Comics Archeology

Let’s see if the Forever People manage to stick to landing.

Forever People #6 (1972)
by Jack Kirby

This is the first appearance of Darkseid’s signature power, the Omega Effect (also called the Omega Beam). As advertised on the cover, it wipes you out of existence!
Which means it almost never gets to do its only job.

We begin with Glorious Godfrey’s goons chasing the Forever People’s vehicle, the Super-Bike™…

…which apparently is also a Transformer.

Godfrey continues to be the best part of the series so far. It’s not even a contest.

Meanwhile, the Forever People and Sonny Sumo sabotage Desaad’s operation.
Now that Sonny has realized he has control over Anti-Life, he can basically mind control anyone.

As Happyland begins to crumble, its hostages are finally free.

We get an explanation for Big Bear’s power: he has an excess of atoms.
Whatever that means.
(I suppose he controls his mass? If so that’s a weird way to say it)

Considering they control Anti-Life now, an action scene is not really needed.

Only thanks to the Mother Box™, sure, but that’ still dangerous for even Darkseid.

Just as Vykin is charging in, getting a full blast.

That was an unusual representation for the Omega Beams, but here we see their truly unique form: they zig-zag all over the place.

I guess all that zig-zag makes little sense, but I don’t care: they look awesome, and their unpredictability REALLY hypes the terror when characters try to escape them.
Which never works, because the Omega Beams are supposed to never miss.

This is a terrifying scene!!!

Only Serifan is not hit by the beams.
It’s either because he’s more scared of losing his friends than of being disintegrated, or because Darkseid instructed them to destroy Serifan and the Omega Effect was like “WTF is a Serifan?”.

Just how depraved is Desaad? FREAKING DARKSEID doesn’t have the stomach to do what he does!!!

I like how Darkseid gives a bit of perspective on what has been accomplished by the heroes.
Yes they have destroyed Happyland, but it’s like he doesn’t already have AN ENTIRE PLANET UNDER HIS TOTAL CONTROL.

We also have a short story about “the young gods of Supertown”, which this time means the Forever People.

It’s about Serifan and Big Bear stopping a sneak attack on New Genesis.

I don’t get why this couldn’t have been a full story instead of a 4 page backup.

Splash pages: 3 out of 26 (12%)
No double splash pages

Most Kirby panel

Most WTF panel
That is a very bright late night.

Forever People #7 (1972)
by Jack Kirby

The cover asks the immortal question, “what would you do if you were lost in time?”.
The answer is apparently “read the Forever People”.

Got to remember that one.

(and yes, I can turn anything into a Simpson meme)

We begin on New Genesis, where Highfather has decided that the Forever People have rushed into… something, I guess? They really haven’t done much so far.
Also, your greatest warriors have tread in caution? If that’s a reference to Orion… after reading New Gods, I find that statement laughable.

This provides Kirby a chance to draw one of his best two-page spreads.
Holy crap is this awesome.

Lost in that epicness, however, Highfather’s anguish about the Forever People having lost a fight against Darkseid on Earth.
So??? The conflict had already reached Earth before the Forever People got involved, AND Orion loses other fights in his series!

There’s also the awkward fact that Highfather is speaking for Metron, who is RIGHT NEXT TO HIM, for absolutely no reason.

Highfather is supposed to be the goodiest of all goodies-goodies, but he has to be convinced to save the Forever People.

I don’t know what it is, but something about this entire thing feels wrong to me.
Like Kirby thinks he’s writing something philosophically deep but coming off as ridiculously simplistic. Mileage may vary of course, and if this stuff hits you more power to you, but I find these proclamations almost insultingly empty.
Also how the heck does the kid know the Forever People are dispersed through time???

Since the whole point of this retrospective is to compare and contrast the Eternals and the Fourth World, I’m going to speed up a little because the next part of the series is increasingly less connected to the rest of the mythos.

The Forever People have indeed been sent into different time periods, starting with Moonrider and Beautiful Dreamer having been sent to witness the assassination of Lincoln.

Vikin The Black has to deal with being in Florida. And if that’s not hard enough already, he has to deal with conquistadores.

Big Bear has been sent to the Roman invasion of Britain.

This gives Kirby the chance to draw one of his lesser known but truly spectacular splash pages.
Really makes me wish he had the chance to draw a completely historical series or special, I’m certain he would still have been able to give it a lot of Kirby epicness.
The detail and sense of scale in this is AMAZING.

Darkseid’s Omega Beams get all the glory, but they have a “good” counterpart… because of course they do… with the Alpha Bullets.
Which Highfather can use to retrieve whatever the Omega Effect has dispersed through time.

Which is why the Forever People couldn’t save Lincoln.

The assassin doesn’t look like John Wilkes Booth. What, was Kirby afraid his family would sue!?!?

Meanwhile in the past (???) Big Bear helps a local warrior to retrieve a Roman sword from a tree.

The implication is that Big Bear inspired the birth of the King Arthur legend.
Which I find hilarious because the next project Kirby does for DC is Etrigan, which IS set in Arthurian times and where the legends are true!

Vikin is recovered before the conquistadores can figure out how to successfully enter the gold mine he found for them.

Serifan, who was not even lost through time, is also rescued by the Alpha Bullet right as Godfrey’s forces overwhelm his defenses.

Instead of rescuing Sonny Sumo, Highfather just sent Serifan to recover the Mother Box™ that he left around for centuries.

Which means that, once again in the Fourth World, the protagonist does not get to finish his own battle because an almost literal deux ex machina does everything for them.
This is WAY more blatant than the instances on New Gods.

That’s because we have to make space for a 2 page story about Lonar.

Orion is so excited at the sight of this white horse that even Supergirl and Comet would probably tell them to get a room.

I still have no idea of A) who Lonar is B) what he’s doing here C) how Kirby’s brain works.

Splash pages: 3 out of 25 (12%)
Splash + double splash pages: 5 out of 25 (20%)

Most Kirby panel

Most WTF panel
Seriously, how does he know!?

Forever People #8 (1972)
by Jack Kirby

If this turns into “space hippies versus the KKK”, I’m going to forgive every weird decision for this book.

Our next bad guy is going to be Bates, a billionaire who built his own private community.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of Mister Bates at keeping this a private affair, “his shield of privacy is penetrated” by those monsters.
You would have assumed he Mister Bates without penetration, but apparently not.
(you can’t expect me NOT to go there, right?)

These creatures live in these weird caverns, and are not pleased with what Mister Bates has been doing with his alone time.

You might find it weird that this billionaire can be persuaded to get into danger because of a bong, but if the 2020s have taught me anything is that there’s nothing too stupid for a billionaire to do.

You would expect the hippies to be looking for the bong, but they’re just lost in plot convenience technobabble.

This is probably the most realistic reaction to hippies I’ve seen in this series.

A few years ago, I would said that a billionaire creating his own private army and taking control of a city just because he gets high Mister Bating at the thought of having power would be a bit too over-the-top to be realistic.
By 2025, though? Sounds legit.

We learn that Mister Bates got his power through working with The Sect…

…which gave him mind-control powers.

Which is, once again, very clearly what the Anti-Life Equation does.

Something about Mister Bates gives me the impression that he’s based in part on a specific real life person.

That doesn’t matter much, because his brain is fried by the sect that wants to extract the Anti-Life Equation from his head.

In the first occasion where the Forever People made think they’re actually cool, they’ve been pretending to have been taken prisoners all along. Even managing to fool Desaad.

Fearing that Darkseid can’t be too far if Desaad is here, the Forever People unwillingly^{(citation needed)} cause the death of Mister Bates.

Darkseid was indeed also masquerading!!!

There’s something deeply disturbing seeing Darkseid wear actual clothes, and kind of funny to see how he intimidates the Forever People.

Want to imagine something worse than hell? Try thinking of having Darkseid as your drill sergeant!!!

Conveniently, the Forever People vanish because… uhm… I think it’s related to how their Super-Cycle™ works? They return to it, but I don’t get the specifics.

I can’t stress enough how weird it is to see Darkseid in this outfit.

Splash pages: 1 out of 26 (4%)
No double splash pages

Most Kirby panel

Most WTF panel

Forever People #9 (1972)
by Jack Kirby

Knowing Kirby’s love for horror it’s not weird to imagine he wanted to write Deadman, but seeing him on Forever People is just bonkers.

This one is also another one with little connection to the Fourth World, so I’ll speed through this one too.
Deadman, who for those who don’t know is a ghost, is involved because a guy is trying to use magic to resurrect a corpse.

All while Beautiful Dreamer gets some fanservice costume changes.

The reason why Deadman ends up interacting with the Forever People is that they befriended a psychic that is able to talk to him, revealing that he never truly avenged his own death.
This is a retcon completely ignored by all future series featuring Deadman.

As a ghost, Deadman is completely invisible to anyone without psychic powers, so the Forever People have no clue of what’s going on.
Welcome to what your readers feel every issue, fellas.

The bad guy took advantage of the chaos to steal the Forever People’s matter manipulation tech, and used it to successfully create Not Frankenstein’s Monster.

Deadman manages to take out the monster, and the Forever People give him a temporary physical form.

Splash pages: 2 out of 26 (8%)
No double splash pages

Most Kirby panel

Most WTF panel
All life is concentrated in the electric zone.

Forever People #10 (1972)
by Jack Kirby

I really wonder if Kirby wanted to write Deadman or if DC asked him. The latter sounds unlikely, considering Deadman is not exactly a big name.

I think the reasoning for why Deadman is able to interact with the physical word without possessing a person, like he usually does, is that the Forever people have built a temporary artificial body for him to possess.

Our bad guy basically has a franchise selling weapons to supervillains.

And he recognizes Deadman because HE was the one who killed him.

This is weird beyond belief. Deadman had already met his murdered, a guy with a mechanical hook for a hand, in 1968 during his original run.
Kirby was apparently unsatisfied with that and introduced the REAL murderer… a guy with a mechanical hook for a hand.

There are perfectly reasonable motivations for Beautiful Dreamer having started a bathing suit modeling career in the last five minutes.
It’s not because Kirby is horny.

Eventually Deadman almost confronts his new murderer.

There are downsides to tying yourself to a specific body, especially when facing someone who can apparently freeze ghosts.

Is this a reference to Happyland, or is this something else?

This guy feels a bit redundant after having introduced Intergang, plus I can’t shake the feeling I’ve seen this exact sequence in Kirby’s Captain America run.

You’d expect Deadman to be the one catching his killer, but the Forever People step up.
The one time I would have accepted leaving the job to someone else!!!

Deadman does get a badass scene, but it’s a bit out of character for him… the whole point of Deadman is that he’s a ghost who has to possess people, not that he’s invulnerable!

HOW MANY PEOPLE WITH A HOOK FOR A HAND ARE THERE!?!?!

Thank Granny Goodness this story was later ignored, because who wants to see Deadman reimagined as an android? We have Vision at home!

Splash pages: 2 out of 22 (9%)
No double splash pages

Most Kirby panel

Most WTF panel
What atoms???

Forever People #11 (1972)
by Jack Kirby

And we end the series with the question nobody asked: whatever happened to Infinity Man?

We begin with the Forever People hunted by The Pursuer.

Sorry, Pursuer is just his job. His actual name is Devilance.

Just how forgettable is Infinity Man? We haven’t seen since ISSUE THREE and I completely forgot about his absence. Did you even remember Darkseid banished him to another dimension?

Meanwhile the Forever People try everything against Devilance, constantly teleporting to new places, but he’s always right back.

Devilance is polite enough to just stand there while the Forever People summon Infinity Man.

So we get a Big Kirby Fight.

According to Darkseid, this kills everybody: Infinity Man, Devilance and the entire Forever People.

However the Forever People are just exiled to the parallel universe where Infinity Man was imprisoned for the past several issues.
And that’s how the series ends! I’m guessing it was deliberate, considering the captions.

We will not be following The Demon, since he’s not part of the Fourth World.
The next and last Kirby series I will cover is Mister Miracle.

Splash pages: 1 out of 22 (5%)
Splash + double splash pages: 3 out of 22 (14%)

Most Kirby panel

Most WTF panel
Devilance says this as he stands around watching his targets call for help.

Historical significance: 0/10
Other than the Omega Effect, I don’t think anything else is used again.
This is the last time Kirby writes the Forever People, and it takes a while for them to return: there’s 6-issue series in 1988 written by J.M.DeMatteis, but that was later retconned out of continuity by John Byrne (what a shocker) who makes them return in 1997 with his own New Gods run.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
All manner of Silver Age super-science nonsense.

Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
Forever People is a weird series to define. It’s definitely WAY easier to follow than New Gods (as if that’s hard), but it’s unbelievably unfocused.
We’re protecting Sonny Sumo! Wait, he’s not important, let’s move on! Let’s travel through time! Let’s have the protagonists interact with history! Nevermind, let’s take them out before they do anything interesting! Now we’re fighting a billionaire with mind powers! No that’s boring, it was Darkseid all along! Let’s have a horror story starring Deadman! Wait let’s change everything about Deadman but his name! We need a final villain, let’s come up with a generic one we’ve never heard of! Let’s bring back Infinity Man! Let’s get rid of Infinity Man! There’s always hope! But let’s trap our heroes in another dimension forever! I’m bored, let’s do Etrigan now!
All of this and our protagonists still have no personality, except maybe Big Bear whose personality begins and ends with the words “Big Bear”.
Unlike New Gods, which I truly believe is an unsalvageable trainwreck, this series could have been saved if only Kirby was able to stay still for two pages and let the characters and the readers breathe.

Interesting letters: kind of contradictory to say that the Forever People’s ages can’t be compared to Earth years and then do it anyway.

Future DC writer and novelist Mike W. Barr was a fan.

I find it fascinating that, in the letters page, Mark Evanier seems to insist that there isn’t supposed to be anything beneath Kirby’s stories.

I’m not the only one getting that vibe out of these answers, right?

I didn’t go into the specifics for why Deadman’s issues are problematic because, while I really like Deadman, I haven’t read much of his original run.
Fortunately, Richard does the job for me.

Evanier goes WAY more into detail defending this story, leading me to believe he might have discussed the plot with Kirby.
I really, really don’t like the attitude of “well the people who never read the character don’t think this is inconsistent, so who cares?”.