The saga continues.
Jimmy Olsen #136 & 137 - These issues really get us full force into the struggle between The Project and the Evil Factory. The Guardian helps Jimmy and the Newsboys to battle the giant Kryptonite-infused Jimmy from the Evil Factory, but it is a Micro-Paratrooper made in the image of Scrapper who does him in with sleep gas. These issues really open up the mystery quite a bit with lots of pages spent explaining just where we are and how the Project sits relative to the Zoomway and the Habitat and the other places. Darkseid takes a greater role, though still operating through his agents Mokkari and Simyan. They unleash the Four-Armed Terror, a monster based on human DNA upon the Project and Superman, The Guardian, and the Newsboys all find him impossible to deal with. The second issue ends with an army of these monstrosities awakening, seemingly set to overrun the Project. Oh and if Superman, Jimmy and the Hairies ain't getting stoned using the "Solar Phone" and four pages of collage greatness, I don't know what else it could be. It's pretty blunt, if you follow me.
Forever People #2 - The Forever People squat in this one, finding a place to live in some rundown and abandoned buildings. They meet a boy named Donnie and his uncle. The set up housekeeping, explain themselves a little bit, and basically establish their counter-culture approach to fighting evil, an evil expressed clearly in Darkseid and his agent Mantis, a humanoid bug who seems to be pretty dang powerful. Mantis is often referred to as being almost as powerful as Darkseid, and of all of Darkeid's agents seems the most independent. Mantis tears up the town but is sent packing back to his cocoon eventually by Infinity Man.
New Gods #2 - The calm before the storm is how I often think of this issue. Orion and the four humans he saved return from Apokolips to find Darkseid camped out in Dave Lincoln's apartment, there to taunt Orion. The other three people Orion saved are Claudia Shane, Harvey Lockman, and Victor Lanza. Orion fights Brola of the Stone Hand, defeats him and sends Darkseid and his henchman packing for the moment. He then explains to the humans (and the audience) the nature of the struggle the New Gods finds themselves in on Earth against Darkseid. There is lots of forshadowing as we get glimpses of Mantis, The Deep Six, and even a reference to the goings on in Jimmy Olsen by referencing the Outsiders and Habitat. Orion becomes aware of Desaad's attempt to use an advertising billboard to inflict fear, to churn up perhaps the Anti-Life Equation, and destroys the effort. This is one of my favorite episodes in the series, an informative but quiet build to the war.
Mister Miracle #2 - We learned more about Scott Free as he battles Granny Goodness and X-Pit. This is a pretty straightforward issue, as Scott builds a robotic "Follower" which looks like him and causes the enemy to constantly be confused. Oberon falls into Granny's malicious clutches and her agent Overlord who isn't all he's cracked up to be, but Scott races to the rescure breaking out his signature flying disks for the first time. The X-Pit is really a trap of the mind and Scott reveals that beating his opponent with his greater acuity. He leaves Granny fuming and takes the rescued Oberon away for a battle to come.
These issues are set up issues really. Quiet moments (relatively speaking in a Kirby comic) and the issues really where much of the background of the greater conflict comes into focus for the reader. Kirby had hit his audience with a lot of stuff, but here he begins to massage it a bit, getting the audience to find their way before everything kicked into a bit of a higher gear. All things are relative of course, and a "quiet" issue with Kirby is still more action-packed than most other books by most other talents. But after reading these issues, you really know these stories aren't like any you've come across before.
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