Orpheus (The Unsung & Underutilized Hero) (Patreon)

Hello again, 

Today we're breaking from format to discus Orpheus, the The Unsung & tragically Underutilized Hero and his three year run as part of the Gotham Vigilante Community. 

Named Gavin King, Orpheus was born and raised in Gotham City by his professional dancer mother and ex-pat turned sports producer father. 

His natural talent in dance and need to frequently defend himself when out of the house led him to take up martial arts, which he took to like a fish to water. 

Travelling the world as part of a troupe he was exposed to a multitude of different arts and more formatively, brutality and injustice, poverty and oppression. 

Even losing several friends during this period of his life; causing him to develop an intense drive to set the world right and make things better. 

At some point during his own efforts to gain the skills needed to play this role, he was recruited by an unamend organization that assisted in his efforts by providing equipment and funding. 

No we never did get any details on this, frankly they could have just had him precure them himself and the story wouldn't change. 

He became active 5 months before his debut in Gotham capturing a serial killer and taking down a crimelord in Washington DC. 

His true debut into comics was with the five part special Orpheus Rising. 

This comic was honestly, really solid, it touched on issues of racism, corruption and abuse of power in policing, along with community engagement, or a lack-thereof. 

The role gangs and their larger scale backers play in poverty stricken communities by both exploiting's problems for profit and recruitment, but also often serving as the only means by which someone can survive. 

And even touching on Batman and the other vigilante's place in that already extremely complicated dynamic and matters of hope and representation. 

Now I don't think it was perfect, some of the language and portrayals of certain characters or subjects felt a little off kilter, but overall I think it was a solid comic and would recommend it. 

As it typical, when Batman encountered Oprheus he did his usual, Gr only I am allowed to protect Gotham, you're an amateur, blah blah blah, which Orpheus mostly seemed to shrug off and even Batman gave up pretty quickly and they son after made a solid team up. 

 The overarching case involved cop who'd abused his power during No Man's Land but avoided any penalty. 

He was assassinating other police he bore a grudge against and framing local gangs to drum up support for increasingly brutal tactics and to give more power to the police and himself specifically. 

His efforts nearly sparked off a gang war, led to countless other deaths and culminated in a riot he intended to use to seize control of the GCP. But Orpheus goaded him into revealing his plan in their duel before taking him down and he and Batman parted on good terms. 

Following this Orpheus would rift in and out of the comics but remain and active member of the Gotham Vigilante Community, often being seen as less grim than many of his contemporaries. 

Like Oracle and the Birds of Prey I don't see him as Bat-Clan, and frankly I think Gotham would benefit from everything not being under Bruce's shadow all the time. 

A good example would be his team up with Black Canary in issue 3 of 'Batman Family', yes irony I know; where they faced the villains Bugg and Doctor Excess that were involved with a drug mutating people into roided out monsters. 

Then came War Drums, which led into War Games. 

On one hand, I do like the portrayal of Orpheus in this and his partnership with Onyx was great, they had an easy chemistry that even long time team ups often lack. 

Of course, the arcs themselves involved Batman compelling/convincing Orpheus to basically forgo his own goals and plans to instead turn his hero persona into that of a villain. 

Namely by taking over the now leaderless Hill Gang as part of Bruce's doom to fail crime control scheme. 

Aside, but two former vigilantes suddenly turning into criminals, ho also have no bodies to their names, and dislike guns and drugs 'as' gang leaders? Yeah the fact anyone bought this in universe is impossible to believe for me. 

Anyway, we did get some neat details from it, like Orpheus leading the Hill Gang in such a way to reduce public harm and protect the community's. As well as stamping down on abuse of power, drugs and guns.... 

But that's silver lining. 

When War Games itself began, Orpheus and Onyx collaborated to keep the Hill Gang from exacerbating the conflict, and set about trying to take down and ideally consolidate the leadership of Gotham's gangs under Orpheus to stop the fighting. 

This came to an end with he was ambushed by Black Mask, killed and then mutilated before having his identity stolen by the villain. 

The Hill Gang, under Onyx, did carry the ideals of community protection forward even after their leaders fall, before essentially disappearing form the comics, and Onyx herself steadily fading away too. 

Conclusion: 

Its a crying shame his character was disregarded and so disrespectfully, and the fact he's not been brought back at all is very disappointing to me. Given his relatively sparse run, I can kinda see why he didn't make as much of splash and return as some others with decades of history. 

But post Flashpoint it would have been so easy to weave him back into the universe. Heck he and maybe Onxy don't even need to stick aorund Gotham, but could honestly work really well as sort of nomadic super heroes, dropping into other people's comics as guest starrs or having heir own series. 

Whatever else, I liked Orpheus, he had a great design, a winning personality, interesting motivations that extended beyond solely fighting crime and into social and political issues. And even when put in less than great stories, he was able to shine and bring something positive to them, and I hope I've been able to bring that across here. 

That's all for today, but if you like my work and want to help out with my bills, please hit up my Patreon or Ko-Fi to see scripts, 3D art. You can even make requests or commission me.