Auralie
1940 - Auralie is born among the Lowlies of Apokolips. She is handed over to be raised in Granny Goodness's Terror Orphanages.
1958 - Auralie is selected to join the Female Furies, her apparent fragility belying her graceful lethality.
66 years ago - Auralie discovers Himon's sanctuary, a place where she can dance.
64 years ago - Auralie first meets Scott Free when he discovers Himon's sanctuary. They slowly form a bond as soldiers of Apokolips hiding their capacity to hope.
60 years ago - Auralie is pulled from Himon's sanctuary before it is raided by Big Barda, sparing her from being found.
9 years ago - Auralie's dancing is discovered by Granny Goodness. She is fit with High Voltage Shock Boots and made to dance in them before the Female Furies until she immolates herself.
Oh Auralie. A character you might totally skip over on first reading of the New Gods, but the more you dig into it, the more important her role in the core narrative of our heroes becomes. If you really zoom in and try to focus on the events that transpired to lead Scott and Barda down the path they take, the tragic story of Auralie, as tiny as it seems, is probably the biggest inciting event of all.
Auralie's StoryMister Miracle regularly had backup stories that focused on young Scott while he was on Apokolips, but one issue in particular, #9, finally told the story of how he came to actually escape. In it he finds the home of Himon, where he meets other dissonant who are experimenting with their own motherboxes, one of whom is Auralie, who is able to make beautiful images with her own imagination. She is about to dance, when Barda arrives, quickly grabbing Auralie and leaving before the place is raided, telling everyone that she was never there, and that they'd never met Auralie. It's not specifically stated that she is a Fury, but Barda does say that she's "off-post". Later, Scott and Barda see the aftermath of the raid on Himon's workshop, and Barda is horrified to see what has been done to Auralie. This becomes the crystalizing event for both characters, prompting Barda to help Scott escape.
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Auralie has appeared in a few other places, Secret Origins and an issue of Martian Manhunter, both of which were flashbacks where we saw her in Himon's workshop, but perhaps the most important appearance is in issue #5 of Sandman. Here we see Scott Free having a nightmare about Apokolips, in which he sees the victims of the raid on Himon's workshop, including Auralie. Here there is a reference to the torture she endured in that her feet are burned away, and Scott also makes a reference to her being Scott's "first love" (warning; this is a little graphic.)
Auralie's role really expanded in the 2019 Female Furies miniseries, where she is actually established to be the LEADER of the Female Furies, and the victim of some real horribleness before she's found and tortured. This is again treated as the catalyst that ignites Barda's rebellion, but the series is just a little too graphic in it's depictions of... well, everything... for us to recommend. What we CAN recommend, wholeheartedly, is Ngozi Ukazu's graphic novel Barda. Like the Female Furies miniseries before it, this reframes and retells the origins of Barda's rebellion. Again the tragic fate of Auralie is front and center. However, this story is told with so much grace, patience, and heart, and Auralie, while still a victim, is handled with incredible care, and her importance to Barda's evolution is clear from the very first page. Auralie's role in the original telling of Jack Kirby's mythology was always important, but it was very small. After this story, however, I really do think it would be impossible to tell without her. I've never done this before, but I honestly believe this is a comic that EVERYONE needs to read. |