NEW GENESIS	ATLAS
Created by Jack Kirby

PLANETARY INFORMATION

Name: New Genesis
Environment: Essentially Earthlike
Dominant Lifeform: Humanoids and Insectoids
Capital City: Supertown
Affiliations: Alien Alliance II (former)
Prominent Inhabitants: Highfather; Orion; Takion; Mister Miracle; Lightray
First Appearance: New Gods Vol. 1 #1 (February-March 1971)
Creators: Jack Kirby

OVERVIEW

New Genesis was the home of the benevolent New Gods.

HISTORY

The cataclysm that ended the era of the Old Gods gave birth to two new worlds, dark Apokolips and beautiful New Genesis, one the opposite of the other. While Apokolips was corrupted by the evil energies of an ancient witch and turned into a totalitarian and warlike society, the living atoms of the Old God Balduur made New Genesis into a veritable paradise.

New Genesis is approximately 4.8 billion years old (Earth is by comparison 4.5 billion years old), and life is said to first have appeared some 300 million years later. Eventually, a humanoid race evolved, which attained godhood some 30,000 years ago. These beings came to be known as the New Gods. This was the beginning of the Fourth World – the First World having been the Source, the Second World the glory of GodWorld and the Third World the birth of gods on Earth.

The relationship between Apokolips and New Genesis has always been a strained one, with uneasy peace treaties broken by smaller conflicts and skirmishes. These animosities culminated in the Great War which started with the murder of Izaya's wife Avia 1,000 years ago. The power-hungry Darkseid of Apokolips convinced his uncle Steppenwolf to lead a hunting party to New Genesis, thereby hoping to escalate the conflict and to eliminate others who could lay claim to the throne of Apokolips.

Grief-stricken and aching for revenge, Izaya launched a full-scale war which lasted for some 700 years and ravaged entire worlds. The surface of New Genesis was turned from green haven into barren wasteland, partly because of biological warfare. The Bugs were intended to be a biological weapon which would ravage the supplies of Apokolips, but they accidentally escaped from the laboratory and took to the wilderness where they multiplied by the millions. To cover up their blunder, the ruling council of New Genesis decreed that the Bugs were yet another one of Darkseid's weapons.

Eventually, a peace pact between the two warring planets took form, in which Darkseid and Izaya, now known as Highfather, exchanged sons. So it came to be that Orion grew up on New Genesis and Scott Free (later known as Mr. Miracle) was raised in an Apokoliptian orphanage. The peace treaty gave New Genesis the time the planet needed to blossom once again. The New Gods split up in two fractions, the group known as the Primitives – gods preferring a simple life in harmony with nature under the leadership of Mother Herrae – and the Sky Gods – gods living in the high-tech city of Supertown high above the planet’s surface, created by Highfather and Atinai. The new Gods of Supertown were long ruled by the Council of Five, until it was dissolved by Highfather, who reigned supreme until his death. Today, the role of Highfather has been assumed by Takion, after Izaya’s birth-son Scott Free had declined.

There are no longer any cities on the surface, but there are some landmarks in this evergreen landscape. As on Apokolips, some traces of the Old Gods' culture remain as underground ruins. Underground is also where K’zandr the Oracle resides. Until recently, the main insect colony was the Bug Mound, but it was destroyed in a nuclear explosion during a battle between Orion and the Bugs. The remaining Bugs (if any) now live in smaller colonies. Sadly, another scar was recently left on New Genesis in the form of a firepit, created by Apokoliptian machinery.

The Eternal Sea is where the Shadow Elemental S’ivaa lay dormant for millions of years. When he finally awoke in modern times, it took the combined power of Orion and Superman to stop him and imprison him on the Source Wall. The planet also has a snow-covered south pole on which Vykin’s mother Valkyra resided until her recent death.

New Genesis and Apokolips seem to be situated in separate dimension accessible mainly through the use of a Boom Tube or other means of teleportation.

PROFILE REFERENCES

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #16 (June 1986)

Who's Who in the DC Universe #7 (February 1991)
New Gods Secret Files #1 (September 1998)