What do you think?
Rate this book
Orion by Walt Simonson #2
Orion by Walter Simonson Book Two
He is the brave and noble champion of New Genesis, adopted by its benevolent Highfather and raised as his own son. Yet within him also boils the rage and power of his true father--the tyrannical ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid!
His name is Orion, and this is the story of his greatest adventure! Ranging from the streets of America to the furthest reaches of time and space, this epic saga will uncover long-hidden secrets from Orion's past--and provoke the ultimate reckoning for his future! Only one talent could possibly summon the vision and fortitude necessary to recount such a mighty tale as this--the supremely gifted writer and artist Walter Simonson!
Orion by Walter Simonson Book One collects issues #12-25 of the legendary storyteller's acclaimed Orion series, and also includes a treasure trove of Simonson's Fourth World-related short stories, covers and sketches.
His name is Orion, and this is the story of his greatest adventure! Ranging from the streets of America to the furthest reaches of time and space, this epic saga will uncover long-hidden secrets from Orion's past--and provoke the ultimate reckoning for his future! Only one talent could possibly summon the vision and fortitude necessary to recount such a mighty tale as this--the supremely gifted writer and artist Walter Simonson!
Orion by Walter Simonson Book One collects issues #12-25 of the legendary storyteller's acclaimed Orion series, and also includes a treasure trove of Simonson's Fourth World-related short stories, covers and sketches.
357 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2019
3 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Walter Simonson
1,263 books174 followersWalt Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator.
He is married to comics writer Louise Simonson, with whom he collaborated as penciller on X-Factor from 1988 to 1989, and with whom he made a cameo appearance in the 2011 Thor feature film.
He is married to comics writer Louise Simonson, with whom he collaborated as penciller on X-Factor from 1988 to 1989, and with whom he made a cameo appearance in the 2011 Thor feature film.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 21, 2022
Orion by Walter Simonson Book Two collects issues #12-25 of Orion.
Orion's greatest adventure concludes in this volume. After bending Apokalips and Earth to his will using the Anti-Life Equation, Orion soon finds himself facing Darkseid, a Promethean Giant, The Ecruos, and others with the fate of the universe in the balance.
The book has a cosmic, epic feel not often seen in comics. Byrne's Fourth World run had big things happen but I never felt like there was a chance the universe would end. While I logically knew Orion would save the tree at the heart of reality, I had my doubts a few times. As if being the Anti-Life Equation's bitch for a while wasn't enough, Orion has his eyes gouged out and spends some unpleasant time on earth before settling things and eventually restoring the status quo for whomever picked up Orion next.
Simonson's art and writing was a good fit for the mythic tone of the book. Byrne and Austin did a couple issues and were able to maintain what Simonson was doing. It may have been their best work together. I've have some minor quibbles, like Orion never actually fighting the battle depicted on the cover and Mister Miracle's motivation being a little unclear. I could have done without the Earth story at the end in favor of more cosmic stuff but it wasn't my tale to tell.
I enjoyed Simonson's depiction of Darkseid. Darkseid works best for me as a master manipulator rather than a heavy hitter and that's the way Simonson plays him. Hell, he does a great job with Orion too, giving him what he wants and letting him dig his own grave with it. There are some similarities to his approach with Thor but when the story involves gods and you hire Walt Simonson, you shouldn't be surprised.
Orion by Walter Simonson is in the pantheon of great cosmic comics. Five out of five stars.
Orion's greatest adventure concludes in this volume. After bending Apokalips and Earth to his will using the Anti-Life Equation, Orion soon finds himself facing Darkseid, a Promethean Giant, The Ecruos, and others with the fate of the universe in the balance.
The book has a cosmic, epic feel not often seen in comics. Byrne's Fourth World run had big things happen but I never felt like there was a chance the universe would end. While I logically knew Orion would save the tree at the heart of reality, I had my doubts a few times. As if being the Anti-Life Equation's bitch for a while wasn't enough, Orion has his eyes gouged out and spends some unpleasant time on earth before settling things and eventually restoring the status quo for whomever picked up Orion next.
Simonson's art and writing was a good fit for the mythic tone of the book. Byrne and Austin did a couple issues and were able to maintain what Simonson was doing. It may have been their best work together. I've have some minor quibbles, like Orion never actually fighting the battle depicted on the cover and Mister Miracle's motivation being a little unclear. I could have done without the Earth story at the end in favor of more cosmic stuff but it wasn't my tale to tell.
I enjoyed Simonson's depiction of Darkseid. Darkseid works best for me as a master manipulator rather than a heavy hitter and that's the way Simonson plays him. Hell, he does a great job with Orion too, giving him what he wants and letting him dig his own grave with it. There are some similarities to his approach with Thor but when the story involves gods and you hire Walt Simonson, you shouldn't be surprised.
Orion by Walter Simonson is in the pantheon of great cosmic comics. Five out of five stars.
Read
August 13, 2020Talking to a comics mate the other day about my long-standing lack of connection with Jack Kirby's work, they suggested it was best considered as outsider art. And there's something to that, but for me it wasn't quite there. Here, reading the conclusion of Simonson's visit to the Kirbiest of the Kirby, it came to me. You know the bits of William Blake that aren't the unofficial national anthem or mainstays of poetry anthologies? The borderline impenetrable mythology stuff, Urizen et al? Imagine Blake reincarnated, haunted by tantalising fragments of that, and trying to work it out again using the action figures from a Saturday morning cartoon. That's Jack Kirby's work.
Still, for all that I don't like the original, sometimes I love seeing successors batter it into shape, with Simonson fairly high up the list. He's not even trying to hide the similarities to his best-known work on another Kirby koncept here: it's already the epic saga of a divine patriarch and his troublesome son, just like Marvel Thor, and this time out he also introduces a great tree at the heart of all things and even a doomed planet called Baaldur. The interesting thing, though, is the way the story swerves its obvious directions. We open with Orion having finally succeeded in the quest that always evaded his sire Darkseid: he's mastered the Anti-Life Equation. So this is a story about him being corrupted by that power, right? No, he puts it to good use, ending the so-nasty-even-fringe-Tories-might-blanche culture of Apokolips, and then moving on to Earth, his message pretty much the same one Wyld Stallyns would recognise: "Love each other. Do no harm. Lay down your weapons". Ah, so a story about good intentions going awry? Not quite – he does conclude later that this was a mistake, but by that point the spell is broken anyway, so we don't see the bit where it ruins Earth, only the benefits. OK, so how about the plot where a loyalist to the old regime has suborned Lightray, and has New Genesis poised to attack an Orion they've been told is still evil? That's the real direction, surely – a story about the tragedy of cosmic balance, where once the warlike hell-planet finally chills out, the former heroes of its heavenly counterpart are tricked into becoming the aggressors? Nope, that peters out in a deliberate and quite effective anticlimax, after which things move on to a whole other level of cosmic. Finally, I think, this is where the run is going - the big stuff, the gods beyond the gods. Wrong again; soon we get pretty much a reset button, and it's back to the conventional mode, with heroic Orion fighting the forces of Apokolips on Earth and beyond. Did Simonson get to his natural endpoint but then get asked to continue? Was he still headed off into the wild blue yonder but asked by editorial to rein it in a bit? Or was what we can read just exactly what he fancied doing? I don't know, but I still quite enjoyed it either way. His art is more blocky and rough-hewn than it was on Thor, which works for the Kirby stuff though does feel a bit off when we get guest appearances from the clean-cut likes of Superman and Captain Marvel. His sound effects remain the best in the business, with the classic KRAKATHOOM! here joined by hip young gunslingers like THKREEEEEEI and SPAAAATHRAK! And he's still joined, especially on the back-ups, by everyone from John Byrne to Eddie Campbell. And eventually, it does start to make sense why the story has cycled around again, as plot strands seemingly forgotten in the first volume return to the mix and new directions start to reveal themselves as the idea about arriving again at the place you left, and knowing it for the first time. Hell, it even drops in a little Blake reference to support my theory, and that always makes me like a work more (see also the point where Breaking Bad's writers eventually confirmed that yes, they knew Babylon 5). I was still frustrated by the tendency to give Darkseid additional dimensions and nuances which the character really doesn't need, and clearly it's not the equal of the Thor run (or at least, not of the 4/5 of that I've read), but on its own terms this is some quality cosmic mythology.
Also, the last issue does have an absolutely lovely little nod back to Frog Thor.
Still, for all that I don't like the original, sometimes I love seeing successors batter it into shape, with Simonson fairly high up the list. He's not even trying to hide the similarities to his best-known work on another Kirby koncept here: it's already the epic saga of a divine patriarch and his troublesome son, just like Marvel Thor, and this time out he also introduces a great tree at the heart of all things and even a doomed planet called Baaldur. The interesting thing, though, is the way the story swerves its obvious directions. We open with Orion having finally succeeded in the quest that always evaded his sire Darkseid: he's mastered the Anti-Life Equation. So this is a story about him being corrupted by that power, right? No, he puts it to good use, ending the so-nasty-even-fringe-Tories-might-blanche culture of Apokolips, and then moving on to Earth, his message pretty much the same one Wyld Stallyns would recognise: "Love each other. Do no harm. Lay down your weapons". Ah, so a story about good intentions going awry? Not quite – he does conclude later that this was a mistake, but by that point the spell is broken anyway, so we don't see the bit where it ruins Earth, only the benefits. OK, so how about the plot where a loyalist to the old regime has suborned Lightray, and has New Genesis poised to attack an Orion they've been told is still evil? That's the real direction, surely – a story about the tragedy of cosmic balance, where once the warlike hell-planet finally chills out, the former heroes of its heavenly counterpart are tricked into becoming the aggressors? Nope, that peters out in a deliberate and quite effective anticlimax, after which things move on to a whole other level of cosmic. Finally, I think, this is where the run is going - the big stuff, the gods beyond the gods. Wrong again; soon we get pretty much a reset button, and it's back to the conventional mode, with heroic Orion fighting the forces of Apokolips on Earth and beyond. Did Simonson get to his natural endpoint but then get asked to continue? Was he still headed off into the wild blue yonder but asked by editorial to rein it in a bit? Or was what we can read just exactly what he fancied doing? I don't know, but I still quite enjoyed it either way. His art is more blocky and rough-hewn than it was on Thor, which works for the Kirby stuff though does feel a bit off when we get guest appearances from the clean-cut likes of Superman and Captain Marvel. His sound effects remain the best in the business, with the classic KRAKATHOOM! here joined by hip young gunslingers like THKREEEEEEI and SPAAAATHRAK! And he's still joined, especially on the back-ups, by everyone from John Byrne to Eddie Campbell. And eventually, it does start to make sense why the story has cycled around again, as plot strands seemingly forgotten in the first volume return to the mix and new directions start to reveal themselves as the idea about arriving again at the place you left, and knowing it for the first time. Hell, it even drops in a little Blake reference to support my theory, and that always makes me like a work more (see also the point where Breaking Bad's writers eventually confirmed that yes, they knew Babylon 5). I was still frustrated by the tendency to give Darkseid additional dimensions and nuances which the character really doesn't need, and clearly it's not the equal of the Thor run (or at least, not of the 4/5 of that I've read), but on its own terms this is some quality cosmic mythology.
Also, the last issue does have an absolutely lovely little nod back to Frog Thor.
July 10, 2020
A pleasant, satisfying ending to Simonson's arc on the New Gods. And the return of rat-fighting frogs!
August 1, 2022
Don’t let the three star review fool you. I throughly enjoyed this read! It just has some issues for me that put it a bar below the rest of the collection.
For starters, the series name is more accurate in this volume. This book is truly about Orion & Orion alone. And for the first half (& the last issue, which alone nearly made this a four star read for me), it was riveting. But most of the second half of the book it just felt like fluff & filler. I’ll admit that I was bored throughout this section. There were so many random characters that just show up for an issue or two about which I really couldn’t have cared less. The shining light of this section is the character development we see in Orion. The toll of the prophecy, the power, & the failure really push him into the final issue, which have I mentioned is phenomenal?
All in all, it felt like a satisfying conclusion to 114 issues of Fourth World craziness into which Kirby, Byrne, & Simonson poured themselves & I’m glad it experienced this entire story at once!
For starters, the series name is more accurate in this volume. This book is truly about Orion & Orion alone. And for the first half (& the last issue, which alone nearly made this a four star read for me), it was riveting. But most of the second half of the book it just felt like fluff & filler. I’ll admit that I was bored throughout this section. There were so many random characters that just show up for an issue or two about which I really couldn’t have cared less. The shining light of this section is the character development we see in Orion. The toll of the prophecy, the power, & the failure really push him into the final issue, which have I mentioned is phenomenal?
All in all, it felt like a satisfying conclusion to 114 issues of Fourth World craziness into which Kirby, Byrne, & Simonson poured themselves & I’m glad it experienced this entire story at once!
February 8, 2025
Walter Simonson's ORION is, simply, the best thing DC Comics has ever published (outside of maybe WATCHMEN). Simonson understands mythology and building epic stakes, but he also knows how to create solid human characters who add emotional nuance to the saga. Sure, obviously Orion wants revenge on Wolfram, but Melissa's toughness and raw emotion add so much to the journey. Darkseid, the master plotter and complicated father, is played perfectly, and Simonson adds - in just ONE issue - so much depth and determination to Scott Free that it surpasses everything else anyone has done with Scott since Jack Kirby's original run. From the most epic expanses to the most squalid urban alley, ORION takes readers on an unforgettable journey.
June 14, 2022
I think this is one of the best Orion books out there. With so much space to explore that Jack Kirby left us, Walter Simonson was able to take advantage of this and fill it up with his own imagination.
Orion, if I may say is the strongest among the New Gods -so what happens when he encounters internal issues. This book shows that to us. How a strong being like Orion reconciles with his past and realizes his destiny.
If you are a New God fan, then this book is for you. It gives you a lot without damaging the foundation that Kirby has laid.
Orion, if I may say is the strongest among the New Gods -so what happens when he encounters internal issues. This book shows that to us. How a strong being like Orion reconciles with his past and realizes his destiny.
If you are a New God fan, then this book is for you. It gives you a lot without damaging the foundation that Kirby has laid.
June 26, 2023
Orion goes to Hell and back, Apokolips-style. It is interesting to see the Bob Wiacek inks of Simonson pencils later in the book. Much more clean and crisp. Like Byrne, I prefer Simonson doing his own inks. Wiacek gives Simonson's pencils a more cartoony look. This does no take away the enjoyment of the story. Epic storytelling from Simonson.
April 4, 2023
It is acceptable to have expected more, but perhaps it is also acceptable for the artist to have produced what has been delivered. Read his Thor saga for greatness.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews