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Cover: Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta

The New Gods #2

Apr 1971 · DC · 0.15 USD

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“O' Deadly Darkseid”

★ 1st appearance — Mantis★ 1st appearance — DeSaad★ 1st appearance — Slig★ 1st appearance — Brola

About this Issue

New Gods #2, cover-dated May 1971, is a key building block in Jack Kirby's ambitious Fourth World saga — a sprawling, interconnected cosmic mythology unlike anything DC had published before. The issue delivers the second full appearance of Darkseid, putting the tyrant of Apokolips front and center in his own title for the first time on a cover, and drops the first teaser panel for the Deep Six, the aquatic shock troops of Apokolips whose full debut would follow. Perhaps most significantly, the issue plants early narrative seeds about Orion's true parentage — dark hints that Kirby would not fully excavate until later issues but which give the story a dramatic weight far beyond its modest standalone plot. As part of the larger Fourth World project that earned Kirby a Shazam Award for Special Achievement in 1971, every issue of this run, even a transitional one, belongs to a landmark chapter in American comics.

writer, artist Jack Kirby · inker Vince Colletta · letterer John Costanza · cover Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $22

CGC 9.8 · 13 in census $994

CGC 9.6 · 56 in census $298

CGC 9.4 · 67 in census $159

CGC 9.2 · 56 in census $147

CGC 9.0 · 71 in census $108

CGC 8.5 · 59 in census $62

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CGC 8.0 · 35 in census $62

CGC 7.5 · 33 in census $48

CGC 7.0 · 18 in census $48

CGC 6.5 · 23 in census $48

CGC 6.0 · 23 in census $48

CGC 5.5 · 8 in census $41*

CGC 5.0 · 9 in census $36

CGC 4.5 · 6 in census $35*

CGC 4.0 · 6 in census $34*

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $28*

CGC 3.0 · 1 in census $25*

CGC 2.5 none in existence

CGC 2.0 none in existence

CGC 1.5 none in existence

CGC 1.0 none in existence

CGC 0.5 · 1 in census $20*

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History

New Gods #2, written, pencilled, and self-edited by Jack Kirby, was inked by Vince Colletta — who was handling inking duties across all of Kirby's Fourth World titles at this period — with lettering by John Costanza on interior story pages and Gaspar Saladino on the cover. Carmine Infantino served as DC's editorial director over the line. The issue arrived early in what was an extraordinary creative burst: Kirby had defected from Marvel to DC in 1970 and simultaneously launched New Gods, Forever People, and Mister Miracle, weaving them into a single shared cosmology. The story 'O' Deadly Darkseid' was a deliberate consolidation issue, giving new readers a grounded orientation to the war between New Genesis and Apokolips before the series accelerated into more ambitious multi-issue arcs.

Trivia · 8 facts

Written, pencilled, and edited by Jack Kirby; inked by Vince Colletta; lettered by John Costanza (interiors) and Gaspar Saladino (cover); Carmine Infantino served as DC editorial director.
Cover date: May 1971 (on-sale approximately April 7, 1971); 36 pages; published by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics).
Contains the second full appearance of Darkseid, and marks his first cover appearance on the New Gods title — featuring him prominently alongside Desaad and the one-off villain Brola.
First and only appearance of Brola, an Apokolips elite warrior who battles Orion in Metropolis before phasing out; the character never reappears in DC continuity.
First cameo (unnamed single-panel teaser) of the Deep Six — Darkseid's aquatic Apokolips squad whose membership (Slig, Gole, Jaffar, Shaligo, Trok, Pyron/Kurin) would be named and expanded in New Gods #5–6.
Mantis appears in a cameo; his first full appearance is most widely sourced to Forever People #2 (June 1971).
The story 'O' Deadly Darkseid' advances the Anti-Life Equation subplot, with Darkseid deploying DeSaad's Fear Machine on Metropolis to locate a human mind capable of comprehending it — a thread that drives the entire Fourth World saga.
The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in New Gods (Vol. 2) #1, the Jack Kirby's New Gods collection, and Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1 (2007); the 1998 collected edition won both the Harvey Award for Best Domestic Reprint Project and the Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection/Project.