>>149477216
New Gods was influenced by Nordic and Azteca mythology, Kirby's Jewish upbringing (and the stories in the Bible, particularly the apocrypha), William Blake, Kabbalah, and Kirby's time spent in WW2. Kirby was a well-read man and not enough credit is given to how his portrayal of tyrant characters (Doom, Darkseid, Red Skull, etc) closely follows the psychology of actual fascist leaders (broken relationships with their mothers).
To understand Anti-Life is to see the common underlying threads linking YHWH, Odin, Hitler/Mussolini/Stalin, etc. Anti-Life is pure and total selfishness. It isn't just enslavement of minds, but abuse-induced suicide and absolute ego-selfishness (which only speeds up the process of destruction). Darkseid's desire to dominate the universe with his mind is akin to YHWH declaring himself as absolute, Odin's quest to stave off Ragnarok, Hitler wanting Germany to reign supreme forever, etc. The kind of person who wants the Anti-Life equation is someone who is afraid to live life and what it entails. They are the sort of person to both declare "I have a soul" and "I don't have a soul" in the face of Truth.
Someone who wants to be everywhere and within everyone's souls and minds must not love themselves very much. They must be the most scared and lonely person in the whole universe. They must be someone very possessive of the people who do love them.
