When was the last time you had your definitive version of character blown up? I don’t mean seeing a really good rendition of a character or a cool different style. I mean having the character completely flipped around on you. You walked into the story thinking that you knew how you felt about the character,. then walked out with a whole new viewpoint. I had that happen this week and it has sent me reeling.
As much as I enjoy all of those versions of the Flash they all fit within a certain expectation I have. They all generate slightly different emotions but I wouldn’t say any of them have actually changed how I feel about the character. They have just aligned closely to my already formulated feelings. My taste has broadened in that I recognize a wider spectrum of what art could fit my character expectations, but my character expectations haven’t changed that much in a couple decades. I still generally like the Flash for the same reasons I did when I was six. (That isn’t a bad thing.)
Superhero characters are like this for me. I know what I like in most superheros. It is just a waiting game for creators who tap into that expectation to come along and work on the characters. The cyclical nature of comics. Don’t mistake this as embittered complaining. I quite like a lot of superhero comics. I am just being honest with myself about how I look at them.
That is why the event of earlier in the week really got me excited. Reading the backup story in DC Universe: Legacies #8 was like a splash of cold water in the face of complacency. Snapshot: Revelation! by Len Wein, Frank Quitely, Peter Doherty, and Rob Leigh completely shook up my feelings about Orion of the New Gods. In particular it was Quitely’s art that really hit me hard.
Orion and the New Gods were a creation of Jack Kirby when he came over to DC comics in the 1970s. They were a collection of series all tied into an epic battle between the forces of good on New Genesis and Darkseid’s evil forces on Apokolips. Kirby was throwing ideas around left and right. Every book was filled with new characters and strange situations. The Fourth World was a bold creative vision that was not a huge commercial success. Many of the characters have taken root in the DC universe and continue to have a following.
Orion was a featured character in the book New Gods. He is Darkseid’s child but was sent to be raised on New Genesis as part of a truce. In exchange, Scott Free aka Miracle Man, son of The Highfather of New Genesis, would be sent to Apokolips to be raised in the shadow of Darkseid. In the first couple issues of New Gods we see Orion charged with rescuing humans that Darkseid has kidnapped while searching for the Anti-Life Equation. Mixed in with the action we get Orion’s back story, Wein’s tale is a quick retelling of those first couple issues. (It is rather remarkably faithful to the original.)
A key element to Orion’s character is that while the mother box can make him appear handsome, he is actually hideously ugly. A noble creature with a ignoble face. In the original comic we can see Kirby’s version of the transformation:
In the recent retelling we see the difference as:
It finally clicked with me in the modern telling. Kirby’s version definitely felt more like you were supposed to “know” that Orion was ugly. The story tells us that it is true, so intellectually I always knew that Orion was hiding his true face. The retelling made me feel it . It wasn’t just an Idea that I knew, it was an emotion that I felt. Kirby’s version didn’t quite sell it visually for me. He wasn’t an artist who often captured classical beauty in his art. His forte was action and adventure. His characters had a rough hewn look that matched the elegant action of his stories. The characters had a earthy beauty to them.
Orion is beyond earthy, literally. He is alien royalty and while he is a warrior his fake visage would be of a regal tone. A tone that Quitely more easily captures. It is funny because there are a lot of readers who think Quitely’s characters are unattractive. In my eyes I think he is a master of the understated alien quality. Since Quitely is able to capture that regal beauty, his drawing of the true face of Orion is truly hideous. Kirby’s style doesn’t allow for a big enough difference in the two looks. The wider the gap the more interesting Orion is.
In that sequence you can feel the despair of Orion. He doesn’t fit in on his adopted world and he has no interest in his true father, aside from destroying him. The mother box can hide his true face but he always knows what he truly looks like. Orion can’t hide from it. After knowing this character for years I suddenly had an emotional epiphany about him. I had a genuine new feeling in regards to the character. It wasn’t a rekindling of a nostalgia. It was redefining the character for me and making his dilemma hit home.
The fact that it was a Fourth World character gave it even more meaning for me. The Fourth World has always been one of my favorite comic book storylines. To have Kirby’s rich universe mined for such great emotional revelations just reaffirms it’s high esteem in my mind. The lesson is that even if you do feel like you have read it all about a character, a great creator can bust out a new feeling. Even one that has been staring you in the face for years.
Tom Katers has the Anti-Life Equation. Unless you give him more Quitely he will use it.
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This has blown my mind and then put it back together again. While I’m not too big a fan of the New Gods, I totally see what you’re saying, and that Orion comparison is a great example.
Orion’s new real face freaked me the fuck OUT when I first saw it.
Goddam – That is me in the morning !
Unfortunately I am talking about panel 2 !
hey DC how about a Quitely Morrison NewGods Rebirth or something ????
Yikes! And yet another reminder that I need to get those Kirby “New Gods” collections. I also want a mother box before my face starts to cave in.
@avejman That would be heaven. I don’t really want a rebirth, but I would love an anthology “Tales of the New Gods” set in the old days. Those Quietly pages in DC Legacies 8 made me hungry for more.
Now that’s a face not even a mother could love.
Without having anything to add to the discussion I just want to say I really enjoyed this article. Consider this the anti-meh.
Great article, Tom. I would love to see Quitely do some extended work on the New Gods. That could be really special.
I love Manapul’s Flash, I also like his Superboy.