Sketch Tuesday: Orion

Bah. Curse my lateness. No alliteration for me. Orion was the notional lead in Jack Kirby's New Gods series, first appearing in the title's inaugural issue, dated February 1971. Born on Apokolips, raised on New Genesis, and destined to battle his father to the death at the end of all things. Well, until various writers transposed that termination arc onto Kal-El of Krypton. Poor Orion eh? That's before you even get into Batman stealing his missus. Yikes!

Although everyone ignores it, Kirby closed the saga in 1985 with a prestige format graphic novel called The Hunger Dogs. Hunger Dogs saw an increasing isolated Darkseid finally achieving something of his force dominion ambitions through the use the atom allegory Micro-Mark. Orion battles across the hell-planet, instigating a revolution among the despised Apokoliptian working class in the process. Rather than duff his dad at the conclusion, Orion abandons the self-destructive prophecy and zips off to start a new life with his beloved Bekka. He's outgrown Darkseid, and all he entails. A rather fitting conclusion I think, but what do I know?

Being the son of Darkseid, Orion naturally has a brutish exterior. His craggy monster face is usually kept in check by his soothing Mother box, but every now and then he reveals his true form - usually to make a bombastic point. Here's my take on The Dog of War.



Believe it or not, when I started this I didn't intend it to be a weekly love letter to Jack Kirby!