New Gods
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The New Gods are a fictional race created by Jack Kirby for DC Comics, as well as the title for four series of comics about those characters.
The New Gods are natives of the twin planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. New Genesis is a utopian planet filled with unspoiled forests, mountains, and rivers and is ruled by the benevolent Highfather, while Apokolips is a nightmarish, ruined dystopia filled with machinery and fire pits and is ruled by the tyrannic Darkseid. The two planets were once part of the same world, but split apart millennia ago after the death of the old gods. The characters associated with the New Gods are often collectively referred to as "Jack Kirby's Fourth World". The New Gods first appeared in New Gods #1 and Mister Miracle #1 (both titles were published concurrently). The other two "Fourth World" titles were Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and The Forever People. Various New Gods -- notably Darkseid -- went on to interact with other denizens of the DC Universe.
The opening sequence of New Gods #7 references the "Old Gods" and the "New Gods" (e.g "When the Old Gods died..."). Visible in the rubble of what represents the last battle of the Old Gods, is a helmet that resembles that worn by the Marvel Comics' character Thor.
After leaving DC Comics and returning to Marvel Comics, Kirby went on to create a similar concept in the Eternals.
Contents |
[edit] Partial list of inhabitants of New Genesis
- Big Barda
- The Forever People
- Highfather
- Lightray
- Metron
- Mister Miracle
- Orion
- Takion
- Infinity-Man
- Forager
[edit] Partial list of inhabitants of Apokolips
- Darkseid
- Desaad
- The Female Furies
- Granny Goodness
- Heggra
- Justeen/Meteorra
- Kanto
- Kalibak
- Lashina
- Mantis
- Mortalla
- Parademon/Mike
- Parademons
- Pharzoof
- Steppenwolf
- Tigra
- Virman Vunderbarr
- Himon
- Glorious Godfrey
[edit] Additional Fourth World Info
Other notable Fourth World characters and concepts:
[edit] Awards
This series, with Forever People, Mister Miracle, and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen won Jack Kirby a Shazam Award for Special Achievement by an Individual in 1973.
[edit] Trivia
- Not only are Boom Tubes used for transportation, they are also required to shrink the New Gods down to the size of the average human when leaving any planet of the Fourth World. And they perform the reverse for anyone entering the Fourth World.
- There are many often-remarked-upon similarities between Kirby's New Gods storyline and that of the Star Wars films. The New Gods, like Star Wars, tells a mythic, but space-based, battle between good and evil. In both cases, the evil side is headquartered in an enormous, dark, metallic planetoid (Apokolips in New Gods, the Death Star in Star Wars) and headed by a ruthless, black-garbed, helmeted overlord (Darkseid in New Gods, Darth Vader in Star Wars) who is ultimately challenged by a hero who turns out, in a twist, to be his son. (Darth Vader also bears some visual similarities to Dr. Doom, created by Stan Lee and Kirby as a villain for the Fantastic Four.) The name Darkseid is even echoed in the Star Wars phrase "the Dark Side." Both good and evil characters in the New Gods storyline are able to derive power from an invisible, semi-supernatural energy field called "the Source" -- which will remind any Star Wars fan of "the Force." George Lucas, however, has denied having been inspired by Kirby, citing only Akira Kurosawa as a chief influence.
