Vykin the Black (New Earth)

The patriarch of the planet New Genesis, Izaya (also known as Highfather), engaged in a social experiment wherein he selected five random individuals from different points in Earth's history and brought them to New Genesis. The five children (named Beautiful Dreamer, Moonrider, Big Bear, Serifan and Vykin) grew up as close friends and eventually began to refer to themselves as the Forever People.

Place of Birth

Earth

Place of Death

Adon

Creators

Jack Kirby

First appearance

Last appearance

Forever People #1
(March, 1971)

Death of the New Gods #4
(February, 2008)

History

History of character is unknown.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Vykin has magnetic powers which allow him to attract or repel to objects of either iron or steel.

Abilities

Vykin has an innate talent with machinery and is skilled in electronics.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Mother Box (shared between the Forever People)

Transportation

Super-Cycle (shared between the Forever People)

Notes

Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985-86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Trivia

Throughout the Kirby run, Vykin was referred to as "Vykin the Black". He was the first black super-hero to appear in a DC comic book, preceding Kirby's Black Racer by approximately seven months. The use of the ethnic descriptor in his name, as in other Kirby characters such as the Black Racer, already seemed awkward at the time, but reflects the kind of labelling that was common place in the multi-ethnic New York of Kirby's 1930s childhood.^{[citation needed]} As political correctness about such naming conventions took greater hold, the obvious racial descriptor was dropped when the Fourth World titles were revived in the late 1980s.

Links and References

References

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #8 (Forever People profile page)
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #25 (Vykin profile page)

Footnotes

"You get right back here and finish this article, young man!"

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Jack Kirby's Fourth World

This character or group of characters are related to Jack Kirby's Fourth World, either the original concept and group of titles by Jack Kirby, or any of their subsequent adaptations by other creators. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Fourth World Characters category.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Forever People. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with DC Database, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.