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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 9, 2019 8:35:12 GMT -5
As we will learn, the Pact was a calculated maneuver that benefitted new Genesis greatly. Orion is tamed into a more focused warrior, on the side of Light and Scott Free is honed into a warrior, who also becomes a symbol to the oppressed of Apokolips..
What's up with that reproduction of Orion, meeting Highfather? Over the years, I had the 1984 reprint, the 4th World Omnibus and the original issues and don't recall that coloring error on any of them.
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 9, 2019 16:09:31 GMT -5
from 2011:
NEW GODS #7 / Mar’72 – “THE PACT!”
This issue is a bit different—to say the least. The cover shows a scene of battle—utter carnage, in fact. Bodies lay strewn about, an eerie green flame burns in the background, while in the foreground, we see 2 warriors facing each other. One dressed in green with a tall, pointed hat (similar to early depictions of Elric) with strange yelow skin swinging an oddly-shaped sword and riding what appears to be a huge hound from hell; the other, garbed entirely in red armor, stands, waiting, with a long golden rod in his hands. The text reads: “A GREAT MYSTERY is explained—in the greatest battle ever fought by the—NEW GODS”.
As with issues #1 & #2, #7 opens with a flashback... “IN THE BEGINNING—“ (Shades of Dino DeLaurentis & John Huston!) But this one it turns out, is book-length. “The NEW GODS were formless in image and aimless in deed!!! On EACH of their TWO new worlds, their races had sprung from the SURVIVOR of the old!! The living atoms of BALDUUR gave nobility and strength to one!! –and the shadow planet was saturated with the cunning and evil which was once a SORCERESS!!” Gee, the only figures of myth who come to mind here would be Baldar of Asgard, and Karnilla, Witch Queen of the Norns (well, in Kirby’s mythology, at least). How does that work, I wonder? Wouldn’t it take 4 people to spawn 2 new races? Or did they somehow spring full-blown from the very beings of the survivors? Could be...
“For an age these new gods pursued their own destines—until the time of the GREAT CLASH!!! It would start on NEW GENESIS—with these two—IZAYA THE INHERITOR and his wife AVIA—and happiness—the FIRST sign of coming tragedy—in an IMPERFECT state!!!” At this moment we learn (if we’re looking close enough) that Izaya is the same warrior on the cover who was encased in red armor. (He carries the same staff.) Now I’m trying to remember if it was mentioned before that High-Father’s name was really Izaya. Here’s his hair’s still jet black, clearly much younger than we’ve seen him before.
Their relaxation is interrupted by a murderous “hunting” party. “STEPPENWOLF OF APOKALIPS—AND HIS DEMON RAIDERS!! Can’t you find enough of your BRUTAL sport among your foul kind!!” “He’s MY kill!! I’ll hang his SKULL in my TROPHY hall!! I hunt WHERE and WHAT I wish, Izaya! And I claim even LEADERS as my quarry!!” Is this man deluding himself into thinking he’s a warrior, when it would appear he’s little more than a blood-lusting murder-crazed mad animal? The Romans saw it as sport to set men against men or animals in a arena to fight to the death. Here, you have someone going around hunting and murdering other people, and calling it “sport”. Madness indeed!
Avia is caught in a blast meant for Izaya and killed. Before her husband can strike back, he’s taken out by Steppenwolf’s nephew—Darkseid, using what he refers to as “killing-gloves” designed by his “good friend”, Desaad. His uncle is suspicious that someone who “thrives on living victims would produce a device which kills with such SPEED”—yet he refuses to check for signs of life. His mistake—Izaya is alive, and his first move on recovering is to declare all-out war on Apokalips. Obviously, nobody on either side saw the value in having open diplomatic channels, or criminal extradition proceedings.
Well, war breaks out, and New Genesis attacks first, sending “monitors” (seen in some back-up stories) and “de-energizer” bombs which are dropped into the “planetary pits” which power the planet—although, if I went just by the artwork, it looks like the bombs CREATED the pits with their blasts. After 3 pages of carnage, we switch to a protective bunker (shades of WW2) where we see the ruling elite. Among them are Desaad, Darkseid, Steppenwolf, and Heggra, the Queen of Apokalips, who is Steppenwolf’s sister and Darkseid’s mother. She berates her brother for “constantly” forgetting to address her by her proper title. It suggests he must resent her being in charge rather than him—makes me wonder how THAT came about.
While Steppenwolf raves about smashing the enemy, Heggra praises her son for being “cool” and “wise”. Steppenwolf says to him, “Well, Darkseid! It seems you WANTED this war!! It might be well to LEARN how your inexperience would DEAL with it!!” A real perverse situation if ever there was one. Heggra doesn’t seem to have wanted the war, yet takes no actions against the TWO of her family who caused it. I also found myself wondering who her husband was, and what happened to him. (Perhaps she became Queen only because her husband was the ruler, so Steppenwolf was NOT in the running when the former ruler died?)
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 9, 2019 16:10:01 GMT -5
It gets even more perverse when he find Darkseid is obsessed with new technologies, including an unstable element created by accident, which can vanish and reappear on its own. Suddenly, Metron bursts into the room, demanding the element from Darkseid, on his word from an earlier “private” meeting. Metron wants the element so he can build his dimension-spanning Mobius Chair—Darkseid agrees to give it to him, on condition that Metron supply Apokalips with a “Matter Threshold” thru which their troops can walk through and instantly invade New Genesis. In the pursuit of science and knowledge, Metron seems to care nothing for who reaps the benefits of his discoveries, or how much chaos and destruction and death may result. Was there ever a more pure expression of how amoral some scientists allow themselves to be?
Just thought I’d interject, while it’s mostly common knowledge that Metron was based on J. Robert Oppenheimer, who developed the atomic bomb (and look how much better the world is since then, right?), something that never occured to me before reading this story again today was how much Darkseid is beginning to remind me of Bela Lugosi. I know with 2 different TV cartoons featuring him you’d never think of Lugosi’s voice in connection with the character, but just looking at both his short stature and that FACE (under the dark color and craggy skin) is beginning to make me think Lugosi might have been the ideal actor to play him, had a film been made based on this story back in the 1930’s.
The war escalates. In 3 pages, we go from 5 panels to 3 panels to 1, with the climax for the sequence coming on a page with 6 panels. Izaya confronts Steppenwolf, who’s surprised to learn he’s still alive, moments before being killed by him. In any kind of sane world, this would have been the END of the war. In fact, this would have BEEN the war—period. But because Izaya launched a full-scale assault against an entire planet—just to kill ONE man—it can’t end here. And it doesn’t. He meets Metron on the battlefield, and the scientist tells him, “Darkseid knew he’d meet YOU here!! DARKSEID!! How I want HIM destroyed! And yet, he LIVES! He CLIMBS! Step by step! By intrigue, he got WAR! By war, he got POWER!! By power, he got STEPPENWOLF!!” And thus is the entire story explained up to this point. More or less.
And the war CONTINUES to escalate!! Until the man who started it can take no more. “We are WORSE than the old gods! They destroyed THEMSELVES!! We destroy EVERYTHING!! This is DARKSEID’s way! I am INFECTED by Darkseid!! To save New Genesis—I must find IZAYA!! WHERE is IZAYA?? –not the warrior!—the General!!—but, the TRUE servant of those he leads!!” I’m a bit reminded of Michael Reeves film WITCHFINDER GENERAL, which he apparently intended as a cautionary warning about the dangers of violence, and how it can infect everyone in touches. (I sometimes think if he’d been older when he made that, and had more self-control and restraint, he might have been able to get his “message” across better without actually offending most of his potential audience.)
Izaya, like Moses—or Jesus—walks out into the desert, alone, in search of answers. “I TEAR OFF MY ARMOR! I REJECT THIS WAR-STAFF AS A WEAPON!!! I REJECT THE WAY OF WAR!! DARKSEID’S GAME IS NOT MINE!! WHERE IS IZAYA!!!?? WHERE IS IZAYA!!!??” As the narration states, “The dry wind RISES and the elements DISTURB the sky!! Violent electrical flashes twist and STAB across the DARKENED land!!! The echo bnecomes a ROAR! The roar becomes a THOUSAND drums beating to the mad music of the wind-storm!!! – DRIVING—DRIVING the questing spirit-- ---TO THE WALL!!! Ageless, inscrutable!!!-- it stands—as if waiting—waiting in the sudden calm—for Izaya to communicate!” In the desert, Izaya finds a blank wall standing, crackling with mysterious energy. It’s like that early scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: SPACE ODYSSEY, transferred to a high plane, a more fantasy landscape, and certainly, a more LITERATE storyline. Kirby is taking elements from ancient mythology, religions, and modern science-fiction, and combining them into somethng NEW and EXCTIING!
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 9, 2019 16:10:20 GMT -5
And then, everything changes. The war is OVER. It was started with a murder and an excessive retaliation. It ends, with something very old-fashioned, from Earth history... the exchange of hostages to ensure peace. Izaya has contacted Darkseid, and the aggreement they reached—“THE PACT”—involves the exchange of their SONS. As we learn, like Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (see the film THE LION IN WINTER), Darkseid’s wife, Tigra—a “fighting, snarling KILLER-CAT”—who was chosen for him against his will by his mother (who is NOW DEAD—gee, how convenient!) has been living in EXILE for years, along with her son, who has never even met his father.
Darkseid surveys the ruins of his planet, and says, “Izaya wants PEACE! I—want—TIME!!--- time to RE-DEFINE power!!—to make this “bombed-out” waste a MEANINGFUL pursuit!!” What a monster. He doesn’t want to rebuild his planet, so much as leave it a ruined nightmare of a landscape, for his own sick, depraved, twisted purposes. (Gee, why am I reminded of East Berlin? –or much of the Soviet Union?)
In one of the most disturburbing—but revealing—scenes in the entire Fourth World epic to date—we see Granny Goodness take charge of Izaya’s very young son. “There is a SERENE and FRAGILE quality in his features!!” “We’ll STAMP that out, won’t we, Granny!!? We’ll JAM him into that CLANKING mechanism you call an ORPHANAGE!! All the rigors and trials heaped upon the training warrior shall be DOUBLED for HIM!! His spirit will flag and his bones will ache!! –until—“ “UNTIL—sire??” “He may CONVENIENTLY decide to ESCAPE from Apokalips, Granny! Of course, on that day—the PACT I agreed to—will be BROKEN!!” “That fine day will be DEAR to your heart, sire! Therefore, in its honor, I shall name the lad—SCOTT FREE!!! Ha ha hah---“ Horrors!!!
Meanwhile a squad of soldiers, beaten and bloodied, desperately shove Darkseid’s son, a “murderous little monster”, thru the dimension threshold. Knife in hand, he confronts an old man who’s bent over a table in grief. But his attack is stopped. “Hate is NO longer a word in this place!! PUT DOWN THAT WEAPON!! –son--!” “You! YOU are—my father??” “Only if YOU wish me to be! I am HIGHFATHER!! And you—are ORION!! We have NEED of each other, Orion!! This is a place of FRIENDS!! Here is my hand--!!” “NO! I—I—“ “The hand, or the WEAPON, Orion!! I, TOO, had to make that choice!!--- DECIDE!!” “Y-you speak to my liking! I-I TRUST you—for now!” “FIRST, trust, Orion! THEN—who knows-- ? A GREAT destiny, perhaps!!” As the narrator says, “THUS IT BEGAN!!! –AND WE MOVE FORWARD ONCE MORE!!!” Wow.
While it was revealed as far back as NEW GODS #1 that Orion was Darkseid’s son (but only certain people knew it), until here there was NO clue that Scott Free was Highfather’s son. I doubt the terms of The Pact were supposed to include Scott being mis-treated so terribly for the whole of his life growing up. But it surely casts a different light on Highfather, who must have known—or at least suspected—what might happen to him.
The art in this entire issue is a masterpiece. Not only is Jack Kirby at the top of his game, but Mike Royer, after a few shaky, inconsistent issues, did what could easily be called a “perfect” job this time. Amazing!
The Young Gods of Supertown this time is a 2-page spotlight on Vykin The Black, set before the new war, where he tackles an ugly mutation left behind from The Great Clash. This would serve to set up a story coming up in a few issues. This issue’s Manhunter reprint is “The Legend Of The Silent Bear”, from ADVENTURE COMICS #76 (Jul’42). Also in the back is “Here Come The Robots” / “A World Of Thinking Machines” from REAL FACT COMICS #2 (May’46).
(9-28-2011)
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 9, 2019 16:12:37 GMT -5
Darkseid LIED to his uncle. He KNEW Azaya was alive. He WANTED the war. His mother had ruined his life by forcing him to marry a woman he hated against his will, so he caused the war to happen, so that-- among many other things-- his mother would be KILLED, and he could take over.
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 9, 2019 17:08:53 GMT -5
That's really the great twist in this story, isn't it--that Darkseid always intended to let Scott eventually "escape" in order to terminate The Pact? I really dig seeing stories where Destiny and intentional manipulation of circumstances intertwine, blurring the line between free will and fate. Which is really controlling the course of events?
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Post by rberman on Jun 10, 2019 8:55:01 GMT -5
Mister Miracle #7 “Apokolips Trap!” (March 1972) The Story: A boat load of kids arrive at “Granny Goodness Finishing School.” Where are they from? Not Apokolips, one suspects. Granny declares her confidence that Scott Free will return willingly. She's not wrong.  Scott and Big Barda use her Mega-Rod to teleport to the Greyborders zone on Apokolips. When rank-pulling fails, Barda uses force to commandeer a hovercraft.  A new villain,: Kanto the Weapon-Master, ambushes the heroes, seizes Barda’s Mega-Rod, and uses it to incapacitate her.  Kanto ties up Scott and shoots explosive arrows at him. When he escapes that trap, Kanto attaches a manacle to Scott’s ankle and takes him for a drag behind a vehicle. Surprisingly, when Scott escapes that too, Kanto frees Scott and Barda, so they continue their journey toward Granny Goodness.  By the time Scott and Barda arrive at the orphanage, Granny is getting ready for bed. She’s taking her medicine and wearing a dressing gown over her armor, which is pretty bizarre. Scott and Barda are split up by her soldiers.  The issue ends with a cliffhanger splash page showing the threat that awaits Scott in the next issue:  Young Scott Free: He practices flying with aero-discs and avoiding airborne Para-Demons armed with clubs.  Lettercol: People love Big Barda. The editors declare that “Kirby’s Fourth World series has grown incredibly popular in such a short period of time.” Was that true? My Two Cents: It’s a satisfactorily action-packed issue. This is our second extended look at Apokolips, the first having been in New Gods #1 when Orion traveled here to face Kalibak. Plus of course the brief “Young Scott Free” vignettes. No great surprises; Apokolips is exactly the totalitarian hell we would have expected.  Kanto is the first foe that Scott couldn’t defeat. Scott only walks free because Kanto gets bored. I wonder what Kanto moved on to that was more interesting than playing cat-and-mouse with Scott.
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 10, 2019 13:54:23 GMT -5
That's really the great twist in this story, isn't it--that Darkseid always intended to let Scott eventually "escape" in order to terminate The Pact? I really dig seeing stories where Destiny and intentional manipulation of circumstances intertwine, blurring the line between free will and fate. Which is really controlling the course of events? I'm sure it's in no way a close parallel, but, for some reason, this reminds me of the "1897" storyline on DARK SHADOWS.
Barnabas Collins used the I-Ching wands to contact the spirit of Quentin Collins. but instead, he found himself spiritually transported back to 1897, and trapped in his own body at the time, which was still under the curse of vampirism and locked in a coffin.
Once freed by Sandor, Barnabas set about trying to get his bearings, and slowly determined that he needed to find out how Quentin died, and stop it from happening.
MONTHS went by, and due to Barnabas' actions, Count Petofi arrived and stopped Quentin from getting killed. But at the point this happened, Barnabas was once again locked inside his coffin, and had NO IDEA what was going on around him, for weeks!
It was a major case of someone having very little or no idea how their actions might affect those around them, or future actions springing from those actions.
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 10, 2019 14:00:30 GMT -5
"The Battle Of The Id" is suspiciously similar to what went on in part 3 of the Tom Baker DOCTOR WHO story, "The Deadly Assassin". I wonder if Robert Holmes was a Kirby fan, or, if both were influenced by some earlier story?
As Apokalips is such a war-obsessed planet, I never thought the orphans might be anything other than kids whose parents had been killed in Darkseid's service... and now, it was THEIR turn.
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Post by rberman on Jun 10, 2019 14:36:52 GMT -5
" The Battle Of The Id" is suspiciously similar to what went on in part 3 of the Tom Baker DOCTOR WHO story, " The Deadly Assassin". I wonder if Robert Holmes was a Kirby fan, or, if both were influenced by some earlier story? That was the one taking place in a virtual reality simulation known as "The Matrix" in which one could learn to manipulate the VR world to gain an advantage in combat with one's enemies therein. Somebody ought to make a movie out of that! |
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Post by rberman on Jun 11, 2019 6:31:17 GMT -5
Jimmy Olsen #147 “A Superman in Supertown!” (March 1972) The Story: As Jimmy convalesces in the hospital, Angry Charlie bursts in on his room, followed close behind by the local constabulary. The Newsboys claim that Angry Charlie is “the only survivor of the weirdies turned out in the Evil Factory’s destruction.” What happened to the rest of the weirdie menagerie being kept at Scotland Yard in issue #145? Gabby demonstrates that he’s been given a pack of sedative pills to feed to Angry Charlie, so can’t the Newboys take him home to America and keep him? That seems like a really bad idea, but no one objects.  The Whiz Wagon is almost home when Angry Charlie awakens and, unsurprisingly, goes berserk. The Wagon is forced to land upon a volcano off the coast from Metropolis (huh?) where they are beset by androids. When they awaken inside the volcano, they are prisoners of Dr. No. I mean, Professor Volcanum.  Beneath Suicide Slum’s disco, Superman finds Magnar, a costumed figure, outside the Boom Tube. Each assumes the other is a villain, and Superman ends up getting tossed into the Boom Tube, which is what he wanted anyway. Their melee continues on the other end of the Tube in New Genesis. Check out Magnar's impossibly wide stance! His power must be super-limberness.  Magnar and Superman eventually realize that they shouldn’t be fighting, so Superman gets a tour of the floating Supertown where the New Gods live. But nobody wants to talk to him. After awkwardly interrupting a few events he doesn’t really understand, Superman dejectedly sits beside Highfather Izaya who says, “Shouldn’t you be getting back to Earth, fella?” Izaya also obliquely mentions Orion as someone who had trouble adjusting to life on New Genesis.  Izaya teleports Superman to the volcano where Jimmy and the Newsboys are now locked in a metal cage…  Covers That Lie: Jimmy does not go to Supertown. Lettercol: Bob Rozakis feels daunted by the dizzying pace of characters and concepts being introduced in the Fourth World. Don’t worry, Bob! DC is going to spend forty years coasting on these ideas. My Two Cents: After all the build-up of Supertown, it was a real letdown for poor Superman. Once Magnar established that Superman was not a threat, he just abandoned him. What a cold shoulder! Even Izaya seems eager for Superman to leave. I guess the message is that being with people like yourself isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Kinda sad, really! Meanwhile, the Jimmy Olsen plot feels like a James Bond knock-off. Will that wall of rock really pose a threat to Superman? I guess we’ll see. Angry Charlie is a cool design.  DC Comics of this period contained an offer for an exclusive Kirby collection. I remember finding this illustration freakishly interesting when I was a child. Its crazy Asgardian-type helmets were like something that might have appeared in Metal Hurlant.
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 11, 2019 11:21:54 GMT -5
That was the one taking place in a virtual reality simulation known as "The Matrix" in which one could learn to manipulate the VR world to gain an advantage in combat with one's enemies therein. Somebody ought to make a movie out of that! Funny you should bring that up...
While MISTER MIRACLE and DOCTOR WHO each had one-on-one battles between combatants in a VR world...
GREEN LANTERN #6 (Jun'61), "The World Of Living Phantoms" had an entire planet's population deliberately go into a VR world via sleep chambers... like a kindler, gentler version of "THE MATRIX", decades before-the-fact. John Broome & Gil Kane really did some crazy stuff in that book.
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 11, 2019 11:26:28 GMT -5
I've got the high-quality reprint someone did of "KIRBY UNLEASHED" around here somewhere.
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Post by rberman on Jun 12, 2019 8:27:27 GMT -5
The Forever People #8 “The Power!” (April 1972) The Story: At the immense estate of “Billion Dollar Bates,” mystic attackers overwhelm Bates’ security team. They don the robes of The Sect, a weirdo cult that lives in catacombs beneath Bates’ mansion, then summon Bates into an ambush. Will he come?  When the Forever People teleport their Super-Cycle to Batesville via the “Electron Road,” the security forces spend several pages failing to harm Big Bear.  But when Bates himself orders the Forever People to stand down, to their shock they are forced to comply. Bates has what he calls “The Power” to control the minds of men. Is it the Anti-Life Equation? The heroes are taken beneath the mansion in chains. Big Bear shows off his knowledge of George Orwell.  In his mansion, Bates is facing off against a government team sent to investigate him. Thanks to The Power, he easily puts them in his thrall. Kirby's art is getting progressively rougher and more cartoony as the Fourth World progresses. Perhaps this reflects the strain of working on four simultaneous books.  Beautiful Dreamer has somehow used her illusion powers to free the Forever People—or maybe they were never really chained? Bates’ cultists turn out to be agents of Darkseid. They knock out Bates with a booby-trapped crown, but the Forever People steal him away. He’s shot dead in a scuffle with his own security forces. That’s when thinks get really bizarre. One of the cultists unmasks himself as Darkseid, who berates the heroes. It’s a very strange exchange in which the heroes alternately defy Darkseid and accept his reproach about their casual conduct.  Finally, Darkseid has had enough. He uses his Omega Effect on the heroes. But instead of scattering them in the past, it simply teleports them and the Super-Cycle far away. Darkseid apparently leaves, and the government investigative team takes possession of Bates’ crown.  Back Up “Fastbak in ‘Beat the Black Racer’”: Esak has apparently gotten himself trapped in an Apokolips trap, a “Magna-Target” which carries him off to Apokolips. Fastbak must get to Esak before Black Racer does, or Esak will die. Fastbak wins the race! Yay.  Lettercol: Bob Rozakis is upset with the Glory Boat story because a civilian died. “I cannot recall any other story in which it happened.” Christophe Zavisa didn’t appreciate the depiction of a conscientious objector abandoning his pacifism, and also complained about the decompressed storytelling, full of splash pages. Mark Evanier can’t write a preview of the next issue, cryptically commenting, “You know as much about it as we do, possibly more.” Deadlines I guess. My Two Cents: What a bizarre combination of elements. A billionaire with a Lovecraftian subterranean cult. A heist plot led by Darkseid himself. I guess a frontal assault on a man with the power of Anti-Life is too perilous? The Forever People are mainly along for the ride. Their attempt to rescue Bates fails, and given his ambitions for world domination, that’s probably for the best.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 12, 2019 11:57:04 GMT -5
Someone needed to introduce Christophe Zavisa to Alvin York.
I would think Kirby would have trouble with a conscientious objector, when the threat is evil personified; hence, Mister Miracle joining the battle with Darkseid (though under his own terms and more out of self defense). Personally, I had problems with people who were in the military and Guard and Reserves who then tried to claim objector status, when they were being deployed to Saudi Arabia, during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. You cannot say you joined the military with the thought you would never be called upon to fight. That goes beyond naive into incredulous.
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