Ngozi Ukazu, creator of the wonderful Check, Please, brought the New God Big Barda, along with others from Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics, to DC’s young adult graphic novel line last year. That graphic novel, Barda, will get a sequel next year that will focus on another New God — Orion.
In the first volume, Barda started the story as the right hand of Granny Goodness and has been tasked with an impossible task — break their prisoner, the unbreakable Scott Free. But something broke in Barda on the fiery Apokolips in the story of first loves. The new volume details Orion’s life on New Genesis as he his fears about not really belonging there are confirmed when Highfather reveals his true lineage.
Here’s the full description:
When Prince Orion uncovers his sinister parentage, he must decide for himself if he is destined to be a hero—or a villain.
The festivals on New Genesis are merry, and the gods who fill its skies are lovers. But Prince Orion, adopted son of the Highfather, is none of these things. A brooding, battle-hungry warrior, Orion wonders how he was ever chosen to become an intergalactic prince, secretly in fear that he does not belong on the planet he calls home.
And then Orion’s darkest nightmares are confirmed when the Highfather himself brings Orion’s true parentage to light: not only is Orion from Apokolips, adopted as part of a cosmic pact, but he is the spawn of the tyrant Darkseid. How can Orion face his loved ones as a beast from Apokolips? How can he live with himself when a tar-black evil runs through his veins? And when Darkseid threatens to destroy all of New Genesis, Orion will have to answer the ultimate question: could he ever be a hero? Or was he born to become a monster?
Orion isn’t the only graphic novel coming up from Ukazu; this fall will bring Flip, the story of a poor student at a rich private school who switches bodies with the most popular kid in her class.
Flip arrives in September, while Orion arrives in June of 2026.