Mantis was mentioned as a rival to mighty Darkseid at moments in the Fourth World books, but the leader of the Bugs turned out ultimately to be merely another henchman. His elevation is likely because, as seen above, he was part of the original concept drawings.
I missed Forever People #2 at first and was exceedingly enticed by this full-page illustration from New Gods #2. Mantis seemed a dandy villain and I was thrilled when he showed up in later issues of New Gods.
His role was taken up somewhat by the Lightning Lady in the pages of Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, as she was the commander of her own batch of bug-people. More on her and her Hive next month.
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The Mantis costume rocks! Did Kirby's inspirations and ideas never end? Amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhich makes it all the mystifying when they changed it so completely for the Super Powers series. I guess they did for toy requirements.
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I love that slipping of his importance. It gives the New Gods story a lot of backbone. To me, he seemed like an ineffectual rival to Darkseid, especially since he needs to hibernate to get his energy back (something Darkseid criticized him for). Like the Deep Six, Mantis is one of the appendages to the main forces of evil that make this epic so rich.
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