New Gods #5-6
Originally released in 1984
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby
The New Gods was part of Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga back in the early 1970s, focusing on a pair of worlds that had fallen into an uneasy peace - New Genesis, a paradise ruled by Highfather, and Apokolips, a fiery wasteland gripped by Darkseid's iron fist. There were four series that made up this saga - New Gods (focusing on Orion, Darkseid's son who had been traded to New Genesis as part of a peace treaty, and who wanted to end the threat of Apokolips by killing Darkseid), Mister Miracle (with the titular character being Highfather's son, who was traded to Apokolips but became an escape artist to free himself), the Forever People (who are, by my understanding, space hippies - they didn't catch on as much as the others), and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. (yes, seriously - Darkseid made his first appearance here)
It was big, experimental, like Kirby was trying to create a mythology from scratch. It felt like Kirby had barely scratched the surface of what he could do... and then it was cancelled after eleven issues. (this seemed to be a theme for Jack Kirby's Fourth World series - the Forever People also lasted eleven issues, and he made 15 issues of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, while his run on Mister Miracle lasted longer, at 18 issues) This version, which had been released in the 80s, mostly consisted of reprinted versions of the original stories from the New Gods comics, covering two issues of the original comic for every issue of this one. (so issue 1 covered issues 1 and 2 of the original run, issue 2 of this run covered issues 3 and 4 of the original run, and so on)
Issue 6 gave Kirby the opportunity to give the New Gods something of an ending, and he mentions in his afterword that he was working on a graphic novel called "The Hunger Dogs" that would continue the story of the New Gods. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be on the DC Universe Infinite app, though it was released in 1985. Still, it's a good thing that Kirby was allowed to give the series another issue to conclude it, as it originally ended with the panel on the left:
Throughout the series, Orion fights against the forces of Apokolips, who have arrived on Earth to do Darkseid's bidding or to kill Orion and gain Darkseid's favour. Orion struggles between his nature as the son of Darkseid and his upbringing on the paradise of New Genesis - he constantly craves action and desires to snap Darkseid's spine despite knowing that he should be better than that. He thrives on war and conflict, to the point where it seems like if he killed Darkseid, he would have nothing left.
He's helped along by Lightray, seemingly his only ally among New Genesis. Lightray is the opposite of Orion in many ways - intelligent, considerate, but not much of a fighter. He is also joined by Forager, a member of the "Bug" race that lives on the surface of New Genesis. The Bugs are giant parasites, stealing from the food stocks of the gods that live far above. Forager is mentioned to unknowingly be one of those gods, though as he's introduced near the end of the series, nothing comes of this, and his desire of communication between the Bugs and the New Gods to form an alliance doesn't get the opportunity to develop.
Darkseid appears only rarely, but he still gets a good deal of development, with his history briefly mentioned - his loyal but incompetent son, Kalibak, was born of a union between Darkseid and the only woman that he loved, Suli. Meanwhile, he views his second wife, Tigra, as nothing more than a useful hostage, and he was forced into marrying her after his mother had Suli assassinated. This creates an interesting dynamic between Darkseid, Orion, and Kalibak - Darkseid respects Orion as an enemy (though he criticizes Orion's lack of planning), and while he finds Kalibak incompetent, the love that he once had for Kalibak's mother keeps Darkseid from killing him.
The final issue has this sense of melancholy about it, as though it's the end of an era. Picking up where the original series ended, Orion immediately decides to go to Apokolips and put an end to the fighting personally. Seemingly seeking an advantage in the war against New Genesis, Darkseid has switched the focus of Apokolips to creating new kinds of death machines, but it comes at a cost. Darkseid's Female Furies, who are supervised by Granny Goodness, make a return from Mister Miracle, but rather than being frontline fighters, they're stuck operating these machines from a distance, much to their disappointment.
Darkseid brings several of his minions back from the dead, but his own powers prove inefficient, leaving them as soulless husks, shadows of their former selves who are nowhere near as competent or cunning as they used to be. Despite his minions claiming that the machines would be more effective, even they cannot improve the condition of those who are revived, and despite the focus on machines being Darkseid's own initiative, he finds it humiliating to rely on technology over his own powers.
I'm not sure if this is meant to be commentary by Kirby on how the creation of comics is changing; I'm not sure what advances had been made in the decade or so between the original release of the New Gods and this new issue. The series ends on an ambiguous note, with the battle between Darkseid and Orion seemingly ended, but regardless of who wins, it seems like they'll have nothing left - Orion hungers for battle while Darkseid's death would put an end to it, and Darkseid's triumph rings hollow when his powers have seemingly been made redundant by technology and he is surrounded by soulless imitations of his loyal generals.
Reading this series made me wish that Jack Kirby had gotten all the time that he needed to give this series a conclusion, and to conclude it how he intended. I understand that, at the end of the day, this is a business, so money and sales are likely going to be factors that would keep that from happening, and giving the series a conclusive ending with Darkseid and/or Orion dead (among others) might not be ideal if people wanted to use the characters again (his original plan for the New Gods, from what I read, was to have a Ragnarok storyline in Thor, kill off the entire cast of that comic, and introduce the New Gods - it's a bold move, but I can see why Marvel didn't go in that direction), but it's a shame that such a legendary figure in the comics industry didn't have more leeway to tell the story that he wanted to tell.
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