the way to the president of ABC. Darkseid prevailed.” Even though the inclusion of the Lord of Apokolips did help the creativity of the show, the Kirby connection on Super Friends never made it past the inclusion of Darkseid, Kalibak, and Desaad, even though the Super Powers toy line went on to feature many the Fourth World characters, starting in its second lineup. The line produced figures for Darkseid, Desaad, and Kalibak, along with Mantis, a Parademon, Steppenwolf, Mister Miracle, and Orion. Figures from the alan burnett Fourth World that were proposed, but never produced, include Lightray, © DC Comics. Metron, and Black Racer. “I don’t remember us trying to push characters that the toy line had,” recalls Burnett. “My guess is that Kenner added characters on their own.” Despite the new life and creativity that was flowing into Super Friends, the show came to an end in 1986. “ABC had a five-year deal on Super Friends,” explains Burnett. “I came in on the last two years of that deal. We tried to pump it up, but ABC was pretty much done with it by the end.” Even though the historic series came to conclusion, it did so at the top of its game, breaking new ground in children’s television. Indeed, one of the best Super Friends episodes ever produced came out of this final season, “The Fear,” which featured the first onscreen telling of Batman’s origin in any medium. “We were happy in the last year to do half-hour stories and have the show placed later in the schedule when older kids were watching,” says Burnett. As it was, That is why it was Superman who brought the next chapter this more mature approach to storytelling would be of the Fourth World to television. “Superman is such a powerful character, we’ve always had a problem finding explored further in the decade that was to follow. As for the Fourth World, the wheels had been set into powerful villains to throw up against him,” said Bruce Timm motion and Kirby’s creations were being discovered by in the DVD extra, Superman Behind the Cape. “Jack Kirby’s a whole new fanbase thanks to Super Friends and the Darkseid is one of the major heavy hitters of the DC Super Powers toy line, but their next great venture into Universe. Also, when the Fourth World was first introduced animation would be almost a decade away… into the comics, one of the first books was Jimmy Olsen, so there was a Superman connection there already.” Before Darkseid or any other citizen of Apokolips or SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (1996–2000) New Genesis appeared on Superman: The Animated Series, Several years after Super Friends went off the air, and after Timm and his crew introduced a character that had first one season of a CBS-produced Superman series in 1987, appeared in what is often considered the forgotten book the DC superheroes returned to the small screen in a most of the Fourth World Saga: the previously mentioned triumphant manner with the highly successful Batman: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Bruno “Ugly” Manheim The Animated Series [see BACK ISSUE #99 for an in-depth (voiced by Bruce Weitz) was introduced in the episode look at this show and the comics it inspired—ed.]. It was “Fun and Games,” where he was targeted by the Toyman. the previously mentioned episode produced in the final The gangster with ties to Intergang was already into some season of Super Friends, “The Fear,” that showed television shady dealings and his ambitions caught the eye of one executives at Fox that kids were ready for a more realistic of Darkseid’s minions, Kanto (voiced by Michael York), take on superheroes. After the success of this series, it was who offered the crimeboss advanced technology that natural that Superman would follow on the fledgling WB was out of this world—literally—in the episode “Tools of network and the Man of Steel, one of the most exciting the Trade.” It was this episode that viewers got their first characters in science-fiction history, needed adversaries look at the menace that was to define the Man of Steel and allies that would be just as out of this world as he was. in this series, albeit in the last few seconds of the episode.

Supervillain Team-Up Screen capture from the Galactic Guardians episode “The Wild Cards,” with Darkseid and the Ace (of the Royal Flush Gang) working together. TM & © DC Comics.

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MONSTERS (2015)

Kirby’s Creations Keep on Comin’! (top) Bekka, “Mrs. Orion,” as the Wonder Woman of Justice League: Gods and Monsters. (bottom) Big Barda and Virmin Vundabarr with Batman, and (inset) Steppenwolf, as seen on Justice League Action. TM & © DC Comics/ Warner Bros. Television.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters features a darker, edgier version of the DC Trinity. The Superman in this universe is the son of General Zod, the Batman here is the vampiric Dr. Kirk Langstrom, and the Wonder Woman of this Earth is Bekka (voiced by Tamara Taylor), the wife of Orion, who was first seen in Kirby’s The Hunger Dogs graphic novel. In the animated film, Bekka is still married Orion, who in this universe was raised on Apokolips. The marriage was a ruse to get close to Orion and the other members of the royal family of Apokolips and kill them. After the deed is done and she sees how she was used, Bekka goes to Earth and becomes Wonder Woman. From there, the plot concerns the heroes investigating the deaths of three different scientists, Dr. Victor Fries, Ray Palmer, and Silas Stone, along with Stone’s son, Vic. In the end, this version of the League must stop a crazed Dr. Will Magnus from using Boom Tube technology to teleport nanites into every person on the planet, linking them together. They also must fight Dr. Magnus’ Metal Men as well. The film ends with Bekka choosing to leave the League and face her past on New Genesis. Hopefully, there will someday be a sequel to this version of the Justice League. Alternate universes always make for interesting stories, and I for one would love to see more of this alternate take on the Fourth World which is merely glimpsed here.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ACTION (2016–2017) Justice League Action is, at this writing, the latest DC animated series from Cartoon Network. The show is fun, but tends to borrow more in the vein of Teen Titans Go!

than Justice League or Justice League Unlimited. “Originally, we started out as a pretty straight adventure show,” says Alan Burnett. “After all, we were going mostly for the toy-buying 6–8-year-old crowd. The idea is that we would always start in the thick of action, almost as if starting in the third act, and having our viewers catch up to what the battle was about as the story progressed. These were 11-minute episodes. But then word came down from Cartoon Network that they wanted more comedy, and we quickly retooled the show to be more of a character comedy, which was fine with us. By that time [producer/writer] Jim Krieg had joined the show, and he’s one of those rare guys who’s as good in comedy as he is in action. But even though there are a lot of laughs, we still took the danger seriously.” One of the great things about Justice League Action is that it has been a show that has showcased many DC characters, including Fourth World creations in two episodes that have aired so far. In “Under a Red Sun,” Stephenwolf (voiced by Peter Jessop) transports Superman to a planet with a red sun, where he believes the Man of Steel will be an easy target. Big Barda teams up with Batman to try and learn where Superman has been taken so they can launch a rescue. In “The Fatal Fare,” it is up to Space Cabbie to save Superman when he falls into the hands of Darkseid (voiced by Jonathan Adams), Desaad (voiced by Jason J. Lewis), and Kanto (voiced by Troy Baker). Justice League Action has been plagued by bad timeslots and low promotion from Cartoon Network. The promise of seeing more of the Fourth World characters, or any other DC heroes in further adventures, is probably not going to happen. “I don’t think there will be a second season,” says Burnett. “The show pretty much got buried in the schedule. Maybe it will have a new life in a new venue, I don’t know. But I think it’s a lot of fun and deserves a television audience.”

CONCLUSION

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World has been in animated fare for over 30 years now, yet even with the stories that have been told it still feels like only the tip of the iceberg has been exposed. The King left impressive characters that are still ripe for developing and others that have not even been tapped. Here’s to the future adaptations that will carry the exploration of the Fourth World and its saga forward, and may they do justice to its creator. As I was writing this article on Sunday, August 13, 2017, I learned of the passing of actor Joseph Bologna, who voiced Lt. Dan Turpin on Superman: The Animated Series. This article is dedicated to his memory. DAN JOHNSON is a comics writer whose work can be found in Cemetery Plots from Empire Comics Lab. His other notable comics work includes Herc and Thor for Antarctic Press and several books for Campfire Graphic Novels. He is also a gag writer for the Dennis the Menace comic strip.

72 • BACK ISSUE • Four th World After Kirby Issue

by M

ichael Eury

On September 29, 2016, Comic Book Resources One might assume that Bruce Timm, the co-architect (CBR.com) posted a news item sharing illustrator of Warner Bros. Television’s animated version of the Mike Mignola’s character designs for an DC Universe, would be involved with such a unrealized New Gods animated movie… and project—especially since his love of Kirby’s over the next few days, these images Fourth World crept into episodes of swarmed the Internet faster than a Superman: The Animated Series. “I had plague of Parademons. no involvement in that particular As you’ve read elsewhere in this issue, Fourth World development,” Timm the denizens of Jack Kirby’s Fourth informs BACK ISSUE. “That was with World have populated DC Comics’ the short-lived WB Feature Animation animated and cinematic universes as division (Quest for Camelot, Iron Giant), well as its comic books, but the notion I think. The feature people were a of a standalone animated film exploring completely separate division, in a this epic saga, featuring the visual designs different building, even a different part of of Hellboy creator and Cosmic Odyssey town—us lowly TV folks had literally artist Mike Mignola, is mindboggling. no connection to them whatsoever. My Mother Box is currently mum Afraid I’m a dead end.” mike mignola Actually, Bruce, you were a very about the subject, so let’s see what we can discover without her help. Join me Photo by Christine Mignola. helpful first step—now we know this as we unravel a mystery second only to the Anti-Life wasn’t a made-for-TV or home-video movie project, Equation—the Greatest Story Never Told of the New Gods but instead an animated movie intended for animated movie… theatrical release.

Mother Box Office A Mike Mignoladesigned New Gods animated movie almost became a reality! (above) Inside the screen: detail from Cosmic Odyssey #1’s cover. Art and characters TM & © DC Comics.

Four th World After Kirby Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

Back Issue #104