My seven favorite parts of Ngozi Ukazu's Orion

"Hmm, is the world ready for a dreamy Orion....?" 

That was my first thought when I saw the cover of Orion, the new original graphic novel from Ngozi Ukazu, the cartoonist responsible for Check, Please!, Flip (reviewed in this column) and, most relevantly, Barda, the last of which is something of a prequel to this work, as its events kick off those here. 

Of course, when Jack Kirby created Orion, who originally appeared in 1971's New Gods #1, his looks were integral to the character, as he had a handsome face provided by the fantastical technology of the mother box, as well as a truer, bestial face that he tried to keep hidden from others, a state of affairs reflective of the dual nature of the hero Kirbys' multi-book, mythology-inspired "Fourth World" saga. 

But while Kirby is an almost unparalleled artist in the history of American comic books, I don't think drawing sexy characters was necessarily his strength. When he drew a handsome man or a beautiful woman, particularly by that point in his career, they tended to look more peculiar than like they possessed standard good looks (Particularly, I think when read today; like, if you read the recent-ish DC Finest: The Demon: The Birth of the Demon, collecting Kirby comics from the early seventies, it's clear that Jason Blood and Glenda Mark are meant to be good-looking young people, and you can see it in their smoother faces with less exaggerated features than that of characters like, say, Harry Matthews, but they would stand out as odd is stood side by side with other DC heroes and their love interests of the time). Kirby's Orion, at his most handsome, was more rugged than dreamy.

But Ukazu's, as seen on that cover? That is the most handsome I've ever seen Orion. He looks young and sexy in a way Kirby's or John Byrne's or Walt Simonson's Orion's never really did, and I like the longer, seventies-style hair, as if Ukazu was drawing him in the style of handsome young man from the years in which he first appeared in comics.

In fact, while I didn't see it so much in this particular image, Ukazu's Orion reminded me quite a bit of a young, original trilogy era Mark Hamill, in his hair and in his face (if not as much in Orion's bigger, more muscular build). That is, of course, wholly appropriate, given that Hamill played the quintessential space fantasy hero of the seventies...and doubly so in that Hamill's Luke Skywalker was so inspired by Kirby's Orion, particularly in his conflict with his evil father. 

But enough about the cover image. How is Ukazu's Orion? It's good. I reviewed it at Good Comics for Kids last week, and I found it a satisfying portrait of the character, who is at the very heart of Kirby's Fourth World story in a way that Big Barda wasn't. 

While Ukauzu works in the space opera mold of Kirby's original comics here, there were also some really fun and a few funny moments. My favorite are below...but I would encourage you to read Orion prior to reading the rest of this post, so that you enjoy these moments in their original and proper context before reading my excited babbling about them (Like Godzilla's The Odyssey, I see Orion is also available on Hoopla, so you can read it online for free immediately, provided your library has Hoopla, and you have a library card). 

1.) Insecure Orion. Do you think this is the New Genesis version of "Would you still love me if I was a worm?" 

I should probably note that the love between Orion and Lightray here is entirely brotherly...although it is so strong and so affectionate, and neither of them have a female love interest in this book, so I would not be at all surprised if some young readers find themselves reading more into their relationship here.

2.) Orion meets the Female Furies. Lashina seems struck with both Orion's looks ("Never put that silly helmet back on, Orion. You're a delicious sight without it!" she says when she first meets him) and his political future on Apokolips given his heritage. And so, when she meets him, she approaches him, sits on his lap and rather PG-13-ishly comes on to him.

You can see his response in the panel above. I like how perfectly blase Ukazu draws him while he quite forcefully pushes Lashina off of him, as well as the look on her face. 

In the very next panel we see her rubbing her butt, while squiggly pain lines radiate from it, and Orion asks about Big Barda, to Lashina's disappointment. (Barda has escaped Apokolips for Earth off panel somewhere between the end of Ukazu's Barda and this point in Orion).

3.) Not quite Dredd level, but close! Unfortunately, Ukazu did not seem to be writing for quotability, or meme-ability, as you can see in this sequence. Throughout the book, Orion and his half-brother Kalibak fight repeatedly. In this, their second battle, Kalibak roars a bit about the psychology behind his enmity, noting that Darkseid doesn't really "see" him because of his focus on Orion, and returns to the motif again, saying "Then let all Apokalips see my brother's defeat at my hand!"

Orion comes up with a nice retort—"See my fists." But Ukazu inserts a wordless panel between those in which the two share dialogue, one in which she shows us Kalibak throwing Orion's astro-harness into a nearby firepit, and then she further has Orion make an aside about how big Kalibak is before his line about the fists.

Thus, though it's in the neighborhood, we don't get a classic moment like that of the "GAZE INTO THE FACE OF FEAR!"/"GAZE INTO THE FIST OF DREDD!" sequence that the comics Internet (so rightly) loves. 

4.) Was Orion cute when he was a baby? No, no he was not. 

5.) Barda is awesome in this book too. Things come to a head when Orion goes to Earth looking for his pact brother, the son of Highfather who was traded to Darkseid as a baby in exchange for him. As you know, this is Scott Free. This leads to a fun sequence where we see Scott and Barda grocery shopping on Earth, only for a pair of boom tubes to open up in rapid succession. Orion and a parademon tumble out of one, and Lightray emerges from the other. Naturally, Barda leaps into action when her old enemy suddenly appears ("Why did you clobber that guy?" Scott asks after she punches Orion across the store, "And how did he survive one of your punches?").

There's obviously a lot of confusion and some misunderstandings in the scene, but I love Barda's last line in that panel above, which actually made me laugh out loud.

Though her name and image aren't' on the cover of this one, and her panel time rather limited, it's well worth noting that Ukazu's Orion is also a pretty great Barda comic. 

The entire Earth sequence, in which Orion and Lightray encounter ways familiar to us but strange to them, is a lot of fun, and reminded me of the best parts of the original Thor movie, where the hero of another old Jack Kirby mythology-inspired comics saga was confronted the mundane world of Earth (and its breakfast foods).

6.) I do so love a comic book catchphrase. Look, I'm only human. I get excited every time Orion says some version of "I have heard the word — —and it is battle!"

The last time I did so was when rereading the John Ostrander-written Armageddon: Inferno a few months back, and Walt Simonson drew Orion appearing among other heroes in dinosaur times, spouting a version of that line.

By the way, this splash page, which kicks off the book's fifth and final chapter, is probably the Kirby-est of any image in the book. 

7.) Orion does not fight by Queensberry rules. This was the second time I laughed out loud. I love that Ukazu managed to depict Orion's ferocity in battle while simultaneously making it funny, and Scott's reaction to the sight of Orion biting an opponent. Why use the astro-force when you can just use your teeth...?