The Appeal of Orion


I believe Orion of the New Gods embodies the universal drive to be better than our parents. The battles between Orion and his father, Darkseid, are really conflicts about progress vs stagnation -- the bold, futuristic design of Orion vs the rocky, rigid, and therefore stagnant appearance of Darkseid.

The power of Orion's conflict comes from the fact that every human being faces the same one, on some level. Your parents may not be as bad as Darkseid, but they make mistakes, big and small, and it's up to you to avoid making the same ones if we're going to create a better world. If everyone can just be better than their parents, society will constantly move forward; but when we repeat their mistakes and perpetuate their cognitive distortions, society stagnates. So when Orion battles the forces of Darkseid, behind every blow is the power of you defying a negative impulse that you inherited from your parents.

Where the conflict becomes more complicated and realistic is in the shame that Orion is characterized with, which is based on the similarities he has to his father. Unlike Luke Skywalker being essentially the opposite of Darth Vader, Orion shares notable qualities with Darkseid that he has to reconcile. His face resembles Darkseid's face, and Orion's insecurity makes him disguise himself using a Mother Box. He is also just as violent as his father, with the same capacity for killing his enemies and the same skill at doing so.

The only people who have seen the true face of Orion and still call him a friend, and who understand that Orion's violent behavior is only for the cause of freedom, are Lightray and Bekka. It takes a depthful examination of a person to understand that their superficial qualities don't define them -- and that can ease the shame of anyone who is uncomfortable with their troublesome lineage. The fact that Orion struggles with this internal conflict adds to the realism of New Gods, because it is hard to be better than your parents when you came from them. (As a side note, if Orion was truly the savage that he superficially appears to be, he would be Kalibak.)

Orion's story ends up being invigorating and empowering because it's about defiance in such an exaggerated yet realistic way, in regards to a conflict that runs through every human being on Earth. We have to be better than whatever made us; we have to defy our heritage.

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