Finding Forever in aging children

 

When I was young, I thought hippies would never die. They seemed like eternal children, protected from the mortality that comes for all of us. The Age of Aquarius somehow broke the rules, tossed out the past, created a New Eden and with it, Forever People, ‘they belong to the sunrise…they’re from a place that men have sought but never found….’

On the cover of Forever People # 1, published 50 years ago today, 1 December, 1970 (cover dated Feb – Mar 1970), Superman, like the younger me, is drawn to Big Bear, Mark Moonrider, Vykin the Black, Serifan because he wants to find people like him ‘this is my only chance to find my own kind! You must tell me how to reach Supertown!’

In the story, Superman appears worn down, like the 1970 Don Draper at the end of the AMC TV drama Madmen, exhausted from the mechanistic mayhem of competitive capitalism, ad-man turned hippie. Superman wants time off, to be with his own people, sit in the sun and forget about all his superhero obligations for a while.

Superman feels alone, apart from others, even from himself, quoting Heinlein to convey his feelings: ‘Despite his powers he is in a minority of one in a teeming world of billions. A stranger in a strange land. What does Superman mean for you down there?…for the first time in many years – I feel that I’m alone --  alone.’ For me as a reader it’s akin to watching your friends fall away from the collecting world, leaving you in a wilderness of one, carrying on by yourself and hoping to find someone that shares your passion.

Superman wants what we all want: peace. The kind of peace that comes from finding yourself in another, your own Supertown community. When you meet a friend who instantly gets you, no need to be understood or to understand, no explanations or justifications. ‘Rise mother box, unite us as one….make us the door for him to enter….let your circuits carry the word, let it grow loud until it reaches the winds of infinity.’

The idea of Supertown not only functions as a place where all those lucky enough to be super can be together but also as a metaphorical boomtube for the reader, when we were young enough to believe in a place where superheroes could be real and it was possible for us to be taken there.

The boomtube is a gateway to all kinds of other worlds, for Superman to what he will eventually discover is New Genesis, for both reader and superhero, a step into the infinite world of the imagination, of what’s possible, not just what is. ‘The only way to find Supertown….is to find those kids!’ It’s as if Kirby is calling out to your child self and saying you, only you, can help Superman find himself. As you turn the pages, you create your own journey, if Superman can find forever people, why can’t you? We identify with Big Bear, Mark Moonrider, Vykin the Black, Serifan and we become them.

Kirby’s genius is not just his creation of lasting characters, of superhero worlds and universes, of memorable villains, of iconic visuals, his talent extends to connecting with the childhood world in ways that seemed only to speak to you, because he could find you and take you to Supertown and come back with your Beautiful Dreamer. ‘Listen to the night – you may hear sounds heard by few men…’. 

The impact of his comics stays with his aging children everywhere.

‘People hurry by so quickly

Don't they hear the melodies
In the chiming and the clicking
And the laughing harmonies

Songs, to aging children come
(Songs, to aging children come)
Aging children, I am one (I am one)

(From Songs to Aging Children Come, on Joni Mitchell’s 1969 album, Clouds)

Research this article: 

-The indispensable Kirby & Lee: Stuf’ Said! (Jack Kirby Collector # 75: TwoMorrows)

-Comics Journal # 134, February 1990 (Jack Kirby interview by Gary Groth)

-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!