Forever People

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For the British indie band, see the Razorcuts.

The Forever People is a DC Comics superhero group created by Jack Kirby as part of his Fourth World series of titles.

The heroes are a group of young New Gods from New Genesis who were originally on a journey to oppose Darkseid on Earth. In addition to the individual abilities and equipment of the members, the group can join to summon the powerful hero known as the Infinity-Man to handle particularly dangerous threats.

The concept is essentially a reworking of the "kid gang" concept that Kirby and Joe Simon used during the 40's and 50's, with four to five adolescents dealing with their place - or lack thereof - in society, and their interactions with an adult mentor who was an extreme heroic - or super-heroic - character.

They first appeared in their own title, The Forever People, in 1971. This series lasted 11 issues, and ended on a cliffhanger. In the last issue, they summoned Infinity Man, swapping places with him on a distant planet. Infinity Man was apparently killed/destroyed in combat with Devilance the Pursuer, leaving the Forever People stranded on that distant world.

In 1988, a six issue Forever People limited series was published, showing what had happened to the Forever People on that distant world. During this series, all the things that happened to them on this planet were reversed, and they were restored to our part of the universe.

1 Members
2 Trivia
3 Awards
4 Other Media
5 External links

[edit] Members

Beautiful Dreamer

During the original Kirby run, Beautiful Dreamer had been linked romantically to Mark Moonrider, although outside of hand-holding, the exact nature of their relationship was never directly specified. In the 1988 miniseries, it was established that Dreamer had been married to Big Bear, and together they had a child, named Maya after the spirit of their old Mother Box. Since then, however, their marriage and daughter has been voided by a retcon during John Byrne's Jack Kirby's Fourth World series. When last shown, Dreamer was romantically involved with Takion, the new Highfather of New Genesis.

Dreamer has psionic powers, with which she can create illusions. She has also been able, like other New Gods, to sense fluctuations within the Source.

Big Bear

Big Bear had been married to Beautiful Dreamer, and together they had Maya, their daughter. A retcon later showed that the marriage never happened and Maya was never born.

Big Bear has superhuman strength and can mentally alter the density of objects. In Forever People v1, #7, he was shown to have been responsible for the historical event that led to the legend of King Arthur.

Mark Moonrider

During the original Kirby run, Beautiful Dreamer had been linked romantically to Mark Moonrider, although outside of hand-holding, the exact nature of their relationship was never directly specified. In the 1988 miniseries set on on Adon, Mark was shown to have fallen in love with, and later married one of the natives, Mina. They had 3 children together - Merry, Wendy and Starbright - but when the Dark took over Adon, they were all reverted to savagery, leaving Mark with only his friends.

In addition to his leadership skills, Mark also has a "megaton touch," which allows him to shoot bolts of energy from his hands.

Serifan

Serifan is the youngest member of the group. With no super-powers, he is usually the most vulnerable. The Dark saw this and possessed Serifan, using him to conquer Forevertown and plague the Forever People. After the Dark was defeated he returned to his normal self.

Serifan has no super powers, but he always carries "cosmic cartridges," which possess numerous specific functions. Although all of the cartridges have never been catalogued, those seen in action have uses such as beiing able to generate an anti-gravitational force, create force fields, tune the wielder into the "cosmic Harmony" that is linked to the Source, and, in the case of the "Blue Cartridge", allow Deadman to merge with a "Follower" and have a body of his own once again.

Vykin

Throughout the Kirby run, Vykin was referred to as "Vykin the Black". He was the first black super-hero to appear in a DC comic book, preceding Kirby's Black Racer by approximately 7 months. The use of the ethnic descriptor in his name, as in other Kirby characters such as the Black Racer, already seemed awkward at the time, but reflects the kind of labelling that was common place in the multi-ethnic New York of Kirby's 1930s childhood. As political correctness about such naming conventions took greater hold, the obvious racial descriptor was dropped when the Fourth World titles were revived in the late 1980's.

When the Forever People were stranded on Adon, Mark Moonrider thought it would be advantageous to civilize the people of the planet. When Vykin used their Mother Box to do so, it overloaded and was destroyed, killing Vykin in the process, yet creating Forevertown. When the Dark overtook and reversed the effects of the Mother Box, Vykin was brought back to life.

Recently he was reunited with his mother, Valkyra the Commander, on New Genesis, but lost her when she sacrificed her life to save her lover Orion.

Vykin has magnetic powers which allow him to attract or repel to objects of either iron or steel. He also has an innate talent with machines and electronics.

Infinity Man

No actual origin for the Infinity Man was given, nor any explanation as to why he was involved with the Forever People other than Big Bear's offhanded comment to Superman in the first issue of "we've got an arrangement with the Infinity Man". During the 1988 miniseries, it was alluded that Maya, the daughter of Beautiful Dreamer and Big Bear, was the reincarnation of the Infinity Man who died fighting Devilance the Pursuer, but this was later retconned out of existence in the pages of Jack Kirby's Fourth World. Infinity Man is now known as Drax, the brother of Uxas, who would later become Darkseid of Apokolips, and became the Infinity Man after treachery at the hands of Uxas while attempting to harness The Omega Force for himself.

The Infinity Man's powers were never specified other than having some direct link to the Source. He was shown capable of flight, super-strength, enhanced vision powers, and the ability to negate gravity and convert it into a repulsive force.

[edit] Trivia

Mark Moonrider was originally just "Moonrider", and there is some considerable speculation that the "Mark" was added as a tribute to one of Kirby's assistants at the time, Mark Evanier. Evanier has denied repeatedly that this was the case, but the vast majority of Kirby's peers, as well as scholars in Kirby's works such as John Morrow, feel that Evanier is simply being humble.

"Serifan" is a condensation of "Serial Fan". The hints are subtle, but the reason Serifan dresses up like a cowboy is that he, like Kirby, was a great fan of the movie serials of the 30's and 40's.

Beautiful Dreamer has no spoken dialog in the first issue of the original Forever People series. She was stunned by Darkseid and was unable to speak.

Of Kirby's "Fourth World" titles, "Forever People" had the quickest drop in sales and the lowest sales overall of the four titles, including Jimmy Olsen. Most Kirby historians speculate that readers failed to grasp that the title was a "kid gang" book, and perceived the book as more of another attempt by DC to cash in on the youth and/or "hippie" markets much in the same way they did with books like Brother Power, the Geek, Swing with Scooter and Teen Beam.

The process by which the Forever People switch places with the Infinity Man was, by Kirby's own admission, a homage of sorts to Billy Batson's exchange with Captain Marvel; Batson would shout "Shazam!", while the Forever People would shout "Taruu". Captain Marvel noted the similitude when he meet the Forever People during a Superman storyline, in a battle against Brainiac.

The Forever People's "Super-Cycle" was later used by Young Justice.

In the 10th issue of the original Kirby run, Deadman guest-starred in a story where he was given a "Follower" - an android built with Apokolips technology, and later captured by the Forever People - and a "Blue Cartridge" from Serifan's collection to allow Boston Brand to merge with the Follower and thus give him a new body to function with. This was never referred to again in any Deadman story that followed.

[edit] Awards

This series, along with New Gods, Mister Miracle, and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen won Jack Kirby a Shazam award for Special Achievement by an Individual in 1973.

[edit] Other Media

According to the audio commentary on Justice League season 2, scenes featuring the Forever People were animated for inclusion in the episode "Twilight, part two." These scenes were an action sequence where the Forever People rescued the children of New Genesis during Darkseid's attack. Due to time constrainsts, the scenes were cut down to a brief appearance at the end of the episode where the forever people present the rescued children to Highfather.