Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134 carries one of the most consequential single panels in DC history: the closing-page cameo of Darkseid — ruler of Apokolips — appearing on a video monitor as Morgan Edge's unseen master, marking the character's first published appearance and quietly detonating the mythology that would define DC's cosmic mythology for decades. It is the second installment of Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga, the first sprawling, interconnected multi-title epic in mainstream superhero comics, and its publication on October 13, 1970 preceded the launch of The New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle by just a few months, making it the earliest brick in that entire cosmological structure. The issue also introduced the Hairies and their mobile Mountain of Judgment to the DC Universe, expanding Kirby's vision of rival technological and spiritual civilizations locked in a cosmic war. For readers at the time, the issue's back-matter — a Kirby-written essay titled 'The Whiz Wagons Are Coming!' alongside a full-page house ad previewing the forthcoming Fourth World titles — announced something genuinely new was happening in American superhero comics.
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When Jack Kirby departed Marvel for DC in 1970, he reportedly chose Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen as his entry point specifically because it was the Superman-family title without a regular writer, so he would not be displacing anyone's livelihood — though Kirby himself, in later interviews, preferred to frame it as rescuing the publisher's worst-selling book. Despite DC publisher Carmine Infantino's assurances of creative autonomy, the editorial office immediately interfered: veteran Superman artist Al Plastino was brought in, uncredited, to redraw the faces of both Superman and Jimmy Olsen throughout the issue to conform to DC's strict house style, while Vince Colletta inked Kirby's pencils on the 22-page lead story. The cover was contributed separately by Neal Adams. Kirby had, by the evidence of production job codes and colleagues' later recollections, already drawn complete stories featuring Darkseid in fuller form before this issue shipped — meaning the character's 'first appearance' here is technically a function of publication order rather than creation order, a distinction collectors and scholars continue to discuss.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated December 1970, published October 13, 1970 by DC Comics; written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Vince Colletta, with Al Plastino redrawing Superman and Jimmy Olsen faces throughout, and a cover by Neal Adams.
- First published appearance of Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips — depicted in a single panel on the final page as a face on a video-phone monitor issuing orders to Morgan Edge, rendered with flesh-toned coloring inconsistent with his later iconic grey-stone look.
- The 22-page lead story, 'The Mountain of Judgment!', follows Jimmy, the new Newsboy Legion (Tommy, Big Words, Gabby Jr., Scrapper Jr., and Flipper Dipper), and the Outsiders racing the Zoomway in the Whiz Wagon to reach the Mountain of Judgment — revealed to be a giant converted missile carrier serving as the mobile home of the technologically advanced youth community called the Hairies, whose leader Jude appears here for the first time.
- Morgan Edge — the media mogul introduced in issue #133 as the new owner of the Daily Planet — is revealed at the story's climax to be a pawn of Darkseid, having planted a bomb in the Whiz Wagon to destroy the Hairies; Superman discovers and neutralizes it.
- The issue contains Kirby's signature photo-collage panels, a technique he used throughout the Fourth World run to convey the psychedelic, cosmic scale of the narrative.
- A two-page spread in the issue served as DC's first house advertisement previewing the covers of the three forthcoming Kirby Fourth World launches — The New Gods #1, The Forever People #1, and Mister Miracle #1 — giving readers their earliest look at those series.
- Kirby also contributed a prose text page, 'The Whiz Wagons Are Coming!', accompanied by a self-portrait — part of his effort to engage readers directly in the new mythology he was building.
- This issue and the surrounding Kirby run on Jimmy Olsen (#133–148) have been reprinted in: Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby Vol. 1 (2003, DC), Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1 (2007, DC), Absolute Fourth World by Jack Kirby Vol. 1 (2020, DC), and the single-volume Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus (2017, DC), which won a Shazam Award for the overall metaseries in 1971.