Urgrund (comics)

Urgrund is a fictional ancient planet appearing in the Fourth World comic books published by DC Comics. A vast war among its people ended in a cataclysmic conflagration, causing it to break apart to form two new planets: one a "majestic, sun-soaked utopia", New Genesis, inhabited by the New Gods and ruled by the Highfather, and the other, with its "mammoth fire pits and machinery", Apokolips, ruled by the evil Darkseid and inhabited by his minions and the downtrodden population beneath them. ^{[1] [2]} .The planet is shown as a massive, dark world in an early John Byrne New Gods comic (New Gods Jack Kirby's Fourth World No #1).

History

The planet Urgrund was created by the unknowable Source, which until then had been the only existence; this period was later called the 'First World', and the age wherein the cosmos was dominated by Urgrund and its people the 'Second World'. Urgrund was an immense world, far larger than the vastest star, and its people were literal titans. Their lives were epic in scope, a mythology unto itself, for millions of years, until internecine struggle and war led to the end of their planet and the Second World.

The Godwave was a cosmic force of divine energy that was formed when the Second World of Urgrund was split in two five billion years ago from the modern day and echoed from the essence of the Source.[1] After the Ragnarok War which killed off the Old Gods, the God Wave was generated from the planetary explosion and spread across the universe.

The wave of power swept across the cosmos, leaving a seed of divinity wherever it touched, and became responsible for creating various pantheons of gods and divine entities on various planets. As the energy wave spread, it eventually reached the edge of the universe and rebounded, making a second pass that created the potential for superhumans on planets such as Earth a thousand years from the present. In time, the resonance created by the Godwave began to expand and contract whereupon it returned to the Source. This expansion and contraction began to affect the powers of various beings throughout the universe. As a result, the cosmic energy force began to tear apart the structures it had created whereupon it would wipe the universe clean to bring about the emergence of a new and terrible Fifth World to replace it.

Origin of the Word

Urgrund is German for 'original ground'.

References

1. Curtis, Neal (2015-01-12). Sovereignty and Superheroes. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 175. Archived from the original on 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
2. Lotowycz, Randall (2010). DC Comics Super Heroes and Villains: 75 Icons from the DC Universe!. New York City: Workman Publishing. p. 115. ISBN   9780761158561. Archived from the original on 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2016-10-03.