Who's This? Darkseid's spokesman.
The facts: When Jack Kirby created Glorious Godfrey for Forever People #3 (July 1971), he explicitly crafted him to look like George Hamilton playing Billie Graham and saw him as a revivalist preacher. He scored three appearances in Forever People, and that's it until the mid-80s when he appears in almost every book being published during the Legends event. As G. Gordon Godfrey, he manipulates the American people into turning against superheroes, for the benefit of Darkseid. After that, he's a normal part of Darkseid's Elite, rendering some of his manipulative plays unto his sister, Amazing Grace. A paler Godfrey appears in the New52 and beyond, in such books as Female Furies, Tom King's Mister Miracle and Batman and Robin.
How you could have heard of him: Fans of the Justice League animated series will recognize him as Gordon Godfrey, playing his Legends role. The demagogue also appeared on Smallville and in Young Justice.
Example story: Forever People #3 (July 1971) "Life vs. Anti-Life!" by Jack Kirby with Vince Colletta
There's no question as to what Kirby think of Darkseid and his demagogue, as this story starts with a quote from Hitler himself, heralding his movement as so uniform in ideas that even his followers have the same facial expression. Conformity - Fascism - Anti-Life. His message, that submission erases doubt, and that facelessless gives you the power to inflict pain on others, resonates with his crowd, and is one of the most powerful statements ever made by Kirby.
Godfrey is more well-spoken than today's demagogues, but we recognize the messaging, don't we? And we cut from this insane rally to a "Justifier" (read: Proud Boy, or similar, the pointy mask may be evoking the Klan) bullying a kid on crutches.
Fights between Justifiers and Forever People ensue, so let's skip a few pages to Glorious Godfrey sitting in the make-up chair. Could he be taking this national through the power of the Boob Tube? (That's a little Fourth World joke for ya.) No, it's just a big circus tent. Still. Maybe they'll have cameras there.
The kids combine forces to summon the Infinity Man, who is more than a match for Godfrey's soldiers. He manages to destroy the machinery that makes humans so pliant to his message (would that it were so simple), but then someone intervenes...
...That cold hand is Darkseid's! His Omega beams split Infinity Man apart and the Forever People are captured and taken to DeSaad's concentration camp! And now we find out that the mouthpiece doesn't believe the words it's saying. That's right, Godfrey doesn't think the Anti-Life Equation is real. But Darkseid does...
Because in the world of demagoguery, there are those who spread lies and propaganda, and then there are true believers who are even more dangerous and fanatical. This story perfectly encapsulates why I brook no dismissal of Kirby's Forever People. A lot of people consider it the weakest part of the Fourth World, and certainly, its main cast has had the least successful exposure since Kirby wrote them, but it really did build up key parts of Darkseid's Elite and of the Fourth World's lore. You simply can't dismiss Forever People without dismissing the Fourth World entirely.
Who's Next? A figure skater.
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