HERO OF THE WEEK: FORAGER (DC)Real Name: Unknown
First Appearance: New Gods #9 (July, 1972)
Fight Club Ranking: #DNR
Featured Fights:
- Yet To Be Featured on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths.
The "Rebirth" of DC Comics may still stink of The New 52's garbage, but you can always count on the Young Animal imprint to brighten your day! Last April we touched on re-launch of Doom Patrol - a tent pole for Gerard Way's curated line-up. Now it's time for the Family Allred to charge ahead with a relaunch nobody expected, asked for, or ever saw coming: Bug! The Adventures of Forager!
With Mike Allred handling the pictures, and wife Laura splashing them with a face-melting pop palette (of colour, that is) -- this was always going to be an easy sell! Which is a good thing, because your average reader is probably thinking "Who the hell is Bug?!"
Whoa now! First of all: his name's Forager -- and he damn well gave his life to save The Batman and the entire Planet Earth! See, it's the darndest thing! Like good comics of old: Bug! is digging deep to mine a forgotten hero for brand new adventures and thrills!
As things turn out; Forager's one of Jack Kirby's old creations! "The King" woulda celebrated his 100th cycle on Earth this year [if he hadn't been called away on urgent cosmic business at age 74], and this series is shaping up to arrive as a living tribute at the perfect time!
Kirby's most famous creations may've come from Marvel Comics, but his most unique legacy was arguably created for DC Comics as The Fourth World series of titles starring The New Gods.
The villainous Darkseid is the best known of the characters that populated this distant cosmic corner of the DC Universe. In his shadow, many others scurry about the worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips, including colonies of evolved "micro-life" that gave us Forager!
Forager was last seen starring in DC's Jim Starlin epic Cosmic Odyssey: a story that threatened existence with the personification of The Anti-Life Equation -- an irony that forces Darkseid to turn against the very concept he covets!
An excitingly eclectic group of heroes, including Batman, Superman, Etrigan, Orion and Forager, were forced to team in a mad dash to stop Anti-Life's grand plan for destruction. There were monsters, mayhem, and Mike Mignola on pencils! Plenty of reasons we'll almost certainly find time to talk more about the series in the future.
Throughout the story Orion's arrogance, and disregard for presumed lesser beings, is a simmering thread of tension. He has a particular prejudice against the lowly "Bug" -- a derisive term challenged by Batman in one of the story's strongest moments. That moment is reprised in a preview for Bug #1 , which suggests an interesting journey ahead!
It isn't always easy to brim with enthusiasm when it comes to crowning the Hero of the Week. It's as much about discussing what's significant and going on as anything else. It's always nice to get back to comics and feeling excited for what's ahead. Young Animal still seems to be the saving grace breathing life into a bruised DC Universe. That's why Forager is the Hero of the Week! Yay!
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