[This review of Orion #15 is the first comic book review that I ever wrote for my “Negromancer” blog, the original version, way back in mid-Summer of 2001. Recently, I was able to recover my files from two early aughts hard drives. Beginning with this review, I am going to go back and re-edit all my original “Negromancer” comic book reviews and post these updated versions to my “I Reads You” blog. I hope you enjoy the trip back in time.]
ORION #15
DC COMICS
STORY: Walter Simonson
ART: Walter Simonson
COLORS: Tatjana Wood; Digital Chameleon (separations)
LETTERS: John Workman
EDITOR: Joey Cavalieri
COVER: Walter Simonson with Tatjana Wood
56pp, Color, $3.95 U.S., $6.50 CAN (August 2001)
Orion and The New Gods created by Jack Kirby
“At the Edge of the Abyss”
Orion is a DC Comics superhero character that first appeared in New Gods #1 (cover dated: February 1971) and was created by writer-artist Jack Kirby. Orion is the son of the super-villain, “Darkseid” of “Apokolips,” who traded him to “Highfather” of “New Genesis” in a peace deal between the two planets. Orion has powers similar to that of Superman, and he rids a device called an “Astro-Harness.” In 2000, DC Comics began publishing Orion, a 25-issue series written and almost entirely drawn by Walter Simonson (best known for his run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983-87).
After a little over a year, the fifteenth issue brings to an end what could be considered the first major arc of Walter Simonson’s engrossing epic comic book series, Orion. The story/epic begins in the first issue with Darkseid’s occupation of the town of Main Line, Nebraska in a bid to extract the “Anti-Life Equation” from the town’s inhabitants. Mentally exhausted and frustrated by his sire’s machinations, Orion meets Darkseid in combat and seemingly kills him in the fifth issue of the magazine. By the eleventh issue, Orion has mastered the Anti-Life Equation and begins to order Apokolips, New Genesis, and Earth in an attempt to end war, suffering and strife.
Orion #15 offers Darkseid's returns. But is Darkseid actually another opponent who seeks to engage Orion in battle?
THE LOWDOWN: I must admit to being mostly disinterested in Jack Kirby’s New Gods and other “Fourth World” comic books that are not the work of Kirby (with the exception of an occasional mini-series or odd stand alone story here and there). That was the case until John Byrne took over the mid-1990’s revival of the New Gods (Vol. 4, 1995-97) for the final four issues (#12 to #15) and then, produced subsequent 20-issue series , Jack Kirby’s Fourth World (1997-98).
I was saddened to see Byrne extinguish the title, but I was curious after the announcement that Simonson would have a follow-up magazine that would focus on Orion. It is in Issue #15 that we can see what Simonson does when he is really “on his game,” and as good as he has been, this issue is a career highlight precisely because he doesn’t rely on the fact that he can rest on his laurels because he is a mature and practiced veteran. His knowledge, ability and passage meet at a nexus that the best comic book creators rarely reach even in a career of standout work.
Orion is one of those rare “these days” books in which the title thrives not just on the popularity and strength of the characters, but primarily upon the skills of the artists involved. Simonson’s tales are not only epic in scope, but are also melodramatic and operatic in execution. As in the best of serializations, Simonson weaves strong character development, directs engrossing plot lines, and executes the genre trappings with verve of an old hand who is an old master.
Orion is in fact a sad and pitied figure in the tradition of tragic royalty. Blessed and cursed by birth and history and with power and a great warrior’s skill, he struggles to bring order to his universe precisely because he cannot find that same order anywhere. His home of Apokolips is a nest of never ending intrigue, betrayal, and hypocrisy. New Genesis, the enlightened opposite of Apokolips is more of the same except it has flowers, sunshine, and nice architecture. Earth is the playground of misguided super powered beings that, in the long run, are actually largely ineffective.
It is in the world that the reader must see and engage the lead, which is not a slight of the other characters. Even those that are not necessarily as developed as others, Simonson endows them with their own list of wants and needs and weaves them into the vast tapestry that is Kirby’s Fourth World. However, it is Orion that we must follow, because Simonson draws the reader to him; the reader sees the world only through Orion’s eyes. Yes, the others are interesting, but we view them always with the thought in mind of how he or she fits into Orion’s story. Is he friend or enemy of Orion? What does she want of Orion? This is truly one of the standards by which other “solo” books should be measured. Regardless of how “cool” or interesting a supporting player might be, that player is merely a piece on the lead’s board. No supporting player should have a story or plot thread concerning him that does not directly affect the lead.
About Simonson art – what is there to say? Like Byrne, he captures the sense of grandeur, scale, power, and dynamism that was in Kirby’s work, and executes it in their own inimitable style. Rather than an homage or remake, Simonson continues the saga the way one storyteller would follow the others before him who were also painting, so to speak, on a larger shared canvas. One can see Simonson’s considerable skill and talent in the vitality of the line work, the simultaneous grace and roughness of the inking, and the draftsmanship of a man who knows what he is doing. The panel layouts and arrangement so much serve the story in plot and pacing that one knows that it could never be any other way – meaning he didn’t do it to make pretty original art for buyers who are easily wowed by the eye candy of a pinup. Characters literally leap off the pages, and they pose with the grace and confidence of proven warriors and kings born. There is pathos and drama that is better than some “movie” and is worthy of the theatrical stage. Every single panel matters, and Simonson wastes nothing. There is no filler to snap the attention of those easily distracted. This is quality work, good storytelling, and style over substance.
If you ignore so-called mainstream work, Orion can be your guilty pleasure that is not a guilty pleasure. For the ones chasing alternate covers, “Ultimate” titles and revamps, there is good food at this table called Orion.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Walter Simonson and of Jack Kirby's “Fourth World” will want to find a trade collection of Orion (2000).
[This comic book also includes the back-up story, “Great Than / Less Than” from writer Kevin McCarthy, artist John Paul Leon, colorist Tatjana Wood, and letterer John Workman.]
A
★★★★ out of 4 stars
EDITED: Sunday, April 13, 2025
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. “I Reads You”
In 2018, DC Comics began publishing trade collections of Walter Simonson's Orion, which you can find at Amazon.
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