MBTI: Bold and the Beautiful - current season

Around 27 million people a day watch the long-running US soap, Bold and the Beautiful, but hardly anyone I know admits to watching it. Actually, I run into people who tell me that 'they don't watch it' but can accurately summarise who's in the show and what it's about. I think most of us regard soaps like Bold- as a guilty pleasure and seriously uncool. And indeed, at first sight, US daytime soaps seem of inferior quality, marred by bad acting, bad storylines, and an emphasis on economy (only one to three sets at the most, and an avoidance of outdoor scenes). But, in the end, to fans (and I am one), none of this matters. You end up becoming intrigued by the storyline and the characters, and over time, you thrust all the deficiencies - the cheapness and the bad acting - out of your mind. You don't hold a TV soap to the standards of a Mad Men or Breaking Bad.

Bold- concerns two families: the Forresters, who are wealthy fashion designers living in LA, who are beautiful, well-heeled, stylish but miserable, and the Logans, a struggling, lower-middle class family from the Mid West (Illinois, to be exact) who move to LA and who are conservative, god-fearing, humble and happy. One may ask: do members of both families meet? Fall in love? Get married to one another? It's a soap: of course they do.

A third family - the Spencers - appears early on. They are headed by the manipulative, controlling and scheming Bill Spencer the First, who plays the traditional role of the bad guy or villain in the soap. He never does anything out and out evil, however. In Bold-, there are no good guys or bad guys, only differing points of view.

You can find a little animated film, 'Bold and the Beautiful in six minutes', which recaps twenty years of plotlines - in six minutes! - here. Amazing. Otherwise, you can jump on board by watching it straight away; you'll pick up the story very quickly. Like Chris Claremont's X-Men, Bold- relies a lot on flashbacks and recaps which bring the audience up to speed as to what happened in the previous episode.

It should be noted that the relationships between characters in Bold- are very confusing - and incestuous and promiscuous. Brooke Logan, the female lead, has been married and / or involved in relationships with: Ridge, his stepfather, his two half-brothers. Eew. She's had four children by three different men, and has been married or engaged to about four or five men on the show. Her rival in the show, Taylor Hayes, has been with all the men Brooke has been with. Double eew. (Despite this, Brooke has the reputation of being the more promiscuous of the two).

I'm going to give the MBTI types for each of the 25 or so the characters in the current season - and the last one, which features a few long-time characters who are not present in the current one. It will be a whirlwind tour, as I've got a lot to get through.



The Forresters

Eric Forrester. The head of the Forrester family, a brilliant designer, founder of the fashion house Forrester Creations and self-made man, a sensitive, quiet, thoughtful artiste. Father of Ridge, Thorne, Felicia, Kristen, Rick, Bridget. Often he plays the role of wise old man who gives counsel to others - and asks for nothing in return. Passive and withdrawn, and given to poetic flights of fantasy when rhapsodising about women's clothing. INFJ.

Stephanie Forrester (deceased). Eric's wife, and mother to Ridge, Thorne, Felicia, Kristen. She doesn't appear in this series - the character was killed off a few years ago - but her presence looms large. Often appears to be cold and shrewish, but very much concerned about her family and the welfare of others around her, and can seem to be manipulative and controlling. An ENFJ. In socionics, she and Eric (an INFJ) are 'mirrors'. The contrast of Eric and Stephanie illustrates one of the main differences between an INFJ and an ENFJ. The former doesn't really care that much if his advice is followed or not, the latter very much cares. Stephanie always seems nosy and pushy.

Ridge Forrester (as played by Thorsten Kaye) - the male lead of the show. CEO and star designer at Forrester Creations. Father of Steffy, Thomas, 'E.J.' and Phoebe (deceased). Thorsten Kaye replaced long-running actor Ronn Moss for this role in 2013 (Moss had been playing Ridge since 1987). As a result, the character - and his MBTI type - changed. Today's Ridge is a sensitive artiste who likes poetry, but is also entitled, spoiled, dishevelled, often grouchy and self-absorbed. He, to me, represents a bad INFP. Like many INFP characters - such as Luke Skywalker or Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle - Ridge has been raised by an adoptive parent or parents and his true parentage is mysterious. It's revealed that Ridge's true father is not Eric but the Italian shipping magnate Massimo Marone, who dated the 19 year old Stephanie in college (!).

Thorne Forrester. Ridge's jealous half-brother, son of Eric and Stephanie, father of Aly. Job role: executive at Forrester at the Paris branch. As played by Winsor Harmon, Thorne seems a nice fellow - he's very considerate of his employees at Forrester (he remembers all their birthdays, for example) - but, like his mother Stephanie, is pushy, nosey and controlling. ENFJ.

Steffy Forrester. Ridge's daughter by Dr Taylor Hayes (who doesn't appear in this season). Job role: executive at Forrester Creations. Spunky heroine type (like Lois Lane in Superman). Romantically pursues romantically unavailable men because of a) the challenge and b) more often than not, these men belong to one of the women from her hated rivals, the Logan family. ESTP.

Thomas Forrester. Ridge's son by Taylor, Steffy's brother. Job role: star designer at Forrester Creations. There's no nice way of saying it, but Thomas is a creepy young man. Also a moralist who continually lectures those around him (including his father) and upbraids them for their immoral behaviour. ISTJ. It should be noted that ISTJ characters, especially the males, always appear to be creepy or at least to be people who just don't fit in. Think of Judge Dredd, Darth Vader, Mr Spock, Watchmen's Rorschach. Thomas fits the bill. I rest my case.

Aly Forrester (deceased). Designer at Forrester Creations and daughter of Thorne and Darla, who was killed when hit by a car driven by Taylor - who went on to have an affair with Thorne (don't ask). An ultra-moralistic, ultra-puritanical young woman who idolises another moral paragon - Hope Logan (see below) -she also suffers from schizophrenia and communicates with the spirit of her dead mother on a regular basis. She likes medieval re-enactment societies - a sign of dominant introverted Si. ISTJ, without question. Sadly, she's killed off: she stalks Steffy, daughter of her mother's killer, and collects pictures of her, blacks out the eyes with markers and sticks pins in them; she then ambushes Steffy on the same lonely LA highway where her mother Darla was killed. Steffy defends herself and ends up killing Aly by accident.

Rick Forrester. Son of Eric Forrester (Ridge's stepfather) and the much younger Brooke Logan, executive at Forrester, his type at first seems to be ESTJ - he's certainly a
' captain' or 'lieutenant' type - but events reveal otherwise. At bottom, he sees himself as an exploited, hard done by character who has been used and manipulated by all the others. He holds a grudge - bordering on the psychopathic - against Ridge, who he feels has treated his mother Brooke badly. He tends to put the women he loves on a pedestal and will hold them as a moral exemplar. But woe betide those idols who have been shown to be only human and having feet of clay. Rick, to me, seems to me to be an ISFJ, but the worst ISFJ - the one who has 'woken up' and perceives that he's been exploited by others, including those he's placed on a pedestal. The ISFJ in this instance becomes spiteful and vindictive, and takes a terrible revenge - see De Palma's Carrie (1976).

Pamela Douglas. Stephanie's whacky sister who works as a receptionist at Forrester Creations. Renowned for her eccentricities, extremely annoying and a friend to all - even to those who don't want her friendship. ENFP.

Ivy Forrester. Daughter of Eric's little-seen brother John and an Australian, jewellery designer at Forrester Creations. Feminine, cares deeply for those around her and holds their welfare to be paramount (but not always) - ESFJ.

Zende Forrester Dominguez. Intern at Forrester Creations, adopted son of Kristen (Eric's daughter, not seen in this season) while in Africa. Can't figure this guy out, sorry.

The Logans

Brooke Logan: Executive at Forrester Creations, eldest sister of the Logan clan, lover and wife of many. Mother of Bridget, Hope, Rick, 'E.J'. I characterise Brooke as an ESFJ. Since the death of Stephanie from cancer, she puts herself across as the 'matriarch' of the Forrester clan - ESFJs are very maternal - and she has always shown herself to be concerned with the welfare of her family and those close and dear to her. Moreover, she often tries to interfere in and control her children's lives - particular their romantic lives. ENFJs, who are, like ESFJs, dominant extraverted feelers, get the all the rap of being manipulative and controlling, but ESFJs deserve some of it as well.

Katie Logan: Sister of Brooke, wife of Bill Spencer, sometime CEO at Forrester Creations and her husband's Spencer Publications. Self-assertive and a moralist who is forever criticising her husband's - and Steffy Forrester's - immoral conduct. This, to me, signifies a strong introverted feeling (Fi). I should explain that introverted feeling consists of emotional reactions and moral evaluations which are entirely subjective - ' I approve of that' ; ' I don't like that'; ' I emphasise with that'. When this moralism is combined with a strong self-assertion and assertion of one's will (extraverted sensing, Se), you have the ISFP type - which is what Katie is.

The two Logan sisters are all that are left of the once formidable Logan clan in the current season. I feel bound to mention two others, who are absent. (It's occurred to me, while writing this, that all of the Logans are female - males are conspicuous by their absence. The scion of the Logan family, Stephen Logan, is absent at the start of Bold-, having abandoned his family while his children were young; Storm, the brother of Brooke, Donna and Katie, committed suicide many years before the current season).

Hope Logan. Daughter of Brooke and con-man / grifter Deacon Sharpe, sometime model and spokeswoman for Forrester Creations. Like Aly, a moralistic, driven and highly confused young woman who launches a 'Hope for the Future' campaign which encourages young American women to save their virginity until marriage. Tends to set high expectations of the man in her life, who invariably end up disappointing her. She has a relationship - not consummated, as Hope prizes her virginity - with photographer Oliver Jones; Oliver has sex 'by accident' with Hope's own mother Brooke at a costume party in a rather off storyline. (Hope's rival Steffy finds about this incident and attempts to use it to blackmail the Oliver into having sex with her). Hope then meets Bill Spencer's illegitimate son Liam Spencer (see below). Unfortunately for Liam, Hope won't grant him any sexual favours - she must stay true to her 'Hope for the Future' campaign - before marriage. This gives the predatory Steffy an opening. She moves in, kisses Liam in his car, and is dumped by Hope who saw the scene. And thus the Steffy-Hope rivalry over Liam begins! I think it's clear from all this that Hope is an ISTJ. For their secondary function, ISTJs have extraverted thinking (Te) which is about enforcing rules. Extraverted thinking makes ISTJs the party of 'law and order', and its from this - and their introverted sensing (Si), which tends to be highly conservative - that the ISTJs famous moralising stems from. The moralising of an ISFP, on the other hand, comes from a different place - introverted feeling (Fi).

Stephanie Forrester sagely tells Brooke, 'Hope is a very disturbed young woman. And why not? She's the product of you and Deacon' . Right on the mark.

Donna Logan. Younger sister of Brooke, older sister to Katie, sometime receptionist at Forrester Creations. An individualist, dreamy and idealistic and someone who gives the appearance of being a hanger-on to the Logan clan. I don't know any other word to describe her except 'winsome'. INFP.

The Spencers

' Dollar' Bill Spencer the Second. CEO of Spencer Publications, bully, braggart, manipulator, ruler of men, son of Bill Spencer the First, husband of Katie Logan, father of Liam and Wyatt. The bearded and open-shirted Bill resembles Zeus, and we know that Zeus was an ENTJ. I don't see how there can be an argument on this one. Interestingly, like Brooke - an ESFJ - Bill is very much concerned with controlling his children's' lives, especially their love lives.

Caroline Spencer the Second. Niece of Bill Spencer the Second and the daughter of Ridge's first wife / fiancée Caroline Spencer the First, who died of leukemia. She's been retconned into existence - it's never explained who her father was. For all we know, it could have been Ridge. Works as a designer at Forrester Creations. A fun-lovin' gal who spends most of her time on Twitter and Facebook and who is a transplant from New York. Talks a lot (with a noxious Noo Yoik accent) and not very bright. Tends to gush on a lot. Not the sharpest tool in the shed... ESFP.

Liam Spencer (William Spencer the Third). Son of Bill Spencer and a woman who died of cancer, executive at both Forrester Creations and Spencer Publications. A surfer, vegan, animal rights activist, he wears a beard and a medallion like his father, but appears more of a hippie and less of a Zeus. He moralises a lot, and criticises his father's conduct - and why not, given Bill's extraordinary attempts to make or break Liam's marriages. ISFP.

Wyatt Fuller-Spencer. Son of Bill Spencer and the crazy Quinn Fuller (see below), half brother of Liam. Executive at Forrester Creations. The effeminate Wyatt lived with his mother for most of his life and didn't have a wife or girlfriend (what am I hinting at here?); then he meets Liam's on-again off-again wife / fiancée Hope and discovers heterosexuality. He seems to have a penchant for his brother's ex-girlfriends and wives. A trickster and something of a con man, he's also a malcontent who bears grudges against Liam, their father and the world in general. Calculating, opportunistic and a sceptic. ENTP.

Supporting Cast

Quinn Fuller. Mother of Wyatt. Jewellery designer. Like Brooke, sees herself as a mother above all with the right to control and manipulate the life (especially the romantic life) of her child. Goes to extraordinary lengths to get her son married to the 'right woman' and will stop at nothing! A paranoid and a stalker, sometimes out of control and violent, she should be considered the 'evil twin' or Jungian Shadow of Brooke. ESFJ.

Deacon Sharpe. Father of Hope. No job role, is supported by his current wife Quinn. An affable, sleazy, insincere man who is a (former) con man and alcoholic, Deacon has been on the show for decades, and has guest-starred in the sister show Young and the Restless. Pauline Kael once wrote of Bill Murray, 'He oozes insincerity from every pore'; that bon mot could apply to Deacon. A likeable rogue. ESTP.

Oliver Jones. Photographer at Forrester Creations, ex-boyfriend of Hope, Aly. A gangly, nerdy, skinny guy - obviously an intuitive and not a sensor - without much in the way of social graces or an understanding of people around him. Goes along to medieval jousting re-enactments with Aly and thoroughly enjoys them. INTP.

Charlie Webber. Incompetent security guard at Forrester Creations and full-time shlub. Whacky, eccentric, a friend to all, somewhat annoying, high energy, he's a male version of Pam, and it's no surprise that the pair become an item soon after meeting. In his first job for the Forresters - guarding a diamond display - he tells them he'll watch their diamond, not like a hawk, but like a goat - goats have especially good vision, don't you know. ENFP.

Maya Avant. Waitress, model, musician, singer, philanthropist. The pretty Maya meets Rick while working as a waitress in a café; she doesn't realise that he's a wealthy Forrester. He pretends to be a homeless bum (but an immaculately groomed homeless bum, with designer stubble and all) so he can get close to her. An artistic person who is pursuing a spiritual journey in life. INFP. But wait, there's more. In one of the stupidest plot twists in Bold- history - and believe me, there's been a few - her sister Nicole emerges from Maya's past and blackmails her over a 'secret'; what would that 'secret' be but - Maya is a transsexual! That's right, her name at birth was Myron, not Mya. This seemed rather implausible, given how womanly the actress playing Maya looks, but, as Bill Spencer's friend Justin says (looking at a photo of Maya), 'That's some mighty fine surgery'. In retrospect, the producers of Bold- timed this reveal brilliantly; it hit the screens at the same time as the contrived media storm over Bruce / Caitlyn Jenner.

Carter Walton. Lawyer working for Forrester Creations, ex-fiancé of Maya. Quiet, long-suffering Carter is loyal to the Forresters and to Ridge, works hard and asks for little in return. He meets the woman of his dreams - Maya - after she leaves Rick, gets engaged, and then is dumped by her after she decides to return to Rick. He then discovers, to his shock and amazement, that Maya is Myron. Instead of turning on her, however, he agrees to keep this a secret. Carter is a stoic or a doormat, depending on which you look at it. ISFJ.

Nicole Avant. Sister of Maya, sometime model, now intern at Forrester Creations. Comes to LA to do a university course, drops out, becomes homeless, sleeps in the university Internet café, lands on her sisters doorstep (at the Forrester Mansion), and blackmails her into giving her a place to stay. Definitely a 'perceiver' and not a 'judger' . Likes dancing and music a lot - and is not a very good dancer at all. Inadvertently reveals Maya's secret to Wyatt after he wines and dines her on the Spencer jet. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. ESFP.

Julius and Vivienne Avant. Parents of Maya and Nicole. Conservative, church-going truck driver Julius is outraged by his son Myron's sex change, and is looked down by his own colleagues and neighbours for it: Maya / Myron has brought shame upon the family. He attempts to rescue Nicole from LA and then, in a climactic moment, reveals what he really thinks of the whole transgender thing - on the day of Maya's wedding to Rick: 'A cat can't be a dog, a boy can't be a girl'. And that's that. Maya overhears, and has it out with her father - while she's right there on the altar, about to be married - in front of the shocked wedding guests. It's one of my favourite moments from Bold-. Through it all, the docile Vivienne puts up with it and accedes to her husband's wishes. Julius: ISTJ; Vivienne: ISFJ.

That's it for now, see you next time. Mark Hootsen signing off.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

　

　

　


　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

　

MBTI and Jack Kirby's Fourth World: the Fast Track, Part I - EJs and IPs

I. Jack Kirby and the Fourth World

After leaving Marvel in 1970, Jack Kirby headed over to DC and threw himself into a feverish whirlwind of activity. A number of the titles he worked on - Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, Mister Miracle, The New Gods and The Forever People - later became known as the 'Fourth World'. Kirby conceived of - and wrote and drew - a space-opera, a Wagnerian / sci-fi comic book epic. He introduced characters and concepts - such as Darkseid, the Source, Mark Moonrider - which later influenced George Lucas (Darth Vader, the Force, Luke Skywalker).

Unfortunately for Kirby - and his fans - most of the books were cancelled early in his tenure at DC, and Kirby returned to Marvel. The New Gods characters were revived in a new series in the late 1970s, and have showed up in DC comic books - and movies, TV shows and cartoons - ever since.

DC has reprinted the Fourth World series a number of times, most recently under the title Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus. This four-volume set contains the revival of the New Gods in the 1980s under the title of Super Powers, a limited series which mimicked the Super Friends cartoon and comic book and which undid some of the 1970s continuity. We also find in here Kirby's Hunger Dogs (1985), a graphic novel which attempts to draw the saga to a close.

Most Kirby fans agree that his artistic skills peaked in the 1970s and atrophied somewhat (probably as a result of age and infirmity) by the 1980s. I myself like Super Powers and Hunger Dogs, but I'm forced to admit that Kirby's work there, especially the story-telling, lacked the fluidity and dynamism of old.

For this essay, I read through the four volumes and attempted to type each of the major characters (well, at least all the ones in the Who's Who of the DC Universe entry, see below) according to Myers-Briggs.

This wasn't that difficult, given that Taylor's blog Zombies Ruin Everything has typed just about every major Marvel and DC character (many of them co-created by Kirby). Reading through Taylor's personality profiles gave me the overall gist of each personality type - as it appears in popular culture - and so I could match each of Kirby's Fourth World characters to each 'stock type'.

I did run into a few obstacles. One of them was that many characters don't enjoy that much screen time, so to speak; we see them for a few pages and then they're gone. We only see Izaya's wife Avia for a few pages; likewise, Darkseid's ex-wife Tigra. How are we to type them? The answer is, by going off things such as visual cues. It's a point of contention in Myers-Briggs as to whether or not a person will 'look' their type; but in comic books, characters certainly look theirs.

Kirby invented a lot of characters, and a few superhero teams and ensembles and like most creators, he made it a practice not to include more than one of each Myers-Briggs type. Look at the Fantastic Four: Mister Fantastic, INTP; Invisible Woman, ENFJ; Human Torch, ESFP; the Thing, ESFJ. We'll find, as a general rule throughout comics, that types don't double up, so to speak, in superhero teams - one major exception being the current Guardians of the Galaxy. This means, then, that once we type five characters in a six man team, we can infer - by guesswork and a process of elimination - what the type of the six will be.

So without further ado, let's begin. I'll follow the practice of Calise Sellers and divide up the types into IPs (Introverted Perceivers), EPs (Extraverted Perceivers), IJs (Introverted Judgers) and EJs (Extraverted Judgers). For part I of this article, I'll focus on the EJs and IPs.

II. The EJs in the Fourth World

Let's start with the EJs - the Men of Action. To understand the EJ type a little better, we need to recap some of my earlier post.

It helps to think of the four functions in Myers-Briggs as belonging to a particular sphere. Each of the spheres gets wider and wider as it includes more things.

The most immediate sphere concerns yourself - what you see when you look in yourself at your own thoughts and feelings. One always undertakes introspection in that sphere: introverted thinking or feeling. The introverted thinker or feeler shuts out the external field and concentrates either on getting his thoughts in order or sorting through and evaluating his subjective (emotional) experiences. The EJ type tends to dislike this sort of activity; introspection - or what Calise Sellers calls Details and Data - makes up their repressed, inferior fourth function.

The next sphere represents a step outside one's head and into the real world, so to speak: the world of your actual friends, family, colleagues, business associates, neighbours. Here you look outward (and use the perceiving functions - sensing and intuiting) and develop a philosophy of life - what is or could be. Extraverted sensors appreciate visuals and the finer things in life, including the arts and fashion, but on the negative, can develop a philosophy of extraordinary cynicism, even pessimism (see the Rust Cohle character in the TV series True Detective). Extraverted intuitives enjoy exploring possibilities and visualising what could take the place of what is - they like dreams, ideals, fantasies and inventions; but they can often be too impractical, disorganised, spontaneous, and as a result, never get the chance to put their intuitions into a meaningful context (this is especially true of the ENFP and ENTP types). Or perhaps they babble on endlessly about all the connections and patterns they see out there in reality - think of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, an INTP, in the TV show Sherlock.

Both of these descriptions apply to the types who have extraverted sensing or intuiting as a primary or secondary function; they don't apply to the EJ, who has it as a tertiary function.

The EJ doesn't eschew extraverted intuition or sensing entirely: the ENFJ type (who may be a cult leader, see below) may enjoy finery; an ESTJ type, such as Captain America, may hold to ideals of freedom, patriotism, honour. Generally, though, the EJ doesn't make this sphere - the immediate personal, or what Sellers calls Observations and Motivations - a top priority; he doesn't care much about actual, real life human beings and what their hopes, visions, aspirations, foibles and quirks are. (Ask the typical EJ, 'Want to know how the world really works?' and he'll answer, 'No'). It's for this reason that the EJ, especially in a leadership role, can strike others as being ruthless.

The second sphere concerns an organisation - a corporation, a political group, a superhero team, an army, even a state. Action, planning, decisions and judgements count here the most. It's here that the EJ really shines: he jumps into action (and may appear to be impulsive) and makes the sphere of decisions and planning (or Action, as Sellers calls it) his top priority and he uses his primary function in that field. He will perform one of two roles: Master of Men (extraverted thinking), which means he's an executive or army officer type, or Communitarian (extraverted feeling), which means he's geared to what his particular organisation (whether it be a corporation, church group, political group, city, nation, planet) values and loves.

Finally we arrive at the broadest sphere of all - understanding the root principles and causes of all things, what may be called metaphysics. The EJ type uses his secondary function here. The primary and secondary functions appear to complement one another. A great statesman or military leader, whose default action role is that of an executive, may experience intuitions - introverted intuitions. He may know, in a psychic flash, what his enemy's next move will be; or he may trust in the fates and know - without being able to say why - that his audacious military gamble will succeed. Generally, this type believes in God, or Fate, or something larger than himself - something mystical that he can tap into at will. This holds true for the ENTJ and ENFJ type.

The other EJ types, the ESTJs and ESFJs, understand the universe and metaphysics through the body. They measure, using their bodies, weight, mass and volume and believe that things can be moved around with the application of the right amount of physical force. Being introverted sensors, too, they cling to accumulated sense impressions - impressions of the past. Jung, in his Psychological Types (1921) sounds quite mystical here. He posits that the sense impressions of one generation passes onto the next; accumulated sense impressions sit in the collective unconscious common all to human beings.

So let's look through the four EJ types. We'll start with the easiest of them all:

ENTJ: Executive / General; Shadow self: Tyrant.

Stock examples: Magneto (X-Men); Loki (Thor); Lex Luthor (Superman); Kingpin (Daredevil); Megatron (Transformers).

This type goes into Action first and plays the role of Master of Men, using extraverted thinking, Te; he also uses introverted intuition (Ni) to divine the Principles of the universe - the Principles being God / Fate.

Unquestionably, Darkseid belongs here. Perhaps he could be considered the poster boy for the ENTJ type.

Many other ENTJs appear in Kirby's Fourth World. Among them we can find Heggra, Darkseid's mother (a rival ENTJ who he poisons for the throne)... 

And then we have Mantis the 'energy vampire', who has ambitions to rule Earth with the race of 'bug' people who live underground in New Genesis.

ESTJ: Mid-Ranking Officer / the Second in Command; shadow self: Draconian Drill-Sergeant.

STOCK EXAMPLES: Princess Leia (Star Wars); Captain America; Two-Face (Batman); Wonder Girl (New Teen Titans (1980s era)).

Like the ENTJ, the ESTJ goes into action with extraverted thinking Te, and is a Master of Men; unlike the ENTJ, the ESTJ uses introverted sensing - that is, one's bodily sensations and impressions - to deduce the Principles of the universe, which, by his reckoning, are Weight, Mass and Volume.

What this means is that the ESTJ will more often than not be an executive and a leader of some type, and because of the introverted sensing, will be focused either on physical fitness or on asceticism - pitting one's body (which contains one's subjective sense of self) against the world. The type also, because of the introverted sensing, are more likely to be biased towards the past (conservativism). They feel a sense of loyalty to their family and the organisation they belong to.

As a character, the ESTJ type is more likely to occupy the rank of Lieutenant or Captain than General. That is, they perform the role of second-in-command rather than first.

Big Barda, as leader of the Female Furies Battalion and member of the elite Special Powers Force, fits the role of the ESTJ type perfectly. In the comic book world, you are your job - and Barda's job is to be a drill sergeant.

ESFJ: The Mother Hen; shadow self: the Smotherer.

STOCK EXAMPLES: Superman; The Thing (Fantastic Four); Starfire (New Teen Titans); Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones); Dr Leonard 'Bones' McCoy (Star Trek).

The ESFJ uses extraverted feeling, Fe, and is a Communitarian in his default action role; like the ESTJ, the ESFJ is an introverted sensor and understands the Principles of the universe as being Weight, Mass and Volume.

Orion's girlfriend (and Himon's daughter) Bekka, who first appears in Hunger Dogs, gives us a good example of the ESFJ type. Caring and maternal, the ESFJ in popular culture is usually a woman, or at least, very motherly.

I type Big Bear as an ESFJ because, out of all his team members, he seems to be the most Communitarian - the welfare of his fellow members (and civilian bystanders around him) counts the most to him. In addition, he resembles the Thing - another Kirby ESFJ character.

Granny Goodness stands out as one of the few bad guy ESFJs in comic books. She represents an ESFJ gone wrong. In a perverse way, she's a Communitarian, and what's more, her Orphanage is, it could be argued, an extension of her introverted sensing, Si. The Orphanage indoctrinates young men - and women - in Darkseid values and the values of Apokolips, and is conservative, even nostalgic. It places a great emphasis on physical culture - that is, physical training, not to mention disciplinary beatings - which again ties in with Si, but a bad Si.

ENFJ: Nurturing Leader / Hero Teacher; shadow self: Manipulative Guru / Cult Leader.

STOCK EXAMPLES: Dick Grayson / Nightwing (New Teen Titans); Wonder Woman;

Jean Grey (X-Men); Invisible Woman (Fantastic Four); Optimus Prime (Transformers); Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars); Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (1989); Hank Scorpio in The Simpsons.

Like the ESFJ, the ENFJ is a Communitarian; like the ENTJ, he understands the universe as God / Fate as perceived by introverted intuition, Ni.

Usually in popular culture this character will be a guru, evangelist, teacher or nurturing leader and thrives on being part of the group and before an audience. The ENFJ possesses a certain theatricality. But one can't confuse the ENFJ with the 'performer' type, the ESFP. The ENFJ, unlike the ESFP, doesn't work as a lone wolf; he seeks to weld a group together. His favourite word is synergy.

Mark Moonrider of the Forever People is described as a 'natural leader', and so he is. A natural leader like the ESTJ (Big Barda) or the ENTJ (Darkseid), you say? Not quite: he's too nice to be either one of those. It's for that reason that I put him in the ENFJ category. I'll admit that I cheated a little on this one: Mark Moonrider reminds me a little of Dick Grayson / Nightwing, another 'natural leader' and ENFJ who has led three or four super-teams.

The poster-boy for the 'ENFJ gone wrong' will always be, of course, Glorious Godfrey. A denizen of Apokolips, he travels to Earth and pretends to be an evangelist. He intoxicates his audiences with his mesmerising rhetoric and forms a militia called the Justifiers, who beat up people, destroy books and artefacts, and practice suicide bombing in the name of religion. What is the religion, you might ask? 'Anti-Life', which boils down to letting Darkseid doing your thinking for you and hailing Darkseid as a messiah.

III. The IPs in the Fourth World

It should be noted here that the IPs reverse-mirror the EJs. While the EJ disdains introspection (Details and Data) and doesn't have much time for human beings in the real world (Observations and Motivations), the IPs make Details and Observations their primary and secondary functions respectively. We see that their tertiary function is used in the sphere of the organisation and the unit (Action), which means that, while they can undertake decisions and planning, and do a good job, they don't accord them a high priority - for that reason, they can appear to others as lazy and not being highly motivated. In addition, they rarely seek out leadership roles. Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic stands as one of the few examples of the IP as leader of a superhero group; this exception proves the rule.

When the IP type does go into action, he takes up a default action role - either Zen Warrior or Master of the Body. The Zen Warrior uses introverted intuition. As a swordsman, he knows, by a gut feeling or hunch, when and where exactly to deliver the killing blow with his sword; as a pilot, he knows how to keep his spacecraft from colliding with that enemy spacecraft or asteroid. The Master of the Body, on the other hand, is just that: someone who practises physical self-discipline and knows how to use his body to defeat his foes (see Mister Fantastic, or a certain famous escape artist below).


ISTP: Taciturn Loner; shadow self: Cold Fish.

STOCK EXAMPLES: Wolverine (X-Men); Han Solo (Star Wars); Elektra (Daredevil); Black Widow (Avengers); Daredevil / Matt Murdock; James Bond; Deathstroke the Terminator (New Teen Titans); Darth Maul (Star Wars).

The ISTP sees himself as a Technician / Scientist (introverted thinking applied to Details and Data). In his philosophy of life, he is a Realist / Aesthetician (extraverted sensing applied to Observations and Motivations).

A staple in the movies and the comic books, the ISTP often appears as a 'lone wolf' mercenary, assassin or spy who makes up his own rules. The ISTP comic character will be graceful and fluid in their movements - efficiency in motion - and skilled at using a weapon, which almost appears as an extension of their body. Like his brother type, the ESTP, he dresses well.

Only two ISTPs appear in the Fourth World saga: Lashina of the Female Furies and Devilance the Pursuer. The former is a cold, quiet member of the Furies who uses whips and belts with great skill, the latter, a hunter for Darkseid who uses a lance.

Again, I cheated on this one. Lashina looks and behaves a lot like the Black Widow and Elektra, while Devilance reminds me of Darth Maul.

INFP: The Flower Child; shadow self: the Waif

STOCK EXAMPLES: Luke Skywalker (Star Wars); Nightcrawler (X-Men); Scarlet Witch (Avengers); David Duchovny in X-Files.

The INFP defines himself as a Poet / Romantic (introverted feeling, Details and Data) and holds to an Idealist / Inventor philosophy of life (extraverted intuition, Observations and Motivations).

The INFP could be best described as someone who consciously isolates himself from his surroundings and the people around him, who prefers to dwell in their subjectivity (that is, their thoughts and feelings). At the same time he is continually looking for and wanting to explore possibilities beyond the present. In other words, he's Luke Skywalker on Tatooine - someone who pays little attention to the present and invests almost nothing in it while keeping their eye on bright horizons. Typically, in popular culture, he just doesn't fit in; he will be an individualist who rejects the family or community or organisation he is born into and seeks something more. While the ESTJ can seem a natural fit for an organisation, the INFP can appear to be a natural un-fit.

Beautiful Dreamer's name evokes the INFP type the best, and Beautiful Dreamer should be classified as an INFP, being a gentle soul who can project illusions, images (some beautiful, others ugly and horrifying) of things that aren't there - her powers draw upon extraverted intuition, Ne.

(Again, I've cheated here: Beautiful Dreamer reminds me a lot of another Kirby creation, Scarlet Witch, an INFP).

Another candidate for INFP status is Forager. He lives in a colony of insect-like humanoids on New Genesis but rejects their ways. He dreams of reconciliation with the 'eternals' of New Genesis and freedom. His mentor, Prime-One - an Obi-Wan-type figure - is killed by the All-Widow, the queen of the colony, as part of a ritual, much to Forager's chagrin, and he escapes to Earth to warn Orion of a pending invasion by Darkseid's minion Mantis. Forager seems much more humanoid than his fellow 'bugs', and certainly he's very different - much more sensitive and questioning. We see parallels between him and Luke Skywalker.

Finally we come to the most prominent of all the INFPs in the Fourth World: Mister Miracle. We see a lot of similarity between him and Forager. The son of Izaya the Highfather, ruler of New Genesis, Scott Free is adopted by Darkseid as part of a peace treaty between Apokolips and New Genesis (INFP characters usually are adopted - Nightcrawler, Luke Skywalker, Scarlet Witch, Fox Mulder - or at least don't know who their real parents are) and grows up in Granny Goodness' Orphanage, which of course he loathes. Both Metron and Himon of New Genesis act as his mentors, and he learns - in secret - to build some technological wonder-devices, including a Mother Box. When attempting to escape, he is confronted by Darkseid and Himon. This scene evokes the ending of Empire Strikes Back (1980), in which Luke's father, Darth Vader, asks Luke to join him:

Scott, like Luke, doesn't go over to the dark side of the force.

He then jumps, like Luke, into a cylindrical chute.



INTP: Super-Scientist; shadow self: Egghead / Aspbergers-ish Super-Geek

STOCK EXAMPLES: Mister Fantastic (Fantastic Four), Doctor Manhattan (Watchmen), Man-Bat (Batman), Peter Parker / Spiderman, Victor Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, Mr Freeze (Batman), the Lizard (Spiderman).

The INTP defines himself as a Technician / Super-Scientist, and his philosophy of life is Idealist / Inventor. In other words, he uses introverted thinking for Details / Data and extraverted intuition for Observations / Motivations.

We find a lot of INTPs in the comic books, and especially in Kirby's career - think of all the 'monster'-themed titles he worked on for Marvel and DC in the 1950s and early 1960s. 'Super-scientists' and 'Mad scientists who invent a creature which destroys the world' abound in these.

In the first issue of New Gods, Metron declares 'Who runs the universe matters not! What makes it run is my prime objective!'. He demonstrates some of the more amoral aspects of the INTP. Not interested in politics - only science - he gives away the secrets of Boom Tube teleportation to Darkseid in exchange for something called the 'X-Element' - an element he needs for the engine of his Moebius Chair (which is a vehicle which can traverse time and space). It could be argued that Metron is committing treason here. After the outbreak of war between Apokolips and New Genesis, he goes over to the good guys, but generally he doesn't participate in the action much.

Vykin the Black of the Forever People appears to be another INTP hero and a super-scientist type, who is always lugging around the Mother Box as though it's some piece of scientific equipment, e.g., a Geiger counter.

Two bad guy INTPs, Makkari and Simyan, run the Evil Factory, which is devoted to breeding creatures of destruction to wreak havoc on Earth. Makkari and Simyan resemble the Enclave in Fantastic Four - more Kirby super-scientists who have gone bad.

ISFP: Sensitive Bohemian; shadow self: Hippie Bum

STOCK EXAMPLES: Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski (1998); Legolas (Lord of the Rings); Jericho (New Teen Titans); Silk Spectre II (Watchmen); Poison Ivy (Batman).

The ISFP defines himself as a Poet / Romantic (Details and Data) and his philosophy of life consists of Realism / Aestheticism (Observations and Motivations).

As a character in popular culture, he more often than not doesn't pay much attention to politics and the outer world; he prefers to dwell on subjective and emotional experiences (introverted feeling). His realist philosophy of life (extraverted sensing) gives him a love of the plastic (that is, form-giving) arts, doing things with his hands and creating. While not an extraverted feeler, he can be empathic and he usually seeks peace and the putting of an end to all quarrels and conflicts. (Rest assured, however, if you start with him, he'll finish it). Usually ISFPs appear as graceful, almost elfin characters.

Lightray of New Genesis gives us the best example of the ISFP in Kirby's Fourth World. He serves as the cheerful and light counter-weight to the gloomy, brooding and destructive Orion.

He uses his powers to create beautiful things. In one instance, he remoulds an ugly creature of Apokolips into a New Genesis machine.

Another elfin character who likes creating beautiful things with his powers (or rather, his equipment - his 'cosmic cartridges') is Serifan.

Who can forget the cosmic cartridge which sends one young boy on a LSD-type trip:

Lastly, another gentle hippie type, who doesn't get much screen time, is Izaya's wife (and Mister Miracle's mother) Avia - another candidate for ISFP:

　

End of Part I. Mark Hootsen signing off.