The Forever People

45 years ago - Big Bear attends the Academy of Higher Consciousness on New Genesis.

42 years ago - Big Bear becomes the groundskeeper of the Academy of Higher Consciousness on New Genesis, first bonding with his Super-Cycle Kirbee.

39 years ago - Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer & Mark Moonrider attend the Academy of Higher Consciousness on New Genesis, where they first meets Big Bear. Vykin & Mark become rivals.

38 years ago - Highfather hides a next generation mother box from the grounds of the Academy of Higher Consciousness. When Vykin the Brave discovers that Doctor Bedlam is hiding on New Genesis to steal it, Serifan & Beautiful Dreamer help him find the mother box, with secret assistance from the groundskeeper Big Bear. Mark Moonrider tries to stop them and find it for himself, but ultimately they all work together, and Vykin is able to bond with the mother box, Maya, 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.
Membership: Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider

25 years ago - 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.
Membership: Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider

23 years ago - 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.
Membership: Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider

11 years ago - 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.
Membership: Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider

4 years ago - 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.
Membership: Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider

1 year ago - The Forever People travel into the territory conquered by Lady Styx to bring help to the people there.
Membership: Vykin the Brave, Serifan, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear & Mark Moonrider

Membership

The Forever People are a deeper cut than a lot of other elements of the Fourth World. Characters like Barda and Orion have been part of the Justice League, they are essentially front and center and the average reader will at least be passingly familiar with them, but the Forever People simply never found a role to play outside of their own series. There's something playful about them that I think has remained in their basic premise even to this day, and finding a way to adapt them and preserve that spirit was one of the most surprisingly fun parts of adapting the New Gods.

The Forever People's Comic History

The Forever People debuted in their own series in 1971, Jack Kirby's first original series at DC after his work on Jimmy Olsen. Jack went on to expand the Fourth World in a lot of directions with characters that would go on to play larger roles in the extended DC story, but the Forever People managed to at once be much more singular and self contained while also being a much more traditional superhero story. The five members of the Forever People and their adventures on Earth felt much more grounded and accessible, like a Scooby-Doo adventure told with superheroes. In 1986 Kirby said of them "the Forever People were the wonderful people of the '60s, who I loved. If you'll watch the actions of the Forever People, you'll see the reflection of the '60s in their attitudes, in the backgrounds, in their clothes. You'll see the '60s. I felt I would leave a record of the '60s in their adventures."

While the first issue featured a cameo by Superman, the rest of the series was largely self-contained while the Forever People navigated the machinations of Glorious Godfrey on Earth. The earliest references to Anti-Life were made here, less as a final world-ending mcguffin and more of an expression of universal spiritual goodness that permeated all people and religions (Kirby's assistant Mark Evanier once said he imagines a scene where Darkseid finally gets his hands on the Anti-Life Equation and discovers that it is the words "Thou Shall Not Conquer")

The series ended after 11 issues as the Fourth World stories wound down, with the Forever People stranded on a faraway planet. That is essentially where they remained until a new Forever People series in 1988 by J.M. DeMatteis that introduced some very out there ideas, They had built whole lives on that planet, evolved the natives to build a civilization, had families and children, only for it all to be rebooted back to the moment they arrived. After a series of adventures this miniseries ended with the Forever People back on Earth and ready to be part of the superhero community there, although I don't think I've ever seen that idea followed up on. They made further appearances in books like the Suicide Squad and Young Justice before their main story was subtly reimagined by John Byrne in the pages of his 1997 series Jack Kirby's Fourth World. The Forever People were reimagined AGAIN, this time revamped completely for the New 52 in their own series from 2014. This featured much more drastic changes in the characters (and a full gender swap for Serifan). It might be a fairly competent series, but it tosses too much of what made the original Forever People fun to really consider canon.

It's also worth pointing out that the Forever People made an appearance in an episode of the first season of Young Justice, which featured fantastic redesigns of the characters. We will almost definitely be referring to those designs more, they are really good.

Our Forever People Story

The biggest change we're implementing is that we're not going to use the Forever People's gimmick of summoning a godlike superhero called Infinity Man, Captain Planet-style. We actually think the individual Forever People are pretty fun and interesting on their own if given the opportunity, and Infinity Man just feels like he flattens the whole concept.

Other than that, we want to find a way to capture the original 60s vibe of these characters, and we did that by trying to make it clear that they all practice non-violence. Even though they spent a few years on Earth trying to outwit Glorious Godfrey, they finally beat him not with a battle, but by staging a big concert and giving people hope. For the remainder of their story, they're not trying to fight anyone. Instead, they're all about helping people.

We're also getting a little creative with the origins of these characters, creating an original story about how they met and what bonded them together, the inspiration for which I imagine is going to be pretty obvious. We didn't include anything about the actual relationships between them, so it's really up to interpretation, but personally I don't see any way for a modern take on the Forever People to not be a polycule.

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