ISSUE
SEVEN: THE NEW SEED
Colored
by George Roussos
Instead
of a story that leads to the birth of a New Seed, we begin with astronaut Gordon
Pruett wandering dazed and alone in a space suit in what appears to be his
native Colorado. His suit changes
into comfortable clothes and Pruett lies in the grass to age rapidly, then to
metamorphosize into a New Seed. The
new-born being quickly zooms into the universe to witness myriad wonders, to
race comets and meteors, and to visit planets where life doesnt exist, or
where it has formed into promising, but simple creatures, or where the lifeforms
have grown beyond their very star systems.
He visits one planet that is destroying
itself. He studies the rag tag
survivors as they continue to kill each other in a devastating war, even as
their own time on this mortal coil is coming swiftly to an end.
They kill even as they die in a final stand of violence that will leave
this planet a lifeless hulk.
But amid this bestial warfare the New Seed
witnesses love between a woman staving off attack and her soldier lover who
risks all to save her from the clutches of a marauding band.
As the lovers embrace, one of the marauders with his dying breath guns
them both down.
With life extinguished on this world, the
New Seed extracts the dead lovers energy forces and takes the great golden
glow of free-wheeling atoms to a promising new-born world that has yet to
feel the spark of life. There, he
deposits the energy that had been life and love on another world to let it
create life and test fate as it sees fit.
Although the series ran for another three
issues, this is really the last of the 2001
stories and the best since the first issue.
It is solemn, grandiose, a bit poetic and far more serious in tone and
intention than the previous two-parter featuring Norton and his comic
book-ravaged mind. This was truly
the last gasp for the series which then became just another comic book being
used as a pilot vehicle for another superhero.
It is a shame that Kirby went in this direction, because more could have
been done with the inherent concept of time-hopping through various eras that
could have led to at least a concept of what the New Seeds are for, just what
their plan is, and how it would affect the universe, or at least the human race.
A tall order, sure. But
comics are the perfect medium to take on such a task.
Unfortunately, that was not to be.