My main objective in this retrospective is to compare and contrast the Eternals and the New Gods.
But it wouldn’t be a fair comparison to just limit it to the New Gods series, because A) it’s a shorter series B) a shocking amount of Fourth World stuff doesn’t originate there.
In fact, Forever People is basically essential to understand some parts of New Gods.
So while I’m not going to analyze this series to the same level of detail, I can’t exactly skip it.
Buckle up, this is going to be another long one.
Forever People #1 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
Thankfully I’ve already reviewed this one, since it’s the first PROPER appearance of Darkseid.
However I didn’t spend enough time on the cover. I missed that, according to the logo, the title of the series is supposed to be “The Forever People of Super-Town”.
I feel like that “they belong to sunrise” caption thinks it’s clever than it actually is.
Splash pages: NONE! This is the FIRST book in the Kirby retrospective to lack one.
1 double splash page out of 23 (9%)
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Superman is able to “zoom and enhance” a picture so that A DOT reveals the details of a whole city. It’s a regular picture made with a regular camera.
Forever People #2 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
Well that was easy. Now let’s move to actually learning about a character that popped up on New Gods without ANY explanation: Mantis.
Also, and I cannot stress this enough, using that black and white picture as a background to the cover is an atrocious decision. I will NEVER understand the Kirby superfans that defend his use of pictures in this idiosyncratic manner.
Since they’re supposed to be the stars of this book, I suppose I should talk about the Forever People. On top we have:
- Big Bear. A large dude who has exactly the personality you’d imagine from a guy named Big Bear.
- Vykin The Black. He’s the black guy. He’s arguably the first black superhero of DC Comics (if you consider him a superhero), predating John Stewart by a few months.On the bottom we have:
- Mark Moonrider. Who for some reason is one of the VERY few people from New Genesis with a last name.
- Beautiful Dreamer. The girl. That’s about the extent of her role and characterization.
- Serifan. The cowboy and weirdly enough the “flower child” of the team. He might have the most baffling name of them all, and I remind you that he’s next to Vykin The Black.
The gimmick of the Forever People is that they’re hippies. Technically they’re supposed each represent a “kind” of hippy… the rebel, the nature girl, the innocent pacifist… but after a while they all kind of blend together for me.
But what IS Forever People about? Basically, it’s these kids wandering aimlessly from plot to plot.
That is the biggest Mother Box™ I’ve ever seen.
Also they befriend a kid who LOOKS like will be a regular mascot, but disappears after this one.
As for why they’re called Forever People… beats me.
I’ve never understood the praise for the Forever People; they’re just devoid of personality.
But I have to admit there IS something fascinating in how chill they always are. It doesn’t make for good drama, but it’s interesting.
Also I’m pretty sure to fully enjoy this book you should probably be as high as the Forever People.
The cover promised us Mantis, and here he is hatching from his cocoon.
Aaaand I’m already lost. Because Mantis is apparently already on Earth hibernating in his pod, where Darkseid finds him to warn him to stay away from Apokolips… but Mantis is on Earth, so Darkseid is essentially going there to warn him not to do something Mantis already wasn’t doing.
This is probably meant to be Darkseid active preventively, but I don’t think it’s communicated well.
Later, he wakes up in a horror comic.
The Forever People would honestly skip the entire story if it wasn’t for Plot Convenience News.
Another reason why I could never get into the Forever People is that they’re not allowed to participate in superhero battles, instead fusing together to summon Infinity Man.
So yes, the Forever People are basically Captain Planet.
This turns into, what else, a Big Dumb Fight.
As powerful as Infinity Man is, however, he can’t match Mantis pulling random powers out of his pod.
Darkseid is loving this battle. Sadly his fondness for couches hasn’t been established yet, so he just stands there.
Infinity Man breaks out of his ice prison by invoking “powers gained in distant regions where natural laws do not apply”.
Sounds legit.
Whatever it means.
Another reason why I couldn’t get the Forever People: Infinity Man can literally do anything without any explanation. He just has the exact power needed for each situation.
Including the power to make the background disappear.
Nobody roasts like Darkseid.
Splash pages: 1 out of 22 (5%)
No double splash pages
This is the most restrained Kirby has been so far!!!
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Speaking of random powers AND Kirby’s completely bonkers sense of scale: Mantis has an anti-matter touch that can destroy solar systems.
MANTIS.
Forever People #3 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
I won’t be doing an award post for this series (but I will for New Gods, eventually).
If I did, this would be a STRONG contender for the worst cover.
We are introduced to what I believe is one of the most outstanding characters from the Fourth World, but who sadly doesn’t get a lot of focus since he’s not involved in the action.
Glorious Godfrey, the superstar preacher with powers of persuasion.
Jack Kirby biographer Mark Evanier states that Glorious Godfrey was based on Billy Graham and Arthur Godfrey.
Kirby was reportedly disturbed by their apocalyptic sermons and antisemitic views.
I know I criticize A LOT of Kirby’s writing in this retrospective, but credit where it’s due: Glorious Godfrey is truly ahead of its time and a fantastic takedown of that kind of rhetoric.
The Forever People spend most of their time fleeing from his brainwashed goons.
I have no words for how sad it is that this is STILL topical in 2025.
Granted, it’s with the usual Kirby subtlety.
The Forever People then fuse into Infinity Man, who has little trouble with Godfrey but is less successful against Darkseid.
Darkseid then splits Infinity Man back into the Forever People (!!!).
Kirby then delivers what is possibly STILL the best Darkseid splash page.
Lost in that epic splash page, however, there’s Godfrey weird position on the existence of the Anti-Life Equation.
I have no clue what he’s trying to say here.
Even better, there’s this little gem where Darkseid describes himself as “the Tiger-Force at the core of all things”.
This is the whole reason why Darkseid care at all about Earth: he knows (SOMEHOW) that the Anti-Life Equation is in the mind of someone on the planet.
Which makes it absolutely wild that this revelation is in Forever People and not New Gods.
Splash pages: 3 out of 22 (14%)
Splash + double splash pages: 5 out of 22 (23%)
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Revelationists have strong emotion flows!
Forever People #4 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
“Desaad knows what he is and loves it” is the best description of the character.
We begin with a horrific scene showing the people who are currently prisoner…
…of Happyland.
Which has GOT to be one of the weirdest parts of the Fourth World, WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING. Because it’s a giant amusement part…
…run by Darkseid.
Yes.
The uber-god of tyranny is running an amusement park.
The Forever People sit out most of this.
THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.
You might think it’s silly to see DARKSEID casually hanging around humans… and it undeniably is…
…but this is where Kirby shines. Darkseid just oozes charisma.
But why is Happyland so terrifying? Because you’re trapped behind a screen that doesn’t let anyone help you.
And you’re forced to repeatedly kick a panel to save your friend’s life.
Well that’s not very terrifying. Unlike the vision of Desaad creepily hovering around an immobilized woman.
Desaad has never looked “good”, but this is a new level of a bad look.
In between being a creep and a sadist, Desaad found the time to try destroying the Mother Box™. Which has decided to meet a character we’ll meet soon: Sonny Sumo, the Banzai Express.
Only on THIS series that’s not the weirdest name around.
The issue also includes three pin-ups: one of Infinity Man, one of the Forever People boys and one of Beautiful Dreamer.
Splash pages: 7 out of 25 (28%)
Splash + double splash pages: 9 out of 25 (36%)
Yes I’m including the pin-up pages.
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Even for Happyland this is weird, WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING.
Forever People #5 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
Please don’t do anything racist please don’t do anything racist please…
Meet Sonny Sumo, the world’s greatest and slimmest Sumo wrestler.
Who fights robots.
Sonny Sumo is supposed to be 100% human, if you can believe that.
Sonny Sumo can recover after being SCORCHED WITH FIRE with concentration.
Sounds legit.
But apparently that’s only temporary.
He’s later FULLY healed by the Mother Box™ and teleported into helping the Forever People.
And he tears through Happyland with absurd ease. Honestly he feels the actual protagonist here… has Kirby grown tired of the Forever People ALREADY!?
In fact, he’s the one to save the day with the Mother Box™.
And now we know why Desaad wears that hood: to cover the worst combover EVER.
The reason why Sonny Sumo is important is the Anti-Life Equation… you know, the entire reason why Darkseid is on Earth? Sonny has it, without even knowing what it is!
Why isn’t HE the star of the book!?
If find it fascinating that the nature of the Anti-Life Equation was treated for decades as this big mystery, considering that Kirby is VERY clear on what exactly it’s supposed to do.
As the holder of the Anti-Life Equation, I would argue that Sonny Sumo makes more sense as a protagonist than Orion ever did on New Gods.
Like on New Gods, there’s an extra feature on the people of New Genesis. Starting with a 4 page story about Lonar, if you can call that a story.
Lonar hangs around some ruins…
…and turns a rock into a horse.
Compared to Lonar, even Fastbak has more story.
Splash pages: 4 out of 25 (16%)
Splash + double splash pages: 6 out of 25 (24%)
This includes the Lonar “““story”””.
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Sonny Sumo’s reaction after having just learned that the secret to ending free will is in his head, making him the target of an alien evil overlord.
Historical significance: 3/10
Paints a clearer picture than New Gods (not that it’s hard), but not hugely influential.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Darkseid walking around regular people in an amusement park is a good indication of the level of absurdity here.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
I gave issue 1 a 6/10, but the series degenerates quickly. To be fair it’s A LOT more readable than New Gods (which, again, is not hard)… but NOBODY has a personality here, and the constant jumping around doesn’t help.
Even Darkseid can only do so much when everybody else is unbearably bland.
Interesting letters: according to Mark Evanier’s editorial in issue 2, you’re SUPPOSED to read ALL the Fourth World books to understand stuff.
Issue 3 has a couple of letters from famous people, the first one being from Harlan Ellison.
Yes, THAT Harlan Ellison, he was a huge comics fan.
Seems that he really liked Forever People, but already AFTER THE FIRST ISSUE he’s already complaining about DC putting to much control over Kirby.
Not a surprise from the notoriously litigious Ellison.
Another letter is from Martin Pasko, who will start writing for DC a couple of years after this.
He’s definitely not a fan. I have to point out that this the second letter ever published in this book, and it’s a negative one. Continuing the initial trend of New Gods.
I’m no Lord Of The Rings expert, but to me these sound like superficial similarities AT BEST.
Issue 5 has several rebuttals of Pasko’s letter that accused Kirby of not being a good writer.
These kind of defenses of Kirby fascinate me because I’m starting to believe the power of the Fourth World is that it’s kind of a Rorschach test… people seem to project whatever they believe they’re seeing, and it’s often nothing like the actual image itself.
I also love that even Evanier has no clue what most of this stuff is coming from.
Future DC editor was the only one to notice the similarities between issue 3 and the Prisoner TV show. Which makes me wonder if this is a typing error for issue 4, because that’s the Happytown issue and the only Happytown comment that comes up as frequently as it being inspired by the Prisoner… is that Kirby was ALREADY heavily inspired by the same source during Fantastic Four #84 to #86.
I enjoyed Darkseid’s casual taunting of normal humans in the park. It reminds me of the original “Bedazzled.” You start to think Peter Cook (as the devil) is not such a bad guy. Then he acts out some vicious cruelty because he can.
Feel free to erase this comment, because I just want to point out that you comment on how weird Serifan’s name is, yet you do not name him there – or for quite a while, actually.
I will post proper comments separately later.
You’re absolutely right, I omitted Serifan’s name when listing the Forever People! Fixed, thanks.
As for why I barely ever mention him later… well he doesn’t actually DO anything.
Sometimes I wonder if Forever People was initially conceived as the prototype of what later became New Gods.
The other three books have arguably clearer missions – Jimmy Olsen shows how the machinations of the New Gods impact on humans’ lives; New Gods shows the movers and shakers themselves doing the deeds, bragging the brag and exposing the exposition; Mister Miracle shows a specific person who is near the center of all that drama for no choice of his own trying his best to balance acknowledgement of his duties with the desire to be away from it all and establish a life and a family – sort of a reverse Jimmy Olsen.
By contrast, Forever People is a bit more diffuse, even directionless at times. To an extent it attempts to balance the other three books’ reasons for being, being both more self-sufficient and yet more redundant than the others.
And yet, it is arguably the most successful of the original quartet of books. It seems to somehow actually have goals and achieve them while the others are just repeating predictable cycles or establishing stalemates and holding patterns. It also seems to have the most direct and useful explanations for what supposedly key concepts such as the Anti-Life Equation
It probably helps that it features five main characters who may actually talk among themselves. Poor Orion had to rescue his own “Gang” in his #1 and keep them around as virtual prisoners up until 1978 just to have someone he could converse with, and they could do little beyond constantly voicing their awe and promising to remain together and useless until someone remembered that they were available for Darkseid to pry the Anti-Life Equation from their minds.
I agree that Glorious Godfrey seems (unfortunately for us all) to be ahead of his time and sadly relevant even today. That splash page in #3 seems to have him telling Darkseid that while he, Darkseid, may be a believer in the Anti-Life Equation that somehow is prophecied to grant its knower the ability to mind-control everyone on Earth, Godfrey himself does not, and is akin to a non-supernaturalist in that he believes in actions and their demonstrable results instead.
That is a remarkably courageous statement, all things considered.
Interesting how even this early on there were very clear signs that DC just could not quite make itself quite entirely trust Kirby’s instincts and plans. Publishing the original Fourth World books may have been a bold move for DC, but clearly they had less than complete faith that it would be a commercial success. IMO with good reason.
Oh, that part about the children.
It does not come up very often, but if I am correct Darkseid is implying that he is some sort of real satan figure and that the real reason why he is not well known of by the wider public is because at some level adult people forbid themselves from fully realizing who he is – so much so that he can actually come face people and tell them what he is, and they will go out of their way to find some way to disbelieve.
Chidren, as Darkseid himself states, are the exception. This is referenced one time later (that I know of) in the X-Men/New Teen Titans one-shot (1982), when Kitty Pryde recognizes Darkside as the entity that she saw in her dreams and Darkseid acknowledges that such sightings happen and are a source of danger for his plans. At the time Kitty was canonically approaching fourteen years of age.