Born On The Fourth World: Part III
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135, January 1971
Who Are The Hairies? asks the title of our next chapter. Who indeed? But, first we must ask who are these two, sinister, masked figures, scooping-up handfuls of teeny-tiny duplicates of Jimmy Olsen, Superman and the Newsboy Legion?
They are Mokkari and Simyan, two alien scientists who have apparently stolen these mini-clones. Now that they have these specimins, they are able reproduce and customise them at will. Their monstrous, psychedelic laboratory has great, bubbling test-tubes full of foetuses and an enormous tank, where a hooded giant is being grown, and programmed to hate and kill Superman!
Elsewhere, the Man of Steel himself is preparing to depart the Mountain of Judgement. Superman bids farewell to the leader of the Hairies, Jude, who urges Superman to hurry, as he is needed at ‘The Project!’ Jimmy and the Newsboys, still marvelling at the feats of this technological, DIY counter-culture, climb into their Whiz Wagon, wave goodbye to the Hairies and follow Superman, off along the Zoomway.
Shortly, they arrive at a vast, military instillation. Superman compares this base to the Manhattan Project in its secrecy and scope. Appropriately, Superman then drops two bombshells. The first being that the original Newsboy Legion are here, at the complex! Scrapper Snr, Tommy Tompkins Snr, Big Words Snr and Gabby Snr all greet their surprised sons (Flippa Dippa’s father is also present, for some reason. He was not an original Newsboy and all he does here is chastise his son for wandering around dressed as a frogman).
As the two groups of Newsboys get reacquainted, Superman takes Jimmy to one side and reveals the second surprise. This complex is where the Hairies were originally grown and raised! The Project is a highly-advanced genetics laboratory! Not only were the Hairies cloned in these laboratories, but copies of Jimmy Olsen and the Newsboy Legion were also created! Superman introduces Jimmy to one of his clones, a soldier called, Olsen 43.
While the Last Son of Krypton and his pal are impressed by this astounding feat of biotechnology, neither seem too disturbed by the clearly dubious ethics of the situation. The only thing that concerns Superman is the fact that someone has been stealing the clones.
Which is where we return to the evil laboratory of Simyan and Mokkari. They are pumping their giant, monstrous clone with Kryptonite. They are so pleased with how everything is going they decide to report back home. It is here where Mokkari is the first mention of the name of one of the twin planets of the New Gods, Apokolips, the home to the malevolent members of the pantheon and their implacable leader, Darkseid.
‘Darkseid is hard, naked truth!’ says Simyan. Mokkari concurs. The God of Evil is impressed with his underlings Kryptonite-infused creation. ‘A chaotic, fury of a thing’ says Darkseid. ‘An uncontrollable, organic murder-machine!’ As if to underline this point (and embarrassingly, whilst face-timing their pitiless boss) the Kryptonite Giant bursts out of his tank and proceeds to smash the evil laboratory to bits!
Quickly, Simyan uses his Penetrator Beam, to dissolve the monster and project it, instantaneously to the Project’s military instillation, where the monster immediately homes-in and attacks Superman and Jimmy! Superman shouts to Jimmy to run and warn the others, as he goes toe to toe with the hooded giant.
With a stunning left-hook, the Man of Steel dislodges the creature’s ‘head-mask,’ revealing the face beneath, that of a green and demonic-looking Jimmy Olsen! Immediately, Monster-Jimmy lays out Superman with a devastating uppercut. With Superman out-for-the-count, the complex’s soldiers try in vain to hold the creature at bay, as it begins to tear the Project to pieces!
The real Jimmy and the Senior Newsboy Legion watch the unfolding destruction on CCTV. The Seniors explain to Olsen that they were called to help at the Project, with their respective skills as a teacher, a geneticist, a social worker and a doctor. With these skills, they have prepared a clone of their own. A friend of theirs, a ‘captain of detectives’ who died in battle. A crimefighter who was the original Newsboy’s guardian.
Realising that this clone might be their only hope in stopping the monster’s rampage, the Newsboys decide to release their duplicate from his birthing machine, revealing him to be, the shield-wielding Golden Guardian!
(Who is this Captain America knock-off? Well, Captain America was created by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon in Captain America Comics #1, March 1941, for Timely Comics; the precursor to Marvel Comics.
A year later, Guardian, and the Newsboy Legion, were also created by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon, in Star-Spangled Comics #7, April 1942, for DC Comics.
Were any comic readers in the early 1970s crying out for the revival of this derivative, 1940s character? No.
Was Jack Kirby having a dig at his previous employers expense? Almost certainly.)
There we must leave our heroes, for the time being, on something of a cliff-hanger.
Next time, we shall examine Kirby’s first, proper, brand-new, Fourth World title; as we are introduced to some of the benevolent neo-deities of the planet New Genesis, in Forever People #1
"A NEW BREED spawned by a NEW CONCEPT" I continue to insist as I slowly shrink down and turn into the DC vs Fawcett lawsuit.
In some ways you could argue Mokkari is Kirby's author avatar--a man forced by his demanding boss to conjure up a new monster every week for the heroes to fight, who never gets half the credit he deserves.
Don’t make me re-buy the Fourth World, Blair.