The New Gods
{Part I of II}
I have to change the name of my fanatical Aero-Trooper officer in "The Forever War." I named him Zaladin, a corruption of Saladin, but was recently reminded that a member of the Axis America team that appeared in JLA Nos. 80-82, "The White Rage," was called Zaladin. Sure, sure the Fourth World of the New Gods of Apokolips and New Genesis appears to be some manner of otherdimensional realm (you can't get there by starship, only by boom tube), but a great many of their names reference back to Earth culture:

New Genesis = the Book of Genesis

Apokolips = the Apocalypse

Desaad = the Marquis de Sade

Virmin Vundabar = both "vermin" and the German word wunderbar

Kalibak = has to be a reference to Shakespeare's Caliban

Highfather (Izaya the Inheritor) = Odin was called the "high-father"; the prophet Isaiah

Orion = Orion

Lonar = he is a loner

Serifan = a fan of old movie serials, a serial fan

Valkyra = a Valkyrie

(Vyken = curiously, he seems to have no connection to Vikings)

Steppenwolf = Hesse's Steppenwolf

So, just as Zaladin referenced Saladin, I would like the new name to reference Earth in some way, especially since Whatshisname will fight two new New Gods named Solon (after the ancient Greek law-giver Solon) and Oceon (the Titan Oceanus and the oceans).

Also, I'm thinking of basing his particular unit of Aero-Troopers (whom we will see in more detail than the average group of Apokoliptian soldiers) after the famed "Winged Hussars" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, though that doesn't mean he has to have a Polish-ish name. Potentials:

Vizier ("My father had lofty ambitions for his son's service to Great Darkseid.")

Kircholm (a battle in which the Winged Hussars fought with distinction)

Hussar / Huszar

Ideas and suggestions would be most sincerely appreciated.

{Part II of II}
Some ideas for tales of the New Gods beyond "The Inheritance," "The Never People," and "The Forever War."

"Supertown"
The title of the story in The New Gods No. 1, written and drawn by Jack Kirby, is "Orion Fights for Earth!" I like both New Genesis and Apokolips just fine, but the King himself intended for the New Gods to be active on Earth.

Highfather Takion (originally a human named Josh Saunders) decides to establish a new, permanent, and high profile presence for New Genesis on Earth: a smaller version of Supertown, the floating capital city of New Genesis. The polytheistic history of India makes it an excellent site for a literal city of the gods and as an added real-world bonus this will help establish the DCU's bona fides outside of North America.

The usual suspects, Orion and Lightray, oversee the project, though the construction oversight comes courtesy of Atinai, the architect of Supertown. Sabotage and strife abound as Darkseid's sinister agents and human forces offended by the very idea of "new gods" independently work to shoot the floating city right out of the sky. Action, theology, weird science, and intrigue interact in the skies above India! (I originally had this idea as a way to work the New Gods into my Superman stories. "Supertown" could function as a Superman story guest-starring the New Gods, a New Gods story guest-starring Superman, or an independent New Gods story.)

"The Old Warhorse"
Before the New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips, the Old Gods, both good and evil, lived side by side on a single planet. The final battle of the Old Gods rent their world asunder, New Genesis and Apoklolips born as twins out of the ruins. Innumerable ages passed before the rise of the New Gods. The last living Old God is Thunderer, a magnificent steed awakened from his long slumber beneath the surface of New Genesis by Lonar, the only New God who prefers solitude. Or preferred solitude, as now Lonar and Thunderer are inseparable chums.

"The Old Warhorse" is the story of the last days of the Old Gods, seen only in Thunderer's memories and communicated to no New God. I want to achieve the effect of a fly on the wall during the last days of Troy, of Valhalla just before Ragnarok. The life and family Thunderer loved, the "human" Old Gods who were his masters and peers, the tragedy of a doomed world, tragedy not lessened by the foreknowledge of the doomed. Or did the Old Gods know their world was ending? I don't think Mr. Kirby said anything explicit on the subject. Maybe some knew and others refused to believe... no, that has too many shades of the doomed planet Krypton; if they knew, it evokes the Aesir, apropos since the Old Gods visually resemble Thor's world as rendered by Kirby for Marvel Comics. Hmmm.

Like "The Inheritance," another story more about emotion than action.

"Civil Engineering"
In Orion, the evil Mantis unleashed a Hellborer, a diabolical machine that blighted the surface of New Genesis with an Apokolips-style Fire-Pit. Vyken of the Forever People, cleverest of all the New Gods after Metron, and Atinai try to engineer a technical solution while Mark Moonrider and Big Bear deal with unrest among the project's Bug workers and sabotage by unknown agents of Apokolips (possibly disguied Female Furies). Meanwhile, Beautiful Dreamer, Serifan, and Forager (II) are drawn into a separate web of intrigue as they attempt to heal the "soul" of New Genesis through Bug mysticism and discover a far more serious cancer in the heart of the New Gods.

More on that next time as we discuss the ideas I like to call "Gods and Martyrs," "Crusade," and "A Bug's Life."