"THE PACT!"

[althechi]

So I was thumbing through my New Gods collection and felt that more of its epicness could be spread around.

This story was advertised as the origin of Orion and Mr. Miracle. What they don't tell you is that it's essentially Highfather's origin too, from when he was known as "Izaya the Inheritor" (what does he inherit? That's a plot point.)

About 8.5 pages out of 26.

Let's get a better view of that splash page, shall we?



Now, a whole lot of plot happens before and after this, so I'll summarize: By the machinations of Darkseid, heir to the throne of Apokolips, his uncle went and accidentally killed Izaya's spouse, kicking off the war. Thanks to Metron's help, "dimensional warp" technology (a crude precursor of the Boom Tube) gets invented, allowing the forces of Apokolips to directly invade New Genesis. Steppenwolf is killed by Izaya during one of these strikes (once again, according to Darkseid's plan.)

With that out of the way, let's continue, shall we?







"IZAYAAA-"

Damn, that's one epic sequence all right. Imagine if it'd been adapted to animation or live-action for a moment.



Told you it was a plot point.

So Izaya (now Highfather) and Darkseid agree to a truce, trading each other's sons as a gesture of peace. Darkseid agrees, acknowledging that the war is essentially going nowhere anyway.

From New Genesis, "so gently nudged through the threshold", is none other than Mr. Miracle himself:



Darkseid beat David Xanatos to his schtick years before the latter even existed.

And from Apokolips to New Genesis, we have Orion, son of Darkseid and Tigra. He's a nice happy chap with absolutely no rage issues.

...ehh, who am I kidding?




So there you have it; the origin of not just Orion and Scott Free (who doesn't really get any character moment, come to think of it) but also Highfather and essentially the entire conflict between the two worlds. I hope you lot enjoyed reading this as I had putting it up! =)

One last quibbling point: It's mentioned (multiple times) in the series that Orion's face bears not the gentle features of the New Genesis folk, and it's thus a major point that he's Darkseid's son and all, but looking at this here last page, he and Highfather have pretty much THE SAME EYEBROWS. Ah well.

Comments

[latakithanarratar]

perfect wake up to the morning...SHEER EPICNESS!!

[jkcarrier]

"Scott Free (who doesn't really get any character moment, come to think of it)"

Kirby was saving that for Mister Miracle #9, "Himon!", which pretty much picks up where this story left off. :D

[arilou_skiff]

Yeah, this is epic. Biblical even.

[hyperactivator]

Lovely.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yes, this sort of thing is pure Kirby. It's what he excelled at - his problem was that he had difficulty handling the small stuff.

[timgueugen]

Isn't young Orion actually Charles Xavier? He's got Charlie X's weird eyebrows.