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Goodbye for Now

For over the past four years, I’ve blogged regularly about comics, with topics ranging from story generation, to the business side, to critiques and reviews, to organization and cataloging, and even a post on coloring.  I’ve enjoyed the experience and learned a lot, but today I am bringing that effort to a close – at least for the foreseeable future.

There are many reasons for mothballing this effort but primary amongst them are that I’ve said about all I want to about the older stories and that the newer stories hold neither my head nor my heart.

First, let me address the topic of the older tales told in days gone by.  Of course, there are plenty of classics that I haven’t covered but the prospect of trying to find every unexplored nook and cranny in a structured way doesn’t enthuse me.  The thrill of revisiting these just isn’t there and I don’t know if it will ever return.  This ennui is largely the result of a sorry state of affairs in the current incarnation of comics and perhaps it is unfair to tarnish the spirit and reputation of those stories by association with the modern line, but there it is.

Second, let me address the topic of the newer material.  While there have been some gems in the past decade or so, the overall sense of fun and adventure and individual achievement is largely gone.  Comics are now ‘woke’ and not for the best.  Instead of inspiring stories of individual achievement that speak to all of us, modern stories present uninspiring stories of no achievement that speak to only a few of us at a time and only on those subjects that divide us.  The most common themes are dominated by an incessant gloom of psychoanalysis, intersectionality and political correctness that hovers over everything.  Good stories are universal even when they are about specific people doing specific things.  Bad stories are divisive even when speaking of universal things.  Today’s stories are bad stories.

G.K. Chesterton, who wrote his own share of fantastic fiction, is best known for his Father Brown mysteries.  These stories are good because they deal with common situations that exemplify what it is to be human – love, hate, greed, fear, ambition, sacrifice, faith, and doubt.  None of these stories try to embrace the world at large but rather content themselves with small, cozy interactions.  The reader need not be British or French, or Catholic or Protestant, or a Capitalist or a Socialist, or have lived at the turn of the Twentieth Century to relate to what he reads.  Dale Alquist, head of the American Chesterton Society, explains Chesterton’s approach by noting that Chesterton objected to mystery stories involving international intrigue and spy drama because he felt the real drama should always be centered on what a man does and why he does it.  It is more interesting to find out why one man murdered another than it is to find out how he did it.  The universality of man that Chesterton tapped into in his tales transcends notions of race, religion, and other such labels and, instead, focuses on the soul.

The creators of Greek mythology embraced these ideas as well.  I’ve never sailed the Mediterranean nor picked up a Hoplite’s sword nor sacrificed a bull to the Olympian gods and yet I can relate to Homer and Euripides and Sophocles and Plato and Aristotle.   The time and situations are all trappings that can be put on or taken off as needed.  But the rage of Achilles from his public humiliation at the hand of Agamemnon is understandable to all.  The bravery of Hector in facing an enemy clearly his superior can be admired by the weak as well as the strong.  The cleverness of Odysseus in tricking the Trojans to admit the Greeks hidden in that famous wooden horse can be savored by everyone.

The writers of the movie Alien also embraced these ideas.  Ellen Ripley, played so ably by Sigourney Weaver, is an admirable character.  Her tenacity, alertness, resourcefulness, and plain old smarts make her an ideal role model independently of her sex.  Her struggle against nearly impossible odds makes her success all that sweeter for men and women alike.

Even Shakespeare’s Danish prince, the ever-doubting Hamlet, is an admirable fellow.  His zealousness in finding the truth of his father’s death and his shear intellect in pursuing this goal transcends the mere accident of his birth into the court of Denmark.  His internal conflict is understandable to anyone ever faced with a hard and uncertain choice.

In all of these good tales, we find souls we can relate to, that we can admire, or with whom we can sympathize.  We can do so in spite of their particular station in life or circumstances in which they find themselves.  In today’s comics we find weak-willed, unsympathetic characters with no soul and for whom the only interest is generated by their station or their circumstances.

Modern comics regale us with banal speech instead or noble action, confuse us with obscurity rather than provoke us with profundity, and, above all else, present us with a world where our heroes are lesser than ourselves.

So, good-bye for now…

Coyote Part 2 – Hot Start; Cold Warrior

This month’s column closes out the two-part look at Steve Englehart’s Coyote.  Last month’s installment examined I Am Coyote, the original story of Coyote featured in Eclipse Magazine.  The story was a wonderful joining of classic film noir and 1960s-70s new-age culture into something I call Desert Noir.  Building on that success, Englehart’s next stop for his desert tales was Epic Comics.

Coyote would run for 16 issues with three different illustrators: Steve Leialoha for issues 1-2, Jackson Guice for issue 3, and Chas Truog for the remaining 14 issues (cover gallery found here).  Much has been made about Leialoha having to leave the book early on and the production delays that caused. And there is no doubt that his departure and the finding of a regular artist did negatively impact the book.   After a regular bi-monthly start for issues #1 & #2, things stalled for the rest of 1983 with only one additional book being published.  The publication schedule was better in 1984 but only became regular in 1985 just as the book was facing cancellation.

Further, insult to injury was added to the mix when issues #7-14 had only 15-19 pages of Coyote material with smaller stories (usually serialized) for the backup characters of the Djinn, Slash, and Scorpio Rose, all of whom will be introduced fully below.

But the real blow to Coyote was not on the production side.  Rather it was a slow drifting away from the core Coyote motif – sly, sexy, dangerous fun set in the desert.  Consider the re-introduction of Coyote from issue #1.

Here we find a cocky, self-assured shaman with an irrepressible grin and fun attitude just looking to trick and be tricked.  Even his name gives this sense of fun:  Sylvester “Sly” Xavier Santangelo.  The reader also finds that the Shadow Cabinet, as dangerous and conspiratorial as ever, has now acquired an interest in Native American legends about Coyotl the coyote trickster god, an interest that allows Engelhart and Leialoha to make some of the most memorable comic imagery, such as this excerpt from issue #1 that tells how Coyotl spread the Amerindian tribes he produced with the Woman of the Water and Ocean Old Woman.

Here we see the same playful spirit, the same live-in-the-moment attitude, the same mischief that doesn’t take the world too seriously.

Coyote also meets two new bombshell women, the Gianetti sisters, Cassie (the blonde) and Natalia (the brunette); half-sisters united in their hatred of the Shadow Cabinet for the death of their father at its hands.  Cassie, the bold and physically adapt one, is originally strongly attracted to Sly and he to her (although it’s clear that Sly would find almost anything in a skirt attractive).  Natalia, the quieter one, is also very attracted to Coyote but holds her hand, at least overtly.  However, very early on she uses her shape-shifting ability to take Cassie’s form for a night of passion in Sly’s bed.

Englehart rounds out the field with a host of new supporting characters:  the surreal Halfdome and Monk for the Shadow Cabinet, Djinn (a middle-eastern master of the assassin cult the Hashashin), Dark Cardinal (and Half Monk) for the Shadow Cabinet, Ian (a Mossad agent) and Lizette (a prostitute), and Slash (a USSR assassin) — clockwise from the upper left.

And for the first 5 issues, the story he weaves surrounding most of these (Slash doesn’t appear until issue #10 – a point I’ll return to below) with drama and danger and humor and sex.

On the drama side, he establishes the connection between Coyotl and Coyote as between creator and created.  It seems that Coyotl, distraught over the plight of the Native Americans after the discovery of America and the loss of his mate the Coyote Woman, creates from within himself a ‘European’ spirit to represent his interests in a world he doesn’t understand.  This spirit he melds with the young boy raised by the were-coyote and psychic vampire thus creating the Coyote.

On the danger side, the Shadow Cabinet’s power is now far more sinister and more supernatural than they were in Coyote’s last encounter.  In the earlier affair, they were dangerous but, with the exception of the Void, who kept to himself within the deep desert, entirely human.  Now the secret organization is directly managed in Las Vegas by Halfdome (so called because half of his cranium is missing) and, at first, the Monk, and later by the Dark Cardinal, large magical crows in the guise of men.

And they have a brutal and supernatural way of inducting new members by forcing them to face a magical slug-bear, with the survivors being granted admission and the losers being granted a swift burial.  Fortunately, Coyote, in his guise as Sly Santangelo, passes the test and is now a double-agent with the very institution he wants to destroy.

On the humor side, in addition to the moments already shown, Englehart continues a joke he began in I Am Coyote, the idea that our hero (or anti-hero) is totally incompetent on motorcycles and other motorized or rocket-powered machines.  In fact, issue #5 is a homage to the old Coyote and Roadrunner  cartoons known and loved by all.

On the sex side, Natalia is revealed to be the reincarnation of the Coyote Woman and things soon heat up quite nicely between them.

Jilted by Coyote’s changing affection, Cassie decides to turn her own considerable talents towards infiltrating the Shadow Cabinet her whole mind, soul, and body.  What she finds nearby Halfdome’s bed suggests that there is even more behind his shadowy organization than she first believed.

All these ingredients pointed towards another fine genre-bending desert tale, this time mixing conspiracies, shamanistic themes and, as the crow’s tale unfolds, influences from outer space (Venus to be precise).

However, whether the production problems dragged down the story or whether Engelhart got distracted, the storyline began to veer off course when the Cold War becomes front and center with the appearance of the KGB agent X-Calibur, who tells a tale of Shadow Cabinet pulling strings behind the geopolitics of the time.

There were still moments of brilliance, like when Sly, who slays X-Calibur for the Shadow Cabinet, tricks the Venusian surgeons and prevents them from extracting half his brain like they had done for Halfdome

and when select members of the Shadow Cabinet are ‘rewarded’ on Venus with hedonistic pleasure far beyond human imagining (unless you’re a fan of 1950s sci-fi movies).

But overall, this portion of the tale gets bogged down in melodrama, confusing and depressing geopolitics, and an almost permanent relocation from the desert environs surrounding Las Vegas to Washington D.C. and Moscow.

After Coyote’s return from Venus, he becomes estranged from Natalia and part of him dies at the hands of the KGB super-clone Slash, who seeks revenge for the death of her lover X-Calibur.  The other part of him falls head-over-heels in love with Slash and she with him as he is the only man she can’t kill with a mere look.  Natalia, for her part, becomes wild, feral, and evil, aligning herself with Dark Coyotl as his lover.  Cassie moves back to her native city of Philadelphia, tracked by the Shadow Cabinet, and eventually falls in the hands of Tony Coyne, her old lover and now the new Djinn.  Even Coyotl becomes maudlin and eventually decides that the prostitute Lizette should be his prophet.

All of this melodrama, especially the Russian connection and love triangle, totally dissipates the mood established in the earlier issues.  By issue #13, the series was facing cancellation, a fact that is alluded to in each issue.  Thankfully, Englehart was at least able to wrap up most of the threads by issue #16, including a very libertine resolution to the love triangle between Coyote, Natalia, and Slash.

Despite these flaws, Coyote was and continues to be one of the most innovative and interesting comics.  A tribute to what a great writer can do.  Bravo, Steve Engelhart.

Coyote Part 1 – Desert Noir

This month’s column begins a two-part look at an influential, although short-lived, comic:  Steve Englehart’s Coyote.

Steve Englehart is no stranger to this blog.  His work developing Mantis in The Avengers in the 1970s, his contributions to The Silver Surfer in the late 80s and early 90s, and the groundwork he laid in support of The Infinity Gauntlet have earned separate columns.  And perhaps in the future his celebrated work on Captain America and his surrealistic approach to Doctor Strange will also find a place.  Arguably, he was and is one of the best comics writers around.  However, no one is perfect and this column and the one that follows examine the rise and fall of ‘One of America’s 8 Best Comics’.

To better understand Coyote, one must first take a look at the cultural milieu to which it belonged.  The time was the early 1980s and comics were just beginning to explore sales schemes (such as direct marketing to then emerging comic book specialty stores) that lay outside the usual news stand approach that had dominated the market for over 50 years.  The popularity of comics amongst the ‘older’ demographics had led to an audience that knew the creators as well as or better than their creations.  The economics had changed and writers and artists were starting to flex their newfound muscles in demanding a variety of new rights.

Several new companies came into this mix, which allowed creators to retain ownership and control over their creations and provided a platform for stories unencumbered by the Comics Code Authority (CCA).  The two central companies to this Coyote tale (or is it tail?) were Eclipse Comics, an independent publisher, and Epic Comics, a Marvel imprint started by Jim Shooter.

The story of Coyote begins in Eclipse Magazine, a black-and-white anthology comics magazine published by Eclipse Comics from 1981 to 1983.  The original story, featured in issues #2-#8, has been colorized and republished by Image Comics.

The story centers around an infant Amerindian child left by his parents for what they think is a short time while they go over a mountain to watch an above-ground nuclear test. Unfortunately, they never return.  The abandoned baby is found and raised by a weather-beaten and nearly feral old man who turns out to be a were-coyote.  This self-exile from the modern world, introduces the boy to the fringe desert society to which he belongs; a sort of permanent Burning Man festival inhabited by Vampires, Ghouls, Monsters and the like.  Eventually, the man secures the help of a psychic vampire as foster mother and, together, the couple shepherd the boy into his adolescence and his eventual discovery of his own powers.

The reader learns all these details in flashbacks later in the story.  The comic actually begins with a murder.  Coyote, now fully grown, attacks two men who’ve invaded his corner of the desert.  While Coyote slays one of them with no remorse, the other jumps on his motorcycle and flees.  Coyote grabs the dead man’s motorcycle to give chase but soon finds he can’t get the handle of this modern machine and crashes – this failure to handle machines will become something of a running theme.  The man, one Kline by name, arrives in the nearby city of Las Vegas where it is revealed that he in an operative in the Shadow Cabinet, a clandestine organization seeking to subvert the North American governments.  Hating the organization for the offenses of its agent, Coyote decides to take the Shadow Cabinet down for reasons of pride and pleasure.

And there you have it, the basic motif for all of the subsequent Coyote comics: a magical and psychically-enhanced were-creature of the desert, who is a proud, sly, cocky, and loveable incarnation of the trickster god Coyotl, pitted against a cold, merciless, empty, and loathsome embodiment of civilization.  A perfect formula for what I call Desert Noir.

To give the flavor of Desert Noir, consider the overall plot of the original Coyote Eclipse run.  Coyote eventually picks up Kline’s trail and infiltrates the Shadow Cabinet by using his Shadow Dance capabilities.

Delighted in his ability to move sideways around their security, our anti-hero never pauses to ask why he should, he is simply enjoying bringing mayhem to this group that injured his pride.  His mayhem comes to a stop only when he catches sight of the voluptuous form of Phyllida West, the deputy leader of the group.  Deciding to learn more about her, Coyote shadow dances a disguise for himself that soon lands him in her bed, her shower, and her life.  This flirtatious interaction soon takes a more dangerous turn when he invisibly follows her to a meeting with her superior in the Shadow Cabinet, the deadly Void, who like Coyote, knows about the worlds adjacent to our own.

Barely able to survive, he finds himself on the run with Phyllida West, who has been cast by the Void from the Shadow Cabinet for her incompetence exposing him.  The couple hole up in a cottage in the mountains for a week to let the heat die down.  Not trusting her motives, Coyote takes the opportunity to absent himself during each day and returns in shadow form to monitor her actions.

After a week of sex and suspicions allayed, he decides to trust this beautiful and dangerous partner and together they thwart the Void’s plan to kill all of America’s favorite movie stars with plutonium-laced Oscars and end his miserable existence.  But no happy ending awaits.  Phyllida, now in perfect position to fill the void left by the Void’s death, asserts her leadership of the Shadow Cabinet.  Having used Coyote to dispose of the only roadblock between her and power, Phyllida decides to end both her partnership with Coyote and his furry life.  Never one to allow sentiment to get in the way of sex or murder, Coyote does what any jilted lover would do, he rips her throat out

and returns to his desert ways.

The entire plot is a beautiful execution of the general formulae of such film noir classics as The Maltese Falcon with wonder dashes of magic and sex and horror and humor and, above all else, a desert sensibility mixed in.  It is a wonderful read through and through.  Its creation and execution were only possible in a creator-owner, CCA-free venue like Eclipse.  And its blend of magic and science and wilderness and civilization were only possible in that brackish time of the 1980s where the drug-induced weirdness of the 60s and 70s mixed wildly with the burgeoning tech-driven weirdness of the 90s and beyond.

Next month examines how, coming off of the success of the Eclipse run, Coyote finds a vibrant new life in Epic Comics, where, for a while, it was one of the most talked about and coolest comics around, before crashing into cancellation a mere 3 years later.

Fourth World’s Final Gasp

Well the flurry of excitement over Avengers: Infinity War has faded, the disk is now available in retail outlets everywhere (on a whim I bought my in a grocery store), and the tale of the evolution of the Infinity Gems/Stones from the early introduction of the unnamed gem on Adam Warlock’s brow to the culmination of 6 gems decorating Thanos’s fist has run its course.

In this post, I want to return to the prior thread and close out the final stages (at least so far) of the New Gods and Kirby’s Fourth World.  Earlier posts traced the conception and execution at the hand of the King in the 1970s, the fallow years from the mid-1970s to 1988 (despite some shining moments involving both the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Teen Titans & X-Men) and the reawakening at the hands of Jim Starlin in Cosmic Odyssey.

But before moving forward, a single detail of the past should be noted for completeness.  In anticipation of the success of Cosmic Odyssey or in an attempt raise awareness, DC issued a 6-issue limited series of The Forever People in 1987 and 1988.  As limited series go, the art was good (perhaps even very good) but the story was notably forgettable.  A trait that sadly would be a too often reoccurring one in next twenty years.

After Cosmic Odyssey had closed out in 1988, DC Comics relaunched both Mister Miracle and The New Gods titles.  Both series ran for 28 issues each and came to an end in 1991.  Both series were distinguished by the good writing of Peter David and Mark Evanier, respectively.  Mister Miracle was especially amusing and was tightly intertwined with the Justice League books being written by David during the same time frame.  Evanier’s tenure on The New Gods was marked by a more serious tone concerning the aftermath of Cosmic Odyssey (especially Bug’s death) and the universal struggle to make sense of war.  Nonetheless, neither series provided storylines that stuck with the reader well after the reading was done and DC’s entire Fourth World efforts came to a close in 1991.

Between 1995 and 1998, DC took another swing at the Fourth World, with an entire spate of new books.  Five in fact.  Of those two books, New Gods (1995) and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, lasted over a year.  Neither book made it to two years.  The other three – Mister Miracle (1996), Takion, and Genesis – were limited series with limited appeal.  The entire enterprise came and went without making much of an impression despite fine writing and art on the two main works.  I’ll return to this observation below.

The next shot came in 2000 with a series primarily focused on Orion of the same name.  Written and illustrated by Walt Simonson, the work, from the perspective of technique, was even better than the earlier incarnations but, nonetheless, failed to garner a lasting audience.  Simonson mixed things up by focusing on the two sons central to the tension between New Genesis and Apokolips – Orion and Scott Free.  The two sons were traded by their respective fathers, Darkseid and Izaya, in order to stop the war between their planets.  This plot point, originally conceived by Kirby, should have a been the source of great drama but the stories were hard to relate to.   Again, I’ll defer commenting on this until the conclusion below.

The final stage came with the storylines Death of the New Gods in 2007 and Final Crisis in 2008.  Jim Starlin again takes over the writing chores for the first title but I’ll confess that the story didn’t reach the heights of Cosmic Odyssey. While worth reading, the characters failed to resonate and the ‘cosmic’ part didn’t quite have the wonder and awe of the earlier installment.  Final Crisis was written by Grant Morrison and merely used the New Gods as another trigger for yet another reboot of the DC universe.

Before coming to the end, I would like to reflect on what keeps the New Gods from making a lasting presence in the DC Universe.  There are two primary reasons.  First, many of Kirby’s concepts are eye-catching and flashy but fail to ultimately satisfy.  There is a great deal of promise but never quite enough of substance to really carry a long standing title forward.  Second, the characters of the New Gods lend themselves to props or plot elements that propel the drama for more ordinary characters forward rather than serve as central figures themselves.  This is why the best titles (e.g. The Great Darkness Saga, The Dark Phoenix/Darkseid event for the X-Men and New Teen Titans, and Cosmic Odyssey); the New Gods are back drops to the human drama not central players.

Final note:  DC has once again dipped its toe into the New Gods with the Mister Miracle 12-issue limited series no under publication.  When that series closes out, I’ll revisit this last contribution for old time sake.

A Brief History of the Infinity Stones/Gems – Part 4 Infinity Gauntlet

The last post documented how Thanos tricked the Elders of the Universe out of each of their Soul Gems, now and hereafter known as Infinity Gems.  Having obtained the ultimate power in the universe, Thanos found the assembling of the Infinity Gauntlet, an accomplishment intended to elevate him on par with his love Mistress Death, to be a pyrrhic victory, as she found yet another reason to spurn him; this time because he had exceeded her in cosmic significance.

Stung with this defeat, Thanos throws himself into a childish exploration of his own inner demons and revenge fantasies.  His rise and fall form the storyline explored in the six-issue Infinity Gaunlet limited series.

When the story opens, Thanos is contemplating his next move with his power.  His only companion and advisor is the demon Mephisto, who has effectively served as the Satan figure in Marvel Comics.  Already, the psychological issues of the Mad Titan are on display for, of all the possible travel mates, why does he pick the most vile, self-centered, duplicitous being available to stand at his right hand?

Always a consummate comics story teller, Starlin likes to bring any new readers up to speed using one of his characteristic summary scenes/pages and, as usual, they are a pleasure to look at even for those who are already informed.  The one used for the Infinity Gauntlet

doesn’t disappoint in style, art design or layout.

With the preliminary matters out of the way, Starlin once again sends Thanos to court Mistress Death

only to be once again rebuffed.  This time, however, Mephisto’s presence, much like the proverbial devil perched upon a character’s shoulder, spurs Thanos into new depths of depravity.  Convinced by his demonic advisor that Death is a dark soul in need of dark gifts, Thanos turns his grand-daughter Nebula – a minor villain introduced in the Marvel universe years earlier and essentially incinerated by him upon his resurrection – into a shambling, rotting monstrosity doomed to a mute agony in his court and forever denied death.

Finding that his grotesque offering has garnered no favor, Thanos then reminds himself that he has yet to fulfill his original vow to eliminate half of the universe’s population,

an oversight he quickly remedies with a snap of his fingers,

but even this incredible sacrifice fails to soften Death’s heart.

When the full ramifications of the mad god’s ambition become clear, all the remaining forces in the universe begin to align against Thanos.  The various pantheons of the gods (embodiments of belief in the Marvel universe) set aside their individual differences and plot a strategy.

Likewise, the remaining heroes begin to come together as do the abstract cosmic entities (see earlier posts in this series).

Despite this incredible marshalling of force, the most important stratagem in the opposition to Thanos comes from an unexpected quarter.  Adam Warlock, who had died at the hands of Thanos during the original battle over the Infinity Gems, abandons his peaceful existence with the Soul gem and once again takes corporal form.

Acting as a general for all sides, Warlock organizes Earth’s superheroes and then turns his attention to the cosmic entities, where he proves that he may have the skill to deal with Thanos.

Meanwhile, a petulant Thanos now tries to make Mistress Death jealous for his attentions by creating his perfect mate Terraxia.

While he plays with his new toy, Warlock sets the first strike against Thanos. Summoning the remaining members of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-men as well as the Hulk, Drax, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and a handful of additional characters, Warlock has them confront Thanos while he and the Silver Surfer wait for an opportune moment to steal the gauntlet. During the battle, which consumes the better part of issue #4, the reader is treated to the horrific spectacle of his favorite character being gruesomely defeated, and usually killed.  Sadly, when the moment comes, the Silver Surfer misses his mark by a fraction of second.

Having failed at his ‘easy’ stratagem, Warlock reluctantly directs the cosmic abstract entities into the fray, praying as he does that the resulting battle doesn’t destroy the very universe he is trying to save.

Despite their awesome might, these godlike figures fare little better and they are also either soon destroyed or subdued.  But the seeds of Thanos’s undoing are sowed in this defeat when Mistress Death actively opposes him.

Feeling betrayed, Thanos decides that he must forever more be above the petty squabbles of the flesh.  He abandons his body and assumes a spiritual godhead, with his only witnesses being Terraxia, his manufactured consort, Eros, his brother who has been forced to watch the carnage and insanity in mute impotence, and Nebula.

At this point in the story, Starlin employs a similar device as he used in unseating Thanos’s first ascension when he opposed Captain Marvel and the Avengers.  Distracted by cosmic grandeur, Thanos fails to secure his body upon which rest the Infinity Gauntlet, the source of all his might.

Pushing her deformed body slowly but surely towards her grand-father, Nebula succeeds in claiming the infinite power for her own.

After a rocky start, Nebula begins to understand how to wield her unbridled power.  She soon undoes all of Thanos’s actions and then sets herself to remake the cosmic order in her own image.

Warlock persuades Thanos to align himself with their efforts to stop Nebula in a way only Warlock can do (and Starlin can dream up as a story).


This time, Warlock’s distraction ploy works.  While a strike team comprised of Earth’s heroes and their new purple ally distract Nebula on the physical plane, Warlock returns to the Soul Gem and sows dissension among the other Infinity Gems

thereby corrupting the gauntlet, causing it to fall from Nebula’s hand.  The disharmony doesn’t last for long, and as all sides scramble to reclaim it, Warlock steps in first.  During the aftermath, it appears that Thanos is destroyed and that the universe is finally free of his menace.

The epilogue finds Warlock, now reunited with his old companions Pip the Troll and Gamora, contemplating what to do with his new-found godlike status.  As a first step, he seeks advice from a most curious farmer living on a sparsely populated world far from the galactic centers.  This farmer is none other than Thanos, who has retired from dark ambitions and universal conquest to reflect on his many defeats.  As the Infinity Gauntlet closes, the reader is treated to a new Thanos, philosophical and at peace for the first time in his many lives.

 

A Brief History of the Infinity Stones/Gems – Part 3 Quest for the Stones

Last month’s post covered the linkage that Steve Engelhart created between the Elders of the Universe and the Soul Gems, the universal ontology into which the gems fit, and how these connections set the stage for what Jim Starlin would do with his resurrected of Thanos.  This month’s column will take a look at the two-issue mini-series entitled The Thanos Quest that connects the dots between Thanos’ faked death in Silver Surfer #38 and his bursting back onto the scene with the Infinity Gauntlet in Silver Surfer #44 and the Infinity Gauntlet mini-series.

Not as well-known as the The Infinity Gauntlet, The Thanos Quest is, nonetheless, worthy of special attention for many reasons.  First, Thanos is the protagonist of the plot much as he is in the Avengers: Infinity War and the general outline of his quest sheds light on how the movie was constructed. Second, this series affords a enormous insight into dead-and-resurrected Thanos.  Having outgrown the Mad Titan mold he filled when questing for the cosmic cube, this Thanos is a more mature version of the schemer who vexed Adam Warlock.  He would rather outsmart his opponents or bargain with them rather than just brawl; he plays the long game.  Finally, Starlin expands on the cosmic themes he and Engelhart explored in Silver Surfer and some of these philosophical points are interesting food-for-thought in their own right.

The quest proper begins with Thanos haunting the halls of the dead in his beloved’s court, staring almost incessantly into the Infinity Well.  Soon one of her minions approaches, challenging him over his negligence to the chore she assigned.

Thanos begs leave of Mistress Death to pursue the Soul Gems so that he may comply with her wishes in a timelier fashion.

Or so he says. His secret plan is that in acquiring the gems he would stand equal to her and be allowed to take his place at her side as consort and king.

Death capitulates to his request and his first stop is the Nexus of Reality where Lord Chaos and Master Order had imprisoned the In-Betweener after his loss to Galactus (see last month’s post for details).

Offering to help free the In-Betweener and in return for making him a disciple, Thanos unites their power in a single blast that just barely breaches the prison.  Once free, the In-Betweener sarcastically thanks Thanos for betraying Death in order to save him and offers his rescuer a less desirable reward.

But Thanos had correctly reasoned that the In-Betweener would be powerless at the Nexus of Reality,  where order and chaos cancel each other out, and humiliates the pompous parody of black-and-white in one of the best panels in the history of comics

Stripping the In-Betweener of his gem (the Soul Gem previously held by Adam Warlock),

Thanos moved onto his next victim, the he Elder of the Universe known as the Champion.

The Champion has taken up residence on the planet of Tamarata and it is clear by his continuing engagements with that planet’s warlike races, that the Elder’s physical might is unparalleled.  Unperturbed, Thanos tricks the Champion into destroying the whole planet, effectively stranding the latter in space.

Faced with spending an near eternity in space, the Champion begs for help, a request Thanos is willing to grant in return for something else.

Reluctantly, the Champion surrenders his gem in exchange for delivery to the nearest planet.  It is at this point that Starlin begins to differentiate the gems from each other, explaining that the Champion held the Power gem and that is was his subconscious tapping into that artifact that made him an irresistible physical force.

The next encounter between our Avatar of Death and an Elder of the Universe plays out when Thanos visits the Gardener.  Already established as someone who knows how to yield a gems power, the Gardener tries to overcome the titan with the abundant botanical growth at his command.  But Thanos’ possession of the Power gem gives him the edge and soon he takes from the Gardener’s dead body the Time gem, a fact he reveals in a heartfelt soliloquy he delivers in homage to the maker of such beauty.

Here we see a facet in Thanos’ personality that we had not seen before, an ability to lament the loss of something worthwhile in the pursuit of a higher goal.

His next action is to call the Collector, another of the Elders of the Universe, with an offer for a trade: the Collector’s gem in exchange for an even rarer item.

Intrigued, the Collector agrees to at least consider the trade, especially since most of those who oppose Thanos tend to end up dead.  It is at this point, that the term Infinity Gem is used to describe these objects.

Before the reader can contemplate just what is worth trading an Infinity Gem for, Thanos is off to see the Runner.  This Elder possesses the Space gem and using its power, he can out maneuver anyone.

Thanos is quickly unseated from his transport and left adrift amidst floating rubble.  However, he quickly regains the upper hand by using his craftiness.  Thanos relays to the Runner the origin of the Infinity Gems.

As he continues to weave his tale, Thanos tells how this Sentient Being hated the desolation of its singular existence, devoid of all contact with other beings, and commits a form of cosmic suicide.

The Runner, captivated by these revelations, gets to close and soon pays the price.  Now within his striking distance, Thanos ages the Runner to decrepitude and relieves him of the Space gem.  Thanos then regresses the Runner to infancy before delivering this cosmic babe to the Collector in exchange for his gem.  The Collector, who had been unable to unlock his gem’s ‘soul’ power, willingly makes the trade before disconcerted to learn that this gem controls reality.

With five gems in his grasp, Thanos confronts the Grand Master (the same character as from Thor: Ragnarok), easily the most crafty and devious of all the Elders.  It was the Grand Master who had, in years past, manipulated Death into barring the Elders from her realm, making them effectively immortal. Mindful of the titan’s might, now augmented with 5 Infinity Gems, the Grand Master insists on a battle in a virtual world as a way of leveling the playing field.  Thanos accepts and the two face-off in some abstract cyber space.

Despite the Grand Master having the home field advantage, Thanos quickly gets the hang of the virtual battle.  The Grand Master, however, being not one to take chances, cheats his way to victory and kills Thanos.  Gloating over his win and secure in his safety, the Grand Master fails to leave the virtual world soon enough.  Thanos, anticipating treachery, had sent a duplicate to compete in his place and, taking advantage of the Grand Master’s vulnerability, Thanos destroys the virtual machine and claims his last prize: the Mind gem.

With all of the Infinity Gems in his possession,

Thanos once again seems to have fallen into his old Mad Titan routine.

However, his ecstasy is soon short-lived.  Returning to Death’s realm seemingly a triumphant hero, Thanos soon confronts the cold, hard, fickle nature of Death.  Asserting himself her equal, Death consents to let Thanos sit next to her on the throne, a throne she soon vacates.  Her final statement to him, again, as always, through some other minion, is that he is now above her in station and she can not be his.

The closing scenes show a forlorn god now sadly reflecting on his hollow victory.

Next month’s column will explore just what the happens to our spurned protagonist when he fashions a gauntlet for his gems and shakes the pillars of heaven in his grief.

 

A Brief History of the Infinity Stones/Gems – Part 2 Philosophy and Ontology

By the close of 1977, the comics world saw the end of the Adam Warlock, Thanos, and the Soul Gems.  At the time, there was not a single hint that there was any future for any of these components of the Starlin mythology.  The conclusion of Thanos’s scheme to annihilate the stars with a giant synthetic Soul Gem formed from the drained essences of the six natural ones and his death at the hands of the soul of the deceased Warlock seemed definitely final.

During the intervening decade, only two small stories indicated that the flame, while sputtering and flickering, had not gone completely out.  The first came in 1980 in The Incredible Hulk #248,

with the reappearance of the Gardener, the enigmatic Elder of the universe who once again (as seen on the cover) is sporting one of the Soul Gems.

When last seen, the Gardener had united the power of his gem with that of Adam Warlock’s to fend off an assault from the Stranger (Marvel Team-Up #55 – see last post).  As the Gardener relates to the Hulk, he had left his gem, which he now considered corrupted, on the moon, before his departure to ‘greener pastures’.

However, he is soon drawn back to the world of the gems, and lays claim to the Warlock’s gem from the latter’s gravesite.

The issue itself is not particularly noteworthy, and the entire story arc is contained within it.  That said, it is worth noting that Bill Mantlo was the author.  Mantlo had invented the Gardener for Marvel Team Up #55 and, perhaps, had been responsible to the idea that there were in fact 6 Soul Gems lurking out in the cosmos.

The other story was the one-shot graphic novel that Starlin did for Marvel in 1982 called The Death of Captain Marvel.  That tale was atypical of the comics world at the time as there is very little in the way of action, with the bulk of the book devoted to how various beings cope with the eminent demise of Captain Marvel (aka the Kree warrior Mar-Vell) from untreatable cancer.  The one important aspect was a post-humous appearance of Thanos, whose attempt to destroy the universe years earlier when he took possession of the Cosmic Cube

was barely averted by Mar-vell.

Death had charged Thanos, now a key member in her court (a fact that will come back later), with the responsibility of ushering Captain Marvel into her domain.

Things begin to get interesting in 1987, when Marvel began to publish the Silver Surfer as an ongoing monthly comic.  The initial writing chores fell to Steve Engelhart, who revived the Soul Gems and began to reshape the ideas behind them.  After about 3 years, the helm was turned over to Jim Starlin, who further refined the Soul Gems, eventually relabeling them the Infinity Stones as a precursor to the famous Infinity Gauntlet set of storylines.

Central to Engelhart’s approach on The Silver Surfer, was to create an ontology for the Marvel Universe that served as a backdrop to the ideas he wanted to explore and the stories he wanted to tell.  Central to this ontology was the idea of duality between Eternity and Death in the universe (here explained to the Silver Surfer and Mantis by the Obliterator).

Galactus is the universal entity charged with both preventing stagnation between these opposing poles

and with attending to any gross imbalances that exist between the two.

The Elders, having secured immortality by maneuvering Death into refusing them entrance to her domain, realize that they have an opportunity to unseat all of reality.  Their plan is to unite the power of the Soul Gems to destroy Galactus.  With the balance gone, the universe would end and the new one that followed would then feature them as Galacti.

It should hardly come as a surprise that Engelhart would work the Soul Gems into his grand space opus.  Under his brief stint as author of Captain Marvel, he had used a Soul Gem as a central story device (issue #46 – Sep. 1976, which predates Marvel Team-Up #55 – Mar. 1977) for an arc involving Mar-Vell and his sidekick Rick Jones and their manipulation by the Kree Supreme Intelligence.

But Engelhart expands on the unique and remarkable qualities of the Soul Gems in this go around, making them indestructible and unquenchable.

The Elders, already in possession of 5 of the gems, manipulate a confrontation between the Silver Surfer and the Supreme Intelligence so that the latter is force to reveal that he is in possession of the sixth gem.

This confrontation ultimately results in the Supreme Intelligence’s madness and the Elders, seizing the opportunity, also seize the last gem and begin their assault on Galactus in earnest.

Driven nearly to destruction, Galactus is only able to prevail with the help of his current herald Nova and his former one the Silver Surfer.  He consumes some of the Elders while others are lost in the black hole that is formed during the clash.

At the end of the conflict, Galactus is revealed for what he truly is

a pillar of creation.

Later in his run, Engelhart revisits the Elders and the Soul Gems again in a storyline that grafts onto his original ontology an additional dimension of dualism between order and chaos.  Under his interpretation, the black hole connects the regular universe (Eternity, Death, and Galactus) to the magical realm overseen by Lord Chaos, Master Order, and the In-Betweener (the latter three being created by Starlin).

The In-Betweener, whose intervention indirectly led to Adam Warlock’s death at the hands of Thanos (and himself), plays the role in the magical universe that Galactus does in the conventional one.

He unites with the Elders to destroy Galactus but is defeated and imprisoned (with a gem still in his possession) in the magical realm by Lord Chaos and Master Order.

Engelhart concludes his run (Silver Surfer #31) with a revelation about dualism and the third-force between the poles delivered by none other than the Living Tribunal, the entity charged with overseeing all the realizations of the (Death, Eternity, Galactus) and (Lord Chaos, Master Order, In-Betweener) dualism in the Marvel multiverse.

Even after Engelhart’s departure, the tone of Silver Surfer remained firmly implanted in philosophy.  Jim Starlin starts with a ‘journey’ by the Silver Surfer to Death’s realm, where he sees a disembodied figure holding forth in the Dark Mistress’s court.

…Thanos, who is now resurrected as Death’s agent.  As the Mad Titan later explains to the Silver Surfer, thanks to the machinations of the Elders, Death became aware of problem in the universe; a problem that she has shared with members of her court, who now only speak…

According to Death and her purple avatar, species around the universe prolong their lives beyond the limit initially granted.  They over-consume their resources, they pollute and overpopulate, and, as a result are moving life in the universe to a catastrophic end.  ‘Fortunately’, Thanos knows that the solution is

Initially, the Surfer thinks this an empty boast.  Surely, Thanos can cause wide-spread mayhem (see especially issue #35), but there is no way he can eliminate half of the universe’s life.  However, research into the Titan’s past convinces the Surfer to put a stop to Thanos’s mad scheme but the results are more extreme than anticipated, with the Silver Surfer seemingly killing Thanos.

 

However, rumors of the Mad Titan’s demise are greatly exaggerated.  He had merely faked his death in order to retrieve the Soul Gems (soon to be renamed Infinity Gems) from the wreckage of the clash between the Elders and the In-Betweener with Galactus.  That leads directly into the Thanos Quest storyline for the next month’s post.

A Brief History of the Infinity Stones/Gems – Part 1 Early Days

By now half the world has gone to see Avengers Infinity War (a little inside joke there).   The Marvel Cinematic Universe team has done an excellent job setting the stage for the conflict between most of their heroic universe and the Mad Titan Thanos, with the Infinity Stones the central prop in the story.  Also, most people understand that these Stones (or Gems – the term used hereafter for reasons that will become clear) are artifacts of immense power.

But many MCU fans are not readers or collectors of the comics, and several have asked for what back-story, if any, lies behind the Gems and how they were originally conceived in the comics.  Never being one to turn my back on an honest request, I decided to take a break from the current New Gods retrospective to put together a brief history of the Infinity Gems over the next many months, covering additional information about Thanos, Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, Mistress Death, and other tidbits deemed interesting and important.

The first ingredient in this history of the Infinity Gems is actually found in Fantastic Four #67.  In that issue, a cadre of super-scientists (isn’t it always the way) try to make an artificial being that incubates in a cocoon that clearly shows the hand of Jack Kirby.

When the being finally emerges, he is literally a golden Adonis known only as Him.  Him quickly realizes his creators’ foul intent for him and destroys them without conscience or compunction.

Him then leaves Earth and its sad evil to await a time in which his perfection can fit in with humankind, perhaps a millennium hence.  Unfortunately, Him doesn’t stay true to either his word or his perfect intent.  He soon shows up for a donnybrook with Thor over Lady Sif in issues #165 and #166 (1969) of The Mighty Thor but is just as soon forgotten again in the pages of Marvel Comics.

When Him next appears on the scene (Marvel Premiere #1, 1972), he is once again in his cocoon continuing his maturation and evolution.  Fittingly, he is picked up by the High Evolutionary, who is just about to create a second Earth (called Counter Earth) on the far side of the Sun.  This new world would be free of the stain of sin and evil so prevalent in the original.  After over 140 hours of continuous effort, the High Evolutionary, attended by Him still in his cocoon, reaches the culmination of his work with the creation of the new mankind.  Tired by his effort, he dozes and unwittingly allows an earlier creation of his, the purely evil villain named Man-Beast, to spread wickedness into this new world.

Eager to help the High Evolutionary defeat the Man-Beast, Him emerges from his cocoon now bearing a new costume and a new name:  Adam Warlock.

Man-Beast flees to Counter Earth to complete his corruption of Paradise.  Seeing that he can neither undo the damage done nor stop the Man-Beast from doing more, the High Evolutionary decides to destroy his new creation.   Warlock begs that Counter Earth be spared and that he be allowed to enter the world and save it from Man-Beast.  The High Evolutionary reluctantly agrees and bestows on him a gem, about which nothing is disclosed in this issue.

Roy Thomas, the author of that story, writes in his introduction to Marvel Masterworks: Warlock Volume 1 how he and Gil Kane revised the costume and name of Him, adding that:

Gil also added that gem on our hero’s brow, just as John Buscema had done for our Vision revamp in ’68; what is it about good artists and gems stuck in their heroes’ foreheads?

This idea of adorning the ‘third eye’ with a gem would be something that get revisited as the gem lore takes shape in the coming 5 years.  But here the ‘emerald’ is still ill-defined and it seems that its powers and abilities are made up as the story went along, usually to provide a deus ex machina ending.

After a second appearance in Marvel Premiere, Adam Warlock got his own eponymous title filled with semi-biblical stories following his attempt to be a Christ-like figure on Counter Earth.  The audience must not have been there as the title was soon abandoned and the story-line, complete with a crucifixion and resurrection, was tidied up in The Incredible Hulk #176-78.

About 2 years later, Jim Starlin enters the Adam Warlock game with new stories in Strange Tales #178-181 (Feb-Aug 1975) followed by a resumption of the old title Warlock #9-15 (Oct 1975-Nov 1976).  Warlock is now in the greater Universe and has encountered a new host of threats and friends – even if he can’t always tell them apart.  Starlin’s approach seems to have been, ‘you take this naïve kid, who may have saved Earth and Counter Earth but is just not quite ready to face the really thorny questions of life, and stick him in the big time where he has to choose amongst a host of bad choices’.

It is within this venue that Starlin begins to flesh out the Infinity Gem lore with the re-introduction of his signature character, Thanos.  The first encounter between Warlock and Thanos takes place through the mediation of another well-known character, Gamora:

Details of this storyline will be covered in another post.  Suffice it to say that, with all of the chaos swirling around him, Adam quickly learns not only about his own frailties but also about the sinister nature of his ‘emerald’, now referred to by Starlin as a Soul Gem.

The Soul Gem seems alive and malevolent, often influencing Warlock’s behavior or acting with a mind of its own.

Under Starlin’s direction, Warlock is transformed from the one-dimensional Him to a deeply conflicted multi-layered character, wracked with guilt for allowing the Soul Gem to make him a psychic vampire, disgusted when he wields its power and terrified of what will happen when he doesn’t.

Unfortunately, Starlin’s run on Warlock didn’t last long.  The storyline was closed out in mid-1977 in Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, but not before some very important layers were added to the Infinity Gem mythology.

Marvel Team-up #55, which formed a bridge issue between the Annuals and Warlock #15, has Adam returning to Earth via a way-stop on the Moon.  There he encounters Spider-Man and an entity known as the Gardener, who has created a lush garden in the Blue Area.  No sooner do they begin to explore this wonder as the Stranger (originally a Fantastic Four adversary) shows up looking for Warlock’s Soul Gem.

Eventually the Gardener reveals that he, too, possesses a gem and suggests that the only way they can fend off the Stranger’s attack is a union of the powers of their gems.

This issue, written by Bill Mantlo, features the first appearance of additional Soul Gems (six, in fact are mentioned but only two additional ones are seen) and of the Gardener (who is important in the next stage of Infinity Gem lore).  It isn’t known to me whether the ideas for extra gems were Mantlo’s or Starlin’s, but Starlin, as the writer for the final two issues (the annuals mentioned above) makes them central to the storyline.

In Avengers Annual #7, Starlin reveals that Thanos had learned that there were 6 Soul Gems spoken of in legend, that he had acquired 5 of them outright,

and that his machinations where Warlock was concerned were designed to get him the essence of the green Soul Gem thus completing the set.  Combining this essence with the essences of the other gems, Thanos made a synthetic seventh gem with which he planned to wipe out the universe star-by-star.

The Avengers, helped by Adam Warlock and Captain Marvel, manage to destroy the seventh gem but, in the process, are captured by Thanos.  Warlock is killed, his soul sucked into his own gem.

The final chapter comes in the Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 where the Thing and Spider-man journey to Thanos’s ship.  The Thing manages to free the Avengers and Captain Marvel but the most important rescue comes from Spider-man when he is able to liberate Warlock’s soul from the Soul Gem.

In his ethereal form, Adam Warlock quickly brings an end to the Mad Titan’s existence turning him to solid granite.

And so he remained until 1990 when he is sent back from the land of the dead armed with the real knowledge of the Soul Gems – but this is the subject of next month’s post.

A Turning Point

As discussed in the previous columns, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World has languished in mediocrity since the original excitement that surrounded its launch in the early 1970s.  The only two exceptions were The Great Darkness Saga in the Legion of Super-Heroes and the X-Men/Teen Titan one-shot featuring the ‘resurrection’ of Dark Phoenix at the hands of Darkseid.

While both of these tales were exceptional in both art and story, both of them focused almost exclusively on Darkseid, whose villainy was more a vehicle for storytelling and rather than one for exploring his personality.   He was used like a force of nature, a hurricane that descends upon the town and whose destructive force must be dealt with by our heroes.  And the inhabitants of New Genesis were almost totally absent (excepting for a brief and even briefer appearance by Izaya and Orion at the end of the Great Darkness Saga). It was beginning to look like Kirby’s concepts and characters were merely stage dressing and props for other more interesting folk; want to accentuate Super-man’s heroism – have him deal with Darkseid.

The turning point came in 1988 with the publication of the four issue Cosmic Odyssey by the creative team of Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola, Carlos Garzon, Steve Oliff, and John Workman.

Starlin was already well known for his cosmic opera style with his handling of Thanos as the ultimate villain for Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock.  In both of these story arcs, he was able to create highly textured heroes and villains and interesting events that caused their confrontation.  Cosmic Odyssey finds Starlin once again at the top of his game, this time creating circumstances that bring the war between New Genesis and Apokolips to a new stage – an alliance between Darkseid and Izaya in the face of a greater evil.

This series is also notable three other things.  First there is Starlin’s exploration of the human side of his characters using several interpersonal exchanges between pairs of characters.  These interactions serve to soften and humanize what would otherwise be simply another ‘worlds about to end’ story.  Second there is his attention to detail.  Along the course of the story, Starlin add little bits of exposition that clarify inconsistent points that were either ignored or were exacerbated in previous New Gods stories.  And third, Mignola’s art style is not only evocative and well-suited for the storyline but also works in iconographic elements similar to what Keith Giffen did for The Great Darkness Saga.

The plot is straightforward enough.  In similar fashion as the X-Men/Teen Titans one shot, it starts with Metron’s insatiable thirst for knowledge and his attempt to breach what should not be breached – this time the secret of Anti-life.

Darkseid, who has long lusted after the secret, finds Metron and realizes that the end is nigh.  Anti-life isn’t a thing but a sentient entity that seeks to invade our universe and destroy it.  In breaching the barrier between the two dimensions, Metron has, inadvertently, allowed four Anti-life Aspects to follow him back.  These Anti-life Aspects now threaten four star systems (Earth’s being one) with annihilation via doomsday devices, the destruction of any two ensuring that the parent entity can be freed.

Four teams are formed to capture the four aspects and destroy their doomsday devices before detonation:  Batman and New Genesis’ Forager on Earth, New God Lightray and Teen Titan Starfire on Rann, Superman and Orion on Thanagar, and the Green Lantern John Stewart and the Martian Manhunter J’onn J’onzz on Xanshi.  Darkseid and Izaya and Jason Blood/Etrigan stay behind on New Genesis, ready to implement a back-up plan should the dispatched teams look to fail.

While there is no doubt that the teams will somehow succeed and the universe will be saved, Starlin does a wonderful job of building the suspense and using the pairings to bring out aspects of the various personalities that would be lost otherwise.

The most poignant pairing come between John Stewart and J’onn J’onzz, who are dispatched to Xanshi, a world whose technology has perfected planetary geophysical control (weather and geology), which the aspect exploits in order to stop Stewart and J’onzz.  Believing his power ring as the be-all-end-all, Stewart decides that J’onzz is a liability best left behind.

Unfortunately, the aspect knows full well about the weakness of the Green Lantern power rings to yellow and it paints the entire doomsday device with that color (note the smugness the aspect wears on its host body – an excellent example of Mignola’s style)

rendering Stewart completely helpless to prevent the death of millions as the Xanshi star system is destroyed. The interchange between J’onzz and Stewart, floating amidst the debris of what was once a flourishing world is particularly powerful.

Later on, after the danger has been averted, a morose and self-pitying Stewart contemplates suicide.  J’onzz uses a little reverse psychology to put the chip back on Stewart’s shoulder.

The team-up between Superman and Orion on Thanagar is also interesting.  Thanagar is the home of the powerful Hawk-Police, from whom Hawkman and Hawkwoman came.  Since time is of the essence, Superman decides to get into the facility where aspect lies while Orion keeps the Hawkpolice occupied.

Orion is portrayed by Starlin as much more arrogant and insensitive than Kirby’s original concept.  He doesn’t understand why Superman would forego a head-on approach and why the famous Kryptonian avoids the conflict that he craves.

Needless to say, Superman is eventually successful in capturing the aspect and destroying his doomsday machine.  But success comes with a price, as Superman soon learns when he rejoins Orion above ground to find just how far the New God was willing to go to keep Thanagar’s citizens occupied.

The most interesting interactions center on Batman, whose brain and guile more than make up for his lack of cosmic superpowers.  The tone is set early, when Darkseid introduces his plan for capturing the Anti-life aspects.  Discussing his analysis in a condescending way, Darkseid makes sure that the ‘Earthers’ understand just how paltry their intellects are in comparison to his.  Batman mocks this attitude when he receives his aspect-capture device.

But not knowing how a given scientific principle works doesn’t mean one is stupid, and, upon returning to Earth with Forager, Batman makes a phone call

This ‘friend’ turns out to be Doctor Fate, who uses his great magical abilities to thwart Darkseid’s hidden attempt to control the Anti-life entity for his own purposes.  Marshalling his own power and those of Darseid, Etrigan, Izaya, and Orion, Doctor Fate creates a way of sealing the Anti-life entity away by destroying the conduit to its realm.

The universe is now safe from the Anti-life Entity’s invasion but the two remaining Aspects still pose a threat.  Lightray and Starfire manage to succeed with little trouble thanks Starfire’s cleverness (in the one lackluster storyline).  Batman and Forager have a much harder time and they only avert disaster thanks to Forager’s last-minute heroics that, unfortunately, take his life.

 

Bearing the news (along with the captured Aspect) back to New Genesis, Batman is enraged when Orion acts callously to Forager’s death and he reacts in one of the most emotionally-filled moments.

Orion’s prejudice towards Forager’s people and his humbling at Batman’s hands form the initial arc for the third New Gods series that follows.  Indeed, the final page of Cosmic Odyssey sets the stage when Izaya and Orion talk.

The fine plot and character exploration and development are complemented by Starlin’s attention to the continuity details of the New God’s universe.  He starts by shading the story of the Elder Gods demise and the birth of the New God’s by tying the former’s catastrophic end to their unlocking of the Anti-life secret.

Employing the Anti-life solution not only ended the Elder God’s existence, it severed both New Genesis and Apokolips, which rose from the ashes, from the rest of the Universe by a rift that can only be spanned by the Boom Tubes.

Finally, it is worth noting that much of Starlin’s story is complemented by Mignola’s artistic presentation.  Early in Book 1, the reader is treated to a visual of Lightray and Superman

that not only clearly identifies Superman by isolating the ‘S’ on his chest but also emphasizes Lightray’s brightness.  Later in the same book, Mignola gives us a stealthy Batman on the trail of a shock trooper from Apokolips.

Mignola is able to convey Batman’s shadowy presence and the overwhelming difference in sizes in one beautifully constructed frame.  Mignola, employs a similar construction when Darkseid and Etrigan first confront the Anti-life Entity whose most imposing feature is his lack of features.

There you have it.  The first serious and competent treatment of Kirby’s Fourth World since Kirby’s initial run in the early seventies.  Cosmic Odyssey marks the turning point in the New Gods franchise within the DC Universe.  Starling showed that with some thought these tales of good versus evil could have a new and interesting life.

X-Men, Teen Titans, and Darkseid

A few columns back (Kirby’s Fourth World – The Dark Decade), I explored the attempted revival, climax, collapse, and seeming closure of Kirby’s grand experiment in storytelling in the decade leading up to 1985.  Sadly, as was typical of Kirby, what started with a lot of promise had faded into stagnation, mainly due to the lack of a cohesive narrative by the King.  While he was a powerhouse of ideas and images, diving into Kirby comic is more akin to visiting an art museum than it is to curling up with a good book – far more style than substance.

The strongest tales during this time frame, and indeed in the Fourth World up to this point, were provided by the Great Darkness Saga that ran in the pages of the Legion of Superheroes and the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover one-shot (entitled Marvel and DC Present the X-Men and the New Teen Titans), both from 1982.  This column looks at that later gem.

Entitled simply and elegantly as Apokolips…Now, the creative team of Chris Claremont and Walt Simonson construct a beautifully moving tale with lots of eye candy to boot.

While it was natural to have a team up between the two hottest groups of super beings of the era, the X-Men and the Teen Titans, the real action is found in the interplay between each team with the foes they must stop at all costs – Darkseid and Dark Phoenix.

In his handling of the tale, Claremont shows a great deal on restraint in using the these two supremely powered entities.  Dark Phoenix had already been killed in X-Men #137 (1980) in one of the most famous and poignant storylines to have ever come out of comics.  Bring her back, in any form whatsoever required care in order to not dilute the emotional content of her death. In contrast, Darkseid, while sinister and powerful, was far less well known and his handling to date had made him more tyrannical rather than evil.  Claremont’s portrayal of him as a cold, malicious, and unfeeling villain, bereft of any morsel of decency or redeeming characteristics transformed Darkseid from a common super-villain into one of the most horrific figures in comics.

The story starts at the Source Wall with an ignoble deal being transacted between Darkseid and that enigmatic New God, Metron.

Willing to make a deal with the devil for knowledge of what is beyond the wall, Metron gives Darkseid a device that collects residual psychic emanations from wherever they dwell.  In return, Darkseid provides a device that allows Metron to pierce the wall and, in doing so, causes the power of the Source to being flowing into the universe.

Darkseid makes use of the device to literally rape the minds of the X-Men to gather the remnants he needs to reconstitute the Dark Phoenix

The collection of Phoenix residue triggers a nightmare in Raven, the resident psychic of the Teen Titans.  As she discusses her vision with Starfire, Changeling (a.k.a Beast Boy for more modern audiences) attempts to provide substance to her vision by adopting the form she described; a move that is met with a dramatic response.

An apologetic Starfire in explaining her overreaction, reveals the story of Phoenix: of her destruction of the D’Bari star and the deaths of billions that resulted, her reported death at the hand of the Shiar, and her connection with the X-Men.  Due to the universal threat posed by the Dark Phoenix, Starfire convinces the other Teen Titans to breach the X-Men’s home, unaware that the only occupant is Professor Xavier.  Managing to overcome Professor X, the Teen Titans are themselves subdued shortly after by a group of parademons led by Ravok, who had been sent by Darkseid to kidnap the X-Men.

Meanwhile, the X-Men have been tracking down Darkseid’s field team, led by Deathstroke the Terminator, as they collect the residual energy signatures left behind by Phoenix.  The X-Men manage to destroy the device used to extract the lingering psionic energy but their victory is short-lived and Deathstroke and his team quickly defeat and capture the X-Men.

Both of the field teams, with prisoners in toe, make their way to the Source Wall

where Darkseid waits.  The visuals that Simonson creates of the Source Wall throughout the book but none are better done than the image above.  The attention to detail and the subsequent inking and coloring make this two page spread easily one of the most arresting images in this book.

A triumphant Ravok returns to Darkseid only to see his glory evaporate as the dark lord points out his mistake.

The situation becomes even worse when Deathstroke’s team returns with the X-Men and it is revealed that Changeling was hidding, disguised as a green parademon.  At this point, Darkseid decides on a permanent way of dealing with Ravok.

Throughout this whole sequence Claremont is having fun playing off of the physical similarities of the two teams, a criticism that was leveled against Teen Titans and one he might have shared.  He also is establishing, with a light touch, the evil and sadistic nature of Darkseid.

Deciding two teams are better than one, Darkseid inserts the Teen Titans and the X-Men into a machine that combines the stolen Phoenix energy signatures with the raw power coming from the Source Wall.  The result is the stunning rebirth of Dark Phoenix

who quickly embraces a partnership with Darkseid; a partnership where he is the cold, calculating brain and she is the fiery, passionate power.  The two soon depart, leaving the X-Men and Teen Titans fettered and alone at the Source Wall.  Of course, our heroes manage to free themselves and, finding Metron’s mobius chair, teleport back to Earth in hot pursuit of cosmic-powered Bonnie and Clyde.

Tracking the unique trail left behind by Dark Phoenix, the X-Men and Teen Titans soon have a second chance for victory when they finally confront them in a set of caverns beneath central park.  Gloating that there is no way stopping his plan, Darkseid reveals that he has directed Dark Phoenix to send a bolt of here power towards the center of the Earth.  His aim, as he explains, is to turn the Earth into a ne Apokolips:

Here Claremont is portraying Darkseid in a far more chilling and horrific way than he had been portrayed before.  Willing to sacrifice billions for his dark dreams, no corruption beyond his reach, he seems to delight (if one could call it that) it his own sadism.

Realizing that they are overmatched, the X-Men and Teen Titans, nonetheless engage in a desparate struggle to stop armageddon.  Professor X and Raven turn their attack to Phoenix directly, assualting her mind, soul, and, most of all, her emotions.

Their strategy proves effective, and, as the assault takes its toll Dark Phoenix begins to feel weak. Robin recognizes that, as a creature of passion, the Dark Phoenix is primarily driven by her desire for survivial and, exploiting her physical weakness, convinces her that she can save herself by absorbing the Phoenix bolt.

She complies, but by this time, the damage she’s sustained has been too much and, even with all of her energy now mustered within herself, she senses that she is doomed.  In her last move, she attempts to bond with a human host and, due to her previous relationship and affinity, she chooses Cyclops.  This move proves to be disasterous for Darkseid because once inside Scott’s mind, Dark Phoenix remembers her love for him and, in her last, act, she bursts forth, wreathed in his optic energy, and speeds straight for Darkseid, eager for revenge.

Gathering him up in her talons,

she carries him back to the Source Wall, hoping for her salvation and his retribution in one fell swoop.

In the epilog, we learn that status quo has been mostly restored.  Earth is saved; the two teams go their separate way, and Metron, having successfully penetrated the Source Wall, has now returned.  As the book closes, Claremont and Simonson treat us to the final visual as Metron wishes Darkseid, now immortalized beside the Prometheans as a piece of the wall, farewell.

All things considered, this tale has been one of the most successful storylines involving Kirby’s fourth world.  Certainly, a degree of the success is due to Claremont’s writing and Simonson’s detailed and vibrant art but also because Darkseid was a back-drop to the stories and not the primary focus.