O.M.A.C. #1
Written by Dan DiDio
Art by Keith Giffen, Scott Koblish, and Hi-Fi
I don’t like OMAC or Dan DiDio writing and feel this book would be better off replaced by something written by Bryan Q. Miller, preferably starring Stephanie Brown. That said, I wasn’t even scheduled to review this book, but in the interest of getting the readers what they want (i.e. the full of the New 52), some of us had to make sacrifices, and I wound up reading the one book that I cared far and away the least about. I’m serious, I respect everything that Dan DiDio does for comics, and I’m a fan of his as a person (I’ve met him and talked to him, he’s a really nice guy who really loves his job), but I’m not a fan of his writing. Though to devils advocate, I’m not the hugest fan of Joe Quesada when he writes either (though I love his pencils, but that has nothing to do with anything). So this book came out with a target on it in my eyes, and I put it firmly in my list of “First five books to get canned”. So I guess that I was…damn, what’s the right word….surprised when I read this and actually kind of enjoyed it.
This book is old school. I mean, Hawk and Dove is old school, but this is REALLY old school. Some of these titles remember the 90’s, but O.M.A.C. firmly remembers the Silver Age and it’s obvious from the minute you flip it open. DiDio and Giffen turn in something that feels like it could have been a Jack Kirby project during his years at DC, and not just because they’re trying to make it look Kirby, but because they succeed in making it feel like it’s from the King himself. The dialogue isn’t perfect, words are clunky, and our lead in O.M.A.C. mode is just a giant robot who speaks in traditional robot speak. In other words, he repeats what he hears. With periods after every word. You know what? That doesn’t bother me, it’s a nice little touch in this book to make our lead character more or less incapable of long winded narratives. Something tells me anything longer would drive me insane.
The book is primarily new characters, with Cadmus being used as a backdrop. Our main character, Kevin Kho, is new, as are his friends, colleagues, and angry girlfriend. On top of that, while I won’t proclaim full knowledge of Cadmus, I don’t recognize any names besides Dubbilex, and that works for me. A few familiar faces makes it easier to accept the new, and hey, just because they’re relaunching and adjusting the canon doesn’t mean that they have to reintroduce every old character that ever existed. Cadmus works for me for some weird reason; maybe it’s the silver age super science facility stored under a norman every day office, maybe it’s all the little creatures and robots. It amuses me greatly. Though one thing we really don’t see too much of in this issue is our main character. Sure, we get an extended time with O.M.A.C., but Kevin Kho doesn’t appear until the end of the issue.
The Kevin/O.M.A.C. dynamic is an interesting one, to say the least. As O.M.A.C. he’s apparently the puppet of Brother Eye, and while yeah, I guess that’s a spoiler, it’s also a crucial part of the concept and I can’t think of a way it wouldn’t be there. Brother Eye is in charge, and O.M.A.C. is its own little foot soldier who goes and obeys its every command. In this issue it involves a strike against Cadmus. Kevin has no control over this, and it seems will have to deal with his own life while doubling as a mind controlled super robot for an eye shaped satellite. This could either make or break the title depending on how it plays out, as the premise is interesting enough but there’s no real room in the first issue for Kevin to be fleshed out, which leaves it up in the air.
I do like Keith Giffen’s work more often than not, but I love it in this issue. His take on the Kirby-esque look in this book is some of the best pencil work I’ve seen from him in years. It’s clear, chaotic, and it really feels like a silver age title. At the same time, characters do look a bit cleaner than I would have expected, as personally…I’m not the hugest fan of Kirby faces done today. It just doesn’t look right. But this book just embraces its old school nature in every way, and the art just completely sells it.
It’s not a perfect issue, and it won’t be for everyone, and hell, I could have sworn it wouldn’t be for me but….it’s fun. It’s got an old school approach that is embraced in the writing and art, and it doesn’t really try to be anything it isn’t. We’ve got crazy looking Cadmus beasts fighting a blue robot with a giant mohawk. I can’t tell you that this book will be successful, or even that it will have a long and extended run, but if the second issue is anything like this one…it will at the very least provide a fun, if not brief, read.
Overall?
6/10
