Jack Kirby flippa-dippa’s the world on its head in
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen # 134 (cover dated December 1970, publication date
13 October 1970, 50 years ago today). Jimmy’s revolutionary army takes over in
a way the real-world youth culture of the time could not. Superman, symbol of
the corrupt power of the parent State is ‘out of the way’, not merely run over
as in Jimmy Olsen # 133 but crucified and led away by hippy biker legionnaires.
The two covers are two moments in the
same scene
There is no listening, no hearing, Jimmy and the surrounding
culture are past caring, only judgement remains from all sides, only our voice
counts and the rest of you must face ‘The Mountain of Judgement.’ You’re not
one of us.
The corporate re-draw of Superman’s
head functions artistically making him other, separate
If this sounds familiar in 2020, it’s because it is. More
and more the stark separation of views, the polarisation of opinion, the fear
of being replaced that we see in our culture now, mirrors that of 1970. Kirby
was reflecting his times, like the youth revolutionaries and freaks, he was
blowing up the symbols of the old world.
It was time for the outsiders to run things and the
establishment squares to be forced out, they are the dissenters, not us. Jimmy and
the contemporaneous youth protest movement “….have high ideals and great
fears….they see their elders trapped by materialism and competition, and
prisoners of outdated social forms…They feel they must remake America in its
own image…”*
It’s always an attractive and seductive thought to think You
Are Right. When Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion ride the Zoomway to meet the
Mountain of Judgement it’s exciting. So much time waiting for your chance,
waiting for others to get out of your way and now it’s your time. Go for it!
Jimmy’s travels in the Whiz Wagon are turbulent. They are
drawn into a black and white Kirbyesque kaleidoscope of confusion in the
artist’s first use of collage in the Fourth World. Part black and white psychedelic
Fillmore West light show and part death skull, it feels like an image of the
times. So many perspectives, things breaking apart and reforming in unexpected
ways. Dazzling and deadly.
Enter the Mountain of Judgement. No Moses on a hill with
chaos-controlling commandments. Rather a modern mountain, a missile-carrying
machine, like the Military-Industrial Complex on wheels but with an idol’s
face. Baal breathing destruction on Jimmy and the boys, intent on crushing
their youth insurgency under its monstrous tank tracks.
At this point Kirby turns the tables again and
simultaneously reveals the giant machine is full of Hairy hippy friends who
along with a revived Superman foil a bomb plot using the Whiz Wagon, and shows the
face of who has betrayed them: Morgan Edge. Jimmy and the Legion reconcile with
Superman and the issue ends with a savage one panel portent, the first
appearance of one of DC’s greatest villains, Darkseid.
The effect of this lesson in humility is that it causes
Jimmy and the Newsboys to see the good in Superman and Superman sees Jimmy as
an equal. The reader’s expectation is also subverted, we’re so ready for the
fight, so energised to be justified and then it turns out that our assumptions
about the Other aren’t right, that the future is together, despite our
differences. Judgement is the idol. ‘Judge not, lest you be judged’ (Matthew
7:1). A comics parable for the modern age.
Kirby’s Fourth World is now gathering pace. Towards the end
of the issue there is an ad for Forever People # 1, New Gods # 1, Mister
Miracle # 1. On the ground floor, for a comics revolution😊.
*from the Presidential
Commission on the causes of campus disruption, as quoted in Time magazine,
October 5, 1970, pg. 14.
Research this
article:
-Time Magazine,
October 5, 1970, Ón Campus: Blame Enough For All, pg 14-15
-The indispensable Kirby & Lee: Stuf’ Said! (Jack Kirby
Collector # 75: TwoMorrows)
-There’s A Riot Going On (Peter Doggett,
Canongate, 2007)
-Mike’s Amazing World of Comics website.
Michael Mead is a
54 year old New Zealand comic book collector, who likes to think he can do
"contextual" commentary reviews of old comics, asking: "where
does this story come from?", looking at the social, political, cultural
times it came from, the state of the comics industry, the personal and creative
journey of the writer or artist, the personal journey of the reader as a child
and as an adult.
As part of this, he
is vain enough to think he can bring new insights into Kirby's Fourth World
comics and so, on the 50th anniversary of publication of each issue of
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle, he
will publish a contextual commentary. Check out his earlier entries on this
blog and tell him to stop talking so pretentiously in the third person for
God's sake!
