Thursday, October 17, 2013

31 Days of Halloween - Day 17

Monster: Orion

Appearance: "Here There Be Monsters - part 2: Orion" Midnight, Mass. - Here There be Monsters #2. April 2004. 

Paul Lee: Artist, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh: Colorist, Janice Chiang: Letterer, Tomer Hanuka: Cover, Zachary Rau & Joan Hilty: Editors. Midnight, Mass. created by John Rozum

One of the things that was important to me about Midnight, Mass. is that the monsters had to be unique. While there were things such as vampires, and creatures out of folklore and mythology, the core monsters had to be creatures that stood apart from the typical go to monsters. 

The monsters of Midnight, Mass. also differed in that they were fully fledged characters, people with their own beliefs -- both personal, and as a group, personalities, quirks, complex emotional states, and so on, rather than mindless snarling beasts. Even so, there was always a reminder that as nice as some of them may seen, these creatures are in fact monsters. 

Orion was one of the friendlier ones, and he gets a fair amount of development for the one issue that he appears in, with an implied backstory of tremendous scope. As the above page of his origin implies, Orion is a sentient, man shaped section of the night sky, named Orion because it was the only constellation his human "mother" knew the name of other than the big dipper. 

He has enhanced eyesight, he can disguise himself by appearing as what people expect to see. he can fold himself flat and drift across the ground like the shadow of a passing cloud. 

His body isn't just filled with space and stars and planets. It is space and stars and planets. You could even visit them if you knew how. 

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