By Mel Dyer
I think it's a shame that Geoff Johns didn't give an Orion/Diana partnership, a chance. Conceptually, this worked for me, better than the stale Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor sandwich that we fans have been choking on, since comic's Golden Age...Sty-ana?
In Brian Azzarello's hands (for fans, certainly not the most trusted hands, at the time he was writing Wonder Woman), Orion was Willie Garvin to Diana's Modesty Blaise, who (btw) is also a Greek princess...nothing overtly sexual, between them. We don't really know, if they're boinking. Like Diana and Orion, they're companions - does it matter, if they're messing around? Let people use their bloody imaginations...
If we still have those.
The friendship between the Amazing Amazon and Jack 'King' Kirby's New Gods hero, Orion, started with a guardrail orientation of how to treat each other. There was a dehumanizing, politically incorrect rump-slap and the timely response: an attack on the offender's testicles, followed by a sound knocking, across a room, ..served by Wonder Woman! After that establishment of boundaries and surviving the wraths of Apollo and First Born, there came a mutual baring of souls and contemplation of the burden of pursuing perfection. Throughout, the development of this friendship, there was banter and playful threats ..and fun. This was a layered, grown-up relationship, with a foundation in respect, growing mutual admiration and friendship.
Furthermore, I like that Diana and Orion are so radically different in their POV, while understanding one another, as warriors and sharing the burden of their godlike parents' expectations for them. Between them...depth! No soap opera cheese, with a trail of clothes to a bedroom ..or sight of Diana waking up, with her head in a man's lap [That happened!], ..and it's much sexier, than anything in the WW comic, before or sense. This is a grown-up, heterosexual relationship, between a man and a woman, with conflict and honesty and beauty, ..and it's the only one Wonder Woman has ever been in.
In the real world, when ignorant, poorly raised men and a few well-schooled ones are disrespectful of women, deliberately or unintentionally, ..the women they care about correct them. It happens, every day, and the world doesn't end, with the men being sent to the gas chamber! In turn, women dismiss and disrespect men, also, and are forgiven. Not every transgression, between men and women, in the real world, ends in yellow, police tape, divorce or families being torn apart. Comparatively, when Brian Azzarello showed Diana confront Orion's very ugly disrespect and correct it, in such a way that made Orion a better human being, ..without destroying their 'Army' family, it was brilliant and solidly good writing...
And felt like it. Never has, with neutered Steve Trevor.
At no point in their friendship and partnership, was Diana not shown to be the leader, ..unquestionably. Orion's disrespect was put in its place, ..as was Orion. Over the course of their time together, she became his teacher, his healer, his commander...his priest. Wonder Woman and Orion made sense, in that fashion, and the conflict between them only served to define Diana, ..in a way that affirms why she is Wonder Woman.
Some of us WW fans prefer this ..to cheese. Brian Azzarello is a genius. He is a gift.
I especially liked that these adventurers were more partners, than lovers, who showed a growing awareness and appreciation of each other. I found their curiosity and ability to actually learn about each other to be spontaneous...refreshing, ..preferring this to the stagnant, duller-than-a-dead-kanga instant-marriage that writers give us, whenever Colonel Steve Trevor is Diana's love interest. If this is the way, it could be, with Wondy and Orion, if they'd been given a half a chance, ..we fans've really been cheated.
If the TV show and DC Comics' New 52 proved anything, it's that Wonder Woman doesn't need to be anybody's (and that includes Steve's) girl ..to rock. She needs an interesting male companion, and SEVERAL, I think - Orion, TV's Andros, Rama, etc - who bring something interesting to the telling of a WW story. If the guy happens to look like Ted Shackelford, ..God bless him, ..and gods bless her!
Oh, Mr. Johns, ..you sure missed the money train, when you blocked this magic. Johns Superman-Wonder Woman match-up might've clocked a notch on Big Blue's belt, but, it did nothing to move the ball forward for the Wonder Woman comic's lackluster sales and its fans ..or the box office for the Wonder-movies...
Nothing. Wonder Woman and Orion, sparring with each other, like old prize fighters...like rusty swords, while kicking the hell out of First Born or Darkseid - comic or movie, it sells itself! Find me one person, who's streaming Wonder Woman 1984, right now, to see the Amazon fool around, with Superman...one guy. I dare you...
And I think that is exactly what Orion's creator, Jack Kirby, would say.
Mel Dyer, without his fine, coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby (now moved on to that big, coyote-hatin' hate group in the Sky) continues a somewhat bleaker, dogless existence in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC. He has been an active member of the Latino Culture Council of the Capitol Area (El Consejo de Cultura Latina – La Zona del Capitolio) and the Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill.
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