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JIMMY OLSEN #133 / Nov’70 “Jimmy Olsen Brings Back The Newsboy Legion”
Someone (?) at DC wanted Jack to do SUPERMAN-- or at least, A Superman book-- right? Was it that JO was losing its then-regular team, or did it have the lowest sales, and this was a way of showing what Jack could do, take ANY lousy piece of junk and turn it into a success? (He had tried that before with GREEN ARROW, heh.)
I believe the Superman line in general was being, or about to be, revamped about that time. Any knowledge one way or the other? I find it wild that such a MAJOR change as transferring Clark Kent from his NEWSPAPER office to becoming a TV ANCHORMAN should happen first in, of all places, "SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN". Did it never even occur to anybody at DC to change to NAME of that book, at least, to something less unwieldy, like, say... "JIMMY OLSEN"?
I love how Jack had fun with the book's hokey title, plastering "Superman's EX-PAL, Jimmy Olsen" on several covers, and later, on the inside, "Jimmy Olsen's Pal, Superman". THAT's putting big blue in his place!
How likely-- or believable-- was it really, to have a newspaperman suddenly become-- AGAINST HIS WISHES-- a TV anchorman? Was his boss aware of his dual identity? We know he had ultirior motives for much of what he did. After all, in Jack's very 1st issue, the guy tries to have Clark Kent KILLED by having him run down by a car. What kind of management-employee relationship was this?
Morgan Edge-- apparently-- was NOT meant to be a clone (as later revealed), despite all the focus on clones in so many of these issues. He was supposed to be a VILLAIN, period. Why did DC back off from this? In a way, Edge (or whichever real-life person may have inspired him) may have been the inspiration for the villain in the James Bond movie, "TOMORROW NEVER DIES". That title doesn't make any sense, by the way. You can tell because it was originally gonna be "Tomorrow Never LIES", a reference to the name of the newspaper, "Tomorrow".
The Whiz Wagon naturally reminds one of the "next generation" of the Fantasti-Car. While John Buscema was stripping the edges off the vehicle in the FF book (to make it easier to draw-- WHAT OTHER possible reason could there have been?), Jack was unveiling what Johnny Storm PROBABLY would have, if Stan hadn't been so insistent on POINTLESSLY giving him heartbreak by coming up with a totally-contrived reason for Crystal to no longer be able to stay in NYC. Stupid SOAP-OPERA writing!
MY question in all this is... WHAT is the point-- if any-- of The NEW Newsboy Legion? Teaming a "Newsboy Legion" with a reporter like Jimmy sounds like an idea that works when you say it, but not when you try to think it thru. Plus, there's TWO "Newsboy Legions" in this story. The new kids, who, AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, don't sell newspapers-- and the originals, who no longer do that either, as-- against any rational expectations-- they've ALL become genetic scientists. HUH????? Also, is it reasonable at all to call the originals the "fathers" of the younger ones? Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this. After all... it's "just" a JIMMY OLSEN comic!
Now, let's get to the cover. "JIMMY JOINS A BIKER GANG!" might have made a better title. It would have fit in perfect in Uncle Mortie's run, wouldn't it? Meanwhile, while one may "gun" an engine, it would have made more sense for Jimmy to say "RUN him down", as that's what you do to pedestrians. An earlier, unpublished version of the cover had someone HOLDING a gun, and in that case, "GUN him down" would have made sense... but only if it shot energy rays or kryptonite bullets.
I'd also like someone to explain how those bikes are TURNING to the right in mid-air after they leave the take-off ramp.
Annnnnnnnnnnd... WE'RE OFF!
Registered: Aug 2003
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JIMMY OLSEN #133 / Nov’70 “Jimmy Olsen Brings Back The Newsboy Legion” (Part 2)
Yesterday, I did an off-the-cuff review of JIMMY OLSEN #133... without actually bothering to RE-READ the thing.
This morning, before I even put on the TV, I dug out the 1st volume of JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES from 2003, and re-read the 1st episode. With help from the list in AMAZING HEROES, I got ahold of most of the Fourth World books back in the early 80's (before NEW GODS was reprinted), but I never quite tracked down several of the books. This included the first 2 JIMMY OLSENs. Most frustrating. Starting to read with the 3rd episode is like walking into a 2-hour movie 40 MINUTES LATE. I finally managed to read the 1st episode when it was reprinted in SUPERMAN IN THE 70's (2000), but they only included the 1st one, not the 2nd.
What a JOLT this must have been. As awkward & stilted as the book's regular logo was, it got worse when the words "EX-" and "THE NEW" were added, making it "SUPERMAN'S EX-PAL, THE NEW JIMMY OLSEN". Of course, that wasn't the REAL name of the book... You know, these 2 JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES books actually show how good a JO cover can look when it isn't bogged down by "too much", and when the "SUPERMAN'S PAL" sub-loto is removed.
Jack tosses the readers into the deep end RIGHT from page 1! No prologue, no segue, no symbolic splash, no preparation of any kind. Jimmy's in a garage in a slum neighborhood, where, INEXPLICABLY, he's having a meeting with a group who are-- GET THIS!-- the SONS of THE NEWSBOY LEGION, a group of kids who had adventures in the early 1940's. I suppose in a JIMMY OLSEN books, "unlikely" is NEVER a consideration. I mean, think about it-- 4 guys who are friends, all have kids, and the 4 kids ALL hang out as friends 30 years later. Only in the DC Universe?
It gets stranger, because one of them has designed a vehicle that would give The Fantastic-Car a run for its money-- "THE WHIZ WAGON". It's quickly explained that Jimmy's new boss, media mogul Morgan Edge, on seeing the plans, had the car BUILT, and offers it as a gift to its designer, IF the "story" he sends them & Jimmy out to get works out. Strange-- but not completely inconceivable.
Shock follows shock, as we learn the Daily Planet has been BOUGHT by Edge (yes, the day of "corporate buy-outs" had arrived). Edge is a DEAR RINGER for Kevin McCarthy, and if you've ever seen him in the Weird Al Yankovic film "UHF", you have a good idea what this guy is like. (Funny thing, that movie came out 19 YEARS after this comic.)
There's a lot of set-up in this initial episode, and a number of mysteries tossed out which aren't explained right away (or even in this issue at all). Like, WHAT is Edge after when he sends Jimmy & these teenagers on what apparently is a DANGEROUS story? Clark Kent, who comes across as a nice guy here (what else), shows concern, and the immediate result is Edge calling up "INTER-GANG" (shades of 8TH MAN and "INTER-CRIME"!) and putting out an order to have Kent BUMPED OFF! Is this any way to treat the "star reporter" of a newspaper you JUST acquired?? Shocklingly, Clark Kent becomes the victim of a viscious, deliberate HIT-AND-RUN... but while a crowd of onlookers is astonished that he wasn't killed, he's so focused on what happened and why, he doesn't even attempt to come up with the usual lame-A** excuse.
In the tradition of Jules Verne's "The Terror", the WHIZ WAGON proves itself capable of operating on land, in the air, and in the water! (I don't believe the Fantasti-Car was ever shown having the latter ability.) It's arrival and immediately being spied upon reminds me a bit of the scene in "RETURN OF THE MOLE MAN" (seen on TV as "MENACE OF THE MOLE MAN") when the F.F. arrive at that island. Quickly, our heroes are under attack, and wind up in a life-or-death struggle. I might take this a bit more seriously, except I'm trying to figure out WHY the BLACK kid goes around wearing a scuba-diving suit-- ALL THE TIME. Maybe he has a super-hero fixation?
It is almost funny when 2 outlandish BIKERS named "Yango" and "Flek" show up, and when Jimmy insists on talking to their leader, he's told it was their leader he just beat the CRAP out of! And so... JIMMY is now their leader. That's right! "JIMMY OLSEN-- BIKER GANG LEADER!" Hey, maybe this isn't so different from all those earlier issues of this book after all?
Clark switches to his Superman identity, and exhibits a talent I've never seen him use in ANY other story-- using his "heat vision" to trace "after-images" of things, like the WHIZ WAGON. Anybody know-- has this talent EVER turned up in ANY other comics, before or since?
Supes discovers an hidden entrance to an underground tunnel (straight out of BUCK ROGERS or THE TIME TUNNEL), and then encounters some very peculiar characters. I'm a bit confused as to the topgraphy, as it seems there's grass and plants underground, but the way the sky is colored, it looks like he's still outside. First there's some "hippie" type who's meditating, then a pair of soldiers hunting hippies, who-- and I find this hilarious-- mistake HIM for one of them, who just happens to be wearing a "Superman" suit.
Things get all crazy when the BIKE GANG arrives, and like a scene right out of "THE WILD ONE" with Marlon Brando, they ride in circles around Supes, stopping only to reveal that Jimmy's is the one in charge. It's at this point big blue develops a REALLY bad attitude. there's an entire website devoted to the theme of "Superman Is A Dick", showcasing endless examples of how badly the big "S" has treated Jimmy (and just about every other "friend" he's ever had in his long history), and it gives one the impression of some seriously BAD relationships. Presumably, Supes & Jimmy have known each other for HOW long by now? --yet, Supes comes across with the attitude that Jimmy is TOTALLY out of his depth, and ONLY HE (Superman) can handle-- WHATEVER it is they're looking for (even though, at this point, almost nobody seems to have any idea what that might be).
Al Plastino seems to have goofed up on page 18, as Supe's EYES are wide open even though it's clear the guy has been knocked unconscious by Kryptonite gas!
On page 20, we see "The Habitat", a small town built entirely out of GIGANTIC tree trunks. I've always figured Metropolis was on the East Coast, but this would make more sense if it was taking place on the WEST coast. In fact, the whole thing with hippies and bikers feels like a West Coast thing, especially as that's where Jack & Roz were living when he was doing this story. I've actually SEEN a mobile home built into the trunk of a giant redwood tree. THEY EXIST! Kirby took this to further extremes, obviously.
What's interesting is Supes' comment, "I can't conceive of a DROPOUT SOCIETY being THAT industrious!" As "Big Words" explains, it was built by someone else we haven't seen yet, and the bikers just took it over. As Supes leans against the wall and says, "Go on--" you can just SEE the "attitude" on his face. Only Yango has a clue what they're looking for, and this makes Supes exclaim, "I'm more the ever CONVINCED that it's my duty to do everything to STOP you." What a JERK! Or... is it possible he knows MORE than he's letting on???
It took me so long to get my hands on the whole thing, but when I did, I was completely blown away. This story does not read like any normal, average kind of comic-book or comic-book serial. It doesn't feel like anyone else's type of multi-part story. It actually reads like A MOVIE!! But this only becomes obvious when you've read all 6 parts. This wasn't the last time Jack managed something like this, either. I got the same feel of reading a "MOVIE" with the first 5 chapters of the "MADBOMB" story, the first 6 issues of CAPTAIN VICTORY, and the 6 issues of SILVER STAR. In effect, these stories could easily be turned into feature films-- AS IS.
The cover used was re-worked and re-worked, and an earlier, unused version actually turned up as the cover of JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES Vol.2 (but would have made more sense on Vol.1!). On that, Yango is pointing a GUN at Superman, so when Jimmy says, "GUN him down!", it makes MORE SENSE. All the changes and endless fix-ups, and somehow, someone at DC let the finished cover go out without fixing that ONE word on the cover so it would read, "RUN him down!" (which is what you DO to pedestrians).
I dug out my Fourth World comics today. It wasn't easy, there was about a 2-foot-high STACK of magazines piled up on top of it that I had to move first before I could open the long box. Anyway, it's free now. It was already several years ago I started a chronological re-reading of ALL the Jack Kirby comics in my entire collection, and after about a 2-YEAR break (not counting the time I spent reading early-70's Marvels AFTER Jack had left the company), I FINALLY got back to Kirby today.
One thing that surprised me, flipping thru a couple issues of JIMMY OLSEN... when the JO ADVENTURES books came out, I said I thought they looked BETTER than the originals. I take it back. The coloring is more intense, but while the line reproduction is VERY good, it's a BIT darker than the originals. So, yes-- the originals DO look better. If you ignore the paper slowly turning yellow.
Most of these comics I have only ver read ONCE, a little under 30 YEARS ago. Having read endlessly about them, in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, and at the Kirby-L yahoo group (now gone), I'm really looking forward to experiencing these again, now that I'm older and have a much more highly-developed sensibility with regards to art and writing-- especially the latter.
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quote: Someone (?) at DC wanted Jack to do SUPERMAN-- or at least, A Superman book-- right? Was it that JO was losing its then-regular team, or did it have the lowest sales, and this was a way of showing what Jack could do, take ANY lousy piece of junk and turn it into a success? (He had tried that before with GREEN ARROW, heh.)
In the Omnibus additional text (can't remember which forward or afterword), they said that Kirby didn't want to displace anyone, and Olsen was the only book without a regular team on it at the time.
I think DC certainly didn't want Kirby near Superman at all as they had him redrawn by another artist closer to "House" style in all of the early Olsen stories. Oy.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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I think you hit something with them being read like a movie. That might partly explain why I like Fourth World comics so much.
-------------------- Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
From: Illinois | Registered: Jun 2010
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Some years back, I noticed the SAME thing with Frank Thorne's GHITA OF ALIZARR. I loved his art and enjoyed the x-rated stuff, but wasn't too impressed when it was serialized in Warren's 1994 magazine. When I got ahold of the reprint collection, and was able to read the whole thing in one go, SUDDENLY, I was completely blown away by it. Rather than the individual episodes being plotted and paced to be read that way, it's almost as though the entire thing was paced out as ONE single thing, then (almost) arbitrarily cut up into 8-page sequences.
Registered: Aug 2003
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JIMMY OLSEN #134 / Dec'70 -- "THE MOUNTAIN OF JUDGEMENT!"
This was, ironically, the LAST issue of Jack Kirby's run of JIMMY OLSEN I got ahold of. I never found the first 2, and got the 1st one in SUPERMAN IN THE 70's (2000). 3 years later, JIMMY OLSEN ADVENTURES came out, and despite having all but one of the episodes already, I spring for both books. They turned out to be wonderful packages, and between having all the episodes in one place, NO ads, brighter paper, and no Golden Age reprints to get in the way, I enjoyed the run MUCH more than I had years earlier. (Of course, as of yesterday, I've confirmed it for myself, the line reproduction IS better in the originals-- but the difference isn't nearly as bad as 95% of Marvel's reprints over the years.
Once again, the cover reads "Superman's EX-Pal, The NEW Jimmy Olsen". It would go back to normal with the next issue, once this initial part of the "biker" storyline ended. It also has "A King-Sized KIRBY Blockbuster!" on the top. Was there anyone else at DC who got this kind of promotion? I keep reading how some of the old-timers who remembered the late 50's (or even the early-40's) felt resentment against Jack in general, for the special treatment & he & Joe Simon got way back when, for the way they TWICE failed to show "company loyalty", for the way Jack DARED to try standing up to Jack Schiff (who was screwing Jack out of money on the SKY MASTERS newspaper strip), and for the way Jack had done so much to make that miserable upstart of a company, Marvel, into such a TOP competitor. Having Jack back at DC, and having his NAME plastered in ads and on covers must have REALLY rubbed some of those guys the wrong way.
In a complete reversal from the wild kinetic energy of #133's cover, #134 is dark, moody and solemn. And for the 2nd issue in a row, I find the word balloons really work well. "Now our road is fast and clear!", says Jimmy. Not your average dialogue, but seeing as this story is centered on "counter-culture" types, very fitting. A LOT of people, in real life, talked "FUNNY" in the late 60's!! Check out any TV show from the period that did episodes about hippies or bikers for proof.
Looking at this cover, I can't help but wonder... would DC and its readers have been happier, in the long run, if Jack had done what he really wanted-- WRITING-- and NEAL ADAMS had done the art? (Let's face it, while Jack is one of the BEST-- and certainly most unique-- writers in comics, Neal is one of the WORST-- and teaming up 2 guys as different as they were might have had very interesting results.)
This is funny, but seeing those vehicles gathering on that huge tree stump on page 2 reminds me of part of The Batcave from the Tim Burton movies. Kinda dangerous place to park your car, if the brakes ever give out!
Once again, Superman sticks his nose in where it isn't wanted, and this time pays for it. He certainly DOES seem to know more than he's letting on, although as the story progresses, we find that there's a LOT about "The Wild Area" he DOESN'T know, and I suppose the differences are telling.
The 2nd panel on page 6, where Yango blasts Supes, is so slick, it almost reminds me of something Frank Giacoia might have done. Throughout this run, I feel, is some of the BEST-looking inks Vince Colletta ever laid down over Jack's pencils. Although, according to Mark Evanier, he had HELP on some episodes.
The scene on page 7 where the Whiz Wagon drives at full-speed right INTO the side of that mountain reminds me of 2 things I've seen in movies many years later. One, the scene in BUCKAROO BANZAI where he uses his "Oscillation Overthruster" to penetrate another dimension; and two, when Michael Keaton's BATMAN, with Vicki Vale in the passenger seat, drove into the Batcave.
From the moment they enter the underground road, "The Zoomway", the book becomes NON-STOP HIGH-SPEED action!!! The comparison I made to Jules Verne's "The Terror" (from the book MASTER OF THE WORLD) continues as we find the Whiz Wagon ALSO operates UNDER water! Reed Richards could have sure used a vehicle like this one-- might have saved him a lot of room taken up by all those different flying machines.
The photo-collages on pages 12-13 are nothing short of mind-blowing. The reproduction in the reprint book is INCREDIBLY clear. Usually, when Marvel would reprint something like this, it'd wind up looking even worse than it did the first time. I wonder if someone one of these days might take the trouble to re-photograph the collages (if they still exist) and actually print them IN COLOR? the only time I've seen this done so far was in the final issue of CAPTAIN VICTORY, and THE HUNGER DOGS.
A friend of mine, more than once, told he he "heard" that Jack Kirby "couldn't draw pretty women". Look at the first panel on page 14 to put the lie to THAT belief!!
I LOVE the sequence on pages 15-17 when Superman first encounters "THE MOUNTAIN OF JUDGMENT"!!! For the first time, Superman actually came in handy being around in this story. It becomes clear at this point that Supes DOES know some of what's going on, but obviously not all. After he saves everyone from the bomb, at last Jimmy shows some gratitude. Of course, it might have helped if Superman had CONFIDED in his "pal" a lot earlier than this. This attitude of his about being the "only one" who can handle certain things has continued and increased over the decades, to the point where under some writers, he's become insufferable. (Then again, that's nothing compared to what certain editors & writers have done to Batman. Remember when both those guys used to be LIKEABLE?)
After all these years, it finally hit me that "Hairies" is somewhat of a variation on the word "Hippies", except in this case referring to "hippies" who are super-geniuses.
It now becomes clear that the entire first 2 episodes were nothing less than a plot by Morgan Edge to DESTROY The Mountain Of Judgement (and possibly most of The Hairies as well), with no regard to how many others might get killed along the way (specifically, Jimmy & The Newsboy Legion). Superman seems VERY aware of this fact-- I'm wondering, will he DO anything about it?
From 1986 on, when SUPERMAN was completely rebooted from scratch, Lex Luthor was changed from being a scientific genius to the evil head of a corporation. Seems to me Jack Kirby beat Marv Wolfman to that by 15 years. Unlike the Post-Crisis Lex, who seems self-made, in this case, we find out Edge is working for someone else, who appears in exactly ONE tiny panel, on a tv screen... "DARKSEID".
As Jack says, "The outline of a VAST, OMINOUS intrigue begins to take shape!"
Apparently, the first thing Jack did when he started at DC was the first issues of his new books. But then, for "commercial" reasons, he was asked to do something that was a "sure thing" FIRST, to help justify his contract. Drastic changes to a series are often done when sales are plumetting, but often don't work out. I wonder, did sales of JIMMY OLSEN go up when Jack took over-- stay the same-- or continue to drop? The book DID continue after he left it... but not for that much longer (well, 15 more issues, I guess that's longer than some books' ENTIRE runs!).
[ June 13, 2011, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: profh0011 ]
Registered: Aug 2003
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Although the previous 2 issues feel like the end of a sequence, it’s really just the first part of a longer storyline. As Jack tells us on page 1, “They are just the top of the iceberg”. Before the 3rd chapter even starts, he hits us with “”FILE 202”. But what is it?
The first 4 pages of “EVIL FACTORY” serve as an amazing introduction to a pair of very bizarre characters, who are engaged in some kind of “genetic” research, and have somehow created miniaturized clones of Superman, Jimmy Olsen, and the Newboy Legion! I can almost see the first 2 but the 3rd? In somewhat of a replay of the CAPTAIN AMERICA episode “THEM!” from TALES OF SUSPENSE #78 / Jun’66, we see evil scientists creating their own forms of artificial life, wholesale, “to use as we wish!” Further, it’s clear they’re NOT from Earth, but are part of some advanced fifth column invasion. Unmasked, we find “Mokkari” looks like some kind of circus clown, while “Simyan” sort of resembles a Neanderthal man.
Returning to Superman, he, Jimmy & The Newboy Legion finally arrive at “The Project”, a top-secret government scientific military research installation straight out ot THE TIME TUNNEL. It’s very obvious Supes has been here before, which makes his lack of knowledge about some of the surrounding areas a bit odd. After trying to hard to keep Jimmy out (for his own good or just to maintain the top-top-secrecy that ONLY Superman could be trusted with?), Supes finally explains to Jimmy what’s going on. The Project is doing genetic research into DNA, and have discovered the means to create duplicates of any living being. It also seems The Hairies were among their early successes!
Still seemingly out-of-place (to my point-of-view, anyway), are the original NEWSBOY LEGION, now adults and all working at The Project in some advisory capacity. Big Words has become a geneticist, Gabby a teacher, Scrapper a social worker, Tommy a Medical Doctor. Since it’s not explained here, I’ll take a guess Big Words got involved as a scientist, and probably recruited his longtime friends to help “bring up” the results of their research. What also isn’t explained, however, is that their sons seem to have no knowledge of this. Maybe understandable, considering its top-secret nature, but we’re also never told where the boys are living or who’s taking care of them while all of their fathers are away, working at this secret installation.
One almost amusing moment is when Jimmy runs into a soldier who’s a clone of himself—and who doesn’t realize Jimmy is the original. When Supes introduces him as “Jimmy Olsen—Number One!”, I was reminded of “Bizarro No.1”. How very Mort Weisinger-ish. I must admit, the scene where the original Newsboys describe their jobs has to be the most “awkward” dialogue I have run across in this entire story so far. It ALMOST makes me suspect that THEY might not be the originals, either.
We learn the baddies are from some planet named “Apokalips”—and we get a more extended view of Darkseid, which makes it clear Morgan Edge and these guys are working for the same person. But Mokkari & Simyan must know Darkseid more intimately, as they’re seen bowing and grovelling before his televised image. “DARKSEID is hard, naked TRUTH!” “WHO can deny it?” “Yes. But who can deny the POWER of the OTHER side?” Holy cow—this sounds like a line right out of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK or RETURN OF THE JEDI—a decade early! “A GREAT lie can SMASH truth!” Sounds like this guy and Hitler have something in common.
The remainder of the episode has a oversized (and GREEN!) clone of Jimmy, programmed to KILL Superman, unleashed, and teleported to the heart of The Project. In response, Big Words and his friends decided to unleash a clone of their own—“The Golden Guardian”, a modern-day recreation of the Golden Age costumed hero The Guardian! I suppose Jack just can’t resist doing a hero who carries a shield. I just can’t help but think that both sets of Newsboys and The Guardian seem totally out of place in this story. I wonder how this might have gone over if Perfect Film hadn’t driven Jack away from Marvel into the arms of DC?
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JIMMY OLSEN #136 / Mar’71 – “THE SAGA OF THE D.N.ALIENS”
On the cover, a huge GREEN Olsen is slugging Superman, while the Newsboys look on. Flippa says, “Not even SUPERMAN can stop the GIANT JIMMY!” Now why does that make me think of pistachio ice cream?
On page 1 “The Project” is finally referred to BY that name. Also, the gasped “WOW!” is twice as big as the entire story title. Unless, of course, “The Saga Of The D.N.Aliens” was the overall story title, and “WOW!” was the name of this episode?
Another TWO-PAGE SPREAD on pages 2-3! And Supes is ALREADY out of the action, which, for once, makes this issue’s cover look like it’s really part of the story, since it seems to lead directly into pages 1-3. “KILL! DESTROY!” What—no “CRUSH!” ? Pages 4-5 are an interesting variation on Stan Lee-scripted fight scenes. There’s dialogue in every panel, but it’s the spectators doing it, not the combatants. The only words coming from the fight itself are, “KILL! KILL!” --which I suppose is more believable than some of the near-Shakespearean stuff spouted by characters when Lee is involved. The dialogue also serves to bring readers up to date on the story, which I guess is better than having them talk while just standing around, or having unnecesary flashbacks (or just long, long narration blocks).
The Jimmy green giant (somebody had to say it) sees the real Jimmy and is confused. Then Supes rescues his “pal”, but before The Guardian can get back in the brawl, it’s ended, instead, by a miniature “Scrapper” trooper. Scrapper himnself seems flattered at having a whole squad of micro-sized soldiers who all share his face. Tommy is more impressed by The Guardian. HEY—wouldn’t coating the giant with LIQUID NITROGEN certainly KILL him? (I suppose that’s what Lando Calrissian was worried about when Han Solo got covered in carbonite.)
We get to see more of Darkseid this time, despite his being limited to only 2 panels. He’s clearly not pleased that his FLUNKIES sent the giant to attack The Project without any planning of forethought—merely because it had gotten loose and was about to destroy THEIR “project” (and them with it). Somehow both Simyan & Mokkari seem “toned down” this issue—the one looking less brutish, the other less circus clown-like. Wha’ hoppen?
If the scale model of “The Project” is to be believed, it’s built in a huge cavern INSIDE a mountain, with “The Wild Area” and “Habitat” nearby. I got confused in an earlier episode, apparently when Superman first stepped into that tunnel, he came right back out again, as near as I can tell, “Habitat” is not underground. Page 14 shows the baddies have created their own slave labor force, presumably with little or no intelligence. Despots thruout history have gone to great elengths to limit the intelligence of their people, so they can more easily be “used” by the “masters”. It’s also clear in this episode that Darkseid intends to foment enough chaos so he can move in and take over the ENTIRE PLANET.
There is some weird stuff going on here with The Project that, if you think about it for more than two seconds, hardly gets delved into at all. The Newsboys don’t realize at first The Guardian is a clone, while the elder Tommy insists he’s “as REAL as the ORIGINAL”. Supes decides to give Jimmy a tour of The Project, despite a reporter being the very last thing the government would want snooping around. (Gee, they don’t know about Clark Kent, DO they?) Jimmy is surprised to figure out that Supes KNEW about The Project all along, and further, seems to have been involved from the very beginning. How long has this been going on? Talk about “retroactive continuity”—it’s like we’ve just stepped into a slightly-different version of “Earth-1” than the one that existed only a few months earlier.
The wall chart that reads “Normals”, “Step-Ups” and “Aliens” reminds me of the 3 races in THE ETERNALS—Man, Eternals, and Deviants. Except here, they’re all co-existing side-by-side, nicer and cozy. Maybe it’s his extra-terrestrial origins and long experience dealing with the unusual, but Supes really doesn’t seem to have any problem with The Project—EXCEPT, for what their “hidden enemy” might be making of it. It’s Jimmy (the star of the book, let’s not forget), who asks, “Do you realize what WEIRD, and perhaps DANGEROUS channels are being PROBED here?”
The last page shows the baddies watching their latest creation hatching. One hand—TWO. Suddenly—FOUR!! They weren’t expecting THAT! You know, this made me wonder... and sure enough, I checked the dates... This was the Mar’71 issue. The Sep’71 issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ended with HIM suddenly having 6 ARMS! Since it was specifically mentioned by Roy Thomas that THAT was Stan Lee’s idea, do you suppose Stan saw this and decided to out-do it?
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JIMMY OLSEN #137 / Apr’71 – “THE FOUR-ARMED TERROR!”
After 3 Neal Adams covers in a row, at last Jack does another one himself... although, like #133, Neal Adams once again inks Superman. “That ressurected rat-pack of rollicking rowdies” sounds like Jack is making fun of Stan Lee. Wouldn’t surprise me. That logo—and the corner pic of Jimmy & Supes—continue to drag down the overall look of these things. If they wanted a “NEW” JIMMY OLSEN, why on Earth didn’t they replace that logo the minute Jack took over?
The structure and pacing of this story almost reminds me of HALLOWEEN 4. We start out with the MONSTER on page 1. He’s heading for The Project. But he takes a good chunk of the issue before he gets there. And all the while, the tension mounts higher and higher.
A GREAT splash page—very moody, and which includes the phrase “the being with no name!”—is followed by a 2-page scene which finally brings back The Outsiders, Yango and Gandy. In a bit of dialogue I found particularly amusing, Yango says, “It looks like we ‘OUTSIDERS’ had better forget Olsen and elect a NEW leader! Too bad, though! Olsen was the best yet! --a real GROOVY cat!” Considering how at DC, JIMMY OLSEN had long been the epitomy of all that was hopelessly un-cool, that’s one heck of a compliment! The pair of bikers narrowly escape a brief encounter with the monster, before fleeing for their lives. Their bikes weren’t so lucky. “The WILD AREA’s getting wilder! LET’S SPLIT!” “We’ve got to alert everyone in HABITAT!” In a strange way, this scene reminds me of the story from the Bible of how, on Easter morning, a pair of Jesus’ followers had an encounter with him on the road, while he was on his way to see the full group later that night. Nobody believed their story—until he showed up. It’s probably just my own mind playing a funny trick on me here.
Back at The Project, Jimmy, Supes, the Newsboys and a group of Hairies take part in an experiment using a “Solar-Phone” which allows their minds to tune in directly to “radio signals from the stars”. Jack goes completely wild here, with 3 consecutive full-page panels followed by a 2-page spread, the last 3 pages of which all involve collage work! WHOA! This far-out “scene” is interrupted when tremors shake the entire complex, and Supes is alerted that The Project is apparently under attack. Although these issues seem to be structured as a set of 2-parters, overall, the story involving “The Project” can also be viewed as a 6-parter, broken down into 3 “acts”—with the 3rd act starting now.
As a good chunk of Habitat is destroyed via explosives and tremors, Superman races to the scene as fast as possible, determined to KEEP Jimmy & The Newsboys OUT of the action (and out of danger, but he’s not even trying to give them a chance, he’s just flaunting his power & attitude here). One thing’s sure, when Superman confronts and takes on the monster, it’s probably the single MOST-EXCITING fight scene the Man Of Steel has been involved in in any comic-book since the early-1940’s! NOBODY did ACTION as good as Kirby, and it was long past time for DC’s number-one costumed hero to go up against something that could really test his physical limits.
As the monster gets closer and closer to its goal—The Project’s NUCLEAR POWER facility—his progress is followed from afar by Mokkari & Simyan, who look forward to a chain-reaction taking out not only The Project, but the entire Wild Area as well, AND even the city of Metropolis! Once again, the geography of these locations is a bit confusing. In the first installment, The Wild Area seemed to be somewhere on the outskirts of Metropolis. At first, it appeared that Habitat AND The Project might both be underground, but the visuals went completely against this. Now, the area map and Simyan’s words seem to indicate that not only is everything underground, but that it all lies almost directly UNDERNEATH the city! What’s going on here?
While The Four-Armed Terror was initially a surprise to the pair at the “Evil Factory”, they’re now satisfied and ready, and look on as a small ARMY of identical creatures hatch from their “eggs”, all poised to “challenge humanity”. As Jack tells us, “The FINAL COUNTDOWN is on!!”
I can’t comment on this issue without mention of the fact that on many pages, the inks are VASTLY better than anything seen on the book so far. According to Mark Evanier, one of Vince Colletta’s assistants, Art Cappello, who usually did backgrounds, apparently did “much more than usual” on this story. IT SHOWS! Man, some of these pages (2, 3 and 21 in particular) look SO good, it makes me wish DC had gotten Art Cappello to ink the ENTIRE RUN!
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Professor, I think since Kirby was using alot of religious and mythological metaphors that the underground city may be a reference to hell. It could also be linked to the hollow Earth theories that were popular; especially with the Third Reich.
-------------------- Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
From: Illinois | Registered: Jun 2010
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I'm a bit frustrated that at the moment, Nick Simon's SILVER AGE MARVEL website continues to be offline. The people who "host" it have physically moved the equipment, and were suppoised to have it back up and running within 2 weeks. It's been over 2 MONTHS now. Nick doesn't know what's going on, he says they haven't been replying to his e-mails.
I mention this because one of the last things I set up there was a DON HECK page to display his NON-Marvel covers. As you might imagine, a page for JACK KIRBY's early-70's DC covers was also very much on my mind (as is one for his late-70's Marvel covers).
As I re-read these books and write reviews, I'm also scanning in covers & certain interior pages, and doing clean-ups as I go. I've been posting the restored images at a pair of Yahoo Groups, but that only works for people who are members of the groups.
To think, all this got kick-started because over at MASTERWORKS someone started a "Hunger Dogs" thread that consisted of nothing but vileness and hatred toward the book's creator.
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JIMMY OLSEN #138 / Jun’71 – “THE BIG BOOM!!”
Jack Kirby concocts the wildest JO cover yet, with a big image of Superman (once again, inked by Neal Adams) flying in front of a collage of machinery being blown to pieces in a big explosion, with a inset spotlighting Jack’s version of Jimmy. The text at the bottom really stands out: “Everybody’s in this one! It’s a BLAST! THE BIG BOOM” –the title being in a nice font that really pops off the cover and grabs your attention. The more ragged line at the top, however, “Don’t be chicken! Read all about Doomsday!”, I could have done without... and that logo and corner pic are STILL managing to drag the cover down and dilute its impact. (sigh)
With page 1, we’re plunged into high-tension CHAOS. Inside The Project, the original Newsboys, the new Guardian, and possibly every soldier on duty are all rushing around at once, hell-bent on reaching their Atomic Power Plant, which is under attack by The Four-Armed Terror, and is in danger of going up in a atomic EXPLOSION in just 15 minutes!
We get another 2-page spread on pages 2-3 (this really became a trademark of Kirby after awhile, and years later, was swiped by Mike Grell, who made it part of HIS repertoire as well, notably on his WARLORD series). Visually, I’m reminded of some of the shots from the pilot episode of THE TIME TUNNEL, except we get to see part of the cavern that this entire installation was built inside of. From this long-shot of the racing personnel carriers, we cut to follows another full-page shot showing them in close-up. THIS shot, oddly enough, calls to my mind an often-repeated shot from the 1978 tv series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, of the personnel carriers that ran on rails inside the collosal space ship, which transported the warriors from their quarters down to the Viper launch bays. The way Tommy is standing, with one arm stretched out and pointing in the direction they’re already going, also brings to mind a shot from the DOC SAVAGE movie, with Ron Ely in the same pose while standing on the car’s running board.
As the tension mounts, we get three pages of Superman, Jimmy & the new Newboys, trapped inside an organic “egg” which stretches in every direction but refuses to crack. At this point, Jimmy is becoming a bit annoyed at some of the Newsboys’ ideas of humor. (Maybe he was reflecting the annoyance of some fans—and DC editors?)
2 more pages—including another full-page shot—continue the building suspense as the monster gets ever closer and closer to its goal of total DESTRUCTION!
Superman figures out a very novel way of escaping from the egg. Jack seems to have been putting a lot more thought in Supers’ powers and ways he could utilize them than anyone had done for some years. I kept expecting he’d just use his HEAT VISION to burn a hole thru the thing. As soon as he’s free, he races ahead, once more leaving his colleagues behind, which annoys them no end.
At this point we get one page with an old friend, unseen in Jack’s story until this point—Perry White! Anyone who thinks Jack couldn’t draw pretty women should take a look at Terry Dean, ‘cause she’s a LOOKER. Since I don’t have any of the previous issues in the series (I can’t imagine myself getting my hands on them for ANY reason—can you?), I have to guess she was someone introduced not long before Jack took over the series, as she seems to know Jimmy, but only recently. From what she tells Perry, he figures out that Jimmy has disappeared on the orders of new Daily Planet owner Morgan Edge—and given Edge’s reputation for ruthlessness, Perry figures the guy has no scruples when it comes to “gambling with human life”. Nice guy to work for, hmm?
The scene-changes are starting to come faster. Page 13 confirms what I originally thought, that The Project is underground while The Wild Area ISN’T. But as the troops, The Guardian and the old Newsboys reach the outside, I find myself wondering, WHY does The Project have its atomic power plant located so far away? After all, nuclear submarines carry their atomic piles around with them.
Back at the Evil Factory (whose location we still don’t have a clue about), Mokkari & Simyan send all the other “Four-Armed Terrors” by matter-transmitter direct to the location of the Atomic Power Plant, its position apparently have been discovered by tracing the first of the monsters.
Over in Metropolis, Morgan Edge gets a call from Inter-Gang, warning him of the entire city’s imminent DESTRUCTION. With a smile on his face, he casually bids farewell to the people in his offce, before racing to a rooftop helicopter for a quick escape. Like I said, nice guy to work for, hmm? Between appearances, he seems to have become another “generic” character, and no longer resembles Kevin McCarthy (as he did back in JO #133).
The last 6 pages of the issue have the story finally reach its literally EXPLOSIVE climax, as Superman takes on the monster, the rest of the monsters arrive to join the fray, followed by The Project troops, The Guardian, and the original Newsboys! With its damper rods removed, Superman realizes there is NO chance of preventing the reactor from overloading in a colossal explosion. But then, seemingly from left-field (and a vaguely-related plot point in the then-current issue of SUPERMAN), he realizes that very close-by is an open shaft plunging deep into the Earth that was dug as part of an experiment looking into geo-thermal power. Quick as you can imagine, he RIPS the machinery of the atomic pile loose from its foundations, CARRIES it to the pit, and hurls it down into the abyss—where it’s immediately followed by the entire army of monsters, still bent on “eating” its unleashed atomic energy. Seconds later, it EXPLODES... and one can only marvel (sorry) at Kirby’s restraint in NOT even including a sound effect.
“Thousands of feet below, an immense, fiery blast occurs—which sends seimograph needles waving hundreds of miles away.” I think that says it all!
A quick epilogue shows Jimmy & The Newboys angry at Supes for keeping them out of the action Considering the situation, you’d think they’d be grateful to be alive at all—and what could THEY have done in any case? Still, I guess it’s worth a laugh when The Guardian points out that Supes “saved us all”, and Gabby replies, “SO? What does he WANT?—a GOOD-CONDUCT MEDAL?” (Just this moment, that somehow reminds me of my Dad... who for many years, seemed to feel that people should not be complimented for doing a job they were supposed to do anyway. Sheesh.)
According to Mark Evanier (in his JO ADVENTURES intro), the story in this issue was planned to take place over 2 issues. However, a call from E. Nelson Bridwell concerning plot points in the other SUPERMAN titles caused this to be changed at the last minute, with several already-drawn pages scrapped in the process, and the entire thing wrapped up in one issue instead. Apparently, decades later, Evanier’s notes for the unused versionof the story led to the creation of a story in LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE, illustrated by uber-Kirby fan Steve Rude! (Maybe I should dig that out?)
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FOREVER PEOPLE #1 / Mar’71 – “IN SEARCH OF A DREAM!”
When Jack Kirby went to DC in late 1971, the first thing he did were the first issues of FOREVER PEOPLE, NEW GODS, and MISTER MIRACLE. However, in order to get a quicker return on their “investment”, the higher-ups at DC insisted that he take over some established book, and they apparently didn’t care which one. They gave him his choice of any one he wanted. He looked over them all, and felt none were right for him. (CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, which he had started himself, was about to be cancelled, and apparently was out of the running.) Kirby asked for whichever book didn’t have a regular team, and as JIMMY OLSEN was in the midst of switching creative teams, JIMMY OLSEN it was. Also, several people apparently suggested Jack revive his NEWBOY LEGION, and since Jimmy was already a “newsboy”, it seemed to make sense to somebody. Anyway, this is how Jack got on JO, and how his 1st JO arrived 4 MONTHS before any of this other brand-new series.
Jack had a long tradition of creating “group” books, going back to “kid gangs”. In the tradition of the “Dead End Kids” (who themselves eveolved into the East Side Kids and then The Bowery Boys), Jack, together with Joe Simon, had done The Young Allies, The Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, Boy Explorers, Boys’ Ranch, and finally the more grown-up CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN. With Stan Lee, he did FANTASTIC FOUR (who only acted liked kids), THE AVENGERS, X-MEN (definitely a return to “young” heroes with an adult mentor). And so it was, when he returned to DC, the very first thing he did (apparently) was a new “kid gang”, but one geared toward the modern-day of the late-60’s youth and counter-culture movement. THE FOREVER PEOPLE were not quite hippies, not quite bikers, and not quite super-heroes either. More like a little bit of each. I always had the most restrictive, conservative upbringing anyone could imagine, and yet, in the late 60’s, while I admit I probably shook my head in dismay at some of TV’s depictions of “hippies”, there was something about the attitude, the philsophy, and the design and dress sense that I found appealing... and still do.
The cover of FP #1 shows the group racing toward the readers in their “Super-Cycle”. Between the characters and the bike, the colors are as wild and glaring as you could get. Probably for commercial reasons, Superman is a guest-star this issue (in a similar way that Spider-Man kept turning up early in the runs of new Marvel Comics). If ever a costuimed hero’s whole personal screamed “conservative”, by the late 60’s, Superman was it. So how curious to see he’s racing after the young heroes of the book, apparently desperately in NEED of help only they can give him! Like so many DC Comics of the 60’s (never mind that this probably came out right at the end of 1970), here was an image sure to pique any potential reader’s curiosity.
If you look close, it’s also very obvious the cover was inked by Frank Giacoia. I always thought Frank did more work for Marvel than DC (in fact, I was somehow under the impression he worked exclusively for Marvel), so it was a surprise to realize he’d done this. Apparently, he only did it because the cover was the very 1st piece of art Kirby turned in—and Vince Colletta hadn’t worked his back-office deal to ink ALL of Kirby’s books. (Jack was FAST—so was Vince. I guess SOMEBODY must have thought having them together was a good idea. Oy.)
The book opens with 3 consecutive panels which show—SOMETHING—appearing from nowhere. A glowing light, radiant energy, a cylinder-shape, accompanied by a steadily-increasing high-pitched noise. And then—“RRRABOOOOM”—a strange, multi-colored multi-wheeled “bike” (it’s got handlebars, what the heck else would one call it?), with 4 equally-colorful teenagers (presumably) riding the thing, roaring out of the energy cylinder and into our reality. The title reads, “In Search of A Dream!”, which suggests a combination of 2 different Moody Blues album titles, “In Search Of The Lost Chord” and “On The Threshold Of A Dream” (1968 & 1969, respectively). “Biker” movies were a big fad in the late 60’s, the most famous and successful perhaps being EASY RIDER. If that film had Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild’ as its theme song / anthem, looking over these first 4 pages, The Moodies’ “Departure” and “Ride My See-Saw” come to mind. I can easily picture them being used over the opening credits of a possible FP feature film, as they seem to perfectly reflect the style, the attitude, and even the philsophy of the comic.
Teenagers will be teenragers (wherever they might come from), and sure enough, no sooner does this wild bunch arrive on Earth than they almost cause a traffic accident. But here they display some amazing talents, first by shifting their atoms to avoid a head-on collision (Barry Allen’s FLASH would be proud), but then to catch a plunging car in mid-air after it’s soared off a cliff. Whoever these guys are, they’re definitely not baddies.
The large group shot on page 6 for some reason makes me think of the cast of THOR, as filtered thru an entirely different generation. Something in their various appearances and personalities remind me of Hogun (Vykin), Thor (Mark Moonrider, the obvious leader), Volstagg (Big Bear) and Fandral (Serifan). As if, if those guys had kids, this might be what they’d look like. (I’m reminded that right around this time, Hanna-Barbera had a short-lived series on Saturday mornings, PEBBLES AND BAMM BAMM.) By luck, the 2 people they saved after running them off the road are friends of JIMMY OLSEN (small world?) and intent to pass on their story, with pictures.
With the introductions out of thbe way, we’re plunged right into the drama, as Serifan collapses, exhibiting psychic power which clues him in on ther location of their missing friend, “Beautiful Dreamer”. And while this is going on, they’re being watched by some underworld types, members of a group called “Inter-Gang”, who in turn are working for some nasty-looking character called “Darkseid” (nothing subtle about some of these names, is there?).
Meanwhile, in Metropolis, Clark Kent has just finished interviewing a fighter named “Rocky” (who doesn’t look like Sylvester Stallone—heh). Rocky’s upset, because despite his fame and success, he points out how, with someone around like Superman, the whole “fight game is a farce”. After he leaves, Clark (who, of course, IS Superman) finds himself pondering, does the general public fear, resent, or even hate Superman? And after 30 years of comic-book stories, he suddenly begins to feel alone in the world.
Just then, Jimmy pops in with news and a photo of the “Boom Tube”, and, incredibly, his microscopic vision actually allows him to see something in the photo invisible to any other eyes—the sight of a CITY in the far, far distance, at the other end of the dimensional tunnel. He’s suddenly overcome with the desire to find this “Supertown”, where, he hopes, he might find others like himself. (I guess his buddies in the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA wouldn’t be too flattered by his attitude here.)
Things happen fast for the rest of the story. Supes is shot out of the sky by a helicopter that’s trailing the teenagers, who, after seeing him take out the copter, mistake him for being someone from the same place they come from! As famous as Supes is, this clearly demonstrates they’ve never been to Earth before. Then, attacked by a group of monsters, Supes seems helpless—until the kids gather as one around their “Mother Box” (apparently a sentient, living computer), and shouting a certain word—“TARRU!”—disappear, and are replaced by a super-hero type called “The Infinity Man”. He makes short work of the critter, when suddenly, Darkseid appears in person. He reveals he was after the girl, Beautiful Dreamer, because he believes she’s one of the few can fathom “The Anti-Life Equation”. However, her mind somehow refuses to “interpret” it, making her useless to Darkseid, who nonetheless reveals there aree “others” who can—“and when the secret is MINE, I shall TEST it here! --snuff out ALL life on Earth—with a WORD!” With that, he vanishes. WHOA. Heavy stuff!
That’s when they notice Dreamer is laying atop some bombs which will detonate if she’s moved. Supes quickly figures out the only way to save her is to move SO fast he can OUT-RUN the blast—and he DOES, taking her and Infinity Man with him to safety. The hero vanishes, replaced by the kids, who offer to help him find “Supertown”, while telling him the fight is HERE, and he’s needed HERE as much as they are. As Big Bear puts it, “You’ve earned the trip! But I hope you can LIVE with your CONSCIENCE—LATER!” He flies into the re-materialized Boom Tube, and almost makes it thru, before he realizes whatever is going on behind him is too important to put aside for personal reasons.
This is one WILD comic-book. Kirby creates a non-stop thrill ride, and Vince Colletta doesn’t do all that badly (though I thought he did MUCH better work on the JIMMY OSLEN series). There’s a few problems, though, and most of them center on Superman—and Jimmy. For the most part, I didn’t mind when Murphy Anderson re-drew Supes & Jimmy in JO, as he’s just so good, and somehow the difference between him and Kirby isn’t as glaring as it might be. But Al Plastino, who did the redraws on the first 2 JO issues, also did this one, and Supes is in SO much of this book (the teens are almost reduced to guest-stars in their own mag), it’s really glaring, especially as Plastino did both pencils AND inks with no regard to how the rest of the book looked.
Also, when Jimmy walked into Clark’s office—all smiles and wearing his BOW-TIE, I suddenly realized, THIS issue MUST take place before the story in JIMMY OLSEN #133-138. Has to! Aside from anything else, there’s no mention of Morgan Edge, who, presumably, took over the Daily Planet JUST before the events in JO #133. Also, Supes & Jimmy do not leave “The Project” until JO #139, and there’s NO obvious break between issues or during the issue wherehis other appearances should take place. (Having no knowledge of Supes’ OTHER books, I’m not even gonna try to figure out the continuity between Jack’s stories and the rest of them.)
This may seem odd, considering how slowly, subtly, Darkseid is introduced and built up, a bit at a time, over those JO issues, while HERE, he gets a full-blown personal appearance, and actually SPELLS OUT what his goal is. I know this was done FIRST, but I imagined the JO issue (since they came out first) were designed as a “prologue”. Now, I feel THIS is the prologue, and the JO issues are the first act, though in the beginning, it’s not apparent to everyone involved.
The funny thing about that is, in the JO story, Supes repeatedly shows no care for the fact that he’s up-staging everybody (Jimmy, The Newsboys, etc.), and that becomes a deep concern of his here. Also, in this issue, Darkseid talks about “the war”, and the “Anti-Life Equation”, and the fact that there are “others” he will find who can put it into effect for him. Which of course, makes this story serve as a direct lead-in to NEW GODS #1, which came out a couple weeks after this comic did! In effect, FOREVER PEOPLE #1 can be seen as a direct lead-in to JIMMY OLSEN #133, NEW GODS #1, and of course, FOREVER PEOPLE #2. Take yer pick!
Before I finish, I’d just like to mention two things that struck me re-reading this time. One, the way the Forever People say “TARRU!”, disappear and are replaced by The Infinity Man (and vice-versa), seems like nothing less than a modern-day (1970) version of the Billy Batson-Captain Marvel transformation! In current comics, writers have completely re-interpreted “Captain Marvel” as being Billy himself, in a grown-up body (but still with the mind of a child). Apparently, for the characters’ entire existence at Fawcett Comics, this was NEVER the case. Secondly, when I look at Beautiful Dreamer, especially when she’s sleeping, she reminds me a young Shelly Winters. So there!
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Oh yes. and one more thing (that I FORGOT to include in my review). As far as I can recall, FP #1 is the ONLY time Darkseid is wearing a CAPE. You know, WITH the cape, all of a sudden those boots make me think of something out of some tiny European country from the middle ages. Not sure I ever noticed that before. Sort of like in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA. As far as I know, he was NEVER seen with a cape again... until Kenner gave him one with their SUPER POWERS line action figure! (It still butg me how those IDIOTS packaged those things. In a crate, they'd have like 10 SUPERMANs, 10 DARKSEIDs, and 1 of each of all the others. And specialty dealers who were pals with the guys who worked at the toy stores would have access to them FIRST, so a lot of the figures NEVER even got on the shelves. Is it any wonder they wound up going for SO MUCH per figure at conventions?)
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NEW GODS #1 / Mar’71 – “ORION FIGHTS FOR EARTH!”
In the late 60’s, when Carmine Infantino got “pushed upstairs” from penciller to Art Director, he began designing the bulk of DC’s covers. As a result, most of them went from dull and staid & dynamic and gripping. Many wound up illustrated by the likes of Neal Adams. But, as someone put it, inside, it was still the same old thing. Talk about false advertising. All the same, I doubt DC fans had EVER seen anything on the cover of a DC book like they did on NEW GODS #1. Whoa!!! The mechanical fonts used to “KIRBY IS HERE!”, “DC THE NEW GODS” and “When the old gods died—there arose the” were very unusual. The font (picked by Kirby himself apparently) for the book’s logo—“NEW GODS”—which takes up a full THIRD of the cover—is a real stand-out. Rather Roman-looking, like something from a Biblical epic. And what does it say here—“An Epic For Our Times”. No kidding! (But why did they hedge and have that done with hand-lettering?)
We see an image like that of a Gemini astronaut taking a space-walk—but filtered thru a mad, science-fiction filter, combined with a late-60’s “Peter Max” or “Ralph Bakshi” color sense. You didn’t need any radical re-coloring to create a “black light” wall poster of this—all they’d have had to do was print it real big, AS-IS. (Gee, why didn’t they? Where was DC’s marketing department when this ball was dropped??) Also, I keep staring at the background. How was that done? By hand—or was it something borrowed from some existing piece of work? Did DC’s production whiz, Jack Adler have anything to do with this—or did Jack Kirby do it himself? (I just read the other day that Adler considered Kirby some kind of “egotist”. Gee, it’s nice to be working in such a friendly environment, isn’t it? Reminds me of all my years in drafting.)
“There came a time when the old gods died”. I think a real unsung hero of this comic must be the colorist. This is the most muted page in the book, somehow suggesting an older age even as the image depicts just that. The first thing that crossed my mind was, it looks like the coloring you’d see in a 60’s Marvel Comic. “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!” The result is 2 flaming spheres which eventually become planets. The funny thing is, what gets ripped in half does NOT look like a planet, so much as it does the “floating island” with moutains we’ve seen time and again in Marvel’s THOR comic—Asgard! The suggestion is, think not of any “Marvel Universe” which goes on regardless of who’s writing or drawing it. Think only of Jack Kirby’s comics. The question has long been pondered, DID Kirby intend to actually destroy Asgard and replace it and its inhabitants with a mostly-new cast? Some fans foolishly have complained over the years (COMPLAINED!) that Kirby’s THOR was not “accurate” to Norse legends. I’ve seen the same nonsense at the Internet Movie Database site, countless reviewers who judge films solely on whether they follow the book or not, blind to how many films are vastly superior to their source material. Anyway, Kirby’s THOR had alway been a wild mix of ancient and futuristic design, a seemingly-mythological society which often employed futuristic weaponry. With NEW GODS, Kirby takes the next logical step, and gives us an ENTIRELY futuristic society—but which exists NOW.
From deep space (but is it “our” space or that of some other galaxy—or even dimension?) comes Orion, riding a bizarre contraption only Kirby (or perhaps someone at NASA) might have conceived. I wonder if readers were disappointed that his outfit was “only” red and gray, rather than the more bizarre color scheme depicted on the cover? Looking at him on pages 2-4, I’m reminded by his helmet and the “black sun” emblem on it of Marvel’s “Captain Mar-Vell”, and wonder what that space hero’s uniform might have looked like if Jack had designed it, rather than someone else. His Helmet has WINGS—not unlike THOR (or Captain America), though from the front, they almost remind me more of the “ears” of Batman’s cowl, or the antenna on Air-Wave’s helmet.
Orion is returning from—somewhere—answering a summons. It never occured to me before, but I found myself wondering, WHERE is he coming from? Has he, like the Silver Surfer, been roaming freely around space, exploring, enjoying the wonders of the universe, until such time as he’s called for action? For the first time, we here the name “New Genesis”—and while it’s nothing less than Asgard reborn, as a purely technological construction—a city HOVERING, “orbiting” high above a planet, it also harkens back to the city of the Hawkmen from FLASH GORDON, except, presumably, this would be a far brighter, happier, less barbaric edifice, one not kept aloft by the forced labor of enslaved prisoners. No, not THIS place. The planet below is described as “a sunlit, UNSPOILED world of green forests, white mountains, and bright waters”. A dream of many, which seems to have been cast aside in the decades since this book was made.
As Orion flies into the city, he passes a colossal statue, which brings to mind those seen in the 2 BATMAN films made by Joel Schumacher. I always thought they seemed completely out-of place in “Gotham City” (any version of it), but here, they seem a natural fit.
We get to meet 2 members of our cast. Orion is serious, somber, gloomy, even he admits he seems of “two worlds”. By comparison, Lightray is all joy of life and laughter. He kinda reminds me of Simon Templar (as portrayed by Louis Hayward). The two are good friends despite—or perhaps because—of their differences in temperment. Without his helmet, and with that flaming red hair (especially in the last panel on page 8), Orion kinda reminds me of James Cagney!
Lightray refers to their people as “Celestials”—a name Marvel fans would no doubt associate with the faceless “gods” who wandered the universe in Kirby’s later series, THE ETERNALS. Orion has been summoned by High-Father—who looks like nothing less than Charlton Heston’s “Moses” from the movie THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, complete with staff.
We hear for the first time of “The Source”, apparently the one thing left from the time of the old gods. Orion refers to it as “The Life Equation”. Next we meet Metron, a being whose entire life is the obsession with gaining knowledge, at all costs. He clearly represents in one person every scientist who put knowledge before responsibility, and as someone pointed out, was apparently based on J. Robert Oppenheimer (“the father of the atomic bomb”). He travels around in a “Mobius Chair” which “rides the dimension winds of time-space”. Visually, he and the chair may have been the inspiration for “The Keeper Of Traken” in the 1981 Tom Baker DOCTOR WHO story.
High-Father reveals that while The Source gives counsel, it does not decide. “The right to of choice is OURS. That is the LIFE EQUATION.” Metron mentions “The ANTI-LIFE EQUATION was undiscovered until these days.” Now, anyone who read FOREVER PEOPLE #1 before this (and anyone reading this SHOULD have!) would realize that when Darkseid said he intended to “snuff out all life”, he was NOT speaking literally!
As Orion leaves for his mission, Metron reveals something Orion does NOT know—and which High-Father angrily insists be kept secret—that Orion is none other than Darkseid’s SON! Talk about palace intrigue.
We get our first-ever view of Apokalips. Though mentioned repeatedly in JIMMY OLSEN, I doubt anyone could have conceived in advance of what a horrible, wretched, gloomy place it is. Zooming in close, Orion describes it as “an ARMED CAMP where those who LIVE with weapons RULE the wretches who BUILD them.” It’s a vision of a Nazi Concentration Camp, expanded to cover an entire planet!
No sooner does he arrive but Orion is attacked by flying “Para-Demons”. Like everything else in this book, they’re the result of technology, not “supernatural” power (as seen by the devices they wear strapped to their shoulders). After so many pages of necessary set-up, Kirby finally gets to go wild with an actionscene, during which Orion learns that Darkseid and his “elite warriors” are all missing, save for a “Mass-Director Unit”, and—“Kalibak The Cruel”, a huge, savage brute who brings to mind the trolls of THOR (particularly Ulik), or any number of modern-day professional wrestlers.
With the unexpected (and unwelcome) help of Metron, Orion learns Darkseid & his crew have already gone to Earth. Darkseid seeks the human mind that holds the secret of the Anti-Life Equation (this plot point picking up directly where FOREVER PEOPLE #1 left off), but he’s left behind 4 “test humans”, whose capture & transport to Apokalips was in direct defiance of High-Father’s rule concerning humans (which reflects the way “mortals” were forbidden to ever enter Asgard in the THOR comic).
As Metron describes it, “When the old gods died, their BRIDGE to Earth was destroyed. It was I who found a way to create what our young ones call THE BOOM TUBE!” In one panel, Kirby neatly ties in the current story with both THOR’s “rainbow bridge” and the young heroes we met in FOREVER PEOPLE #1. (It’s kinda neat that while the city of the Celestials is called “New Genesis”, the kids calls it “Super-Town”. How very young of them!)
Orion manages to rescue the humans and escape with them back to Earth, using a Boom Tube, seconds before Kalibak is able to stop him. Two of the humans introduce themselves as Victor Lanza, insurance broker, and Claudia Shane, secretary, who says she’s “NOT a pawn in some SPY game!” –which brings to mind the early seasons of MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., where each story had “innocent civilians” recruited to help the heroes’ causes.
Finally, at last, on page 23, after an entire issue building up to it, we see Darkseid again, in person, in a magnificent, awesome, omninous FULL-PAGE shot, as he and his minions , on some stormy rooftop, look down at the city. “As it was in the time of the old gods, the TITANIC struggle for the fate of mankind is to rage once again!! The NEW GODS wield greater power—for in our day, it’s we who live in the ark shadow of the outcome!” WOW.
Before I end, I’d just like to comment a bit on Vince Colletta’s inks. This may be some of his best-ever work. In particular, the “cosmic” stuff, the fight scenes, all are really well-done. All the same, when I look at the “quiet” scenes, with characters interacting, especially when it gets to the “regular” humans, I find myself wishing someone, almost anyone else, had inked this book. DC had a long rep of having some of the best inkers in the 60’s—although, a number of them (including George Klein) were “let go” when someone decided to “weed out the old guys”. Would some of DC’s best have been MORE up to the challenge than the man whose inking was AS FAST as (if nowhere near AS GOOD as) Kirby? Naturally, I’d have preferered to see JOE SINNOTT ink a book of such epic, “cosmic”, science-fiction proportions. Considering this may have been Jack Kirby at his absolute best, his all-time peak, his most-inspired EVER... hell, “even” Mike Royer would have been more welcome.
The only part of the book not inked by Colletta was the figure of Orion on the cover. It may be difficult to see under ALL that color, but those were DON HECK’s inks, as the drawing of Orion was apparently done SEVERAL YEARS before the rest of the book.
From here, things REALLY pick up. I can hardly wait!
Registered: Aug 2003
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