Who's Forager?

Who's This? A human-looking bug.

The facts: Jack Kirby only used him in two issues of New Gods (#9-10), but who knows what he might have done with the "Bug" Spartacus had the series gone on? It did, of course, years later under Gerry Conway, who used Forager as "one of the team". He was killed in Cosmic Odyssey saving Batman's life. A female Forager was start appearing as of New Gods vol.3 #2 (March 1989), at the start of that series, then as a player in Countdown (to Final Crisis).
How you could have heard of him: The Kirby Anniversary a few years back (2017) included a "Bug!" mini-series by Mike Allred that had Forager drop in on many Kirby creations. He appeared in issues of Mister Miracle that same year. The Justice League cartoon did use him (voiced by Corey Burton), as did Young Justice (there voiced by Jason Spisak).
Example story: New Gods #9 (July 1972) "The Bug!" by Jack Kirby, with Mike Royer

Forager may be a very minor Fourth World character, but I love the whole concept of the "Bugs". The powerful New Gods live in a city in the sky, while down below on the surface of New Genesis - or even under the surface - there are merely insects. And those insects are basically sentient, super-powered human beings (or at least, Forager, the colony's "food-seeker", is). Apokolips has Lowlies, equivalent to souls trudging in Hell; New Genesis has these folks, putting an interesting perspective on Kirby's altogether-unexplored vision of the Great Myth. They are what's evolved from bacterial weapons used on the planet during Ragnarok (in Fourth World parlance, the "Clash"). There's variety to what was spawned from "micro-life", and some are definitely more buggy than others.

Colonies fight one another for food, somewhere below the Gods' notice. Actually, the Gods DO notice, and like we might if we saw an anthill too close to the house, they spray Forager's people with super-insecticides!

Jeepers! Forager only survives this by jumping into the water, surviving to raid another day. I guess there's more food for everyone now. Even so, life in the colony is conflict, and he must defend his share of the Eternals' "energy loaves", despite having done all the work providing them to his brethren. Suddenly, he is called by the Prime One (the male "queen-widow" of the colony), a bulbous-headed being who acts as an encouraging mentor.

While there are other "humanish" faces in the crowd, including the Prime One's, Forager is perhaps an adopted member of the colony. He sits apart, and has a human visage. Could he be a New God who fell off Supertown? In another life, might he have become a Forever Person? Or maybe, in a colony full of mutants, he's mutated to the point where he has a morality not shared by his more primitive brothers and sisters. Perhaps the Prime One also "sits apart" in this way. Guys, there's SO MUCH LEFT UNTOLD. An alarm sounds, the colony is being invaded!

Some of these are giants. The Gods are going to need a better exterminator. Well, maybe Forager is it, because his "acid-pods" do a lot of damage. They win, but they owe it to Mantis (off-panel), but I wouldn't trust his claim that he can lead the colony to a place of bounty. This sudden change in leadership has decreed that the Prime One must die, which he submits to though he knows that Mantis will draw the Bugs into a war with the New Gods. Forager's mission then: To contact the Gods and warn them, forging an alliance against Mantis! The Prime One then tells him he should be able to... because he's ONE OF THEM!

Well, jury's out on that one, Forager. Mantis of course sends the colony after him.

And he makes his final escape through Mantis' Boom Tube (proof that the new "Prime One" is working for Darkseid), leading to Supertown just ahead of Mantis' Bug army.

And that's how Forager very quickly became one of my favorite New Gods.

Who's Next? An All-American team.