Mother Box

Mother Boxes are fictional devices in Jack Kirby's Fourth World setting in the DC Universe.

The Mother Boxes appeared in the feature films Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League of the DC Extended Universe.

History

Created by

Mother Boxes have sacrificed themselves for causes they have believed in and are greatly respected by the people of New Genesis. In physical appearance they are most often in the shape of a small box, but they can also be much larger (as is the one carried by the

Powers and abilities

• Mother Boxes can access the energy of the
  boom tubes,^[2]
  take over and control non-sentient machines, evolve non-sentient machines, merge sentient beings into a single more powerful being, sustain a life form in a hostile environment such as space, and do many other things. Mother Boxes can be seen as a computer that links man to God.
• To the New Gods, they are common appliances (used much like a
  Doomsday
  .
• Mother Boxes can only be manufactured by a being born either on New Genesis or Apokolips, and not all of them can do it (at least one on Apokolips failed). This is accomplished through much training. It is implied in the books that the maker's character influences the successful construction of a Mother Box. This quality applied to all the Fourth World books (
  Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen; Forever People; New Gods; and Mister Miracle
  ) at the time of their original run by Jack Kirby. In later versions of the previously mentioned books, and in other stories where elements from the Fourth World books (such as the Mother Box) were used, other writers altered the crafting and abilities of Mother Boxes to allow for their making and usage by humans and entities from other planets (such as Superman or Batman).

In a 2008 article, John Hodgman observed: "Mister Miracle, a warrior of Apokolips who flees to Earth to become a 'super escape artist', keeps a 'Mother Box' up his sleeve — a small, living computer that can enable its user to do almost anything, so long as it is sufficiently loved. In Kirby's world, all machines are totems: weapons and strange vehicles fuse technology and magic, and the Mother Box in particular uncannily anticipates the gadget fetishism that infects our lives today. The Bluetooth headset may well be a Kirby creation".^[3] Similarly, Mike Cecchini on Den of Geek described the Mother Box as "an alien smartphone that can do anything from heal the injured to teleport you across time and space",^[4] and Christian Holub in Entertainment Weekly called it "basically a smartphone, as designed by gods".^[5] Motherboxes have also been interpreted as a symbol of the "ideal mother" and an example of the role of motherhood in Jack Kirby's Fourth World stories.^[6]

Notable users and usage

• Noted Mother Boxes include those of
  Shilo Norman, the Mother Box of the Forever People, which can summon the Infinity-Man, and the Mother Box used by Captain Marvel to access the magic lightning when the wizard Shazam
  was on New Genesis.
• When tracking Doomsday after his old foe was reborn on Apokolips, Superman was given a Mother Box by Oberon which he acquired from his connections to Mister Miracle. This Mother Box managed to open boom tubes to take Superman to Apokolips,
  Waverider
  's gauntlet to send Doomsday to the end of the universe, and healed Superman's injuries (simultaneously restoring his original clothes) at the end of the battle, although this last act drained it of power
• Rann after several of the JLA were captured by the telepathic En'Tarans. When Steel was examining the Box to reprogram it for his current plan, he sensed that it had actually "wanted" to do this before, but Orion had been unable to use the Box in this manner as he was so enraged by his current capture that the Box was expending so much energy simply trying to calm him down. During the Mageddon crisis, Orion gave the Mother Box to Metron so he could confront Mageddon with his full rage and power, Metron passing the Box on to Oracle, who was able to link it to her computers, enhancing her technology so that she could telepathically connect with the minds of every person on the planet, helping to coordinate the counter-offensive against Mageddon's influence.^[9] During Walt Simonson
  's Orion series it seemingly died, and he used a unique Apokaliptian Father Box instead. This box communicated by going "ting!" rather than "ping!", and was designed to turn him towards Darkseid.
• Due to time travel, a Mother Box spent hundreds of years in a Japanese temple, waiting for the Forever People to reclaim it.^[10]
• Iron Man was given a Mother Box by Metron in the JLA/Avengers mini-series. He used it to predict the JLA's moves and had it interface with his own armor.
• In Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle storyline, only one Mother Box has survived the destruction of New Genesis. It is owned by Shilo Norman, the third Mister Miracle, who sometimes calls it "motherboxxx".
• In
  Devilance the Pursuer
  .
• In the
  Will Payton
  . This Mother Box was destroyed along with the spaceship by missiles fired from Throneworld. A notable feature of this Mother Box was the fact Ted Knight's consciousness, memories and personality were apparently copied and served as the Box's consciousness, as well as creating a holographic image of Knight to aid Jack. Since this specific box was programmed by Orion, it was prone to violent solutions.
• In the Injustice: Gods Among Us comic, Ares, the God of War, is shown to have a Mother Box in his possession. This box is stolen by Harley Quinn, Hippolyta and Billy Batson while they are trapped in Tartarus. They are shown to be teleported to an unknown place (later revealed to be Apokolips where they are confronted and captured by Darkseid).