So Orion of the New Gods needs to come to Earth again and set up a civilian identity. When he first did it, he just called himself “O’Ryan.”

This time, someone would ask his first name, and for lack of a better idea, he’d say, “Just call me Ryan.”

And Lightray...

…who is there in disguise as “O’Ryan’s” cheerful, quirky friend, would say, after whoever it is says “Ryan O’Ryan?”:

“It’s even worse. Ryan’s his middle name. His first name’s Oscar. So he’s really O. Ryan O’Ryan."

Lightray’s civilian ID might be Ray Lichtner.

I think it’d be fun sometime to do an Orion series where he had to adopt a secret ID and get along on Earth with an ongoing supporting cast.

Which seemed to be what Kirby was aiming at in the first place, before his imagination blew everything into a bigger canvas.

The book was originally going to be call ORION (later ORION OF THE NEW GODS, then just NEW GODS).

And all three Fourth World books were to be adventure books built out of the war between New Genesis and Apokolips, with Earth as the battleground.

And NEW GODS started out with Orion coming to Earth, having rescued Dave Lincoln, Claudia Shane, Victor Lanza and young but cool Harvel Lockman.

It seemed set up for Orion to adopt the ID of “O’Ryan” and hang out with them. But it ddn’t really go that way.

They got used a bit, but Kirby got so wrapped up in the war, and in introducing lots of characters, that NEW GODS never really felt like Orion’s series. He was the lead god in a chaotic team book, where things happened on Earth but the main character focus was on the gods and...

…their home planets. The conflict was way too big for scenes of life on Earth and room to develop Victor and Claudia and Dave and young but cool Harvey.

And NEW GODS didn’t last, but every time it’s revived, it seems like it’s revived to do what didn’t catch on the first time.

That’s understandable, because Kirby’s grerat, and people who fell in love with NEW GODS enough to want to do the book themselves liked what Kirby did with it.

But I think about going back to a version of that original plan.

Think about it: Victor Lanza, insurance guy, hires Claudia Shane as his secretary and Dave Lincoln and Orion as his investigators, with young but cool Harvey Lockman as the annoying kid who hangs around.

Orion uses the job as cover to seek out and fuck up Apokoliptan schemes...

…on Earth, while learning to live as a human and getting involved in non-godwar adventures too.

Set it in a decaying industrial city with empty factories and a blue-collar populace dealing with the invasion of rich hi-tech yuppie-types.

With Orion as the local violent hero.

It’d be fun.

But also, given an Earth setting that stays around from issue to issue and gives you room to explore and develop the characters, it might have a chance of lasting.

I don’t think it’s chance that MISTER MIRACLE, the Fourth World book with the strongest sense of a...

…consistent Earth setting, lasted the longest.

Lightray is Orion’s god-buddy who visits a lot (he’s practically literally Balder, the light-god of the Norse pantheon), and other gods could crop up, too, but the focus is on Earth and Orion’s relationship with humanity.

Orion takes it all grimly seriously, and Lightray’s amused by Orion trying to fit in, but helps.

With the right artist, it could be a blast.