Pictures of DC Direct New Gods action figures! Funky Flashman = Stan Lee?"Free's self-proclaimed manager Funky Flashman looks and talks like Stan Lee? Mr. Miracle's relationship with Funky is even parallel to Kirby's view of his relationship with Stan. Funky thinks he knows how to make Scott a star and improve his act. He gives this unwanted advice in a positive, ingratiating way, but covertly forces contracts and gigs on Mr. Miracle. Funky's corny speech-patterns sound just like Stan's "soapbox" banter as well as the way he talks whenever I have heard him speak. Well, look at Mr. Miracle again if you haven't noticed and let me know if you agree, or if everyone already knows this." - Dr. C.B. Davis, Stanford University, Fellow in the Humanities (originally posted on the Kirby-L).From the Infinite Atlas by Jonathan Woodward:Earth-17 (I)
Keyword(s): non-Kirby New Gods
Key Events The world where all pre-Crisis Fourth World stories not told by Kirby took place. Most of these stories were considered more-or-less below par, and when Kirby created new material to finish off the New Gods epic, they were shuffled off to an alternate Earth. Named in passing by Mark Evanier in the text piece of New Gods #1. In The Kingdom #2 we briefly see New God Orion in the costume he wore in several Earth-17 (I) stories. From the Jack Kirby Collector:Going back farther, we find the theme of freedom vs. control tackled most directly in Kirby's Fourth World saga (1970-74). The Forever People, in the "Glorious Godfrey" story arc (#3-6), confront brainwashing on a grand scale, in the form of Godfrey's evangelical crusade, then are imprisoned within Happyland, an amusement park which serves as a kitschy facade for Desaad's experiments in manipulation; later, in "The Power" (#8) they face a megalomaniac whose will-power can turn others into puppets. Over in Mister Miracle, the very idea of a "super escape artist" invites comparison to The Prisoner, with its stress on entrapment and escape; indeed, there are echoes of The Prisoner's nameless Village in Granny Goodness' horrifying "Orphanage" on Apokolips. On a larger scale, throughout the Fourth World, Darkseid's ongoing quest for Anti-Life dramatizes the struggle between individual freedom and totalitarian control (see TJKC #6).From The Scrolls of Grayskull: Issue 12[Jack Kirby's Fourth World]I've been a big fan of Jack Kirby's Fourth World series of comics for years, and I was pretty excited to hear John Byrne talking about the Masters of the Universe in a recent interview. [This is from issue #497 of 'Comic Shop News', and I'm only transcribing the He-Man related parts of the interview.] "The *best* New Gods movie, IMHO, is 'Masters of the Universe'. I even corresponded with the director, who told me this was his intent, and that he had tried to get [Jack] Kirby to do the production designs, but the studio nixed it. "Check it out. It requires some bending and an occasional sex change (Metron becomes an ugly dwarf, The Highfather becomes the Sorceress), but it's an amazingly close analog, otherwise. And Frank Langella's Skeletor is a *dandy* Darkseid!" --- After some watching, I've come up with a few more similarities between the New Gods and the Masters of the Universe movie...
Hell, the term "metrons" is even used in the friggin' movie...! From Captain Comics' Comic CaveSilver Surfer vs. Darkseid:While the Surfer has no theoretical limit to his power, neither does Green Lantern and Darkseid manhandles him easily. I guess I have to say it's New Gods 1, Mortals 0. (Darkseid is more on Odin's or Galactus's power level.) From the old DC Universe message board (now at http://www.comicboards.com/dcb)Another point in the whole Thanos/Darkseid thing (705)
Posted by Bizarro on August 10 1998 at 13:31:04 PDT After Kirby left, nothing longstanding has ever happened to the New Gods. Lessee...Darkseid's died numerous times...yet he's always been resurrected...Highfather died, to be just resurrected in JKFW #19...Supertown also was just recreated... The reason why nothing happens? Every writer who gets to write the New Gods wants to play with every toy, and wants the toys to remain exactly as they were when Kirby created them. The result is that none of the New Gods have grown as characters at all since Kirby left, whereas Thanos, who started out as a blatant Darkseid rip-off, has grown to become much more of a character. Darkseid? Every writer's too chicken to do something worthwile with him. Every plan of his *must* fail, just so he's back on Apokolips, so another writer can do their take of him.
This is why I'm excited about two things now: 2) Superman: The Dark Side: Now this supposedly advances Darkseid's character...too bad it's an Elseworlds title...(someone tell my *why* Marvel What-Ifs count in debates but Elsewords don't...) Darkseid finally finds the Anti-Life equation, another long-dangling plot thread from Kirby's days that no writer had the cahones (sp?) to mess with. I have no idea what he uses the Anti-Life equation for or how powerful it makes him, but I guess that's why you read the book. Couple that cool plot with the fact that we're actually going to get a chance to see how cool an evil Superman would be, and this is definitely on my to-buy list.
Episode Guides for Superfriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, which featured Darkseid and pals as some of the principal villains.
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