CXXXII
The Dog of War
They had come to the bleak war-world of Apokolips with one singular objective…
To end Darkseid's reign.
But first, they had to contend with the soldiers of Apokolips.
Within an hour, Orion had strewn thousands of the Great Tyrant's flying cavalry – the parademons – behind him… reducing the airborne defenses of unwelcoming Apokolips to nothing more than charred corpses in his onslaught. With each passing moment, the stormy air of Apokolips reeked heavier with the scent of burning death.
They witnessed the God of Thunder reborn, an unstoppable anger unleashed upon this cursed land who brought them lightning and death. From the skies above him, ten thousand parademon energy-beams had danced around this vengeful God in his devastating march across the doomed war-world... yet none had struck him.
Orion should have died a thousand times over.
In her own rage and anger, even Barda herself marvelled at Orion's fury and their fortune. This was truly war's favoured child. Each blow he struck only reinvigorated him, each foe that fell before his path of destruction became his breath. He was relentless. This was the Dog of War.
And by the Gods, Apokolips would know it.
Barda herself remained wary of the traps and ambushes that Apokolips promised. As she had expected, the enslaved citizens of Darkseid's oppressed world had locked themselves behind any door they could find. The only allegiance they had pledged to the Dread Lord was the cowering fear for their lives. But so far, Apokolips had only thrown countless legions of parademons and lowly shock troops at them…
The airborne parademons were nothing more than stinging wasps that Orion's lighting and Barda's own Mega Rod brought down from the sky. The shock troops were even less effective against the two warrior Gods. Barda knew the elite forces were simply waiting for the best opportunity to confront the pair. Darkseid's elite cared nothing for lowly soldiers or the ghettos that were being destroyed. A wounded foe was easier to kill.
It was typical Apokolips strategy. A normal God would have wearied from the onslaught of one hundred thousand parademons and troops. There would be a moment when they may have become incapacitated, or at least fatigued, and presented the best opportunity for one final, lethal blow.
But this ambush strategy would never work with relentless Orion.
Battle was his mother.
A mother who nursed him with the spilled blood of his enemy and built his bed with the fallen foes of his rage. A mother who gave him the strength to lay waste to a world with nothing more than his bare hands. A mother who gloried in death.
As Barda kept one eye on the shadows, she could not share in Orion's overwhelming joy this day… She had only one goal – to see Darkseid shattered before her boots. Only then would the former leader of the Furies ever smile again.
Only then would her Scott be avenged.
The pair fought against a burning world, leaving scorched earth and ashes in their wake. They destroyed any who dared venture into their path of destruction as they pushed through mountains of defenders towards the throne of Apokolips. Darkseid's day of reckoning had arrived.
With each fallen foe, the unyielding rage within them was not quelled. Instead the fire pits of Apokolips only seemed to nourish their fervent wrath. A favoured son and daughter had finally returned to the soot-laden soil of their home-world, bringing the gifts of death and destruction to nourish the black seeds of hate that had been sown into this dark world eons ago.
These children belonged to Apokolips.
Amidst the bloody carnage, there arrived a moment when the shock troops of Apokolips suddenly fell back and parted before Orion and Barda… revealing a lone figure who faced them in the distance. It was the hulking, monstrous form of –
Kalibak.
Thirty feet away, Darkseid's eldest son held aloft a red-haired captive, a fierce Goddess bound by thick chains laced with toxic Radion. In her youth, she had been beautiful - but her tragic captivity on Apokolips had taken a heavy toll upon her. The Beast spoke, lifting his hostage prize further above the ground…
"Do you even know who this is, Brother? Do you recognize your own mother?!"
Tigra.
Everyone on Apokolips had whispered the tale… After the poisoning of Darkseid's first wife, the vile Heggra had then arranged for her son's second marriage to the eldest daughter of a powerful, rival family. Heggra's grieving son Uxas had reluctantly agreed to take the ill-tempered Tigra as his wife - while he continued to consolidate his grip on the throne, and even fathered a child by the hellcat…
A child she had named Orion.
Neither fierce Tigra nor scheming Darkseid had ever cared for the other. In time, the distance between became an ever greater chasm, until they grew to despise one another. The red-headed Orion was coddled by his mother, yet scorned by his cruel father. Years later, just after the Great Tyrant had betrayed his brother and emerged triumphant from the Omega Realm, Darkseid had the beautiful Tigra banished to the deepest dungeons of Apokolips.
Orion was not as fortunate. The second-born son of Darkseid had been tossed into the kennels of the dog cavalry – monstrous war beasts ridden by the soldiers of Apokolips, each massive beast capable of biting a man in half. Young Orion had fought for his very life that night, savagely killing four of the canine terrors before he was allowed into their pack.
For the next three years, Orion lived as a war-dog, eating scraps and earning the fanged scars of discipline that would stay with him for the rest of his life. As the boy grew, it was the dogs who came to fear and respect his anger - but also sought to earn his respect. It was from this hard upbringing that Orion later earned his legendary moniker… the Dog of War.
As the epic battle of Apokolips and New Genesis threatened to destroy both worlds, the Pact was tendered. Darkseid had his feral son retrieved from the war kennels and cast him to Izaya's tender mercies – secretly hoping that Orion would tear out the old God's throat with his teeth.
Instead, fierce Orion had accepted his new life. Darkseid had given New Genesis the greatest warrior of either world.
Yet Orion's mother had still been held as a prisoner all this time… Now in the clutches of Kalibak.
"Surrender Orion, or I will kill her!"
Orion only laughed at Kalibak's threat while thunder clouds roiled across the dark sky above, echoing his violent amusement.
"Then do so and face me brother! You would only deprive her of the quick pleasure of your death."
Above the beast, Tigra herself laughed along with her son, rattling in her chains as she spat down at Kalibak.
"That is how a warrior fights, coward! That is my son that you gave to the dogs! Not the scheming, craven lot that now hides behind the throne! This is a mighty warrior who will lay waste to all who dare challenge him, heedless of the cost! Flee while you are able, ugly son-of-Suli…"
"Shut up, bitch!"
Besides yanking on Tigra's chains to shut her up, the confused Kalibak was having difficulty contemplating what he should do next. He had expected the adopted child of New Genesis to lay down his arms. Obviously, that strategy had flaws.
Kalibak had only been a child when the fierce Tigra had been imprisoned by his father and young Orion cast into the kennels. Apparently, Tigra was as much of a warrior as her berserk son, with neither of them caring if they lived or died, so long as they did it in battle.
Swift Orion's plan had no such flaws.
The crimson bolt of fury flew from Barda's side across the battlefield and slammed into his larger brother, knocking lumbering Kalibak to the ground so that the Tigra's chains flew from his sizable hands. Orion then swung Thor's hammer, which painfully glanced off Kalibak's shoulder – while the Beast drew blood from Orion's face with his claws digging into the red-head's face.
Crazed Orion blindly struck once more... this time into solid flesh, unleashing a massive bolt of lightning that peeled from the sky – blinding all spectators in a flash of pure white, while its resulting thunder boom deafened the observers, bringing many of them to their knees.
One hundred million volts coursed through both combatants, firing each synapse in their bodies, tossing them apart like children. Both warriors fell to the ground… motionless.
In the aftermath, now resembling charred wreckage, Kalibak lay on the blackened earth - steam wafting from his hairy hide while a large, steaming bubbling wound was evident on his left shoulder where the hammer had struck. Although senseless, the Great Beast still breathed…
His step-brother, tossed ten feet through the air, also lay motionless on the earth while his blood boiled inside him – wisps of crimson smoke suddenly forced from his pores while his eyes and nose showed streaming blood from the opening in his helmet. In a twist of fate, Orion had landed at the feet of his mother Tigra, who had also been stunned by the intense lightning strike.
The crowd of death-dealers could only stare at this brutal spectacle, enthralled - fixed to their place by the battle of the two mighty princes of Apokolips. They stood breathless, waiting to see which New God would stand, which could survive the power of the Old Gods that Orion had brought to their world…
In motionless air, it was Orion's outstretched fingers that suddenly grasped onto the chains coiled around his mother. As he bled from his fingernails, Orion began to slowly pull and unwrap the chain's Radium-infused lengths towards him, each effort producing a primal groan from his scorched lungs.
Barda listened to the whispers around her…
'He's freeing his mother…'
But the former Fury wondered… Those glowing chains that Orion was clutching had been infused with Radium… One of the only elements that could truly kill a New God. Was Orion simply attempting to free his mother, or claim the weapon that could end his brother's eternal existence?
The answer came with a snap… accompanied by a dry, breathy scream as Orion broke off a long section of the chain… and slowly rose to his feet. The New God wobbled while his entire body shook with the effort of standing. Now back on two feet, his free hand ascended, pulling his worn, silver helmet from his head… letting it tumble to the ground in a hush of silence from all around.
Barda had never seen him take his helmet off. Few had ever seen Orion's face…
Deep scars pockmarked his bloodied face – the legacy of the dogs' merciless fangs. His hair had been completely burned off from the lightning strike, leaving only blackened flesh in its place. Smoke still spiralled up from his discarded helmet, where a layer of his flesh had melded into its interior.
But the true fire was the hatred burning in Orion's eyes. With that murderous stare now fixed upon the motionless form of Kalibak, Orion pulled the length of chain along the ground towards his half-brother with agonizing, deliberate steps. Apokolips had never given mercy to Orion… so Orion would return none to Apokolips.
The war dogs had taught him that lesson well.
Tigra's only son limped towards the Great Beast while senseless Kalibak now struggled to rise from the ground – some primal instinct had stirred within the brute as death approached. With groans of agony, Kalibak struggled to his hands and knees, only to be met by Orion's mighty boot slamming against exposed ribs, cracking three of them.
Without hesitation, Orion jumped onto his step-brother's massive back, wrapping the thick chain around the broad neck of Kalibak. With primal rage, Orion then pulled with all his might, strangling the first-born of Darkseid. As Kalibak struggled to free himself of Orion, the chain and Orion's hold only tightened. With each passing breath, Orion grew stronger, continually digging the deadly chain into Kalibak's bearded throat.
The massive strength of the Great Beast was no match for the tenacity of the Dog of War. Tense moments passed until struggling Kalibak finally fell unconscious - yet Orion did not relinquish his death grip.
No one moved to prevent Orion from claiming his final victory – an act of death preordained when two princes faced one another.
Another flash of light blinded them… but this time it was not the mad lightning that had crackled along the battlefield but rather… something different. A figure adorned in white now appeared beside Orion, the Shining Star of New Genesis had appeared…
Lightray.
"Orion… He is defeated... Helpless. To kill him now would be murder."
"This is war, Lightray… Go home. You don't belong here."
"I have been here the entire time, you bloody fool. You would have been dead a thousand times over had I not protected you from the weapons of your foes, both seen and unseen. So as I saved you, you must spare him, my love… or you shall become him."
While internal conflict raged within Orion, another dark, chilling voice stifled the air… as a grey cloud of smoke suddenly appeared on the other side of Orion… All of Apokolips cowered as they recognized that their fearsome King had returned, the hot blood that had ran through their veins suddenly turned cold…
For Darkseid had returned to Apokolips.
"He deserves to die, Orion. Would brutish Kalibak have ever spared you? You know this can only end one way… Finish him."
Orion stared at the evil King of Apokolips who had materialized without a Boom Tube only a mere six feet away… the object of his eternal hatred was so painfully close now… but Orion would not let go of the chain. Lightray placed his hand upon Orion's tense shoulder.
"Orion… you are not an animal. Do not let this place or your sadistic father turn you into something you are not. Please my love, for us… do not allow yourself to do your father's evil bidding. I could never forgive you."
"End Kalibak's boorish misery, Orion. His life and position is your prize... Your salvation. Show me that you have learned your lessons in my kennels well. Show me you are finally fit to take your brother's honoured place by my side… son."
Orion let the chain slip from his grip and tossed it aside. Lightray had been correct; if Orion were to slay Kalibak like this, it would be Orion who would take his place, to become the Great Beast… Kalibak had never been the true threat, just another of Darkseid's games.
Barda's war cry pierced the silence as the Female Fury launched herself at the Great Tyrant, her Mega Rod poised and ready to strike. She had not come back to Apokolips for Kalibak… Opportunities like this to strike Darkseid were too rare indeed.
A sudden emerald beam of energy from above brought the vengeful Goddess crashing to the ground – landing only mere inches away from Darkseid's boots. In the blink of an eye, Barda was encased within a green-energy cocoon, rendering her completely immobile. Struggling with all her Godly might, she could not loosen these constricting emerald bonds.
Darkseid smiled and rested his heavy foot upon Barda's head.
"You are nothing if not predictable, my dear. But Orion… I had such hopes for you, my son... How unfortunate that the gentle life on New Genesis has made you so... weak."
Darkseid glared at Lightray as Orion stepped forward.
"I am strong enough to never stand by your side, Darkseid…"
"If you will not stand beside Darkseid then you shall bow before Darkseid."
Orion never saw the emerald beam that struck him from above, knocking the warrior-God down to his knees. It was a type of energy Orion had never felt before… but not just energy, it was emotion coupled with a commanding will. Unable to resist the beam's power, Orion dropped to his knees, facing his leering father.
"All shall bow before glorious Darkseid. Today is the first day of my eternal empire…"
Author's Note:
I must admit that I'm a little ticked off at Orion's treatment in the Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang re-launch of "Wonder Woman" in DC's new 52. With all the editorial changes lately, perhaps what appears on the page was not their original vision for the character.
Whatever.
Orion appears more like a preppy motocross racer than Kirby's fabled warrior. Even worse, he's acting like a disrespectful moron. Sure, characters get re-designs and different treatments. Times change, new ideas get developed. And it's Wonder Woman's book, she's supposed to be look powerful and dynamic… but please show some respect for Jack Kirby and his creations.
For example… if Diana ever had Orion by the testicles and said (as she did in 'Wonder Woman' #19):
"I can live without your respect. Can you live without these?"
Orion's answer would not be:
"I don't want to…"
No…The Dog of War would simply look into those angry, blue eyes, and respond as follows…
"Take them, Amazon… So that you may use them to pay Chiron's fee in the afterlife."
See fellas? That's how it should be. Badass.
Next Chapter: Darkseid's ultimate plan is finally revealed and the war is begun!