BUGS	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Jack Kirby

SPECIES DATA

Homeworld: New Genesis
Space Sector: 38
Physical characteristics:
First Appearance: New Gods Vol. 1 #9 (June-July 1972): "The Bug"
Creators: Jack Kirby

POWERS

The Bugs have some of the power of the New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips, but their individual abilities tend to vary. One of the race's greatest strengths is its organisational capacity, just as is true of a hive of bees or colony of ants on Earth.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of the Bugs in chronological order click here

NOTE

"Unfortunately, our history is a verbal one, handed down from one generation to the next, with many gaps in the telling. You could fill in many of those blank spaces for us. We know so little of life outside the mound." - Prime One

Quote taken from New Gods Vol. 2 #1 (May 1989)

An insectoid race related to the New Gods, the Bugs have often faced persecution even on the supposedly idyllic planet of New Genesis. Notable Bugs included Mantis and the two Foragers.

The Bugs are a sentient insectoid race living under the surface of New Genesis. Traditionally, the rulers of New Genesis have claimed that the Bugs are mutant creations of Darkseid, sent to New Genesis to ravage and pillage the planet's food supplies. To prevent this, an elite extermination squad known as the Monitors was formed.

Recently, this was all revealed to be a lie. The Bugs were in fact hybrid gods/insects created by the New Genesians themselves, as a response to Apokolips' giant biological mutants early on in the war between the two planets. The Bugs were originally meant to be deployed on Apokolips in order to destroy the planet's food resources and bring the war to an end. Before they could be deployed, a group of Bugs escaped the gestation facility and took to the forests, where they started reproducing rapidly, forming colonies not unlike those of earthly ant hills or bee hives. Thus was born the so-called Insect Empire.

Fearful of public opinion, New Genesis' ruling council issued a disinformation communiqué, stating that the Bugs were another one of Darkseid's biological weapons, evolved from 'micro-life' and spread over the planet's surface by Apokoliptian forces. Extermination of the Bugs started with the creation of the Monitors and the development of pesticides that would kill the Bugs and leave the crops unharmed. These efforts have kept the Bug population in check, but given their rate of reproduction, this has not been any serious threat to the Insect Empire.

The Insect Empire is made up of several Bug tribes living in large underground colonies. At the top of the ruling hierarchy is the queen, All-Widow, and her second-in-command, Prime One. According to Bug tradition, the fate of Prime One is to wield unlimited power for a period of time before being killed by the All-Window in a sacrificial ritual. A new Prime One is then elected, or maybe born. It is not known for how long a Prime One holds office. Darkseid's minion Mantis is said to be a renegade Prime One who somehow escaped his death.

Collectivism is the norm in the insect civilization; working for a common good like the survival of the colony. Individuality is neither common nor a desirable in the Bug colonies, as the first Forager learned the hard way. Forager was more humanoid in appearance than most of his fellow Bugs, and was uncommonly resourceful and skilled in the arts of war. Prime One sensed that Forager was a deviant, more alike the New Gods than the rest of the Bugs, and charged him with befriending the gods in an attempt to negotiate a truce. However, before this plan could be set in motion, this Prime One was killed by the All-Window, who then turned on Forager – a dangerous individual in her eyes. Forager escaped and went on to befriend the New Gods and stop Mantis and the rest of the Bugs from conquering Earth. Forager finally died in battle during the event known as the Cosmic Odyssey.

When Orion turned Forager's body over to the Bugs for proper burial, he was surprised at the level of sophistication he found in the insect culture, and initiated peace talks with the All-Widow, the new Prime One and the ruling council of New Genesis. Orion was also surprised to find a kindred spirit in the new Forager, this time a female. Together with the new Forager, Orion next foiled a plot by Mantis, who had taken control over the outcast insect tribes and now sought to provoke a nuclear war on planet Earth. With the Bugs' higher tolerance for radiation and Darkseid's blessing, the Bugs would then have a planet all to themselves. Believing Forager to be dead, Orion fell into one of his beserker rages and teleported the nuclear missiles to New Genesis so they could detonate over the main Bug colony, severely decimating the Bug population. When the new Forager witnessed the destruction, she fell into deep despair and refused to have anything more to do with Orion.

Some of the Bug population did survive, but the fate of the All-Widow and Prime One, as well as the status of the peace treaty, remains unknown.