The Forever People #1-4

The Forever People #1-4

Originally released in 1971

Written by Jack Kirby

Art by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby was involved in the creation of many groups throughout the history of comics - the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers...  The Forever People were one of his series in the New Gods saga, and they will not be standing alongside groups like those when one thinks of Jack Kirby's work.  Compared to Mister Miracle and Orion, the Forever People fall flat.

Part of the issue is that it throws readers in the metaphorical deep end from the beginning, never really taking time to explain who the Forever People are or develop them in any meaningful way.  In these first four issues, we mainly learn that Vykin the Black is obsessed with the Mother Box, Big Bear (the most developed of the bunch) is boisterous and friendly but doesn't know his own strength, Serifan is obsessed with Earth western movies, Beautiful Dreamer has illusion powers, and Mark Moonrider... is the leader. (that's about all we have to go on for him)

The first issue introduces a bit of a personal conflict for Superman, while firmly tying him to the New Gods storyline. (to my knowledge, this is the only issue in Jack Kirby's run where Superman meets Darkseid face-to-face)  Upon finding out about Supertown (what the Forever People call New Genesis), he's tempted to live there because in a place like that, his powers wouldn't give him an inherent advantage - he'd just be an ordinary man there.  He ultimately chooses to stay on Earth because of the potential threat that Darkseid poses, but it's interesting to see Superman concerned about potentially trivializing human accomplishments.

The Forever People have the ability to fuse together using the power of the Mother Box and become the Infinity-Man, which they do on a regular basis.  Infinity-Man seems to be a way to resolve conflicts by the end of the issue, though issue 3 ends with their Mother Box taken away, so that could change as the series progresses.

Differing this from the other New Gods series is the greater presence of Darkseid.  Although he's hands-off most of the time, we get a better idea of his goals.  Readers discover that he's after something called the Anti-Life Equation, which is contained in the head of someone on Earth.  Kicking off this search, he targets Beautiful Dreamer first before turning his attention to an inhabitant of Earth.  Seeking it alongside him is his loyal but sadistic servant Desaad.  Evil as they come, Darkseid is the epitome of strength and cunning, whereas his minions only have one or the other.  Infinity-Man's might isn't even enough to match Darkseid, leading to the capture of the Forever People.  Desaad places them in an amusement park that he designed on Earth to torture people covertly.

In this series, there's a good amount of comedy, both intentional and unintentional.  Standing out is a point where the Mother Box senses a threat, and I honestly thought that the five of them were going to start beating up a young boy who is sick and can't walk without crutches.

At another point, Darkseid leaves Desaad's amusement park by walking out among the common people, who think he's part of one of the attractions.  It serves as a reminder that even Darkseid has a sense of humour - he is the sort of person who would break into someone's house/apartment and sit on their couch until they return, no matter how silly it looks.

The Forever People are more or less space hippies, though this is mostly handled by characters telling us that they're hippies. There is a point where they more or less give a kid a psychedelic drug trip, though.  Whereas Orion represents war and Mister Miracle represents freedom, the Forever People seem to represent youth.  I'm not sure if the Infinity-Man has some sort of metaphorical meaning beyond the power of teamwork.

Other characters, like the Justifiers, symbolize concepts that resonate even more in the modern day.  Humans who were converted to follow anti-life by Darkseid's minion, Glorious Godfrey, they are convinced that they can do anything that they want and it's justified as long as they do it in Darkseid's name.  Given masks to hide their faces, it seems weirdly prescient regarding social media and how ordinary people will behave awfully because they are, in theory, anonymous, so they can do whatever they want and not suffer the consequences.

This series did a good job with building up the messages of the New Gods/Fourth World saga; it's just a shame that the central characters couldn't be more interesting.  The messages do still hold up well today, though; the picture above, rather terrifyingly, is an example of that.