the main stories in issues 13 and 14. Issues #1–5 were reprinted by DC Comics in the trade paperback The Gates of Apokolips. Also included as reprints were portions from the Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant #1 and the Legends of the DC Universe 80-Page Giant #2. A backup that ran consistently in the Orion book was "Tales of the New Gods". Simonson invited fellow artists and writers to provide a short story often supplementing the issue's main action. Fictional character biography Orion is the second son of Darkseid, dictator of Apokolips. He is the half-brother of Kalibak and Grayven. He later marries Bekka, the daughter of Apokolips Resistance leader Himon. As a child, Orion was traded to New Genesis' benevolent leader Highfather for Scott Free, Highfather's own son, in The (peace) Pact between New Genesis and Apokolips. Raised as the son of Highfather Izaya, under his loving care, Orion was taught to control and focus his rage, and Orion grew to deeply value his adoptive home and its ideals. This path to maturity was not an easy task given that his heritage boiled with the rage of the brutal and merciless Darkseid. Learning how to control that dark nature consumed much of Orion's youth. However, on top of his adoptive parent's care, his friends among the New Gods, particularly Lightray, helped him channel his Dark Side toward the protection of his adopted homeworld New Genesis. As a result of that personal struggle, Orion's inherited traits and learned focus allowed Orion to become the most powerful warrior and hero of New Genesis. His fighting skill, stamina, relentlessness, and ruthlessness have earned him the nickname "The Dog of War", who still occasionally needs the aid of his Mother Box to help control his emotions when they threaten to get the better of him. Orion counts among his closest friends Lightray, Metron, Jezebelle, Scott Free, Big Barda, and Forager. The 25–issue Walt Simonson series was designed to follow the continuity of the original Fourth World series and was published after John Byrne's Jack Kirby's Fourth World series ended. To flesh out the series, characters such as Fourth World stalwarts Lightray, Darkseid, Desaad, and Kalibak were used in addition to lesser used characters such as Orion's mother Tigra (early on in the series), Mortalla, and the Newsgroup Legion (an update of Jack Kirby's 1940s Newsboy Legion). A collection of all Walt Simonson's