New Gods #4 “O’Ryan Gang and the Deep Six” (August 1971)



The Story: In a four page prelude, Metron takes young Esak (Isaac?) to a caveman planet. He promises that the inhabitants will get more civilized over time. By implication, maybe Earth will improve as well. As with other freestanding Metron sequences at the beginning of issues in New Gods, this scene mainly serves to remind us that Highfather Izaya and Metron exist.



The cops drag the dead body of Seagrin the New God out of the water. His mother box contacts The Source to take his corpse home in a fiery conflagration. Black Racer flies through the scene as well, though it’s unclear what contribution he has to make since Seagrin is already dead, and Mother Box has administered last rites. Mainly his presence is just to keep the character in play.



Equally silly is a would-be ominous splash page of Darkseid watching the scene from a nearby alley. He should mainly be shown as working through lieutenants, not skulking around the corner of a brownstone. And just as silly is Orion’s proposal that he and his white collar team pose as the criminal “O’Ryan Gang” in order to track a local Intergang division back to its headquarters. Detective Lincoln is the only one who’s really qualified for this sort of work:



Next Claudia gasses the Intergang guards with a tricked out car. Next, elderly insurance salesman Lanza poses as a tech buyer to get Intergang to reveal the location of their “jammer” so that Orion can swoop in and destroy it.



Next, in the start of an unrelated adventure, Orion ventures undersea to confront Seagrin’s killers, a group of Apokolips monsters known as Deep Six. How will that go? Tune in next time!



This issue also contains an apologetic open letter from Carmine Infantino explaining the price hike from 15 cents to 25 cents. A Lightray pin-up fills out the pages.



My Two Cents: It’s not a bad idea for Orion to have some human sidekicks who can ask questions to prompt him for exposition. But the execution is hamfisted. Apparently this motley crew has decided to give up on their regular lives and hang around Dave Lincoln’s apartment, even though we saw in issue #2 that Darkseid or his goons are liable to appear there. Their expository dialogue comes across more as Golden Age than even Silver, let alone Bronze.



Without the multiple splash pages and the unrelated material about Metron and Black Racer, this would have been a pretty short issue. At least the art is cool. Darkseid’s power is described as “cyclopean,” which was a favorite word of H.P. Lovecraft to describe something very large. (Here is the shot I mentioned with Darkseid personally hanging out at the docks, peeking around the corner of a building to spy without being noticed.)

I think you are missing the point to Darkseid's appearance.  It is not about Darkseid watching events from close quarters, it is about the truth of war, as Jack Kirby found it, in WW2.  So much talk is made of valor and glory and grand crusades, when in the end, there is only butchery.  Kirby was haunted by it and Darkseid gives voice to it.  It is one of his most powerful and profound pieces of writing, in the saga.

The 4th World is not writing, in the conventional sense.  It is more of an epic poem, crossed with a philosophical tract, delivered in a sci-fi adventure story.  To me, this is what people miss when they say Kirby couldn't write.  Kirby could write and brilliantly so.  He just didn't write like Stan or others within the field.  He was more abstract, more poetic, in a crude way.  His meanings often come far later than first reading.

Honestly both these criticisms feel to me like "Darkseid would be better if he acted like generic supervillain # 73.412."

Again, I disagree. Darkseid's hanging out because he has all the time in the world. He believes in the inexorability of his victory. If something catches his interest, he'll come watch. Chillin' in the alley is 100% in character, all through the series. 'Surprisingly casual' is what differentiates Darkseid from all the Mongul-come-latelies.

And later writers got this about half the time. I'm reading the Tom King Mister Miracle series your reviewed and he just completely misses this. But didn't the J. M. Dematties Mr. Miracle series* have a scene where Scott and Barda come home and Darkseid is sitting in their big green armchair? That's Darkseid!

* Or maybe this was John Bynre?

That was Byrne. And he was shown enjoying a snifter of wine on top of it. It was the one good moment in an otherwise completely atrocious storyline.

Yep, that one. Can't believe Byrne still defends it.