The next phase of DC’s All In era will soon arrive with the return of The New Gods, which will have writer Ram V and artist Evan Cagle jumping into Jack Kirby’s Fourth World creations. The New Gods and everything that surrounds them have always been larger than life, and the new series aims to retain that expansive scope while also honing in on the relationships and conflicts that make these mythical figures all too human, all in a world without one of its linchpins in Darkseid. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Ram V about the new series, including the incoming collision between Orion and Mr. Miracle, the creation of a New God influenced by humanity, and the hovering cause of chaos Metron.
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New Gods favorites like Orion, Lightray, Metron, Mr. Miracle, and Big Barda will all play a part in the series, and Ram truly enjoys all of them, as well as working with a larger style cast.
“I do really enjoy them all. I think, for me, part of the excitement of the book was to have this kind of big cast of characters. And I love that part of the storytelling that happens just before the conflict where you kind of start seeing, Where all the chess pieces sit on the board and how they got there,” Ram V said. “And so that has been a bit of a joy for me, but of the more popular ones, of course, writing the conflict and brotherly issues between Orion and Mr. Miracle has been particularly exciting.”
Chaos Starter
Ram is like most of us though and is a sucker for a pot stirring chaos causer like Metron. “Writing Metron, for me, has been really exciting because very early on I made in my pitch, I kind of compared Metron to an Indian mythological character called Narada. All he does is go around whispering small secrets to powerful gods and sort of setting them against each other, but for enigmatic reasons that kind of play out interestingly in the end. So I love that Metron’s a character that I’ve written like that. I also love some of the beats that are coming down the line for characters like High Father and Lightray,” Ram V said.
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As Ram V previously mentioned, the more human conflicts are at the center of everything, and bring you into this dense and fantastical world in a way that’s easy to relate to. Everyone’s dealt with issues between family, and all the parents out there will instantly identify with the trials of raising a child, and for Ram, none of the other things matter if you can’t relate to these figures on a grounded level. That also makes the issue a perfect way for new fans to jump in while still digging into the rich history of this circle of characters.
“For me, it came from a much more fundamental place, right. Like, I could tell you a story about two planets going to war against each other, but there’s very little to care about there if you don’t care about the individual stories of the characters,” Ram V said. It only matters what’s going to happen on these two planets if it matters what’s going to happen to some new father or what’s going to happen to some long lost brother. And I think finding those relationships whose sort of inner turmoil is reflected in the cosmic backdrop or cosmic canvas of these stories, I think that’s really the way I believe to tackle these kind of super high concept stories.”
“I don’t care about planetary war if I can’t care about some dad changing his kids diapers for the first time. So I feel like the first question I asked when I, when I started working on this was like, okay, why are people going to care? And I think people are going to care because Scott Free is in Glendale trying to be a good father. And Orion feels like the only reason he was given this job is because everybody knows he’s Darkseid son on the inside, you know. So I feel like those are the, the intimate character beats are actually the real engine that drives the story,” Ram V said.
A New God
The series will not just deal with classic Gods, but also the birth of a brand new God, and the question of what if the responsibility for raising that God fell to…well, us.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of the longer term pitch for this book,” Ram V said. “What if the responsibility of raising the newest new God fell not to the gods of New Genesis and Apokolips, but what if that responsibility fell to us, fell to the DCU and its immortals, but also its people? And that’s kind of what we’re going to see. This child that is prophesized is going to be, I mean, clearly going to be a powerful player. Is he going to be a hero? Is he going to be a villain? Time will tell. But that fate will be decided by his life on Earth, his life in the DCU.”
“He’s going to meet Wonder Woman and Alan Scott and Swamp Thing, and he’s going to take from all of these characters what he thinks of their heroism. He’s also going to meet Vandal Savage and Black Adam and he’s going to take from them whatever gifts they have to bestow to him. And the idea that the next God is someone who is raised and born from earthly ideas and earthly people has been one of fascination for me for a very long time. You can see it in my work, like Laila Starr or Rare Flavours. I’ve been trying to grasp at this thing from different angles, so kind of excited to bring that into the superhero corner of things,” Ram V said.
Evan Cagle was clearly born to bring these concepts and creations to life, and he’s able to capture the creativity and magic of Kirby’s world and provide his own twist and modern lens.
“I mean, it’s staggering that he’s able to do this kind of work for a comic that’s going to come out every month. And then the other thing that excites me in terms of Evan is that I brought him in for very Kirby-esque reasons. I think Kirby’s ability to transmit scale, Kirby’s ability to be this kind of atypical genre defining artist. I think Evan has all of those qualities, but also contemporary influences. You can see Otomo and Japanese manga and anime and Durer and Moebius in there. So. Yeah, no, it’s just super exciting to be able to work with someone whose work makes me want to do interesting, better work myself,” Ram V said.
The New Gods #1 hits comic stores on December 18th.
Are you excited for The New Gods? You can talk all things comics and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb and on Bluesky @knightofoa!