Arion in the House

I'm absolutely loving Kurt Busiek's work on Superman. It's got everything I would've asked for. But it's also got something I didn't ask for:

Arion.

You may be asking: who is Arion? Well, I'll admit that I didn't really know until he woke up in a bed with two naked women in seventeenth century France and got annoyed at twenty-first century Superman. And he had me when he called the fact that he was dead in the future "absurdly inconvenient."

So we've got a cranky, immortal sorcerer who dresses like a 1650's French nobleman. That's hot. And he calls people names and acts like an ass... But you still know he's right. Because he may be a bitter bastard... But he's still frickin' Arion.

My big hope is that Kurt Busiek's "secret mystery project" (the one he left Sword of Atlantis for) is actually an Arion ongoing/mini. Busiek did say that after seeing how Carlos Pacheco draws Arion that he "wouldn't be surprised if he gets his own series again."

Bitter, angry protagonists are in vogue these days. Look at the show House. I can see parallels between them here already. House is a total ass... But he's almost always right. And Arion? We've seen him be an ass. Let's see if he's right.

They could send Arion out to solve magical mysteries that no one else can deal with. He could have a diverse set of apprentices who are in awe of his brilliance and struggle with his personality "quirks." It'd be brilliant!

Regardless, I hope this version of Arion sticks around. As long as he keeps the outfit, that is...