THE FOUR COLOR GRIMOIRE
MEDITATIONS ON COMIC BOOK DAEMONS
This is part of No Gods But My Own, Volume 2. Read this if you’re just joining in.
KRACKLE KANON, PART 3
WHEN THE OLD GODS DIED
KIRBY’S HERE!
Those were the words DC Comics used to announce the arrival of the “King of Comics” in 1970 when Jack Kirby defected from Marvel Comics, his professional home of over a decade, to the offices of their biggest rival at the time. That kind of move was unheard of and would’ve been career suicide for an artist of lesser acclaim than Kirby. After years of living in Stan Lee’s shadow, Jack Kirby was more than ready to try making his own mark, even if that meant leaving behind the immense mythology he had already created.
I think comic outsiders would be surprised that Jack Kirby's most potent work started in the most unlikely of places: a poorly selling Superman spinoff on the verge of cancellation. Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen was the lowest selling title at DC Comics and Kirby turned it into a gateway to wonder and origin point for his movement toward a modernized mythology.
It's difficult to describe The Fourth World saga without simply transcribing it and letting it speak for itself. It was an epic undertaking, spanning fifty nine issues across four different titles over three years, each and every one of them written and drawn by Jack Kirby. The overarching story is a stew of so many religions, mythologies, and fragments of new age mysticism that I don't have nearly enough room to list them all here. Add to the mix a cultural pressure cooker from the conflict in Vietnam, Kirby’s unique point of view on war after having served in the U.S. Army during World War Two, and Kirby’s own tumultuous childhood in the slums of New York City.
Kirby stated on multiple occasions that it was his intention to create a modern mythology with The Fourth World and I think he achieves his goal in an awkward and idiosyncratic way. It’s deeply personal and unlike anything that came before or since. I'm going to try my best to hit the mythic landmarks but it'll be difficult to interpret something so metaphorically unsubtle and cover all the ground of its fertile landscape of epic storytelling so what I will provide is something more akin to a tourist map than a detailed guide.
Though there are many great stories of the New Gods, I'll be focusing on four characters in particular, their relationships, and the chaos surrounding their lives after a fateful bargain takes place. But don’t let this stop you from tracking down the rest of the saga. All of the different titles in the series are equally potent and full of powerful stories. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Forever People and the final graphic novel The Hunger Dogs weave a complex tale of gods in conflict and the effect that has on the worlds around them.
THE PACT
In the beginning there were two worlds: New Genesis and Apokolips.
These worlds existed in a dichotomy. New Genesis was a place of peace while Apokolips existed in constant conflict. While New Genesis embraced reason and enlightenment, Apokolips forged a place of fear and oppression. No worlds were so close yet so far away from one another. Naturally, they had to fight. It was their shared fate.
The war between New Genesis and Apokolips spanned generations. Even before the world of the Old Gods, Urgrund, was split into the rival planets, there had always been conflict.
When the separation had occurred New Genesis was bathed in the power of the Old God Balduur, imbuing it with living atoms that held great nobility and light. Apokolips had not received such a blessing and was instead saturated with an unknown evil. This spiritual separation put the worlds into a sort of cold war with each side waiting for the other to finally accelerate the fight beyond the minor border skirmishes brought on by the constant pressure.
Leading the forces of Apokolips was Darkseid, a powerful strategist and being of immense strength and stature. His visage was that of living granite, carved into the very definition of sinister intent and cold cunning. He had gained his position only after murdering his own brother to posess the fabled Omega Force, an unknown energy that arms whoever controls it with energy blasts that manifest through their eyes. Darkseid had two children, Kalibak and Orion. Kalibak was born of Darkseid’s first love who his mother had killed to allow for an arranged marriage that resulted in his second son, Orion. Orion and his mother, Tigra, were imprisoned on Apokolips after Darkseid had his own mother assassinated for the murder of the only person he had ever loved.
New Genesis was ruled over by Izaya the Inheritor, a once great warrior softened by the radiance of love and peace. Though he always appeared warm and kind, he remained adorned in armor in case protection was necessary. It was a bucolic existence for Izaya until Darkseid ordered his uncle, Steppenwolf, to lead a raid on New Genesis. That attack took the life of Azaya's wife, Avia, and left him a bloody and broken man. Old instincts took over and, as soon as Izaya healed, he revived the war machine buried beneath the unassuming paradise of New Genesis.
The acceleration of hostilities led to countless deaths and ruin across both worlds and beyond. The war had no possible conclusion beyond mutually assured destruction but that possibility did nothing to temper the aggressions. The war was escalating under its own power at that point, leading to destruction of cosmic proportions with entire planets left devastated and stars being utilized to fuel insane war machines. Azaya wanted nothing more than vengeance, making it his purpose to kill Steppenwolf without concern for how much blood was left in his wake. It wasn’t until Azaya succeeded in his goal that the weight of his decisions truly hit him.
In a haze of guilt and regret, Azaya found himself wandering amongst the ruins. The once verdant fields of New Genesis were ravaged by battle and it was amongst that destruction that he tried to find a deeper meaning for what was beginning to feel like a pointless war. Meaning is exactly what Azaya found when The Source, a mysterious, benevolent force that is thought to have imbued power to the gods of the DC Universe, reached out to him in the wasteland, speaking through a mysterious message scrawled upon a wall by a hand of fire.
Being touched by The Source had a profound effect upon Azaya. At that moment he turned his back on violence and strove for peace. He shed his armor and his name, taking up the moniker Highfather instead. The Source had become inextricably linked to him and he knew that he would have to return to his people to spread the message bestowed upon him by the mysterious force. He returned to Supertown, the home of the New Gods, and began working to end the war.
The accord proposed by Highfather was drastic. Both he and Darkseid would give up a son to the leader of the opposing planet, leaving them to be raised by their enemy so that they would never be tempted to declare war again out of a desire to protect their own offspring. Darkseid agreed, thinking he had gotten the better side of the bargain because he was finally rid of the son he had never wanted so Orion of Apokolips was sent to live with Highfather in Supertown while Scott Free of New Genesis was placed in one of Darkseid’s orphanages to be trained by the headmistress Granny Goodness to become a War Dog.
The real drive behind Kirby's Fourth World Saga radiates from this dire agreement and the lives of the two children who had no choice in their participation. Scott Free and Orion are branded by their homelands just as indelibly as they are by their adopted fathers. The planets and the men who rule them may seem like the standard dichotomy of good versus evil but, as with anything, the shades of gray that exist in each culture paints a far more complex picture.
AS ABOVE
At a young age Orion knew nothing but anger and cruelty. He spent much of his youth trapped in the depths of Apokolips with his mother, ignorant of his royal heritage, living among the slave class know as The Lowlies. Before The Pact, Orion had been taken to train with Granny Goodness. While in her tutelage he learned to be a savage fighter and ruthless killer, just like all the other children destined to become Darkseid’s War Dogs.
It was in Orion's inherited brutality that Darkseid saw an opportunity to sow the seeds of failure in the peace treaty proposed by Highfather. He would give his own feral son over in exchange for a docile and easily broken child of New Genesis, knowing that his child would be nearly impossible to be taught or tamed. The day that Orion was given away was the day he discovered that the man whose tyranny caused his and his mothers suffering was his own father.
Being the offspring of Darkseid was a legacy that haunted Orion, even in a technological paradise of Supertown. Adjusting to his life on New Genesis was difficult but Highfather, with assistance from fellow New God Lightray, did everything he could to provide the loving, patient environment Orion needed to overcome and find focus for the rage Darkseid had fostered within him. Highfather taught him techniques to sooth his anger and gave him a Mother Box, a living computer with the power to manipulate emotions, for the times when his mood could not be reigned in. Over time, Orion learned to control his nature, channeling his dark side into the calm control that made him a formidable protector of his adopted home.
Orion and the other New Gods live in Supertown, a technological utopia that floats high above the surface of New Genesis. Highfather had built it after the world had been rendered inhospitable from the long war with Apokolips as a safe haven and place for the gods to learn their true potential. When the wilderness returned to the planet surface the residents of Supertown remained in the sky, living in a perpetual penance for their part in the destruction of their home and a constant reminder of what the war cost them.
Again The Source reached out to Highfather but this time the message was not just for him. Scrawled across a wall in fire was written:
ORION TO APOKOLIPS
THEN TO EARTH
THEN TO WAR
Orion was prepared for the conflict. He had felt it in the very core of his being that this was the fight he had been training for his entire life. Soon he set off for Apokolips, hoping to find the destiny that The Source had prophesied.
Orion was hit by a wave of confusion when he arrived in Darkseid's throne room. The despot was long gone and Orion's brother Kalibak filled the seat of power awkwardly in the absence of their father. This was not at all what Orion had expected when he and Highfather had received their flaming vision from The Source. Metron intervenes, knocking out Orion's brutish sibling, and explains Darkseid's nefarious motives for Earth.
Orion was confronted by another confusing secret hidden away in Darkseid’s lair: humans. Together they return to Earth, with hopes to vanquish the tyrant’s plans before they’ve gone too far.
SO BELOW
Scott Free had fallen asleep warm and comfortable on New Genesis but awoke in the cold darkness of Granny Goodness’ Terror Orphanage on Apokolips. Like Orion, Scott knew nothing of his royal lineage on New Genesis. He had no real memories of his previous home and any that he had been able to hold on to were burned away by the headmistress’s cruel conditioning.
It was in the Terror Orphanage that Scott was given his name. The loss of identity was only the first step in breaking the spirits of all the stolen children of Apokolips who would become soldiers in Darkseid’s army. Later came the torture, brainwashing, and brutality that served as the signature of the Torture Orphanages all across Apokolips. This was the way of Granny Goodness, a master tactician and hardened warrior who impressed her dark lord through the heartless strategies she employed in training the child soldiers left in her stead.
Scott never fit in with the other children in the orphanage. There was something inside of him that made him different and he resented that seed of light that could never be extinguished, no matter how abusive or tortuous the institution was. That light left Scott prone to the one thing he never expected in that dark and oppressive place: hope.
A seed was planted in the mind of young Scott Free by the mysterious traveler known as Metron, a libertarian New God with no home and no master except for science and his own experimental studies in The Source. Through Metron’s urging Scott began to scrutinize Darkseid’s fascist teachings, finally seeing a life beyond the orphanage and his adoptive father’s clutches. But Metron only ever saw himself as a reluctant guide pointing the way to Scott's true destiny. Scott had to overcome his conditioning and find his path to liberation all on his own.
That liberation started small, manifesting in minor defiance to the rules of conduct within Granny’s orphanage. Each infraction cost Scott a great deal of ridicule and an even greater amount of pain. The punishment for breaking even the smallest of rules was torture, brutal beatings, or confinement. Scott took all of it in silence, letting it strengthen his resolve. It was during this time that Scott honed his innate talent for escape, a talent that led him directly to Himon.
On Apokolips only one New God had ever defied Darkseid’s totalitarian regime and escaped his deadly Omega Beams. Hidden amongst the desperate citizenry, known as Hunger Dogs, grew a resistance of inventors and free thinkers led by Himon, a rebellious leader whose only goal was to foster dissent against Darkseid. It’s Himon that takes in a desperate Scott Free after his final escape from the orphanage and helps him build his own Mother Box so that he can better aid in the rebellious actions of Himon’s cell of revolutionaries.
Eventually the group of rebels is caught by The Female Furies, an elite all female military unit trained by Granny Goodness. All of them are prepared for executions save for one, a girl by the name of Auralie who had gone AWOL from the Furies and is tortured for her betrayal of Darkseid’s mandates. This doesn’t sit well for Big Barda, the current leader of the Female Furies. She falls for the warmth she sees behind Scott’s eyes and takes pity on the captives, setting them free and helping them escape the prison.
Outside, Metron and Himon confront Scott with a choice: remain enslaved on Apokolips and face the consequences of rebellion or escape to possibly find a semblance of freedom. A portal, known as a boom tube, is opened and awaits Scott’s decision. This choice ultimately brings Scott to Earth with a myriad of remnants of Apokolips on his tail.
CHASING ANTI-LIFE
It's here that The Fourth World saga begins to merge into the world of traditional mythology. These new gods found themselves in the realm of man and mingled their interstellar divinity with the foibles of humanity in unusual ways, much like the gods of ancient Greece or Egypt. For Kirby this was well worn territory. Just before his time at DC Comics he finished up a long run on Marvel Comics’ Thor series which explored the earthly adventures of their version of figures from Norse mythology. Within that series Kirby had been giving a backup feature called Tales of Asgard that dug into the personal lives of those gods and allowed him to imagine the humanity within those figures. It wasn’t much of a stretch for Kirby to do the same with his own pantheon.
Starting with Darkseid’s first appearance in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen and continuing throughout the entirety of The Fourth World was the despot’s mission to find what was known as The Anti-Life Equation, a mathematical formula that gives those who understand it the power to control the will of others and shift the fabric of reality. Darkseid had been tracking the equation down for years and that hunt had led him to Earth and those that had unwittingly discovered it.
The series New Gods followed Orion’s pursuit of his father on Earth. Many of his adventures involved conflicts with either New Gods from Apokolips or a group of criminals known as Intergang, a nationwide crime organization who traded their services to Darkseid for Apokoliptian weaponry.
Through the hunt for his father, Orion is taught the nobility of humanity through the group of people he saved from Darkseid’s lair and conscripted to assist him in navigating the world of man. It was also in the humans Orion interacted with on Earth that Jack Kirby had decided to place himself in the story, casting himself as a police investigator named Dan “Terrible” Turpin. Unlike the other humans involved in the conflict between the New Gods, Turpin cared little for the powers of those he had to fight.
That idea weighed heavily in Kirby’s philosophy and this was far from the only time he utilized the Fourth World story as a vehicle for it. Kirby had a rough childhood, living in the Lower East Side of New York City and dealt with things like street fights every day. He despised bullies and tyrants and would later quote this as a big part of his reasoning for joining the army. Orion truly embodied that rage and the dichotomy of trying to do right while pushing against an upbringing that could possibly bring out the worst in a person.
Orion wasn’t the only New God whose time on earth was marked indelibly by the presence of Intergang and their shadowy benefactor. The arc of Scott Free’s entire life was irrevocably altered when a killer sent by Intergang assassinated Thaddeus Brown, the escape artist that had taken him on as an apprentice and given him a home after fleeing Apokolips. Scott took on the mantle of Mister Miracle, Brown’s stage persona, in tribute to the man who had helped him find his footing on his new home world. With his Mother Box and the talents developed during his rebellion on Apokolips, Scott proved himself to be just as talented a showman as Brown ever had been.
The mantle of Mister Miracle was not the only thing Scott inherited from Thaddeus Brown. Brown had been a prominent escapologist with a wide array of showy traps and a full support staff. Scott became very close to some them, including Brown’s assistant Oberon, who had been witness to the man’s murder, and a young protoge Shilo Norman who would later become Mister Miracle himself after Scott’s eventual death.
It was not long after Scott had settled into his life as Mister Miracle that he was visited by an unexpected refugee from Apokolips. Big Barda of Granny Goodness’ Female Furies arrived at Scott’s headquarters looking for shelter. She had defected and abandoned her post, inspired by Scott’s actions and the feelings she had developed for him, but had not been able to evade her squad’s pursuit. Scott and Barda were able to fight off the Furies and for a time were convinced to stay on to help with Mister Miracle’s Super Escape Artist Show.
It made sense that all of the New Gods would eventually migrate to the stories of Mister Miracle. Both The Forever People and New Gods ended unceremoniously after eleven issues while Mister Miracle was able to hang on until issue eighteen. The last seven issues of that title were overflowed with different characters from the Fourth World as Kirby tried to MacGyver a conclusion out of the scraps left to him by the editorial team at DC Comics.
The original run of The Fourth World saga concluded with a wedding, seeing Big Barda of the Female Furies and Scott Free getting married in a wedding officiated by Highfather as Darkseid crashed the proceedings and Orion declared Earth to be a protected zone by New Genesis. It was disjointed but ended things on a happy but confusing note.
Mister Miracle was the embodiment of Kirby’s optimism. No matter how dangerous or life threatening the trap, Scott Free was always able to liberate himself with cool confidence and an unshakable will. He found happiness in a life and family of his choosing, one that nurtured him into a more complete person and helped him to heal the traumas of his past.
EVEN GODS MUST DIE
Like other visionary artists before him, Kirby never got to see his masterwork end the way he had originally intended or experience the legacy that it had left behind. Every one of the titles in The Fourth World series had been canceled before reaching their intended conclusions and received hasty endings made to fit what little space DC Comics gave Kirby to wrap things up. The titles did not sell well and that experience gave Kirby a sour taste in his mouth. He put absolutely everything he had into the stories of the Fourth World and having that fail must have been devastating. Soon he would make a quiet return to Marvel Comics, working on one of his signature characters in Captain America and creating a few others such as Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, and The Eternals.
Years later, Kirby would have a chance to revisit the New Gods in the form of a backup story in a New Gods reprint series and an original graphic novel DC Comics had decided to publish due to a renewed interest in the original stories but his fire was long gone by then. He was past his prime and couldn't muster the kinetic energy that had been ever present in his earlier work. The stories felt half-hearted and the art suffered from Kirby’s advanced age taking its toll. Like trying to remember a dream upon waking, it was a phenomenon for its time and once it had passed there was no going back.
Others have spent a great deal of time expanding upon the world Kirby built, supplementing his stories with apocryphal origins and offshoots that continue on to this day. It seems to be a high water mark in comics creation that artists and writers strive for but very, very few actually reach. Jack Kirby’s The Fourth World by John Byrne and Orion by Walter Simonson stand head and shoulders above many of the creators only interested in grave robbing Jack Kirby’s legacy for creative clout.
ON THE GLORY BOAT
In the sixth issue of New Gods there is a story called The Glory Boat. In it police inspector Dan “Terrible” Turpin sacrifices his life in a battle of which he had no place taking part. It was a skirmish between the gods and Turpin was nothing more than a mortal armed with nothing more than a six gun and his will. That fact was of no concern to Turpin. Jack Kirby and Dan Turpin had that total disregard for insurmountable odds in common.
There is no better metaphor for Kirby's sacrifices in the name of vulnerability and personal fulfillment in the art he loved than The Glory Boat. The Fourth World was released into an environment where it had little to no chance of survival and Kirby pushed on, against the urgings of editorial interlopers and apathetic fandom, crafting one of the most expansive and awe-inspiring psychedelic visions of the medium in the process. Before disregarding that statement as mere hyperbole I urge you to find examples of Kirby's art from the early days of New Gods or Mister Miracle.
Like Turpin, this battle became Kirby's epitaph and legacy. He created a truly all-purpose pantheon with gods and goddesses for every occasion. That potential currently finds purchase solely in the realms of entertainment but has so much potential for more. Orion embodies a revolt against legacy and righteous anger. In Mister Miracle and Big Barda you can find not only figures of rebellion and redemption but also of finding true happiness and companionship against all odds.
We are all of us looking to battle against the Anti-Life equation, against control and toward an escape to freedom and awe. The New Gods are as good a map as any to finding that paradise in the sky.
SUGGESTED READING
New Gods, issues 1-11 by Jack Kirby (DC Comics, 1971-72)
Mister Miracle, issues 1-18 by Jack Kirby (DC Comics, 1971-72)
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, issues 133-150 by Jack Kirby (DC Comics, 1970-72)
Forever People, issues 1-11 by Jack Kirby (DC Comics, 1971-72)
Cosmic Odyssey, issues 1-4 by Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola (DC Comics, 1988-89)
Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, issues 1-20 by John Byrne (DC Comics, 1997-98)
Orion, issues 1-25 by Walter Simonson (DC Comics, 2000-02)
Final Crisis, issues 1-7 by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones (DC Comics, 2008-09)
Tune in again next week for the conclusion of The Krackle Kanon: THE LAST KID ON EARTH!
As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate each and every one of you out there supporting this work. The Four Color Grimoire is truly a work of love and passion for a medium I’ve spent most of my life obsessing over and I’m glad you’re here with me for it.
EJM