One of the easiest things to do to rile up a comic book fan is to make changes to a character they've followed for YEARS. Be it origin, characterization... or ESPECIALLY costume, any of those altered factors could potentially fan the flames of fandom. But the thing about comic creations is they are constantly in a state of periodical creative flux. Even characters that seemingly are unaltered for years undergo subtle changes: Hell, I bet people sometimes even forget that not even Superman could fly for the first few years of his creative existence, and that Batman carried a gun for a brief stretch of time. However, one character that has seemingly gone through a few changes without much... if ANY... controversy is getting his spot in the sun, today. ... And I'm not just talking about the changes that come from Mother Box alteration!
I won't go overlong into the development of Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" genesis at DC in the 70's. All you need to know was that while... out of all the books, "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen" led the charge... "New Gods" was probably the core of the mythology Kirby built. And it introduced the world to Darkseid's bouncing baby boy (Spoilers?) Orion. Adopted as a peace pact between Darkseid's stomping grounds, Apokolips, and New Genesis, Orion struggled with his innate war-like roots and all the hippie-dippy peace-mongering of Highfather. For the most part, Orion's initial appearance has remained the constant.
Even when switches were made to his style, it seems like destiny usually carries him back to the blue gloves, trunks, and boots... matched with a red jumpsuit and BANGING helmet. However, when Jack Kirby departed his creation, DC had different designs for Darkseid's sonny boy...
The relaunch of the New Gods title, and mythology, for the very late 70's into the early 80's, brought us this eyesore of an outfit for Orion. Sure, it's more "super-heroic", with its emphasis on primary colors, and removal of armored elements. And on the renewed "New Gods" title... and its continuation into the Dollar Comics version of "Adventure Comics", the story was graced with EXCELLENT artwork by the late Don Newton. ... But there's no getting around the fact that Orion looked like a goober in his new threads. Hell, at this point in his career, he was little more than a recolored Lightray with an attitude! It would probably be like if you took Wolverine, and made his costume day-glo pink and green. But the mid-80's, and marketing, brought on another change for Orion...
Many of you know my fixation on "Masters of the Universe". So, lemme introduce you to the "Man-E-Faces" version of Orion. Ugh... To be fair, this WAS redesigned by Jack Kirby, which I sure the Kenner toy deal did help him rake in money for his creations. But to also be fair, giving Orion a helmet that more resembles a surgical neck brace... Not so hot. Little wonder this appearance only made it to the toy shelves, and the third DC "Super Powers" comic mini-series. Which, coincidentally, was the worst mini-series of the three. Remind me to write something about that at a latter date, and how it attempted to "validate" such characters as Golden Pharoh an Cyclotron. Ha. Ha.
But going back to the initial 80's DC "Crisis", Orion was returned to his classic look, and stayed that way... even up to his... "death"?... in the general lead-up to "Final Crisis". But one VERY positive thing about the "New 52" status quo at DC was that Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang brought the character back in "Wonder Woman". (Yes, I will give due props to Azzarello's work on "Wonder Woman". It's that good of a book.)
Yes, there are still differences to the costume design, but as a whole, the essence of the classic Orion still exists in the character. And they kept the HELMET! Thus proving that DC can keep reshaking and rebooting their universe more than a person with a virus-infected computer, but no matter how things keep changing, some elements come right back around to being the same.
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