Thursday, March 16, 2017

365 Days of Defiance, Day 75: If I could buy back the years, oh, oh, Orion

ORION HAS A POSSE, and just to continue the meme created by Shepard Fairey...


Page portion from "Orion" in Who's Who in the DC Universe (1985 series) #17 (July 1986); text by a whole lotta writers; pencils by Jack Kirby; inks by Greg Theakston; colors by Anthony Tollin, Len Wein, Tatjana Wood, and Tom Ziuko

...Orion is 6'1" and 195 pounds. Unless you happen to subscribe to Peter David's weird-ass retcon that the New Gods are actually giants, and that when you come and go through a Boom Tube it shrinks or embiggens you as needed. In which case Orion is 306'1" and whoa cut down on the cheeseburgers pounds.


Panels from Supergirl (1996 Series) #29 (February 1999); script by Peter David; pencils by Leonard Kirk; inks by Robin Riggs; colors by Gene D'Angelo; color separations by Digital Chameleon; letters by Pat Prentice

I personally do not accept that as part of my personal DC canon. Mister David, I say it's spinach and to hell with it.

Anyway, Orion has a posse of ordinary people, just regular civilians, but they're willing to throw down to fight Darkseid. Just some guys in suits and sweaters and a girl in a green dress. Say, where do you get a gr...wait, that doesn't work. Anyway: they will fight for the right to stop Darkseid!




Panels from The New Gods (1971 series) #2 (April-May 1971), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by John Costanza

Hey, if these average joes (and josephine) can stand up to and defy Darkseid, there's hope for us all.

Hey, special Bully Thank Yous and Encyclopedic Knowledge No-Bull Prizes go to Alex Adrian and to Mark Hale for helping me remember where that riDONKulous idea of Millennium-type Giant New Gods came from. I shake my hoof at thee, Mister So-Called Peter David!

9 comments:

Delta said...

https://www.gofundme.com/peter-david-needs-your-help

Jason Glor said...

I believe the Barenaked Ladies can get you a green dress.
But not a real green dress. That's cruel.

Bully said...

Only if I had a million dollars, Jason.

Steve said...

The giant sized thing predated PAD. I'm going by memory but wasn't it also in the JLA-JSA team up that included the New Gods?

Yatz said...

And, speaking of The Fourth World - no tribute to Goody Rickles' recently departed twin?! I can only surmise that real life is (again) getting in the way of the important stuff...!

Blam (Alternate) said...

I don't remember quite where or when I heard/read the "giant" thing but I feel like it predated that stuff from Peter David too.

Bully said...

Hmm! Anybody got any idea what books I should look for to find this out? Are we talking about the JLA/JSA/New Gods team-up in Justice League of America #183-184?

Blam (Alternate) said...

You could E-mail Mark Evanier, although he's seems pretty busy with stuff right now. He'd at least know if it's something Kirby intended and whether he, Evanier, picked up on it during his own New Gods run later. I've read very little Fourth World stuff beyond Kirby's own and Walt Simonson's Orion, although the list does include that JLA/JSA crossover.

Blam (Alternate) said...

Just did a bit of Google work. The Wikipedia entry for Boom Tube and, with pretty much the same language, the DC Wikia Database entry for it mention the phenomenon and cite as an example 1996's New Gods #10, written by Rachel Pollack, but the language doesn't at all suggest it originated there. Dunno what further searching might turn up but could do some later.