Love how #NewGods begins with an epilogue. This is a mythology born out of destruction, WW2 vet’s search for meaning as the world marches along through the shadow of the Cold War. it’s a postmodern rejection of the myth that defined the 20th century. #jackkirby #comics 
When the bomb dropped, the old world died.
In the face of oppression, free thought and individualism is an act of rebellion, and the only way to be truly alive. (Mr. Miracle 2)
They want you to believe that to live is to die. To love is to submit your will to theirs.
Coloring choice here is great. Scott is unique on the page, brightly colored as he smashes thru monochrome horde of submissive, nameless soldiers. Even Granny has the same blue and fades into the beige background.
These aren’t subtle comics but that makes them all the more powerful. The institutions and petty politics fail and demand you fall in line. Uniform in idea and appearance. (Forever People 3)
Freedom is distorted as a cudgel to spread the nihilist ideals that dying and sacrificing others to death is the ultimate pursuit of life. For whose benefit? For the powerful, who fear death most of all. Who fear the freedom of compassion & selflessness.
Only those who are loyal will obtain power. Only by submitting to the ideal that individual life is without value will the corrupted institutions consider sharing that power with you. To ensure freedom choice will be taken. All abuses are justified in the pursuit.
New Gods, of the 4 series Kirby uses to flesh out his universe, is the one most concerned with the trauma of war and the shame and hypocrisy of armed conflict. Is Orion Kirby’s view of himself? Of America? He can look at his true self for only a single panel.
#NewGods is fundamentally optimistic, despite the sadness which pervades the multiple books. As Tom Shapira points out in issue 34 of @panelxpanel, a major theme is the forward looking nature of New Genesis & hope in the next generation, especially apparent in The Forever People
The Forever People represent a collectivist, benevolent future where people join together in good will for shared goals—they are one and many. A stark contrast to Darkseid’s fascism which seeks to shape the world into a single mind in service to a single will.
High Father listens to a Council of the Young. Mr. Miracle takes up the mantle of his mentor. Orion fights to overcome the violent tendencies of his heritage. Kirby sees in the next generation a opportunity for progress, if they can overcome that which they’ve inherited.
The postmodern condition is a recognition of the failures of the grand meta narratives that defined our perception of reality. There is no single story that accounts for existence—the world is not fundamentally ordered.
The new gods fight for the new path forward. It is a generational rift at the heart of the story—Orion, Scott Free, and Darkseid. Life is defined in relationship to others, in opposition to the mindless fealty to the state.
War is not a glorious honor—Orion is not a glorious god of war. He is at war with his own nature. War is ugly and leaves scars no matter how righteous the narrative. It is a fool’s destiny.
I noticed that all of the #NewGods titles are primarily laid out in a 6 panel grid, barring opening splash pages and the odd double page spread. I’m not certain if this an intentional formal exercise but it certainly seems to be a specific structural choice for Kirby.
It’s certainly not an Alan Moore Watchmen level of formalism as he does occasionally break from it, but for the most part he keeps it consistent. Perhaps an attempt to wrap his new mythology in a Heroic, rhythmic structure like Homer’s Greek epics?
That page picked specifically to mirror the long/short syllable flexibility of the hexameter verse compared to the panel construction of the six panel grid
On top of this page of #NewGods being a jaw dropping double page spread, it calls to mind the Jewish belief that no one may see the face of God may live. Metron seeks knowledge of ‘The Source,’ the ultimate understanding of existence and creation. (New Gods 5)
Our narrator lets us know that many other powerful celestial figures have tried and failed and been punished for their hubris. To assume that you are the exception, that you can see the true answer, to understand as God does, is as good as blasphemy.
Metron’ s quest is explicitly forbidden in Kirby’s spiritual tradition. Metron, like Jacob, seeks to wrestle with creation, and become blessed as Israel became blessed. Metron is allegiant to neither New Genesis nor Apokolips, he seeks only his own power.
Metron pictures himself above the petty violence of war, but ultimately his arrogance helps to facilitate it. I am reading this for the first time so I don’t know where Metron ends up specifically in Kirby’s narrative, but he is shown in a negative light. No one likes him (NG1)
Contrast this with, arguably, the two leads of this meta narrative, the largely pacifist, compassionate Scott Free and the mournful Orion, two pawns in the galactic game, who seek in their own ways to escape the cycle of war and violence, to serve others.
Judaism is rich in tradition of service& mitzva. To know God is to serve others and live ones life in the best way you are able & actively choose love & service. (See this reflection by Rabbi Mark Joel Mahler: jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/to-see-gods-fa…) Free will enables encounter with the divine
This of course brings us back to the central conflict of the series: #Darkseid’s quest for the Anti-Life Equation. His search to eliminate free will is thus not just anti-humanist, it is an ontological rejection of divine purpose, supposing his own desires outweighs all else.
Humanity has this capacity to produce such an affront to the divine which is why Darkseid seeks it on Earth. We can obviously connect that directly to World War 2. Even a good man like Sonny Sumo has the potential to force his will on others. (Forever People 5)
Sorry if this thread is uninteresting or annoying to you but as I read through these books for the first time I’m more and more convinced it should be held up as a classic of the medium and studied as seriously as other works of 20th century art.Consider these my index card notes
They will tell you that your only choice is to love them. That the pain is what you deserve. The lie is the truth and to face the lie means to go through the pain of recognizing the trauma they inflicted. (I find this scene incredibly chilling)
While religious extremists are not an American invention, Glorious Godfrey is a uniquely American figure—a nihilist cult leader who gives justification to the basest urges of humanity. He is an American evangelical apocalyptic, desperate to vanquish freedom to receive his reward
I started the introduction to an actual written piece trying to coalesce these tweets into a real piece of writing today
Orion represents the ugly truth of war. Lightray, as a peaceful, hopeful figure getting wrapped up in war shows both how much conflict mars everything it encounters and how seemingly honorable soldiers provide a false glory to the grim and ugly reality of violence
“There is no freedom in running.” Whether running from a literal threat or just the trauma of ones’ past, as long as these things dictate your actions and define how you live your life, there is no true escape. Freedom requires the strength to face that which has power over you
In Mr. Miracle 6 Barda & Scott are forced to reckon with their past&the emotional scars Apokolips represents. It is not a leap to imagine Kirby grappling with his own experience at war as well as the generational cultural trauma of the holocaust. Apokolips always reclaims its own
Gaslighting and propaganda are essential tools to manipulate individuals into accepting and justifying authoritarian rule. Anything is permitted if it is for the advancement of the tyrant’s will.
It’s not just Kirby’s narrative themes that embrace and challenge readers to grapple with the postmodern condition. This 2 page splash from Forever People 7 shows the fusion of culture & artistic influences into something thoroughly unique; a hallmark of postmodern art #NewGods
The craft and artistry Kirby brings to the ‘low culture’ art of #superhero comics is an artistic statement—high culture and low culture are arbitrary distinctions. His experimentation on such a throwaway title as #JimmyOlsen is especially indicative of Kirby’s statement.
Mixed media/collage as a technique is also uniquely postmodern. A breaking down of barriers and artificial narratives of how things ‘should be’ arranged. (Side note: DC should apologize for drawing over all of Kirby’s #Superman faces)
Comic as a form are thoroughly postmodern, an intermedia mix of words and pictures, utilizing multiple techniques and printing processes. Ihab Hassan includes, "Intermedia, the fusion of forms, the confusion of realms," in his list of characteristics of postmodern art.
Which makes comics, especially superheroes which are an assemblage of disparate dramas, the perfect medium for Kirby’s exploration of meaning and freedom in a postmodern world where old narratives and rules seem to be crumbling
You don’t pick the name Izaya by accident. In the Book of Isaiah, at least in part written post-Babylonian exile amid the diaspora. Book 2 in particular deals with a new Exodus, where the great wilderness will be transformed into a paradise.
What a salve this prophetic voice must have been for a modern Jewish diaspora reeling from the pain of genocide. Kirby names the leader of the #NewGods Izaya, simultaneously presenting New Genesis as idyllic but beset by eternal war. Paradise is ever elusive.
Izaya first fails to lead his people to a new promised land out of the burning war that saw the death of the old gods and ignites new violence.
Jewish history and religion is told in stories of constant exile & return. Kirby also draws on both this tradition and the Norse Ragnarok cycle to reflect on the nature of violence and war as a constant plague, a cosmic force that leaves paradise unobtainable.
One need not stretch much to see the Moses parallel here.
“Freedom is not a natural disposition, but God's precious gift... Those in whom viciousness becomes second-nature, those in whom brutality is linked with haughtiness, forfeit their ability and therefore their right to receive that gift.”
“Hardening of the heart is the suspension of freedom.” - Abraham Joshua Heschl. Images Mister Miracle 7
I mentioned earlier Metron’s unique position of being disliked by everyone. He plays off both sides of the conflict to further his own ends, the quest for ultimate answers. #newgods
But within Judaism there is no claim to understanding meaning in final terms. Metron’s quest is a futile and selfish endeavor ‘Creation...is an idea that transcends causality.’
If #NewGods is a work of postmodern Jewish art dealing with the difficult task of forming meaning post-holocaust from the perspective of an American Jewish soldier, then Metron represents the failure of science to advance the search for meaning.
Science is inadequate to answer these questions and in fact is as responsible for ongoing violence as any other. ‘The intention of scientific thinking is to answer man’s questions and to satisfy his quest for knowledge.’
#JackKirby is making a point that meaning is far more complex and beyond the grasp of even the most rational mind, particularly when pursued to merely satisfy ones’ own particular desires. (Text above from God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschl)
You know, calls to respect the violent authority of the state framed as a kind of unquestioning love as they literally hold you down seems awfully familiar in the USA of 2020. Perhaps the people who lived through World War 2 have something to tell us
Superman doesn’t play a big role in these books and I’m not sure there’s significant thematic importance to his appearances with new gods characters but I do love the way Kirby writes him.
Confident,serious, but playful& kind. And a loneliness and longing for a place he won’t feel like an outsider that carries through Forever People & Jimmy Olsen. Ultimately his sense of responsibility&care for others grounds him and makes him realize Earth is where he belongs
Hard not to read Orion as a deeply personal reflection for Kirby, who late in life talked often about how his adolescence was defined by violence, whether at home or at war. Is there a way to live a violent life and not end up consumed?
“I am interested in the other side of knowledge, the cultural side of knowledge. I’m looking for the gaps that I know exist and of course, I’ll never get the answers...so I feel I live with very interesting questions.” Jack Kirby in ‘86
Pretty easy to see how this inspired Star Wars.
More #StarWars parallels—the Source and the Force. (Mr Miracle 9). The dream of freedom beyond tyranny is the greatest threat to the fascist ideal
Frankly I feel dumb for not realizing the Cold War parallels with Earth as the Vietnam-esque proxy war until 40 issues in.
New Genesis is largely presented as utopian, so the introduction of the Bugs, an underclass oppressed & disdained by the largely benevolent and righteous gods is a clear statement of the danger of myth making and who these stories we tell ourselves leave out.
One could look at this as a comment on the civil rights movement or Vietnam, and either reading seems valid. In both cases it’s white America exploiting a group, upending the social order and leads to further conflict. The stories are stories. They are insufficient. Postmodern!
A common criticism I’ve come across over the years is that Kirby’s dialogue is bad or clunky. Outrageous. His elevated and operatic language in these Fourth World books is 100% intentional and effective. This is a stylistic choice to befit his tale of mythology. (Mr. Miracle 9)
Combined with his dramatic figures and Royer’s moody inks panels like these are emotionally heightened and evocative. Orion’s pain is cosmic in scope. The anger is expressing a primal rage that represents the screams of all wounded soldiers. (New Gods 10)
Forever People’s final issue is perplexing. After ignoring him for half the book, Kirby brings Infinity Man back revealing he had been trapped by Darkseid in another universe. Maybe Kirby realized the guy was lame and his brawling at odds with the main cast’s pacifism.
Most of the issue is the group pursued by a Darkseid thug, who mocks them for being unwilling to kill him. Apokolips wins because they are brutal, etc. they try various tricks to stop or outrun him, fearing their draft into this war is endless
The group switches places with Infinity Man for reasons and he and the Pursuer are mutually destroyed in their battle. Infinity Man is not a character, just a cypher created for war. He dies in battle. Not much of a victory; the war continues.
The Forever People take Infinity Man’s place in the paradise dimension. Finally they are free of the war to pursue the peace they desired. Vietnam and draft dodgers loom large over this ending; flower children outrunning the war by going where they can’t be forced to fight
It’s not a condemnation, Kirby empathized with those who did not want to fight a meaningless and seemingly unending war. But the end is somber—a moment passes on. Whether they find true peace in Kirby’s original vision will never be known.
#NewGods original run ends unceremoniously at #11 with Orion learning his true origins as a result of his own brutality. He is child born in violence, but does it define him? I think at this point,
Kirby’s optimistic outlook would say his destiny is his own
Kirby’s optimistic outlook would say his destiny is his own
The confrontation between Orion&Kalibak in this last ish serves to highlight the similar violent urges that overcome both sons of Darkseid. Orion’s cause is righteous, but still destructive to his own sense of self. But he still seeks to create his own meaning out of the violence
A genuine disgrace he didn’t get to bring this to a conclusion until years later, when his outlook was undoubtedly different. We’ll see when I get to the Hunger Dogs.
Both Orion & Scott Free are tormented by their pasts. Dr. Bedlam (a non corporeal agent of fear) strikes me as a manifestation of PTSD, the trauma of Apokolips tormenting #MisterMiracle. the fact that ensnares Oberon both times could illustrate how trauma can impact loved ones
Mr. Miracle moves away from the cosmic war after the other books are canceled but this panel states what is essentially the core of Scott’s character, with Mystivac standing in for Darkseid and the other dark forces that try to close in on him.
Issue 13
Latter part of Mr Miracle finds Scott assembling a patchwork family and expanding his circle of trust. Not unlike Batman and Robin, Scott sees in Shiloh a chance to aid a kindred spirit from experiencing the same pain.
Like Scott, Shiloh Norman seeks to escape his past pain. In Mr. Miracle 16, Scott offers him a place to escape to. Healing from emotional scars is a generational process, facilitated by making a better life for one who comes after you. The theme of hope in the young continues.
After ignoring them for a while the New Gods appear in Mr. Miracle in a rushed finale that inexplicably brings Apokolips & New Genesis into conflict. Darkseid wants it interrupted, New Genesis wants to preserve it.
I suppose there’s symbolism here—the uniting force of love that can bring hope even across enemy lines. After being manipulated by Darkseid & Granny Goodness to break the pact that reignited the war, Scott’s marriage to Barda represents hope for peace.
Obviously hope & peace don’t sit well with Darkseid, who opines over his failure to put a stop to the wedding. He takes solace in removing the proceedings of their joy. “Life at best is bittersweet.” Also a statement of Kirby’s disappointment of the failure of his ambitious story
Kirby’s original vision ends here. With a rushed wedding spoiled by outside forces. One imagines Kirby envisioned this plot point having more dramatic weight, symbolically uniting Earth, Apokolips & New Genesis, perhaps igniting a wave of self actualization on Apokolips.
Instead we’ve basically seen the last of Scott, Barda and the Forever People. But what Kirby accomplished is a staggering and full statement of the postmodern struggle to escape the scars of war and the virtue of the individual quest to form meaning in the wake of modern horrors
Not strictly about Kirby but worth pausing here to 1: appreciate the folks at @DCComics who put this collection together for giving this context 2: note that what follows is a decade later, reflecting a changed author, so may very well hold thematic contradictions.
From the jump these follow up stories are more pessimistic—EVEN GODS MUST DIE!
The first continuation starts within 6 pages of full bleed action—Orion let loose in all his fury. There is no indication what he’s after—just violent rage.
There’s a few wrinkles in Apokolips here— first, the Lowlies (first seen by way of children) are growing frustrated and fighting back against Darkseid’s forces.
Second, where before Apokolips was enforced by immense personalities who relished individual torture, it is now run by machines and automation. The old soldiers hate it.
I hesitate to say this new oppression by technology is a capitalist critique, Kirby didn’t like commies, but it does reflect the rapid advancement of science, and the increasingly dispassionate and banal form of corporate evil from the mid 70s to mid 80s.
Certainly, as the Cold War dragged on and on, one could see how war became less personal, more a matter of who could build a better bomb faster, of scheming politicians removed from the pain they inflict. Darkseid seems less menacing, more executive infatuated with his toys.
I think there is a criticism of rampant consumerism,which took hold especially in the Cold War era as a kind of patriotism personal electronics were becoming ubiquitous. Darkseid shifts from a domineering fascist to a representative of a faceless dispassionate economic violence.
Kirby was, mostly, a fairly liberal fella, furious at Nixon and Watergate, critical of Vietnam, supportive of the civil rights movement. Hard to imagine he thought highly of Reagan, who took a sledgehammer to the American economy,exasperating inequality and class divisions.
This is the new way to attack a people’s freedom: diminish their prospects, enrich your allies, turn back the clock to when things were better for you. #Darkseid brings back his dead servants to recapture his past glory. But these attempts, as we know in real life, end up hollow
So much I want to say about this story but it’s 2:42 in the morning and I gotta work in the morning. Let’s pick this up tomorrow. Hopefully I don’t forget my points!
Would be remiss to not mention the Cold War’s cruel twisting of scientific advancement to war—starting with the bombing of Japan and continuing through to such terrifying events as the Cuban missile crisis. The focus of technological advancement is in Apokokips, not New Genesis
This first stab at a #NewGods conclusion feels deeply cynical & angry both on a thematic and metatextual level. The rebirth of the Apokolips villains as empty shells feels like a pointed commentary on Kirby’s request to end things, but keep it open ended. His creations arent his
On the subject of anger, I’d like to bring this analysis by James Romberger from the Jack Kirby Quarterly to attention:
This story is Kirby’s second draft of a conclusion that was retrofitted to lead to the Hunger Dogs graphic novel after the first was too conclusive and too grim. But the themes are there. The promise of the Civil Rights movement, the utopian ideals of the scientific age, fizzled
The scope is also narrowed to archetypal father & sons, Orion versus Darkseid. The embodiment of the hope of a new generation who could escape the sins of the past have been excised leaving only the brutalized soldier and his scheming warmonger father and the ghettos of Apokolips
By the way, Kirby’s suspicion of technology and science as a force for good and used as an authoritarian tool of the state is consistent with postmodern theory
While the original run was postmodern primarily in its textual awareness, its exploration of search for meaning,& its cautious skepticism of science (in Metron), Even Gods must Die leans more into the cynicism often associated with the posmodern condition;
It reveals a skepticism of the very existence of meaning or rationality, a doubt that human nature is immutable or anything but determined by circumstances (Orion a product of war, Lightray’s chipper pacifism turned to gruesome violence)
Most of all its hyper focus on violence rejects the notion of rationalism. War is senseless. Tyranny is without reason. Progress is not inevitable. The story ends with Orion gunned down by #Darkseid’s nameless flunkies. It is evil at its most banal.
If you’ve been following this thread you might’ve noticed these last posts have looked different; Kirby basically abandons the six panel grid that defined the look of the original series. It reflects both his changing approach toward his comics work& the focus of the narrative
Instead of invoking and echoing literary trends like epic poetry, Kirby is instead experimenting with the unique storytelling possibilities in comic books. I don’t think a lot of it is very successful but there’s experimentation here, and abandoning of conventions of the form
The old rules of the #NewGods dont apply to this second stab at the world, so the old form is insufficient. The panel work is gripping, the narrative overlapping as each subsequent action overtakes the page.
As a far more personal story of an two individual characters marching toward their inevitable promise of doom, the storytelling is sufficiently narrow, with panels hewing to tight close ups and even the massive splash pages crowded and bursting from the page.
Kirby’s figure work has also evolved a lot, partly reflecting his time working in animation, the characters designs are even more graphic shapes, spending less on the details of the individual and more on the form and action or emotion he is trying to convey.
It’s almost cubist in its lack of concern for depth or the illusion thereof, more concerned with the artifice, the simultaneous displays of time&space and how the individual figures relate to the shape. Kirby makes the composition& geometry of the page a focus of the piece itself
Again, a hallmark of postmodernism is a collapse of high and low culture, so Kirby looking toward “formal” art forms to inspire his “lowly” superhero comics is a knowing statement of the validity of his work
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