Raising Dion (comic book)

*This article is about the comic book. For other uses, see Raising Dion (disambiguation).*

## Raising Dion

### Published on

August 2015

***Raising Dion*** is a one-issue comic book written by Dennis Liu and illustrated by Jason Piperberg. It consists of 24 pages and was published in august 2015.

The comic served as source material for both the short film and Netflix series.

## Synopsis

The story opens at a cabin in the woods, where Nicole Warren, a single mother, is staying with her 7-year-old son Dion Warren. Dion is no ordinary kid; he has various superpowers, including invisibility, telepathy, and creating orbs or rays of energy. Nicole is trying to help him understand and and control his powers, like target practicing his energy blasts on empty cans. She is also shown to have grown quite skilled in handling Dion, like being able to tell when he is in the room with her while being invisible.

The story then cuts to a flashback about how Dion came to be. In 2009, Nicole met Mark Warren when they both worked at Biona in New York City; he as a scientist, she at the reception desk. The two fell in love while shooting a video for Biona, and started dating. A year after their first date, the two spend valentines day in Mark's cabin in the woods in hopes of seeing an aurora caused by the brightest solar storm since 1859. They are not disappointed, as the view from the cabin is spectacular. Then a lightning caused by the solar storm hits the ground not far from the cabin. Nicole and Mark take a look at ground zero, and while Nicole keeps her distance, Mark gets close to the impact crater and is exposed to the energies from the solar storm. Nicole faints and after Mark carries her back to the cabin, they make love.

The next day, Mark notices the energy changed him; he can now turn invisible. He keeps this information from Nicole, and even grows a bit distant towards her, but they keep dating. Then one day, Nicole notices she is pregnant. The story ends with her breaking the news to Mark.

## Changes made to the adaptation

* In the comic, it is implied Mark was the only person that got powers from the solar storm, as he and Nicole where close to where the storm hit the ground. In the series, the Aurora Event was attended by dozens of people, multiple of which are confirmed to have developped powers afterwards.
* In the series, Nicole did not work for Biona before Dion was born (though she gets a job there in Season 2).

## Background

The idea for the comic came from Dennis Liu wanting to put a new spin on superhero stories, like a "Batman story told from Alfred's point of view".

Although the last panel has a "to be continued" on it, there was never more than one issue made of the comic series. While creator Dennis Liu did initially plan a second issue that could focus on Biona and some other child prodigies they are studying there (like an Asian-American 10-year-old girl who can throw 50 footballs with pinpoint accuracy, and a Latino boy who plays a difficult Bach concerto on the violin), he eventually kept it at just one story in order not to muddy or disturb the canon of the tv-series too much, and not too many changes would have to be made between the comic and the series. Instead, the comic only lays the foundation of a single mother raising a superpowerd child for the Netflix series to continue upon.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Raising Dion: a diverse comic book that turns its back on superhero tropes
2. ↑ The Differences Between 'Raising Dion' on Netflix and the Original Comic