Born on The Fourth World Part X
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #137, April 1971
The Four-Armed Terror has hatched and is hungry. But hungry for what? The opening splash-page shows the creature flailing its way through the Wild Area, eventually finding the Zoomway, where two of the Outsiders motorcycle gang are about to abandon their search for their leader, the ‘real groovy cat’; Jimmy Olsen.
The first biker, Yango, tinkers with his ride, whilst the second, Gandy, surmises that Superman and Olsen ‘must have run into the Mountain of Judgement! And any cat who’s ever done that… has never been seen or heard of again!’
Suddenly distracted, Gandy is excited to find that his transistor radio has started playing ‘spook rock’ and is all ready to ‘get that spider sound!’ when the Four-Armed Terror attacks! It snatches up Gandy in one enormous fist, using its other massive hands to tear both motorcycles to pieces! Yango shoots the monster repeatedly with a blaster, until it releases Gandy, and then the two Outsiders run off, back to Habitat to warn of the oncoming danger.
Meanwhile, at the Project, Jimmy Olsen is on the decks. But the cosmic set-up over which he presides are not turntables, but the latest invention by the Hairies, called ‘the solar phone.’ The machine ‘gathers in the radio-signals from the stars and converts them into mental music images!’ Superman, Jimmy, the Newsboys and several Hairies wear headsets, like some prototype silent disco, and sit holding hands with their eyes closed. ‘We are together…’ says one of the Hairies. ‘We hear as one! We see as one! We soar as one!’ ‘Our minds receive! The “dance” begins!’
The next three splash-pages show all the “dancers” floating in a series of Kirby’s famous monochrome, psychedelic photo-montages. ‘Groovy!’ says Jimmy. ‘This is a real gas!’ ‘It’s like we’re floating free in Wonderland!’ says Gabby. ‘Fantastic!’ says Superman. ‘The solar-phone communicates all this!’
But, the trip is cut short by violent shockwaves rocking through the entire Project facility. Superman tells the others to stay put while he checks in with the head of security, much to the chagrin of Jimmy and the Newsboys.
Unsurprisingly, the cause of the earthquakes turns out to be the Four-Armed Terror, who has been digging up power cables as a means of leading it to its food source; nuclear radiation. The beast finds a booster unit carrying power from the Project’s atomic pile. It tears the unit to pieces, causing explosions throughout Habitat ‘from the sudden release of raw power.’
The Outsiders lead the evacuation of the tree city, as Superman flies to the rescue, closely followed by Jimmy and the Newsboys in the Whiz Wagon. Irritated, the Man of Steel accelerates away from his unwanted, teenage companions - the Whiz Wagon being no match for Superman’s supersonic flight.
Quickly assessing the devastation, Superman finds the Four-Armed Terror in an underground cave ‘absorbing and feeding on radioactive energy.’ The monster immediately attacks, pummelling the Man of Steel with a succession of brutal punches from its multiple ham-sized fists! ‘The Evil Factory has bred a terrifying product!’ thinks Superman as he manages to fling the thing across the cave.
The monster recovers quickly, just as Jimmy and the Newsboys arrive. Jimmy pulls out a pistol and opens fire on the creature, the gun being a ‘gift from the Hairies!’ Superman says that the gun will not work, suspecting that the creature ‘has two brains to coordinate his complex body structure!’
The Four-Armed Terror responds by weaving a web of crackling energy which it throws at Superman and his friends. The energy hardens around them, trapping the group inside as giant pink egg, which the monster then snatches up and hurls across the cavern. The Four-Armed Terror then continues on its hunt for the Project’s nuclear reactor.
The beast’s progress is being monitored by Mokkari and Simyan, back at the Evil Factory. Both minions of Darkseid are excited by the prospect of the massive nuclear catastrophe that their creation will inevitably cause. Not only will the Project and the Wild Area be annihilated, but even the city of Metropolis will be utterly destroyed.
Happy with their success, the two mad scientists turn to the next stage of their experiment. ‘It is time, Simyan!’ says Mokkari, as he gazes across the incubation room, where many, many more eggs are hatching multiple Four-Armed Terrors! ‘Their birth heralds the age of holocaust! Hail Homo Usurpus!’ bellows Mokkari. ‘Earth lies before you for the taking!’
Here, this chapter ends with the most tense cliff-hanger of the series so far. With Superman, Jimmy and the the Newsboys tapped in a giant, pink egg, can we expect any of them survive the inevitable Big Boom! in the next issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen?
We will have to wait, as next time, we shall be delving into Mister Miracle #2, featuring the very first appearance of Granny Goodness…
