Serifan
55 years ago - Serifan is born on New Genesis.
39 years ago - Serifan attends the Academy of Higher Consciousness on New Genesis, where he first meets Beautiful Dreamer, Vykin the Brave, Mark Moonrider, and Big Bear.
38 years ago - Serifan & Beautiful Dreamer help Vykin the Brave find the hidden next generation mother box Maya when they find out Doctor Bedlam is hiding on New Genesis to steal it. The groundskeeper Big Bear secretly gives them some help. Mark Moonrider tries to stop them and find it for himself, but ultimately they all work together to find it and stop Doctor Bedlam.
32 years ago - Serifan chooses to undergo a dangerous ritual to relinquish his godhead and receive it anew, so his physical form aligns with who he is. Vykin the Brave, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider all undergo the ritual with him, bonding them together as the Forever People.
25 years ago - Serifan and the Forever People defy the commands of Highfather, banding together to go to Earth to save Beautiful Dreamer from Glorious Godfrey. Seeing the effects of Anti-Life on the planet, they choose to stay on the planet, helping free it's people.
23 years ago - Serifan and the Forever People stage a giant concert, helping enough of Glorious Godfrey's followers to turn away from Anti-Life to force him to abandon the planet. Knowing that he had many other Anti-Life experiments across the galaxy, they venture into space to begin freeing those people.
11 years ago - Serifan and the Forever People help refugees from Despero's campaign of interplanetary conquest band together and find a new home, becoming the gods of a new religion.
4 years ago - Serifan and the Forever People return to New Genesis at the request of Highfather to help navigate the Boom Tube inversion field around Earth. They lead the way for the New Gods to confront the Parademon wave invasion
1 year ago - Serifan and the Forever People travel into the territory conquered by Lady Styx to bring help to the people there.
The Forever People, as they appear in their own comic stories, were really about the group as a whole more than about any one individual. This isn't to say they weren't complete characters, of course... in fact, I would say that there's something almost magic in how minimally these five were focused on while still each being so loaded with personality. Maybe that's part of what Kirby was deliberately aiming for, to emulate something vibrant about the people of the 60s he was celebrating.
Serifan might be the most unique of the Forever People. While all of them are very original designs, they all more or less fall under existing archetypes of superhero characters, but Serifan is an unmistakably unique design that is super-specific to the Forever People as a concept. It's his presence that really pushes their vibe into a distinctly 60s aesthetic. Also, drugs.
Serifan might be the most unique of the Forever People. While all of them are very original designs, they all more or less fall under existing archetypes of superhero characters, but Serifan is an unmistakably unique design that is super-specific to the Forever People as a concept. It's his presence that really pushes their vibe into a distinctly 60s aesthetic. Also, drugs.
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Serifan's Comic HistoryWhen the Forever People first appeared on Earth to save Beautiful Dreamer in the first issue of their series in 1971, they almost hit Bobbie & Laurie, two young people out for a drive. As they're apologizing, Serifan picks some flowers for Laurie. Mark and Big Bear watch him give them to her, hat in hand, and comment "Serifan turns on with fantasies! He's a sensitive! We'll need him if we ever hope to contact Beautiful Dreamer!" He does just that a few pages later, collapsing as external thoughts stream into his mind, sent to them by their friend.
We know that Jack was specifically trying to celebrate the people of the 60s with the Forever People. We're pretty far removed from that time, but even from our vantage point in the distant, apocalyptic future, I think you can see exactly how Serifan fit into that vibe; he was a gentle soul, sensitive to the needs of others, and to the universe itself. That last part was actually literal; he seems to have a band of bullets on his hat, but those are actually 'Cosmic Cartridges', tools he can use to rebuilt all technology. He explains that they are sensitive to the largest and smallest units of the universe, but then he hands one of them to their new friend Donnie, who promptly starts to trip balls. The implication is clear... Serifan is the gentle sensitive member of the Forever People... and the guy with the drugs. |
Our Serifan StoryWe used the fact that, in one of the backstories given to the Forever People, they all attended a school on New Genesis called the Academy of Higher Consciousness as the way they all met, and even created some adventures for them during their school years that brings them all together, and also mirrors the hijinks some other characters had in another fictional school, which I really love as a framing device for the Forever People.
We've also made another small change to our version of Serifan, but I think the results in his story, and in the Forever People as a whole, speak for themselves. In 2015, a mostly forgettable New 52 Forever People comic had a gender-swapped female version of Serifan, establishing the possibility that we could be a little experimental with his gender representation. If we introduced the idea that Serifan was Trans (or more literally, had given up his godhead for a dangerous ritual so his physical form aligns with who he truly is) we could actually use that moment as a bonding experience between these five characters. Their support of Serifan in this dangerous moment of self-discovery is, literally, the reason they are the Forever People. |
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