Forever People (New Earth)

Official Team Names: The Forever People
Team Nicknames: No known nicknames
Former Team Aliases: No known former aliases
Other Current Team Aliases: No other known current aliases

Status

Team Status: Active
Team Identity: Secret; the general populace of Earth is largely unaware of the existence of the Forever People.
Base of Operations: Earth; formerly Forevertown, Adon

Organization

Team Leader: Mark Moonrider
Active Members: Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear, Serifan, Vykin the Black
Former Members: None
Known Allies: Infinity Man, Superman, Deadman, The New Gods, Takion, Sunny Sumo
Known Enemies: Darkseid, DeSaad, Glorious Godfrey, Mantis

Origin

Place of Formation: New Genesis
First Appearance: Forever People (Volume 1) #1
Origin: Origin unknown.

History

History: The patriarch of the planet New Genesis, Izaya (also known as Highfather), engaged in a social experiment wherein he selected five random individuals from different points in Earth's history and brought them to New Genesis. The five children (named Beautiful Dreamer, Moonrider, Big Bear, Serifan and Vykin) grew up as close friends and eventually began to refer to themselves as the Forever People.

Highfather's evil counterpart, the lord of Apokolips, Darkseid, kidnapped Beautiful Dreamer and brought her back to the planet Earth. Determined to rescue her, the four friends acquired a special Mother Box, and a flying Super-Cycle and teleported to Earth via Boom Tube to find her. There, they met Earth's champion Superman, who aided them in freeing Beautiful Dreamer from Darkseid's trap. Darkseid attempted to defeat the Forever People by dispatching a host of Gravi-Guards after them, but the team used the power of their Mother Box to summon a being known as the Infinity Man. A creature of cosmic level power, the Infinity Man successfully repelled Darkseid's forces, enabling Superman to wrest Beautiful Dreamer away from Darkseid’s grasp. ^[1]

Forever People v — *Forever People (Volume 2) #1*

With the team reunited, the Forever People decided to remain on the planet Earth. They wanted to explore the world, and in so doing discover a part of their own missing heritage, but the forces of Darkseid were always nipping at their heels every step of the way. Darkseid even created the experimental energy parasite Mantis for the express purpose of stopping the Forever People. Fortunately, the superior power of the Infinity Man saved his allies' lives once again. They also called upon the Infinity Man to overcome the influence of Darkseid's evangelical lieutenant, Glorious Godfrey. Darkseid prepared for the Infinity Man's presence this time however, and managed to capture the team and bring them back to Apokolips where they were forced to endure interrogation and torture at one of DeSaad's faux amusement parks known as "Happyland". During this debacle, the five adolescents met a martial arts expert named Sonny Sumo, who aided in freeing them from DeSaad's torture chambers.

After several more harrowing adventures, the Forever People found themselves in a situation that the could not escape from. Darkseid sent his agent, Devilance the Pursuer, after the Forever People, knowing that Devilance’s power could counter the power of the Infinity Man. Darkseid's machinations trapped the Infinity Man is trapped on the other-dimensional world known as Adon. When Devilance arrived, the Infinity Man coaxed the Forever People to exchange places with him, allowing him the chance to stop Devilance. Devilance and the Infinity Man seemingly destroyed each other, leaving the Forever People stranded on Adon. ^[2]

Unable to leave the planet, the Forever People decided to settle down. Beautiful Dreamer and Big Bear fell in love and were eventually married, giving birth to a daughter named Maya. Mark Moonrider and Vykin sought to cultivate the planet’s civilian population. Using the power of the Mother Box, they created the community known as Forevertown, but the Mother Box overloaded, and the resulting explosion killed Vykin. Although saddened, Mark continued their work and soon became the Mayor of Forevertown. Mark fell in love with one of the natives, Mina, and the two wed and sired offspring of their own, Wendy, Merry and Starbright.

A corruptive entity known as the Dark visited Adon and took possession of Serifan. During this adventure, the Dark attempted to reverse time, and in so doing resurrected the Infinity Man, Vykin the Black, and the Mother Box. The Dark was defeated and the Forever People were united once again. ^[3]

Statistics

Total Members: 5
Total Allies: 5 (not counting various New Gods)
Total Enemies: Total number of enemies unknown

Miscellaneous

Equipment: Mother Box; while the Mother Box used by the Forever People demonstrated all of the typical traits common to such a device, it also possessed one unique quality. When all five members of the team touched the box simultaneously and shouted the word, "Taaruu", they could summon a cosmic being known as the Infinity Man. The power of the Infinity Man was ideal for dealing with threat levels greater than what the Forever People were capable of handling.

Transportation: The Forever People rode a highly advanced conveyance known as the Super-Cycle. The cycle itself was capable of varying feats including, atmospheric flight, teleportation and the ability to phase through solid objects.

Weapons: Serifan brandishes a pair of vintage six-shooters, similar in design to the Colt revolvers used in the American southwest during the mid-late 19th century. However these weapons utilize special cartridges, all of which possess their own unique properties.

Notes

The Forever People were created by writer/artist Jack Kirby. The first Forever People series, along with The New Gods, Mister Miracle, and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen won Jack Kirby a Shazam award for Special Achievement by an Individual in 1973.

According to the audio commentary on Justice League season two DVD, scenes featuring the Forever People were animated for inclusion in the episode "Twilight, Part II." These scenes were an action sequence where the Forever People rescued the children of New Genesis during Darkseid's attack. Due to time constraints, 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.

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.

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 Superman's Pal, 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 idea of the Forever People teaming together and calling forth Infinity Man when they need help shows some similarities to later Japanese manga series Voltron and the live-action Power Rangers, as well as the American environmentally-conscious series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Whether the later series were inspired by the Forever People is not known.

Another "Super-Cycle" like the Forever People's was later found by Young Justice and became their method of transportation.

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. He was also given a "Blue Cartridge" from Serifan's collection which allowed 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 and is likely considered apocryphal.

External Links

References

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #8
Who's Who: Update '88 #1

Footnotes

↑ Forever People (Volume 1) #1
↑ Forever People (Volume 1) #11
↑ Forever People (Volume 2) #6

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Forever People (New Earth). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[1] Forever People (Volume 1) #1

[2] Forever People (Volume 1) #11

[3] Forever People (Volume 2) #6

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[2]

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