Arion (comics)

Arion is a fictional sword and sorcery superhero published by American company DC Comics.  He debuted in Warlord (vol. 1) #55 (March 1982), and was created by Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema.

Publication history
Arion began as a back-up feature in the DC Comics book Warlord with issue #55. The Arion feature continued its run until issue #62. Arion then gained his own series, Arion Lord of Atlantis, beginning with #1, (November 1982). The series lasted for 35 issues plus a special which wrapped up the original storyline, running from November 1982 to September 1985 with the special shipping in November 1985. In 1992, Arion appeared in a 6 issue miniseries entitled Arion The Immortal.  Arion also appeared in DC Comics Presents in a crossover with Superman.

Fictional character biography
The title character Arion is a powerful Homo Magi demigod from the nobility of ancient Atlantis. Arion is an immortal sorcerer who was born in 45,000 BC. Ahri'ahn and Garn Daanuth are the twin sons of Calculha and Dark Majistra, two very powerful Atlantean god-beings. While Calculha raised Ari'ahn to be a follower of light and the Lords of Order, Majistra raised Garn to be an acolyte of the Lords of Chaos.  Ari'ahn sacrificed his life to prevent his mother from attaining power that would cause the destruction of the Earth.  For one hundred centuries he was raised in Darkworld (though only 20 years passed for him ) by Jheryl and Ghy. His departure from Darkworld left him an amnesiac, and when found he was brought back to the city.

Arion's companions include an Atlantean guardsman, Wyynde, Lady Chian, his lover and the captain of King D'Tilluh's royal guard, and Mara, a shapeshifter. Among his enemies are his brother Garn Daanuth, a formidable practitioner of the dark arts, Dark Majistra, his mother, and Chaon, the puissant god of evil and chaos.

In his first appearances Arion was a sorcerer who protected the ancient, then land-bound kingdom of Atlantis during an upcoming ice age. After thousands of years of adventures, Arion lost his ability to channel magic directly from his body and had to rely on mystical artifacts for his magical powers.

Post Crisis

He later appeared during and after the Crisis on Infinite Earths event where he was made part of Power Girl's post-Crisis backstory. Later, an aged Arion is revealed be immortal and to have lost his magic and is living in Greenwich Village along with several former Atlantean gods and goddesses, including Chaon, Deedra, Gemimn and the Weaver.  His companion, Mara, was trapped in canine form when the magic was lost.  Arion renews his old rivalry with his brother, Garn Daanuth, and works to stop the return of Atlantean magic by preventing Darkworld, revealed to be a sentient being, from slumbering.

After Zero Hour, Arion aided The Justice League America against Scarabus.  He eventually turned up in the present day where his body was taken over by Mordru and his spirit imprisoned in Gemworld. His spirit was finally released and allowed to go to the afterlife by Power Girl and Hawkgirl (along with a recently awakened Dove), in order to weaken Mordru. Before his soul departed, Arion revealed to Power Girl that she was not his granddaughter and thus not an Atlantean.

Arion seemingly reappeared in Infinite Crisis as one of the mystics gathered in Atlantis to keep the Spectre at bay, and later in the Day of Vengeance tie-in special as one of several magical beings summoned to help rebuild the shattered Rock of Eternity. No explanation was given for Arion's involvement at the time. It was later revealed that this Arion was, in fact, a pretender, a native of Akron named Bill Knightley who had decided to trade on Arion's name and reputation to build himself up in the mystical community.

Camelot Falls
A past version of Arion later appears. In the year 1659, Arion is awakened from a night of debauchery by visions of a cataclysmic future centered around the presence of Superman. Cut off from his natural magics, Arion employed certain artifacts to propel himself forward to Superman's present. Arriving in Metropolis, Arion subjected Superman and his friends at the Daily Planet to a vision of a possible future where Superman and other alien heroes' involvement in humanity caused people to become dependent on them, ultimately producing an apocalypse as their alien intervention held back the 'natural cycle' of civilisations falling upon reaching their peak, culminating in a mass apocalypse as the darkness they had held back for so long came at them with full force. Arion hoped to force Superman to retire and prevent the predictions from coming true.

Superman was given two weeks in which to decide how he would deal with Arion's request, during which Arion illustrated his point by magically steering a "field trip" of adolescent New Gods, chaperoned by Lightray and Fastbak, to come crashing into Metropolis and go wild with their divine powers, causing untold havoc and general interference with the populace. Superman defused the situation with Lightray's help and deduced Arion's involvement. At roughly the same time, Arion kidnapped Bill Knightley from outside the Oblivion Bar, interrogated him, and nearly killed him. The only thing that saved Knightley was his knowledge of the recently begun "Tenth Age of Magic," a tumultuous change in the world's mystical equilibrium. Knightley claimed to be studying the shift and Arion decided he might have some value alive.

At the end of the two weeks, Arion and Superman met again; Superman chose to remain active as part of Earth's defense and deeply involved with humanity, refusing to give up hope that he could make a difference. Arion's vicious response was to cast a powerful mind manipulation spell, with the intent of using Superman as a weapon to remove the threat of other alien heroes. Superman was able to resist thanks to training from the Martian Manhunter after his period under the control of Maxwell Lord. Given a mystic shield by the Phantom Stranger to protect him from direct assault by Arion's magics (during which the Stranger revealed that, while Arion's prediction could come to pass, the loss of life and experience that would result if Superman simply allowed civilisation to fall meant that mankind had to try to find another way), Superman was able to defeat Arion and disarm him of his rings, amulets and charms from which he derived his magic. Arion was returned to 1659 where he plans his next move on Superman in the future.

The New 52
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this continuity, Arion makes a brief cameo in the 2014 Secret Six relaunch. In a flashback, he is revealed to be the wizard that sealed away elder gods only known as the "Dark Giants", the antagonist that appear in the modern day threaten to be freed due to Black Alice's condition siphoning magic in the world and undoing the seals made to keep them in place.

DC Rebirth
Following the company-wide rebranding in DC Rebirth, Arion makes his debut in the 2016 Blue Beetle series. Sharing similarities to his previous version such as being a former king of Atlantis, he is changed to be an Atlantean-related god and mage whom turned into an insane villain from exposure to the Blue Beetle scarab and gains a more demonic appearance from usage of more malevolent magic.

After being sealed away by Doctor Fate long ago, he uses his apprentice Mordecai Cull to lure Doctor Fate. Jaime Reyes, and the Blue Beetle scarab into undoing his sealing, stealing the scarab for himself to use its power to destroy the world. With the help of Doctor Fate and his allies, Jaime Reyes manages to defeat the sorcerer and his Atlantean demons created by his magic.

Powers and Abilities
Arion is one of the most powerful sorcerer in the DC Universe, his Atlantean heritage and centuries of study in the sorcerous arts making him one of the most skilled sorcerers in any era and is considered to be the most powerful magician in ancient Atlantis. He was powerful enough to have defeated Etrigan, Wonder Woman and was a considerable threat to Superman, whom needed the assistance of Phantom Stranger's magic to counter his own and enable him to defeat him.

Prior to Rebirth, the helm of his vast array of magical abilities originate from deriving it from powerful sources and his body's ability to use magic without physically taxing him. Early in his life, his magics were mainly derived from stellar sources (such as the Sun) until he sacrificed them to end the Ice Age. He would later derive his sources from magical crystals containing his father's spirit (though finite in number) and chant-based spells, and magical objects, though his power was significantly weakened until the Weaver, an Atlantean god whom controlled Atlantean-related magic by spinning it in the form of a thread, re-worked the magic within his soul and allowed him to perform magic by deriving it from the realm known as Darkworld and made him more powerful then he was ever before. However, his magics from Darkworld left him with little magical ability after its seemingly destruction for over 45,000 years, making him reliant on objects once more until it is resurfacing.  During Arion's appearance in Rebirth onward, the nature of his powers have seemingly changed; though he retained the ability to siphon magic from even entities as powerful as Doctor Fate, he is instead capable of performing magic naturally.

In addition to his magical powers, Arion is also immortal and was trained in hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship by ancient Atlantis's best warrior and lover, Lady Chian. He also retains psychic powers not connected to his magical powers, having the power of insight, judging the good and evil within an individual, divination, and cosmic awareness that could sense disturbances throughout time. During Rebirth onward, Arion was stated to also being an expressed genius responsible for Atlantis and Skataris's great technological prowess, his era being considered the peak of Atlantean magical and technological capabilities.

References

External links
DCDatabase: Arion
Cosmic Teams: History of Atlantis
Arion, Lord of Atlantis at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012.
Arion at DC Universe wiki

Category:1982 comics debuts
Category:Characters created by Paul Kupperberg
Category:DC Comics Atlanteans
Category:DC Comics titles
Category:DC Comics superheroes
Category:DC Comics fantasy characters
Category:Fantasy comics
Category:DC Comics characters who use magic
Category:Comics characters introduced in 1982