FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - HAIL HOMO USURPUS!

JO #137 cover by Jack Kirby

Welcome, once again, to Fourth World Thursday as another chapter of Jack Kirby's cosmic opus comes under scrutiny. We're back down to Earth again this week, in fact so far down that we're underground. Yes, we're back in the crazy world of Jimmy Olsen. Now, as you'll remember the last issue of Olsen had Mokkari and Simyan of the Evil Factory "breeding" a new genetic terror to unleash against Jimmy and his friends at The Project. All we saw last time was some "thing" with four arms starting to emerge from a giant egg.  
Well, at the start of this issue we find the titular Four Armed Terror in all its Kirbyesque glory, rampaging through The Wild Area, where it encounters Yango and Gandy from the biker drop-outs The Outsiders. You remember The Outsiders don't you? The biker gang that made Jimmy Olsen their leader? Well, I'm glad you remember them because Jimmy obviously hasn't. He's not mentioned them once since he reached The Project. How soon they forget!

The Four-Armed Terror on the loose!

Anyway, The Terror makes short work of the two bikers and continues on its way to The Project, leaving Gandy and Yango to dash back to The Habitat to alert their compatriots to the oncoming danger.
Meanwhile, back at The Project, unaware of the impending danger, our intrepid heroes are participating in a Hippy love-in. By using a "Solar-Phone", a strange Hairie invention that, we are told, "gathers in the radio-signals from the stars and convert them into mental musical images", which basically gives Kirby an excuse to do three pages of his patented "Kirby Photo Collages", through which Superman, Jimmy, The Newsboy Legion and various Hairies float gracefully.
Suddenly our heroes psychedelic trip comes to a crashing end as a series of explosions rock The Project. Yes, the Four Armed Terror has arrived! And he's on a direct course to The Project's nuclear reactors! Somehow, I don't think this can be a GOOD thing! Superman takes off to investigate, telling Jimmy and the Newsboys to stay behind. Yeah, like THAT'S going to work. No sooner is the Kryptonian out of the room then the youngsters are in hot pursuit.

Yango takes command!

The Four-Armed Terror's arrived at the nuclear pile and starts tearing at the machinery, setting off a series of explosions that tear through The Wild Area causing a mass evacuation by the leaderless The Outsiders. Jimmy Olsen may have forgotten them, but never fear, Yango is here! Yes our goofy, but lovable, dropout takes it upon himself to assume the leadership role. And he does a pretty good job too, getting his biker chums to safety as Habitat and The Wild Area crumble around them. 
Despite the fact that they're heading straight into a radioactive zone, Jimmy and the Newsboys continue to follow Superman, who by now has encountered the FAT... er, the Four Armed Terror and has engaged it in one almighty punch up. So when the youngsters turn up all they succeed in doing is distracting the Big Blue Boy Scout just enough for the Terror to get the upper hand (or hands). For, by using some bizarre ability, the Terror is able to absorb radiation from the pile and convert it into "some strange form of energy particles" which it fires from its hands. These energy particles coalesce around the heroes forming a giant pink "egg" around them. With the heroes disposed of, the Terror continues to demolish the atomic pile, while watching from their secret base Simyan and Mokkari congratulate themselves on a job well done. For their single Four Armed Terror is surely going to destroy the reactors and cause an explosion large enough to destroy not just the Project, but the city of Metropolis, which just happens to be right above them.

Monsters On The Loose. This is NOT a good thing!

And while our Apokaliptans are gloating, in the depths of their base another egg hatches producing another Terror. And another. And another...
"The others are stirring!" proclaims Simyan. "They're breaking free of their protective shells Mokkari!"
"It is their time, Simyan!" replies Mokkari. "Their birth heralds the age of holocaust! Hail Homo Usurpus! Earth lies before you for the taking!"
"Aaruk! Aaruk!" cries a Four Armed Terror.
Things are NOT looking good here! Not good at all!
Who will save the day? Well, there's a clue in the books title. And it sure ain't Jimmy Olsen!
So the saga of The Project continues apace. The King's plotting seems to have tightened up since the earliest chapters and the artwork, still inked here by Vince Colletta, is vintage Kirby.  In fact, the grotesque Four Armed Terror feels almost as if it had wandered over from one of Marvel Comics pre-hero monster titles such as Tales Of Suspense or Journey Into Mystery. And there's even a hint of character development as Yango steps up to the plate to protect The Outsiders as their new leader. Sadly that's the last we'll see of him, at least in the Kirby Fourth World stories. We will, however, come across him when we reach the apocryphal Fourth World tales as Yango does show up briefly in Lois Lane and the post-Kirby Olsen.
Next time however, it is time to look in once again on Scott Free as we once again visit Mr. Miracle. I'll see you then, next time for the next Fourth World Thursday.

FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - "KING OF THE DAMNED! I CAN FINISH YOU NOW!"

NEW GODS #2 COVER BY JACK KIRBY

Once again, it's time to take a look at Jack Kirby's great cosmic opera that has become known over time as The Fourth World. With this installment, we return to the centrepiece of the King's meisterwerk, "The New Gods".
This second issue begins with what is known in TV circles as a "cold open", a five page "pre-credits" sequence which starts with a splash page recapping some of what we have seen before. That after the cataclysm that destroyed the Old Gods, two worlds were born, the hell of Apokalips and the heaven of New Genesis. Then, a quick visit to Supertown where we find High-Father, leader of the New Gods (New Genesis Division), communicating once again with the mysterious source. "WAR - FOLLOW ORION" says the enigmatic flaming hand. The message is clear. Others from New Genesis must join Orion in the war on Earth. The annoyingly chirpy Lightray is the first to volunteer, but High-Father forbids hims to go. "The time is not yet!" proclaims the bearded one. "It is my command!"
Thus endeth the pre-credits sequence.
Back on Earth, Orion and the four Earth people he rescued last issue, detective Dave Lincoln, secretary Claudia Shane, typical teenager Harvey Lockman and insurance salesman Victor Lanza arrive at Lincoln's apartment only to find Darkseid waiting for them. Orion promptly accuses old stoney face of breaking the treaty by kidnapping the humans, to which Darkseid's nonchalant response is simply "I dare anything! I am Darkseid!"
Leading to an interesting exchange between the two.

ORION: "King of the damned! I can finish you now!"
DARKSEID: "Finish me --and you finish yourself! You hesitate, Orion! You can sense why--but you
don't know--do you--? But Darkseid is free of mysteries! He can act!"

At which point Orion is jumped from behind by one of his stooges called Brola, whose weapons of choice appear to be one hand that is made of stone, and a cattle-prod in the other hand. The battle is short-lived as Orion pitches Brola straight through the apartment wall. Both Darkseid and his minion promptly disappear, teleported away to one of Granite Puss' secret bases under the city.
A quick thought here. Was Lincoln able to claim on his insurance to the damage to his apartment? Or did the company refuse to pay out claiming it was an "Act Of God"? But I digress.

Desaad and his Fear Machine.

In his secret base Darkseid gives Brola a literal kick up the backside, sending him whimpering away and pops over to see #1 henchman Desaad, who we saw briefly in the Forever People last week. Now with a name like Desaad, what sort of person do you think he is? Yep, a sadistic weirdo! Not just ANY sadistic weirdo though, he's a mad scientist sadistic weirdo, coming up with all manner of bizarre machines with only one intention - to cause as much pain, mental or physical, as possible. 
The newest of these contraptions is "The Fear Machine". Hmmm! I wonder what that does? I'm sure we'll find out soon. Very soon actually as Darkseid demands a demonstration. And he doesn't want to waste time for Desaad to get his test subjects so he has it used on some his minions. Who are reduced to quivering, terrified wretches. Darkseid hopes that by reducing the whole city to such a state, he will discover the mind that holds the Anti-Life Equation. Ah, yes, the Anti-Life Equation. It's been mentioned a few times so far both here and in the Forever People, but it's here we are told by Darkseid just what it is. What the Equation actually does is remove free will, for someone who has no free will cannot truly be alive.
Back at Dave Lincoln's apartment, Orion decides to bring his disciples... er, new friends up to date with the story so far. Which is also handy for new readers. How convenient!
He produces a Mother Box which shows the foursome a "previously on Jimmy Olsen and Forever People" style update. Interestingly, as well as scenes of Mantis, The Wild Area and a Boom Tube, we also get a hint of a future storyline when we get the briefest of sights of the undersea creatures "The Deep Six".
Meanwhile Desaad has powered up his Fear Machine and set it loose on the area. Orion quickly sets out to find the source of the invisible beams causing panic in the city. Which doesn't take long as Mother Box soon tracks the origin to an advertising hoarding behind which the full scale version of Desaad's nightmare machine is hidden.
One quick burst of astro-force later, the Fear Machine is done with and Orion returns back to Lincoln's apartment where his new found friends swear their allegiance to Orion's cause.
Back at their secret base Desaad and Darkseid are studying the results of the experiment, which in the end didn't yield the hoped for results. The Anti-Life Equation still remains hidden. Desaad is quick to blame Orion, but Darkseid doesn't quite see it that way...

DESAAD: Orion has made a mockery of this test! When we capture him -- give him to me!
DARKSEID: You're a fool, Desaad! Blinded by your own mania! We could never take one such as Orion captive! His kind dies in battle! And in death would look greater than a vermin like you!
DESAAD: So! The great Darkseid rises quickly to the defense of an enemy!
DARKSEID: Orion is an enemy to be respected!
DESAAD: Yes, it is strange how very like us he is -- in his fierceness and --
DARKSEID: Silence, Desaad! Were Orion my own son -- he would mean nothing to the purpose of our mission! And in that mission we must not fail!

In the last issue High-Father admitted that Orion was not born of New Genesis, and now Darkseid is dropping some pretty heavy handed hints about his true origin. We shall, of course, learn more in due course.

Looking back at this issue, not much actually happens. Orion has a brief fight with Brola and then smashes a billboard. There's a lot of exposition, although it is fairly well done, unlike some of Kirby's early Jimmy Olsen issues where it seemed to be shoehorned in. What is apparent though is the overall vision that Kirby had for the series is mostly in place, unlike those early Jimmy Olsen's which at times seem to have been made up as he went along.
And the best is yet to come...
Join me next week for another Fourth World Thursday.
See you soon,
Steve

MUCK MONSTER MONDAY - BORN ON A MONDAY

Solomon Grundy's first appearance - art by Paul Reinman

Solomon Grundy. Born on a Monday. Christened on Tuesday. Married on Wednesday. Took ill on Thursday. Worse on Friday. Died on Saturday. Buried on Sunday. This is the end of Solomon Grundy.


The second muck-monster in comics is not a creature you may not think of as being part of the genre, at least not initially, but on closer examination there are a number of reasons for my including him here. The character is, as you may have guessed, Solomon Grundy, originally introduced in an story entitled "Fighters Never Quit" in All-American Comics #61 (October 1944) as a villain for the original 1940s Green Lantern. Although his appearance is that of a brutish, chalk-faced humanoid, rather than the shambling mounds of vegetation we would normally associate with these creatures, his origin story is all too familiar...
The scene is Slaughter Swamp in the latter part of the 19th Century, where the body of the murdered merchant Cyrus Gold in unceremoniously disposed of. Fifty years on, his corpse rises from the mire, a huge lumbering mockery of a man, part human, part swamp matter. He has little memory of his previous life, but one thing he does remember, however vaguely, is that he was born on a Monday. When a vagrant he encounters likens him to the nursery rhyme character Solomon Grundy, because of that fact, the creature that was once Cyrus Gold adopts the name.
Grundy fought Green Lantern a few times in the Golden Age and even took on the entire Justice Society Of America on one occasion. The character was later revived in the Silver Age and became a thorn in the side of many heroes including Batman and Superman.
At times Grundy is seemingly destroyed, but is then reborn in a new incarnation, some of which are more violent than others, and his intelligence also varies from the initial almost mindless creature, to more intelligent versions.
It is later revealed during Rick Veitch's run on Swamp Thing, that Grundy was in fact a failed attempt at the creation of a plant elemental by the Parliament Of Trees, who we'll learn more of further down the line. Their attempt was doomed to failure, as the human part of the elemental has to have died in fire. Without that fiery death, the transformation was not completed, leaving a form of semi-functional Plant Elemental.
As with The Heap from last week's Muck Monster Monday, Grundy's origin has changed at various  times over the years, but the basics remain the same. He may not look like the traditional swamp creature, indeed he resembles a neanderthal zombie, but in his origin at least he firmly belongs to the Muck Monster family.
Next time, a return visit from The Heap. Sort of. Things get Mad around here as we visit The Outer Sanctum!

Before that, I'll be back Thursday, with the next Fourth World Thursday.
See you soon,
Steve

FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - "FIRST TO APOKOLIPS -- THEN TO EARTH -- THEN TO -- WAR!"

NEW GODS # 1 COVER BY JACK KIRBY

And so we move on from the raw recruits, The Forever People, to the seasoned veterans as we begin our look at, for me at least, the greatest of the Fourth World titles - The New Gods. And it begins with, not as you may expect a prologue, but an epilogue...

PROLOGUE... I MEAN EPILOGUE!

"There came a time when the Old Gods died! The brave died with the cunning! The noble perished, locked in battle with unleashed evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust! The final moment came with the fatal release of indescribable power--which tore the home of the Old Gods asunder--split it in great halves--and filled the universe with the blinding death-flash of its destruction! In the end there were two giant molten bodies, spinning slow and barren -- clean of all that had gone before -- adrift in the sounds of cosmic thunder... Silence closed upon what had happened -- A long deep silence -- wrapped in massive darkness... It was this way for an age...THEN -- THERE WAS NEW LIGHT!"

And which universe was it that had died? Kirby obviously intended for it to be a representation of the Marvel Universe. I've said before that Kirby may well have intended to introduced the New Gods in the pages of Marvel's Thor comic, with the intention of having the Norse Ragnarök which is described by Wikipedia (I know, I know, not the most reliable of sources) as "a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors."
Well, that sounds about right, doesn't it? And, if you look very carefully, on the first page of the epilogue/prologue, there appears to be a figure in the heat of battle with a winged helmet about to smite an opponent with what might -- just might -- be a hammer.
If you think about it, Kirby was once again, as usual, well ahead of the rest of the industry. If this WAS his plan at Marvel, it would have changed the Marvel Universe forever. In other words one of those cosmic events after which nothing would ever be same (until a handy reset button is pushed later on) that have become de rigueur on an almost yearly basis in modern superhero comics. 

Orion, our hero and not the happiest of chaps!

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. In this two page prologue/epilogue Kirby somehow portrays a literal cosmic level of war and destruction and rebirth. And in the final panel, hurtling towards the reader we meet our one of our heroes, Orion, en route to his home world of New Genesis. As he arrives he is greeted by Lightray, another of the eponymous New Gods. Lightray's a rather exuberant chap with the ability to manipulate light and fly really fast. His cheerful demeanor is at odds with Orion's more belligerent nature, although the two seem to be good friends. Together they descend to the paradise that is New Genesis and the floating city Super-Town, glimpsed all too briefly in the premiere issue of Forever People, now seen it all it's magnificent Kirby glory.    
And it's in Super-Town that we are introduced to more of our ensemble cast. First there's the intellectual Metron, who rides around in his floating Mobius Chair and is obviously not fully trusted by Orion who suggests that Metron would sell the universe into slavery for a scrap of knowledge. And then there's High-Father, the leader of the New Gods, who resembles nothing more than a Moses-style prophet, complete with beard and magic staff. And it's High-Father that's summoned Orion home for a trip to the Burning Bush, er sorry The Source. They approach a blank wall on which a fiery hand mysteriously appears to write enigmatic messages. Time for a not-that-awkward exposition scene

HIGH-FATHER -  This wall is our link to the "Source". It lived, even as the old gods died!
ORION - That is so! It is eternal! It is the life equation! And it's power is part of your Wonder-Staff!

Oooh! A "life equation!". Last time we had Darkseid searching for an "anti-life equation". I wonder that's all about?

Apokolips. Not a nice place to visit!

So the burning finger writes it's message and it says "ORION TO APOKOLIPS--THEN TO EARTH--THEN TO WAR!!!!" Apokolips is, of course, the dark mirror image of New Genesis, a world whose surface is scarred by volcanic furnaces called energy pits. A world of labour camps, ugly buildings housing uglier machines. And it's ruled by, as we've seen before, Darkseid.
Orion is quickly out of the door, leaving Metron to suggest that Orion is a rather untypical child of New Genesis. In fact, he really could only be a product of another world -- Apokolips! A fact that High-Father reluctantly admits.
Meanwhile Orion spends six pages fighting his way through Darkseids' defences, the flying "Para-Demons", the canine "Dog Cavalry", and various other minions, only to find the stony-faced tyrant isn't home. He is of course on Earth, as we've already seen, leaving a super-computer called a "Mass-Director Unit" to rule in his place. 
Darkseid may not be home, but his son is. Kalibak is a big Neanderthal type with a big club. He is ready to take on Orion, but Metron pops up in his Mobius Chair (oh, didn't I mention it also travels through space and time?) and stops the battle before it even starts. And then - you've guessed it - another exposition scene, this time to bring readers up to date with what we've already seen, or at least as been hinted at, in the pages of Jimmy Olsen and Forever People. That Darkseid is on Earth, looking for the mysterious "Anti-Life Equation" which is apparently buried deep in the subconscious mind of some unsuspecting human.    

Metron then points out that Darkseid has even brought humans to Apokolips to probe their minds here. This is apparently against the rules according to Metron, leading Orion to exclaim "Darkseid has defied High-Father himself!"
All of which hints at some treaty between the two planets, which, as we will later discover, is indeed the case.

And so it begins...

Orion finds four humans in the next room, sets them free and summons a Boom Tube to take all five of them to Earth, where Orion tells the humans that they have been caught in the crossfire of a war between two worlds, in which Earth has become the latest battleground. And then, against a stormy background, Orion calls Darkseid out. And on the last page, a masterpiece of Kirby art, Darkseid replies "I hear you, Orion! The battle begins!"
And thus ends the first issue of The New Gods. By far the best issue of the Fourth World so far, Kirby's storytelling jumps up a notch or six, and his art too is elevated to a whole new level, from the opening Fall of the old Gods, through the depictions of Super-Town and Apokolips, to Darkseid's chilling final page appearance against an eerie green storm. And, as they say, the best is yet to come!
One final thought or two. This was the second story Kirby did for DC after his return and in some ways feels like it should have been published first. I, however like the fact that it was actually published fifth, allowing a degree of mystery to build up through the preceding issues of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and Forever People. Not that you need to have read any of the earlier Fourth World books to enjoy this. It stands perfectly alone, despite it's connections to the three other titles.
Next time on Fourth World Thursday, we've met the raw recruits, we've met the seasoned veteran, now it's time to meet the conscientious objector - Mr. Miracle.
See you soon,
Steve

FOURTH WORLD INTERLUDE #3 - THE CANON

I have, in the past segments of Fourth World Thursday, mentioned that I regard the canonical stories of the Fourth World as the 69 tales seen in the original Kirby runs of "New Gods", "Forever People", "Mister Miracle" and the King's issues of "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen". That's 55 main stories, plus the 14 shorter tales that make up the "Young Gods Of Super-Town", "Tales Of The D.N.A Project" and "Young Scott Free" back-up features.
So these are the 69 stories which I'll be covering in Fourth World Thursday...
The main stories...


SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN

...Brings Back the Newsboy Legion!
The Mountain of Judgement!
Evil Factory
Saga Of The D.N.A. Aliens
The Four Armed Terror
The Big Boom!!
The Guardian Fights Again
Will The Real Don Rickles Please Panic?
The Man From Transilvane
Genocide Spray
A Big Thing In A Deep Scottish Lake
Brigadoom!
Homo-Disasterous
A Superman In Super town
Monarch Of All He Subdues


THE FOREVER PEOPLE
In Search Of A Dream
Super War
Life Vs. Anti Life!
Kingdom Of The Damned!
Sonny Sumo
The Omega Effect
I'll Find you in yesterday!
The Power
Monster IN The Morgue!
The Scavengers
Devilance The Pursuer


NEW GODS
Orion Fights For Earth!
O' Deadly Darkseid
Death Is the Black Racer!
Orion Gang And The Deep Six
Spawn!
The Glory Boat
The Pact!
The Death Wish Of Terrible Turpin!
The Bug!
Earth -- The Doomed Dominion
Darkseid And Sons


MISTER MIRACLE
Murder Missile Trap
X-Pit!
The Paranoid Pill
The Closing Jaws Of Death
Murder Machine
Funky Flashman
Apokolips Trap
Battle Of The Id!
Himon
The Mister Miracle To Be
The Greatest Show Off Earth
Mystivac!
The Dictator's Dungeon!
The Quick and The Dead
The Secret Gun
Shilo Norman, Super Trouble
Murder Lodge
Wild, Wild Wedding Guests


And then there's the shorter, back up stories...

TALES OF THE D.N.A. PROJECT
Hairie Secrets Revealed! (JO 142)
The Alien Thing (JO 143)
The Torn Photograph (JO 144)
Arin The Armoured Man (JO 146)
Genetic Criminal (JO 148)

YOUNG SCOTT FREE
Part 1 (MM 5)
Part 2 (MM 6)
Part 3 (MM 7)

YOUNG GODS OF SUPERTOWN
Introducing Lonar (FP 5)
Introducing Fastbak (NG 5)
Raid From Apokolips (FP 6)
Lonar and His Horse Thunderer (FP 7)
Vykin The Black (FP 7)
Beat The Black Racer (NG 8)

At the moment my plan for the shorter stories is to do one blog entry for each feature, so the five DNA Project tales will be covered in one entry, the six Young Gods stories in another, and the three Young Scott Free stories in a third.   

That means there should end up being 58 Forth World Thursdays, not counting the occasional interludes such as this one and the ones dealing with the apocryphal non-Kirby stories. And then, who knows? Although I will probably look at Kirby's later "endings" to the saga in the stories "On The Road To Armagetto", "Even Gods Must Die" and "The Hunger Dogs". Even though they may not been Kirby's original intended ending, they were at least by the King himself. Still, that's a long way off.

The next regular edition of Fourth World Thursday will appear on your screens on, not-surprisingly, Thursday at 00:30 BST, when I'll be looking at the first issue of New Gods. Five down, fifty-three to go...
See you soon,
Steve

FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - "TARRU!!!"

So, last time we ended on a cliffhanger with a clone of 1940s superhero The Guardian about to take on a Giant Green Jimmy Olsen Clone. Well, it'll be a while before we see the outcome of that little melee, as for the next three weeks we'll be looking at the other parts of the Fourth World Tetralogy.

Forever People #1 cover by Kirby

I mentioned a while back that although Jimmy Olsen was the first of the Fourth World titles to be published, it wasn't the first book Kirby produced for DC. That book was the premiere issue of "The Forever People", and it is here that Kirby's great cosmic saga starts to really take shape.

The first page introduces us, rather poetically, to one of the classic Fourth World concepts - The Boom Tube. What's a Boom Tube? An extra-dimensional travel mechanism in the form of a tunnel.

Anyway, a Boom Tube opens up on Earth, and from it emerges a typically Kirbyesque vehicle called the Super-Cycle (with a garish pink and yellow paint job). Imagine a quad-bike with a central front wheel rather than two. And with it come a group of cosmic biker/hippies, the eponymous Forever People! Well four of them at least. We have Mark Moonrider (the leader), Big Bear (the strongman), Serafin (the hopeless romantic type) and Vykin The Black (the stoic one - who as his name helpfully tells us, is black).

They've come to Earth from "Super-Town", which we'll later discover is on the planet of "New Genesis", in search of the fifth member of their team, Sif.
Ooops! Sorry, wrong comic. I mean Beautiful Dreamer. Come to think of it, in a way most of the Forever People could have counterparts in Kirby's earlier work on Thor. Big Bear resembles Volstagg obviously, Serafin could be Fandral and Vykin's demeanour is not too dissimilar to that of Hogan. That leaves Mark Moonrider - Balder the Brave? Or Thor himself, perhaps? Of course it could be all be coincidence...

Anyway, the four Forever People materialise right in the path of an oncoming car. No problem! Big Bear, who's driving the Super-Cycle, presses a couple of buttons and initiates an "emergency phase out". As BB helpfully tells everyone "our atoms have been re-shifted so we can pass through the car like ghosts!"

The spooked driver of the other car comes off the road, going over a cliff. Never fear, Vykin is here, complete with his handy-dandy "Mother Box". Using Mother Box, a kind of sentient computer, Vykin levitates the car and it's occupants to safety.

The car's driver, Bobby, takes a picture of our cosmic crusaders and the Boom Tube while Vykin feels the need to lay on the exposition and explain their mission. Turns out that Beautiful Dreamer has been brought to Earth by Darkseid and the others are here to rescue her. Bobby takes his leave, claiming to have a scoop for a reporter friend. A reporter called Jimmy Olsen. Man, that Olsen gets everywhere!

At this point, Serafin passes out. Obviously the excitement's been too much for him. No, that's not it. He's made mental contact with Beautiful Dreamer (he's telepathic, you know). When he awakes, Vykin says, "We will know her message".

What the FPs don't know is, they are being watched from some nearby bushes by none other than Intergang. And they're supposed to report back to Darkseid once they've found them. Which they do. Darkseid's orders? When they leave, follow them. Just how ol' stony puss knew the FPs were on the way, and where they'd arrive is left unexplained. Presumably he's monitoring all Boom Tube activity in the area.

Over at the Daily Planet, Clark Kent is interviewing a championship boxer named...er, Rocky. Well THAT'S original! And Rocky isn't a huge fan of Superman, because "He can put down an army of title-holders! With Superman in the picture, the fight game is a farce!"

An angst ridden Superman? That's a first!

Which hurts Superman more than any punch could. Clark watches Rocky leave and starts getting all introspective. "Despite his powers, he is a minority of one in a teeming world of billions! A stranger in a strange land! What does Superman mean to you down there?" he thinks to himself staring out of the window at the passers by on the street below, "Do they secretly resent him? Fear him? Hate him? For the first time in many years--I feel that I'm alone--alone!"

A bit of an identity crisis there, heightened by Clark initially referring to his alter-ego as him rather than ME or I. As far as I'm aware it's the first time his alienation from the human race had ever been addressed in the comics. Yes, it's another Kirby first!

It's at this point Jimmy Olsen runs in with Bobby's story. Now, as I said before, this was the first story Kirby produced for the Fourth World, which goes some way to explaining the pre-Kirby style Olsen seen in this story, complete with bow-tie. In fact, I think it would be safe to assume that the already published Olsen stories take place after this premiere issue of Forever People.

So Jimmy tells Clark about Bobby's encounter with the kids from Super-Town, which piques Clark's interest, especially when he uses his super vision on Bobby's photo of the Boom Tube and spots Super-Town in the distance. Bundling Jimmy out of the office, Clark quickly changes into Superman and takes off in search of the Forever People in the hope that they'll point him in the direction of Super-Town, a place that maybe, just maybe, he'll feel more at home.

Boy, that Rocky sure has a lot to answer for, doesn't he?

So off Superman goes and quickly finds the Forever People. And Intergang, who now have new orders from Darkseid. Take down Superman with their "Sigma-Guns". The Intergang goons know their weapons aren't powerful enough for the job, but they're obviously more scared of Darkseid than an angry Kryptonian. Needless to say, Superman makes short work of the Intergoons leading the Forever People to jump to the conclusion that he's another volunteer from Super-Town.

The Man Of Steel tries to put them right, but the FPs don't believe him. So in an attempt to gain their confidence he uses his X-Ray vision to reveal a "strange metal valve" buried in the ground nearby. Realising they've found Darkseid's underground base, The youngsters go charging recklessly in. Bad move! First they set off a trap, releasing a "toxi-cloud" into the air. Fortunately Superman quickly gets rid of that. Harder to deal with though are the self proclaimed "most faithful to Darkseid", the Gravi-Guards. They can even pin the Man Of Steel to the ground by transmitting "gravity waves from heavy mass galaxies". They probably also have the ability to blind people with their sartorial combination of bright pink skin with yellow and purple trunks.

TARRU! DOESN'T QUITE HAVE THE SAME RING AS SHAZAM! DOES IT?

With the tide of battle turning against them, it's time to for the Forever People to use their ace in the hole. Quickly they gather round the Mother Box and utter the magic word "TARRU!" The Forever People vanish, and in their place stands - INFINITY MAN!

Who, or what, Infinity Man is, isn't entirely clear. Is he a composite being consisting of the Forever People merged together as one? Or is he a separate entity entirely, who appears in their place Captain Marvel style?

Either way, it obviously doesn't take a full compliment of Forever People to summon him as we are still missing Beautiful Dreamer.

Infinity Man, armed with his terrible dress sense and the ability to speak enigmatically, soon deals with the Gravi-Guards by apparently turning gravity against them. That done, he demands that Darkseid appear before him and return the girl. Which Darkseid does. He announces he has no more use for Beautiful Dreamer because her unique brain wasn't able to determine "The Anti-Life Equation" (of which we will learn much more in the future).  

Infinity Man Pin-Up from Forever People #4

So he just gives her back and nonchalantly strolls away. Well, it's not quite that simple obviously. Turns out that if anyone lifts her off the table she's laying on, there will be one huge explosion!

No sweat! Superman, travelling at "near light speed" grabs both Infinity Man and Beautiful Dreamer and easily outruns (or rather outflys) the explosion.

The danger over, Infinity Man vanishes, returning the four Forever People back from wherever they were.
Leader Mark offers his gratitude, asking the Kryptonian if there is anything they can do for him.

Show me the way to Super-Town says Superman. Piece of cake reply the Forever People and they summon up a Boom Tube to take him there. However, they also lay it on thick about Darkseid's plans for Earth. Despite Superman's protestations that he'll be back if there's danger to Earth, the Forever People aren't impressed. As Big Bear says "I hope you can live with your conscience -- later!"
Only Serafin seems to stand by Superman, who promptly flies into the Tube, en route to Super-Town. However, he doesn't get too far before the Forever People's words hit home. So, just as he gets a glimpse of Super-Town, he hightails it back to Earth. "It was the wrong time to go," he opines, "Perhaps someday, I'll try again.. but the time is not now -- not yet --"

And there it ends for now, with the raw recruits setting out on their great adventure, not yet scarred by the ravages of war. Next time, we look in on one of the grizzled veterans of the war, as we are introduced to Orion in the pages of the book that in some ways was the core of the Fourth World. That book was called "The New Gods" and it is there that Kirby's great epic really takes flight.

Oh, and just if you're wondering, Superman DOES eventually make it to Super-Town, but that's a story for another time.

FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - "MY MISSION IS TO DEFEND -- TO PROTECT! YOU FACE DISASTER! LET ME OUT!"

SPJO #135 cover by Neal Adams. This does not happen!

Okay, if you've read the first two installments of Fourth World Thursday/Friday and found Kirby's new universe so far a bit strange, then to coin a phrase, you ain't seen nothing yet! As this issue begins, Jimmy Olsen and the Newsboy Legion, still looking for adventure, are chilling with the Hairies at the Mountain Of Judgement.
Elsewhere, however, we find two strange masked figures wandering around a mysterious complex, full of typical Kirbyesque machines, giant vats containing bizarre grotesque lifeforms, and finally stopping in front of a tank containing the figure of a masked giant. Our two figures take three pages to get to this point and they spend the whole time telling each other the purpose of their mission. Yes folks, it's another lengthy exposition scene! Turns out they have stolen cell samples from "the Earthmen" and have been cloning Superman, Olsen and the Newsboys. And the giant clone has been made to destroy Superman! As one of our villainous strangers says "His exploits shall brighten our leader's cause!" Hmm! I wonder just WHO that mysterious leader could be? At the end of the scene they remove their masks and stand revealed. We have a short Neandrathal figure who goes by the name of Simyan(!) and a taller yellow skinned chap called Mokkari.

Fantastic background but awkward exposition!

Meanwhile, back at the Mountain Of Judgement, Jude, the leader of the Hairies, tells Superman there's trouble at t'mill... sorry I mean The Project. What is "The Project"? Well, whatever it is, it produced Jude and his kind - and Superman was one of the first to participate in it. Hold on! Last issue he went from not knowing about the Hairies, to having seen their file, and now he's had some involvement in the mysterious project that created them! Make your mind up Supes!
So Superman shoots off to The Project with Jimmy and the Legion in tow. The Project turns out to be a gigantic underground military base where, we are informed, trouble has broken out in the "Cell Duplication And Replica Refining Section".  So, let's get this straight, the military has been experimenting with genetic engineering. Okay, makes sense to some degree. IF they're trying to create some form of perfect soldier. What they have created instead is a race of hippies. Who are now working side-by-side with the military on more genetic manipulation. Only Jack Kirby could a) come up that idea and b) make it actually work!

Jimmy and the Newsboys are in for a shock, though. In fact, a few shocks. First we find out that the original Newsboy Legion, including Flippa Dippa's father (Flippa Dippa Sr.?) all work at The Project, much to their offspring's surprise. Now, given the nature of The Project, and the fact that there is absolutely no mention of the boys mothers, could it be the youngsters are really actually clones of the originals?  Kirby's not saying, but it certainly looks like a possibility.

So while the Newsboys catch up with their "fathers", Superman takes Jimmy on a tour of The Project and explains that "the genetic code has been broken" and that "human beings like yourself can now be produced from a single cell". Jimmy is mind-blown by all this, as you'd expect, especially when he encounters one of the soldiers, who turns out to be - - an Olsen clone! One of many in fact. And just how did they get hold of the DNA needed to create a Jimmy Olsen clone? Superman helpfully tells him (and us) that it came "From a tissue sample taken from your last medical examination at "The Daily Planet" dispensary. It was a simple, painless procedure -- carried out on you and me and the Newsboy Legion!" Er, Superman? I think you just told Jimmy that you work at The Daily Planet. You're supposed to keep quiet about your other life, remember? That's why it's called a SECRET identity! And how DID they get a sample from Clark Kent/Superman anyway? Being invulnerable and all? And then of course there's the questionable legality and morality of using cells taken from a person without their knowledge.
While we're on the subject, shouldn't there also be clones of other Planet employees? Lois Lane perhaps? Perry White? Morgan Edge? Not to mention numerous Clark Kent and Superman clones which really MUST compromise that ol' secret identity! 

Darkseid makes his second appearance and Simyan speaks too soon...

Anyway, back at The Project's dark mirror image, which we will come to know as "The Evil Factory", Simyan and Mokkari have decided to give their masked giant a green paint job. Of course, it's not your common or garden green paint. Oh no, it's actually synthetic Kryptonite that'll give him one hell of an edge when he comes face to face with The Man Of Steel. Mokkari and Simyan report to their leader, who turns out to be... Darkseid, first seen having a stern word or two with Morgan Edge in a single panel last issue. He fares slightly better this issue, his stony visage being seen on screen for a whole TWO panels, with his dialogue spilling over to a third. Darkseid obviously has his doubts about Simyan and Mokkari's giant "uncontrollable organic murder machine".
"But we CAN control him mighty Darkseid!" protests Simyan.
Open mouth, insert foot!
Said giant promptly bursts out of his tank and starts rampaging around The Evil Factory. Simyan quickly grasps a "penetrator beam" and teleports the giant to The Project, where he locks horns with Superman straight away. In the heat of the battle his mask is displaced and his face is revealed. Superman is in fact battling a giant green Jimmy Olsen clone! This seems to be Kirby's version of a standard Jimmy Olsen trope. Numerous times in the pre-Kirby Olsen comics Jimmy would be transformed into some bizarre creature - werewolf, human porcupine, and perhaps most famously, Giant Turtle Boy (see cover image somewhere on this page).

A classic J.O. transformation from SPJO #53. Art by Curt Swan.

So it doesn't take long for Superman to be taken out by the not-so-jolly Green Giant Olsen. Fortunately The Project have a back-up plan. You know, just in case a Giant Green Kryptonite Enhanced Clone is transported into the heart of your project by an alien rival complex. The Newsboys (the originals, not the sons) rush to a top secret experiment they've had running within The Project. In a tank they've been growing a very special clone. "I am strong! Strong!" cries the mysterious clone from within his tank. "Let me out! My mission is to defend -- to protect! You face disaster! Let me out!" At which point he picks up a shield.
Yes, the Newsboys have cloned Captain America!
Ha! No they haven't! Remember the original Newsboys had a guardian called Jim Harper who was also a costumed hero called, er, The Guardian? Well, that's who they've cloned. The Guardian lives again and is ready for battle! As they say on TV, "To Be Continued..."
Kirby's story barrels along throwing out ideas left, right and centre. It rushes by, leaping effortlessly over a few plot holes such as the Superman clone thing. The art, inked by Vince Colletta is prime Kirby, although Al Plastino (and possibly Murphy Anderson) was still making some alterations to bring Superman and Jimmy closer to DC's house style. More threads of the great epic tapestry to come are woven into place. We know now this tale is cosmic in scale with the revelation that the Evil Factory and it's master Darkseid are from another planet called Apokalips. And there are hints of much greater things to come...
Next time on Fourth World Thursday - - things are still decidedly weird as we move away from Jimmy Olsen to encounter - The Forever People!
And coming soon... Muck Monster Monday!
See you soon,
Steve

FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - "BEWARE! PREPARE FOR EVENTS NEW TO ALL YOUR PAST EXPERIENCES!"

And we're back...

The second (published) chapter of the Fourth World saga picks up where the first left off, with Olsen and his new biker gang getting ready to head out on the highway to find the mysterious Mountain Of Judgement.

But first a word from our sponsor.  "Beware! Prepare for events new to all your past experiences! This is the strange assignment upon which Jimmy Olsen and his young friends of the Newsboy Legion have embarked! Come to the wild area -- the sub-world of bizarre sub-cultures. Like the Outsiders -- who live with a secret -- the awesome deadly secret Jimmy Olsen hopes to ferret out -- Jimmy Olsen must come to grips with The Mountain Of Judgement!"

So runs the first caption on the opening page of this story. As I've said before, Kirby had a real way with words. Sometimes it's just not the right words. "Prepare for events new to all your past experiences!" Huh? What does that even mean?

Oh well, back to the story...

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 cover by Neal Adams

Olsen, The Newsboy Legion and the Outsiders are ready to set off to find the Mountain Of Judgement when Super-Drag... I mean Superman butts in and starts to try to talk them out of it, suggesting it would be certain death or them. Looks like Supes knows more than he's letting on...

He doesn't get very far before one of the Outsiders decides enough is enough and tries to run the Kryptonian down with his motorcycle. A rocket powered motorcycle to be sure, but this is Superman we're talking about. Still, it gives another Outsider a chance to grab a convenient bazooka and fire a shell at him. A shell full of Kryponite gas! Hold on just a moment, here! Last issue a Kryponite ray-gun, now shells of K-gas? Did they just stockpile Kryptonite weapons in case of an invasion of Kryptonians? But wait! Our bazooka firing Outsider claims the weapons actually belong to the "Hairies". "And what are the Hairies?" asks Superman.

Time for another session of "Tell It To Auntie"...  
Yes, it's one of those awkward exposition scenes. Yango (remember him from last issue? The one that suddenly decided that Jimmy Olsen was his new leader?) explains to Supes that the "Hairies" were the original creators of Habitat, The Wild Area and the Kryptonite weapons. Then one day they just vanished, abandoning everything. He keeps on explaining all of this while beating on Superman, even after the Kryptonian loses consciousness and is being carried off. Who are you REALLY telling, Yango? Superman or the reader? Is this a case of the Fourth World breaking the Fourth Wall?

Anyway, with the Big Blue Boy Scout (and the exposition) out of the way, Olsen, the Newsboys and the Outsiders take to the road in search of the Zoomway, a mysterious road that supposedly leads to The  Mountain Of Judgement.  The road they're taking appears to be a dead end ending in a rock wall, but acting on his gut instinct, Jimmy guns the Whiz Wagon's motor, aims straight at the cliff face...

A nightmare of kaleidoscopic form and..er black & white

...and tears through a fake wall onto a futuristic looking highway.  Not any old highway, this is the Zoomway. And it's full of dangerous traps which gradually whittle down the contingent. Loose rocks come flying at them. A giant gap in the road. A water filled tunnel (well, they need something for Flippa Dippa to do). And then, they activate a bizarre psychedelic light show, making it impossible to see the road ahead. Kirby informs us that "Jimmy Olsen and The Newsboy Legion and their Whiz Wagon careening madly through a nightmare of kaleidoscopic form and color!" Quite apart from that caption not quite making sense ("careen" would have better than "careening"), the freaky light show is portrayed by one of Kirby's patented cosmic photo-collages - in black and white(!). Fortunately the Whiz Wagon is equipped with radar, enabling them to stay on the road. By the time they pass through the cosmic mind-trip the Outsiders have all fallen by the wayside leaving just Jimmy and the Newsboys.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I mean Habitat, Superman has recovered from his beating earlier in the issue and sets off in hot pursuit of the youngsters. Just in time too, because they have found the Mountain Of Judgement and it's heading straight towards them! Turns out the MOJ is a gigantic (and I do mean gigantic) missile carrier that been disguised as a oriental dragon to terrify intruders.

The Mountain Of Judgement revealed!

Supes dives down and pulls the Whiz Wagon out of the path of the MOJ but both are pulled into the maw of the "dragon" by a powerful magnetic force. No sooner are they inside, then a group of hippies, the mysterious "Hairies", reveal themselves and start searching the Whiz Wagon for... a bomb! Which they finally find hidden inside the vehicle's TV camera. Aha! So that was Morgan Edge's ulterior motive all along. Use Olsen and Co. to find the "Hairies" and blow them up! Good job Superman's tagged along, as he takes the brunt of the explosion, leaving everybody unharmed! Jude, the elected leader of the "Hairies" thanks the superhero, saying "You know our story! We seek only to be left alone - to use our talents to develop fully!"
To which Superman tellingly replies "Yes I've been let in on your top secret file!"
Uh, Superman? Just a few pages back you DIDN'T know about them! You had to ask the Outsiders about them, remember? Or was that just to goad Yango into giving the readers a bit of exposition?

Darkseid's 1st appearance. In one panel of an issue of Jimmy Olsen.

And who are the mysterious unseen enemies of the "Hairies"? Morgan Edge and his cronies in Intergang, obviously. But wait! There's a last minute reveal. Old Morgan has a boss, and he is NOT happy. He's also not human! He is in fact, as we'll soon find out, a god. And not a good god, either! His name is Darkseid and he is destined to become one of the major villains of the DC universe. And his first appearance? ONE minor panel in an issue of Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. How ignoble a beginning!
Still, more hints of Kirby's great cosmic epic to come and another of the major players is now on the board. Maybe we won't find out much about Darkseid for a while, but when we do...
Oh, and  it's pronounced Dark-SIDE, not Dark-SEED in case you were wondering.
Next time on Fourth World Thursday - things get even weirder!
See you soon!

 

FOURTH WORLD THURSDAY - "GO! GO! GO! VUDU! DEATH IS FAST! DEATH IS LOUD! DEATH IS FINAL!"

"KIRBY IS HERE!" announced the cover of "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen" #133, or as the logo proclaimed "Superman's Ex-Pal the New Jimmy Olsen". And so it begins...

Jack Kirby made his DC debut in August 1970. The story goes that Kirby had boasted that he could take the worst selling title of the DC line and make it a best-seller. Well, why let the truth get in the way of a good story? What actually happened was that Kirby asked to be assigned to a title that had no regular creative team so not to put anybody out of a job. The title he got? “Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen”.

Kirby's cover to Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133

Probably not the title he was hoping for, but “The King” took over the Superman spin-off title with issue #133 and immediately started to weave together the threads of his great cosmic tapestry. There are very few hints of the great epic to come in this first episode, although it does introduce the Daily Planet's new owner Morgan Edge and the crime syndicate known as "Intergang", both of whom we'll find have connections to the cosmic opera about to unfold.

Incidentally, although this was Kirby's first published work since his return to DC, it wasn't the first written or drawn. That honour belongs to the first issue of "The Forever People", which we'll come to in due course.  Anyway, back to Jimmy Olsen.
Morgan Edge sends our favourite cub reporter to meet up with the sons of the 1940s kid-gang-come-crimefighters “The Newsboy Legion”.

Who? Well, the original Newsboy Legion had had their own feature (initially written and illustrated by Kirby and his partner Joe Simon) in the pages of “Star-Spangled Comics” in the 1940s. The foursome, Scrapper (who liked a good fight), Gabby (who talked a LOT), Big Words (who used a lot of... well, you figure it out) and Tommy (who... er, was called Tommy) were orphans who lived in the aptly named Suicide Slum, scraping a living by selling newspapers (and occasionally acting as kid reporters). After one scrape too many with the law, the lads were threatened with reform school, until kindly local cop Jim Harper took them under his wing and became their legal guardian. Shortly afterwards Harper ran afoul of some hoodlums and was beaten to a pulp. When he recovered, Harper went after the thugs, in the guise of a costumed superhero called... The Guardian. With help from the Newsboys, The Guardian brought the criminals to justice. But although the Newsboys suspected that their guardian was in fact THE Guardian, they could never prove it.

Anyway, thirty years later, a new Newsboy Legion consisting of Scrapper Jr., Gabby Jr., Big Words Jr. and Tommy Jr. are the reason that Edge sends Olsen to Suicide Slum. Oh, and the Legion has also gained a fifth member. The original Legion were four white kids. Kirby obviously decided to mix it up a little by adding a lad of Afro-American origin, the scuba diving Flippa Dippa (or, occasionally, Flipper Dipper). Good job his dad wasn't around in the forties. Flippa Dippa Junior would have been a bit of a mouthful. Bizarrely, even his father calls him Flipper Dipper (or is it Flippa Dippa?). But I digress...

Turns out Big Words has designed an all-purpose vehicle he calls "The Whiz Wagon". The shifty Morgan Edge has financed the construction of this ugly amphibious, flying car in exchange for Olsen and the Newsboys undertaking an assignment for The Daily Planet. The mission is to find a bizarre hippy society (hey it was 1970, after all) in a strange land known only as "The Wild Area". And just where is this strange, lost land? Er... just outside Metropolis. Well, they couldn't have been looking TOO hard for it then, could they?
Now, the dodgy Edge has an ulterior motive for sending Olsen and the Newsboys to search for the Wild Area that becomes apparent an issue or two down the line. For now, we have to take him at his word that the reason he's sending the youngsters is because the Wild Area's inhabitants, the "Hairies", won't trust anybody over the age of thirty. As Edge says to Clark Kent "It's a generation gap type of scene, you know". Now Edge, in his infinite wisdom, decides that Kent and Superman are old friends, and doesn't want Supes involved, so contacts the mysterious crime syndicate "Intergang" to arrange an "accident" for Kent, who is promptly run down as he leaves the Daily Planet. Boy, that didn't take long to organise did it? And surely, knowing Kent is a friend of Superman, the last thing you'd want is the Kryptonian investigating Kent's supposed accident. I don't think you really thought that through Morgan, baby! Of course, Kent survives (being Superman and all) and promptly hides himself away in his apartment to "recuperate". Meaning, of course nobody's going to wonder where Kent is while Superman follows Jimmy to the Wild Area.

Iron Mask and Vudu - Dr. Doom is consulting his lawyers!

So the youngsters arrive in The Wild Area and bump into a couple of biker-types called Iron Mask (hang on, wasn't he an old villain from Kid Colt, Outlaw?) and Vudu. Our pair of Dr. Doom rejects (see left), seem to be impressed by the Whiz Wagon. "I like that set of wheels they're driving, Vudu", says Iron Mask. "When my hand drops - - plow in on them!"
"Your word is law, my commandant", replies Vudu. "The Outsiders take what they want!"
In they charge, with Iron Mask yelling "GO! GO! GO! Vudu! Death is fast! Death is loud! Death is Final!". Man, Kirby had a real way with words didn't he?
One short fight later, Olsen decks Iron Mask with a roundhouse right. Next thing you know, the rest of the Outsiders ride up, take one look at the situation and make Olsen their new chief. "That's our leader you just zonked, hero" says one biker.
"So," says another, who we'll later find out is called Yango, "According to our code - - that makes you our new leader!"
So Superman finally catches up with Jimmy. And Jimmy promptly orders the Outsiders to take him down! Which they do with a handy dandy (and very convenient!) Kryptonite powered ray-gun. Looks like old Morgan Edge was right about that generation gap!

HABITAT - Looks like a cool place to live!

When Supes comes round, Olsen apologises, but tells him that he'll not let anyone stop him get the story he's after. Turns out that The Wild Area, and the bizarre "Habitat" tree-city (a masterpiece of Kirby design that you can see over there on the right) are just minor mysteries. Olsen's real assignment is to find the Mountain Of Judgement (hereafter referred to as the MOJ). What exactly the MOJ is, is unexplained as yet. As Yango says, "Man, you don't grab it! The mountain-- I-it's not like a place! I-it's more like a thing! Like Moby Dick! You go out and meet it - and die!"
At which point the ground trembles. The MOJ is on the move. Jimmy orders the Outsiders to get their motors running. They're off to hunt down the MOJ. And as they're heading out, Olsen warns Superman not to stop them. And that's where this first chapter ends. The Fourth World saga has begun. Not with a bang, but certainly not a whimper either!
Kirby's art is at it's peak here, although DC executives decided that his versions of Superman and Olsen didn't quite meet the DC house style and had many of the figures touched up by Al Plastino. The plot is typical Kirby of the period. It thunders along, maybe not quite making sense at times, with some ideas disposed of in a couple of panels, that writers today would spend a four or six part mini series on. It's crazy, but great entertainment.
Next time on Fourth World Thursday or Friday  - things start to get weird!

IT'S FOURTH WORLD FRIDAY!!! (A DAY EARLY!)

My favourite of all of the prodigious output by the late Jack "King" Kirby has always been his meisterwork, the so-called "Fourth World" trilogy (technically a tetralogy). I realised the other day that Kirby was 53 when it started publication for DC Comics, the same age I am now.

Jack's departure from Marvel Comics in 1970 to go to their biggest competitor DC shook the industry. It was if John Lennon had left the Beatles to join The Rolling Stones. Kirby had been one of the lynchpins of Marvel the Lennon to Stan Lee's McCartney (maybe with Steve Ditko in the George Harrison role). 

It was while at Marvel that Kirby came up with the idea of a major epic storyline detailing a great war between two races of gods, with Earth as the battleground.

It has been suggested that Kirby originally intended to set up his new concept in the pages of Thor. Asgard would fall in Ragnarok, and out of the chaos two worlds would form - one of light, one of darkness.

When he left Marvel, he took his new concepts with him. At DC, he planned to tell his story across three new titles, "The New Gods", "The Forever People" and "Mister Miracle" whilst also taking over the already existing title "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen". 

As an aside, Kirby, as always ahead of his time, conceived the notion of serialising the storyline in the comics, later collecting them in book form. Although a familiar concept in European (but not British) comics, it was a whole new way of thinking for the American market. Sadly it never came to fruition. It was another 10-15 years before the idea of the Trade Paperback or Graphic Novel would develop in the US market. In addition, sales on the new titles didn't reach expectations and one by one the series were cancelled, leaving the grand saga unfinished.  Kirby continued at DC, creating Kamandi and the Demon along with other shorter lived series.  But back to The Fourth World...

 It could be said that each of the four books showed the great conflict from a different perspective. "New Gods" showed the seasoned warriors in action, primarily the god Orion. "The Forever People" showed the eager young recruits, not yet scarred by battle. "Mister Miracle" is the conscientious objector. And "Jimmy Olsen" (and also the non-Kirby "Lois Lane" to a lesser extent) tied the book to the rest of the DC Universe and showed some of the effects of the war on Earth. And it was there in the pages of "Superman's, Pal Jimmy Olsen" that we saw the first seeds of Kirby's magnum opus.

So that's where we will start our issue by issue look at "The Fourth World" next time, with "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen" # 133.

DITKO'S STRANGE WORLD

Up to now, this blog has primarily focused on reprints of newspaper strips. I'm not sure why that is, apart from the number of excellent collections that have come out recently. So today I'm going to look at four recent books featuring the work of the legendary comics artist Steve Ditko. As I've already said in a previous blog entry, I'm a huge fan of Ditko's work, and while he's best known for his work on Spider-Man and Doctor Strange for Marvel (both of whom he co-created), The Creeper for DC and Captain Atom for Charlton there is far more to him than superheroes.

First up is Stranger And Stranger: The World Of Steve Ditko. Unlike the other books here this is not a collection of Ditko's stories, but a work tracing the life and career of one of comics most mysterious creators. The book's author Blake Bell has done an exemplary job of telling the tale of the notoriously reclusive artist, from his early days in the comics industry studying under Jerry Robinson, through his breakthrough with Charlton Comics, the heady days of the early Marvel Bullpen, his departure for DC comics, up to his self-published (with Robin Snyder) Steve Ditko's Packages of the late 1990s. Bell delves into Ditko's fascination with the writings of Ayn Rand and explores how the influance of books like The Fountainhead affected the artists later career and his relationship with comic fandom. Lavishly illustrated with page after page of Ditko art from all stages of his career, and with quotes from many of the people he worked with in the industry this book is a must for anyone with an interest in comics most celebrated and yet unknown artists.

Next, also from Fantagraphics and Blake Bell, is the superb Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1 which I mentioned in a previous blog entry. This book was compiled by Bell and collects Ditko's earliest work for publishers such as Prize, Gilmor, Ajax/Farrell, Timor and, of course, Charlton. The majority of the stories collected here fall firmly into the horror vein, with tales taken from titles such as The Thing, This Magazine Is Haunted and Strange Suspense Stories. Some science fiction stories are also present from the pages of Space Adventures, while Racket Squad In Action, Crime And Justice and Blazing Western give us... well, crime and western tales. Nearly all of this material predates the introduction of the Comics Code Authority in October 1954, the sole exception being a humour piece Car Show taken from a 1955 issue of From Here To Insanity. This means that much of this material is more visceral than the stories many are familier with from the early 1960s although still tame by todays standards. The reproduction is stunning, showing off Ditko's detailed artwork at its finest. Check out the infamous electric chair cover to Strange Suspense Stories # 19, a detail of which is used as the cover to this collection (see right). Or the cover to Space Adventures # 12 with is EC inspired cover (see left). And while the art is all prime Ditko, here and there he does let his influences show through. For example Die Laughing from The Thing #13 has a few layouts and panels inspired by the legendary Will Eisner, while Cinderella from The Thing #12 has a very Mort Meskin feel. This is one of the finest collections of Ditko's work out there, and while it may not be as familier as his work on Spider-Man, Doctor Strange or indeed those mystery shorts he did for Marvel books such as Strange Tales and Amazing Fantasy, it's all classic Ditko. Buy it now, and pre-order volume 2, hopefully due in August this year.

As a quick aside, Ditko's Eisner influance would also show up in his work on Marvel's Doctor Strange strip. The first Dr. Strange story from Strange Tales #110 has some very Eisneresque panels. And that distinct window in the good Doctor's Sanctum Sanatorum bears more than a passing resemblence to the one in Denny Colt's Wildwood Cemetery hideaway. But I digress...

Fantagraphics set the bar high with Strange Suspense, and IDW's The Art Of Ditko collection only just falls short of the other books high standards. Compiled by Craig Yeo for IDWs Yeo Books imprint, this collection concentrates on Ditko's work from the 1960s. With the Comics Code at the height of it's influance the stories here are tamer than those in the Fantagraphics book, while Ditko's artwork is a little less detailed, more akin to his superhero work for Marvel and DC, than his earlier, detailed horror work. Along with numorous examples of Ditko's work from Charlton titles from the sixties, there are reproductions of original art pages from his work with Marvel and DC.
One advantage this collection has over the Fantagraphics volume is that it is oversized, allowing the reader to really appreciate Ditko's stylised art.
While not quite reaching the heights of Strange Suspense, The Art Of Ditko is still an essential purchase for Ditkologists everywhere.


Finally, DC Comics have also brought out a Ditko collection , this one devoted to his work on the superhero strip The Creeper. This volume contains all of the Creeper stories Ditko had a hand in, starting with the characters debut in the pages of DC's tryout comic, Showcase.
For those unfamilier with him, The Creeper was originally introduced in Showcase #73 (1968), which told the tale of outspoken Gotham City talk show host Jack Ryder, gunned down by gangsters when he used his TV show to take a stance against organized crime made him a target. Mortally wounded by the mob, Ryder's life was saved by a scientist who gave him an experimental serum that granted him powers of super-agility. Disguising himself in a bizarre costume, Ryder took on the persona of The Creeper and sought retribution.
After that single tryout issue, The Creeper was quickly given his own title, "Beware The Creeper" the first six issues of which are presented here. Ditko walked off the title having drawn only eleven pages of that sixth issue, with Jack Sparling pitching in to fill out the issue. In fact it looks to me that Sparling may have redrawn those first eleven pages although some of the layouts certainly look like Ditko. The reclusive artist returned to the Creeper in 1975 for another tryout book, First Issue Special #7, and then again in 1978 for a series of backup stories in World's Finest Comics #249-255. All those stories are collected here along with a real treat - a story originally intended for a revival of Showcase but scrapped when that title was suddenley cancelled in the infamous D.C. Imposion of 1978. Instead the story was used in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, an extremely limited edition collection of material left unpubished, especially compiled by D.C. for copyright reasons. Only a few dozen copies were published, although bootleg copies allegedly exist.
Ditko's art on the earlier Creeper stories is not unlike his later work for Marvel on Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, while his 1970's return to the character exemplifies his looser, simpler style that would also be seen on his later return to Marvel on series such as Machine Man. The stories themselves, written by up and coming talent such as Denny O'Neil and Michael Fleisher are for the main part fairly standard superhero fare, although the earliest stories are slightly more quirky than the standard late 1960s DC superhero title.
All in all, not the most essential of Ditko's work, but certainly well worth a look.
I'll be back soon with more recommendations.
Be seeing you!