The Forever People #1

History

After leaving Marvel Comics — frustrated by years of creating characters without retaining copyright or creative control — Kirby accepted an offer from DC publisher Carmine Infantino, who had visited him at home and expressed keen interest in his new mythological concepts. Kirby brought his designs for the New Gods to DC rather than Marvel after Stan Lee wanted to fold them into existing titles instead of letting Kirby develop them independently. The issue was written, penciled, and edited entirely by Kirby, inked by Vince Colletta on interiors (with Frank Giacoia inking the cover), and published on December 1, 1970, carrying a February–March 1971 cover date. DC editorial was uncomfortable with Kirby's rendition of Superman's face and figure, and had veteran artist Al Plastino paste over every Superman and Clark Kent appearance to conform to the house style Curt Swan had established — a decision Kirby found both insulting and commercially counterproductive, since subsequent issues transitioned the correction duties to Murphy Anderson.

Trivia · 10 facts

• First full appearance of Darkseid (his third appearance overall, following cameos in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134–136); he is depicted sending agents after the Forever People and personally appears to release Beautiful Dreamer after determining she does not hold the Anti-Life Equation.
• First appearance of the entire core Forever People roster: Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear, Mark Moonrider, Serifan, and Vykin the Black, all debuting as fully formed characters in a single issue.
• First appearance of the Infinity Man, the powerful composite being the five team members summon by combining through their Mother Box.
• First appearance (or first major deployment) of key Fourth World concepts and technology: the Boom Tube interdimensional portal, the Mother Box sentient computer, and Supertown (New Genesis's city of the gods).
• Vykin the Black is cited by comics historians as arguably the first Black superhero to appear in a DC comic book, preceding the John Stewart Green Lantern by several months.
• Superman guest-stars throughout; DC editorial had all of Kirby's Superman and Clark Kent figures pasted over by artist Al Plastino to conform to the house style — a fact not credited in the issue's indicia, which lists only Kirby and Colletta.
• The story, titled 'In Search of a Dream,' was written, penciled, and edited entirely by Jack Kirby, making it his first solo-edited DC production of the Fourth World era; a 'Visit With Jack Kirby' column by Marv Wolfman also appeared in this issue.
• The issue has been collected in multiple formats, including Jack Kirby's The Forever People trade paperback (1999, collecting all 11 issues), the four-volume Fourth World by Jack Kirby hardcover series (2007), and The Fourth World Omnibus (2017, 1,481 pages) and its 2021 expanded reprint.
• Darkseid's visual design was modeled on actor Jack Palance's face, with his personality informed by Adolf Hitler and Richard Nixon, according to multiple sources citing Kirby.
• Darkseid's introduction in this issue directly influenced Jim Starlin's creation of Marvel's Thanos; Starlin's editor Roy Thomas encouraged him to bulk Thanos up to resemble Darkseid after Starlin's initial sketches more closely resembled Metron.

Cast · 10 characters

Full credits

Key issues in The Forever People

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#3 1st appearance — Glorious Godfrey

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#5 1st appearance — Lonar