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upagainstthesunset · 6 months

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Calling all escape artists, reporters, free spirits and celestials! It's time for...

[ID: "New Gods November" event title card. The text uses the font from the original New Gods comic, and is white against a black rectangle with white and gray dots. Behind the black rectangle is old four color comic art of flowing lines and dots. /END ID]

New Gods November

Introduction

In the early 1970's, comics legend Jack Kirby came back to DC with his most ambitious project to date. It was a grand story about a new generation of gods and their battle against a terrible evil, spanning across four separate titles: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Mister Miracle, Forever People and New Gods. This tetralogy would quickly become known as The Fourth World, and many of its key players known as the New Gods.

Now, over 50 years later, these stories and characters still resonate deeply with fans of all kinds. So to celebrate the Fourth World saga and all its space opera glory, we bring you New Gods November!

Details

This fan event runs from November 1st - November 28th, 2023. See below for the full schedule.

One of our goals is to make it comfortable to do as many or as few prompts as you please. The event is split into weeks, where each week has a bucket of five prompts to choose from. Participate by picking one per week, or get ambitious and pick several and do them daily! We only ask that when you post, you stick to the current or previous weeks and not jump ahead to a future week.

Another goal is to give people the freedom to create what they want. We've left the prompts fairly open to interpretation, and each week has enough variety to give a wide selection of characters to choose from. Just don't forget to mention somewhere in your post which prompt you picked!

Contributions of all kinds are welcome. From art and fics, to meta analyses and character playlists and beyond, anything is fair game since the format is entirely up to you! Just make sure to use the tag #newgodsnovember so others can find your creations. And if you post on AO3, you can add your work to the New Gods November collection.

And of course Fourth World must be the main focus of your work, but other DC characters are certainly allowed.

Last, I'd like to plug our New Gods discord. If you'd like an invite please message!

Ready for the full prompt list? Click "Keep Reading" to see it all!

Schedule and Prompt List

[ID: List of four weeks with dates, where each week has four prompts and a comic title's logo under it. The dates and prompts are described below. /END ID]

Week 1 - November 1 to November 7

Stranger in a Strange Land¹

Destiny

Celestials on Earth²

Characters who never met³

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen*

Week 2 - November 8 to November 14

The Ties That Bind⁴

Trust

Character Foils⁵

Create A Character Backstory⁶

Mister Miracle*

Week 3 - November 15 to November 21

Then-- There Was New Light!⁷

Freedom

Late/Post Kirby Characters⁸

OC or Character Redesign

Forever People*

Week 4 - November 22 - November 28

The Hand or the Knife⁹

Scars

New Genesis vs Apokolips

Alternate Realities¹⁰

New Gods*

Footnotes

* = Characters, themes, settings or anything else from the pages of the comic title mentioned.

This prompt could include being somewhere foreign, not fitting in, or trying to find where you belong.

"Celestials" refers to the characters from New Genesis and Apokolips.

Create something for characters that haven't yet interacted in a published comic.

This prompt could include family and friends, things that keep people together, or blood relations for better or worse.

A foil is a character that contrasts with another character.

Show something that could in theory fit into a character's past.

This prompt could include progress, optimism, or looking to the future.

This means a Fourth World character that was created after Kirby's original run in the early 1970's.

This prompt could include nature vs nurture, the ability to choose, or the ability to change.

This means universes and timelines that aren't necessarily canon, but have been published by DC.

Special Thanks

I want to give a very huge shout out to two people who made this event possible...

@ant-ifascottlang not only created our awesome graphics, but was so great to brainstorm and discuss ideas with and really pick their brain about all aspects of this thing. The prompts, the logistics, everything.

@shadethechangingman generously and graciously shared his prompt list, which we used to inspire this event. What we ended up with is different, to be sure, but I'm not kidding when I say that things would not even be half as good without that contribution and all the work that went into it.

And you know what else? I want to thank all the other New Gods fans I've interacted with here on tumblr over the past year. There aren't a lot of us, but what we lack in numbers we definitely make up for in passion. Thank you for being so welcoming, and thank you for making this a fun place to be.

#newgodsnovember #new gods #fourth world #jack kirby #orion #lightray #scott free #mister miracle #big barda #jimmy olsen #newsboy legioin #forever people #highfather #darkseid #dc comics

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upagainstthesunset · 6 months

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Fourth World Character Foils: Metron & Himon

[Image ID: Comic panel from Mister Miracle depicting the arms of Himon and Metron and they greet each other in a handshake. Metron from above, and Himon from below. In the background there are yellow, black, red and white energy bursts. Metron says, "The wonders I build are born in your brain! The roads that I travel are opened by your massive perceptions!" To which Himon says, "Alas! The heart and brain of the visionary are eternally grounded here! I fostered Darkseid's power! I must be here - at its end!" /END ID]

We're smack dab in the middle of week 2 of New Gods November, so here's a bit of meta for the "character foils" prompt!

Wikipedia says a character foil is "a character who contrasts with another character". Pretty simple, eh? There are some obvious foils in the New Gods saga: Highfather and Darkseid, Scott and Orion, even New Genesis and Apokolips. With a story so heavily centered around the theme of good vs evil, it's fairly clear how many of the characters contrast with others. I probably could've written paragraphs upon paragraphs about any of them! But the thing that's interesting to me about character foils is how they are thematically or narratively inextricably linked to one another, especially when they aren't so black and white.

That's where Metron and Himon come in.

For those of you who aren't as familiar with these less well-known Fourth World characters, Metron (who I've posted about at length, see my #metronmeta tag) is a scientist and dimensional time traveler who is heavily invested in the universe's inner workings. Himon is a genius-level inventor who has made it his life's goal to thwart Darkseid's evil rule by leading a resistance against him. Sure they're both highly intelligent and have made some noteworthy inventions, but when you look at the details side-by-side it starts to paint a picture. So, let's do just that!

Appearance

Though both Metron and Himon are older, perhaps the same generation as Highfather, they have vastly different appearances, which lend directly to their characterizations.

Metron: Thin, with a wiry musculature. His clothing is tight fitting, even around his head. The pattern on his chest is meant to be computerized components. He rarely smiles.

Himon: Fuller bodied with a gently, approachable air. He wears loose fitting clothes that are warm in color. His hair is shaggy. He is often seen smiling.

Personality

This is the area where the two are clearly opposites. Though they're both clever and resourceful, that's where the similarities end. Perhaps the only other commonality here is that they have a mutual respect for each other.

Metron: Cold and analytical, yet spirited. He is independent and very self-focused, and his actions are almost always driven by his own personal desires rather than any consideration for those around him. He likes to stay seated on the Mobius chair, at times floating nearby watching, and at other times meddling.

Himon: Lively and active, and encouraging of others. He works to foster creativity and individuality of those he takes in, and teaches them to think for themselves rather than manipulating them. He values family and the beauty of life.

Inventions

As both are geniuses and inventors of technology that has forever changed the face of the universe, there are a lot of parallels in this area. However, what makes things interesting isn't necessarily what they created, but everything else surrounding said inventions.

Metron: A scientist who has notably created the Mobius chair that can travel time and space, as well as Boom Tubes, wormhole-like portals that allow anyone to travel directly to any location. When he created the forerunner to the Boom Tube, he gave Darkseid's army the unforseen ability to attack New Genesis. This had no moral impact on Metron since it meant he would be that much closer to unlocking the Source's mysteries for himself.

Himon: A visionary who discovered the X-element which Metron used in his inventions. Himon's most influential invention is the Mother Box, which are mechanisms that are connected to the Source and are considered living things. He respects the Source and channels it to do good, but never fixates on controlling it. Because Darkseid had made use of his theories and inventions, Himon vowed to do whatever he could to dismantle Darkseid's rule.

Location

By this time you can see a pattern emerging. Metron has a lot of negative traits, and Himon has a lot of positive ones. They are two very different sides of the same coin. So isn't it interesting where they reside? They are almost like the dots in the yin and yang symbolism, surrounded by contrasting environment.

Metron: Lives on New Genesis with the other New Gods. Is in easy enough contact with Highfather, and is introduced with the story's "good guys".

Himon: Lives on Apokolips in the slums where serves as a beacon of hope in the otherwise abysmal place.

Mentorship

Last is a pretty straightforward one. As intellectuals, it makes sense that these two have taken on mentees. But the relationships were not at all similar, except for the tragic ends that some of the younger characters met.

Metron: Took the child, Esak, along to study primitive creatures, showing him the universe outside of time and space. But later in the graphic novel's conclusion to the New Gods story, Metron has abandoned Esak, and Esak becomes bitter and ends up on Apokolips working for Darkseid. Separate from this, Metron does help Scott escape from Apokolips, but it's unclear if his motives were to help ensure destiny, or if it was done as a curiosity about what would happen. Perhaps a bit of both.

Himon: Mentored many on Apokolips, including the dregs of society and children suffering through life under Darkseid's rule, though some like Kreetin would sell him out in an instant. Himon truly cares for all he helps, and later he has a daughter who he loves. As for Scott's escape, he becomes a guiding force for free thinking, encouraging Scott to expand his mind.

There's so much more I could say about all of these themes. I feel like I barely scratched the surface, and certainly could have written this up more eloquently. Metron is not an evil character just because Himon is so good. As Metron says, he serves life in his own way. The technology he creates is powerful and it benefits everyone, and he has been shown to appreciate the Source and the universe's inhabitants. But there really is so much to think about when you contrast these two against each other. Even for characters who are only in a handful of pages. Just look at the panel at the top of this post! Metron, floating loftily in his grand Mobius chair that lets him travel anywhere and anywhen, reaching down to shake hands with Himon, who chooses to remain grounded and in hiding on a terrible planet amongst the lowlies. Metron without a care in the world except whatever suits him, and Himon who dedicates his life to standing against evil.

Okay, this is going to devolve into unedited rambling if I keep going, so I'll end it here. I hope that this look into these two characters sparked some interest in anyone who took the time to read, and I encourage you to check out both New Gods (1971) and Mister Miracle (1971) to see Metron and Himon in action!

#newgodsnovember #metron #himon #new gods #fourth world #jack kirby #metronmeta #metron if i fits i sits

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