The New Gods #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNew Gods #9 delivers one of the Fourth World saga's most thematically resonant debuts: Forager, a humanoid insect-being from New Genesis whose existence forces Kirby's cosmic mythology to interrogate its own hierarchy. By introducing a hero who is treated as subhuman by the very 'good' gods he must save, Kirby embedded a critique of prejudice and social stratification directly into a Bronze Age superhero narrative—a move that gave the Fourth World far more moral complexity than its cosmic scale alone could provide. The issue also marks a format watershed: it was the final Fourth World comic published in DC's 25-cent, 48-page anthology format, making it the last of Kirby's New Gods run to carry a vintage Golden Age backup reprint.
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Written, penciled, and edited by Jack Kirby with inks by Mike Royer and lettering by Gaspar Saladino, the issue was on sale in April 1972 under the title 'The Bug!' Kirby had full creative control of the Fourth World titles, but publisher Carmine Infantino was increasingly asserting editorial influence over the line around this time—a dynamic documented by John Morrow in his 2021 companion volume Old Gods & New. The issue's 48-page format allowed it to carry a Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Golden Age backup, reprinting a Paul Kirk Manhunter story originally from Adventure Comics #78 (September 1942); starting with the very next issue, DC dropped the oversized format and the Simon-Kirby reprint program ended entirely.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Forager (also nicknamed 'Bug'), an insectoid humanoid from New Genesis created by Jack Kirby, in the lead story titled 'The Bug!'
- First appearance of All-Widow (also called Queen Widow), the matriarch leader of New Genesis's Bug colony, and of Prime One, leader of Forager's hive, who dies in this issue.
- First appearance of Eve Donner, a supporting human character, also indexed in this issue per the Grand Comics Database.
- The lead story is written, penciled, and edited by Jack Kirby, with inks by Mike Royer and lettering by Gaspar Saladino.
- The issue is the final Fourth World comic published in DC's 25-cent/48-page anthology format, and thus the last to include a vintage Simon-Kirby Golden Age backup reprint.
- The backup story, 'The Lady and the Tiger,' is reprinted from Adventure Comics #78 (September 1942), featuring Manhunter (Paul Kirk); it is written and penciled by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and includes Sandman (Wesley Dodds) and Sandy Hawkins in the reprinted story's context, with Starman (Ted Knight) in an inset.
- Forager's debut arc continues into New Gods #10; Jack Kirby used the character only in those two issues before the series was canceled with #11, leaving his intended expanded story for the Bugs untold.
- The lead story and its characters have been reprinted in New Gods (1984 series) #5, Jack Kirby's New Gods (1998, in black and white/gray tones), Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus vol. 3 (2007/2008), and New Gods by Jack Kirby (2018).
Cast · 11 characters
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Adventure Comics #78 (1942)
Reprinted in Mighty Comic #114 (1976), Aventures Fiction #57 (1978), New Gods #5 (1984), Jack Kirby's New Gods #[nn] (1998), Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus #3 (2007), Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus #3 (2008), DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection #85 (2016), The Fourth World Omnibus by Jack Kirby #[nn] (2018), New Gods by Jack Kirby #[nn] (2018)
Key issues in The New Gods
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