FSC: OMEGA MEN #1

At the beginning of the 1980s, after a number of rough years, DC really began to get its act together and to modernize its approach to doing comic books. The primary instigator of this change was new publisher Jenette Kahn and the vehicle through which it became viable was the emerging Direct Sales marketplace of comic book specialty stores. DC’s sales were lagging well behind Marvel’s, especially in this new market, and so DC’s new leadership made a concerted effort to craft new projects aimed at capturing an ever-growing segment of that new marketplace. One of these new titles was OMEGA MEN, the creation of Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton. They had introduced the characters and the concept during their GREEN LANTERN run, them Marv reinforced it by using them in both NEW TEEN TITANS and ACTION COMICS, the two other series that he was writing at the time. This led to enough interest where the concept was launched into a high-end series–high-end because it was printed on better paper stock than the typical newsprint and also carried a higher cover price as a result.

I had been pretty intrigued by the Omega Men in their prior appearances–I was following pretty much everything that Marv wrote religiously at this time. So I was intrigued about the new book. I seem to recall that I first found out about it in the pages of an issue of COMICS SCENE, a short-lived newsstand magazine dedicated to comic books that was a spin-off of the long-running STARLOG. COMIC SCENE only lasted 11 issues then, but it made a comeback at the end of the decade that had a bit more legs to it. In any event, the big surprise to me was that the new book wasn’t going to be written by its creator at all, but rather placed in the hands of Roger Slifer. This was, from what I can tell, simply a matter of Marv having reached his limit in terms of workload and not wanting to give up any of his current assignments to do OMEGA MEN. But it did mean that the book was operating under a bit of a cloud for me right from the start.

The real appeal of these early issues of OMEGA MEN lay in the artwork, which was delivered by Keith Giffen. After a few tumultuous years, Giffen’s star had risen to prominence working on LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, which he and Paul Levitz made into a massive hit, at least for a time. So his presence on OMEGA MEN promised a high level of visual panache. Additionally, Giffen was a font of crazy ideas, and he was typically an equal partner in plotting the books on which he labored. Another aspect of OMEGA MEN that ought to be mentioned is that it was a series set within the mainstream DC cosmology but which wasn’t restricted by the Comics Code since it didn’t sell through mainstream newsstand outlets. That meant that the book’s creators could be a bit more liberal in their use of blood and sex, as on the page above. These more liberal restrictions weren’t used to any great benefit, but the comic book field was straining at this point to produce more sophisticated adult material, and being able to experiment in this manner led to the advances that would help to move the medium forward. Still, it was all pretty gratuitous in this issue.

Looking back at it, it seems quite clear to me that in coming up with the Omega Men, Marv was thinking about Marvel’s Inhumans and the role they filled in FANTASTIC FOUR. Along similar lines, the Omega Men were a massive cadre of displaced aliens who were involved in an ongoing outer space conflict with the Citadel, a power base that Marv had set up in TITANS and GREEN LANTERN. Like the Inhumans, there was a core crew of Omega Men who carried the action along the lines of the Inhumans’ royal family. This included the noble leader Primus and his sorcerous wife Kalista, savage Tigorr, sad sack Broot, spooky Nimbus, traitorous Demonia and bloodthirsty Harpis. They all map against the Inhuman royal family relatively directly, at least as this first issue gets under way. And like the Inhumans, there were no end to the other potential characters who could pop out at any given moment. The book also had the same problem that Inhumans had long-term, which is to say that it was set in a completely separate culture about which it was difficult for the average reader to care. When the Omega Men had been on Earth hanging out with Green Lantern and Superman you had those characters to carry you through. But on their own, there wasn’t as much to get a toehold into.

The opening of this issue introduces our main cast and sets up the situation. It begins with the Omega Men fighting to liberate the enslaved planet of Slagg from its Citadel overlords. This opening action sequence lets all of the principles display their powers and personalities in textbook fashion. In the aftermath of their victory, the Omega Men discuss their strategy, as some among their number, in particular Tigorr, are unhappy that the crew is picking around the edges of the Citadel’s empire rather than heading straight to the heart of it. But Primus indicates that they wouldn’t stand a chance against the Citadel, not without sufficient numbers, and so liberating the outer worlds and adding their forces to their legions is the only path forward that makes sense. And the group’s next target for liberation will be Changralyn, the homeworld of one of their number, Broot. Broot insists, however, that his people will never help them, but can do nothing to dissuade the Omega Men from this course of action.

On Changralyn, the Omega Men begin to learn the truth of the situation. The planet is largely barren of resources, and so its people have brokered an uneasy peace with the Citadel. But part of that deal is turning over a certain number of newborn babies each cycle to be transported off-world, where they’ll be used as slave labor. This fate befell bot Broot and his wife, from whom he’s been separated for years. What’s more, their race embraces a strong code of non-violence after having almost destroyed itself decades earlier, and so Broot, who as turned to violence after the death of his child and the enslavement of himself and his wife, is not welcome in their land. When the Gordanians arrive to pick up the slaves for the Citadel, Broot opposes them, ripping them limb from limb. This further cements his disgrace, and he’s admonished by the race’s leaders that now there will be a more terrible price to pay.

And a terrible price is in fact enacted, as the Citadel decides to nuke-bomb an entire city in retribution for their fallen Gordanian soldiers. That’s the note on which this first issue goes out, with Primus, Broot and the Omega Men realizing that their actions have inadvertently led to the destruction of untold millions. But, hey, war is hell, right? The trick with OMEGA MEN was that it was trying to maintain the illusion of being a super hero series while not really conforming to the conventions of the genre. It was more of a space-war saga, had more in common with something like STAR WARS than any typical super hero book. And that, I think ,is partly what doomed it. I know for myself, I only lasted around four issues or so before I bailed on it, as it wasn’t giving me the kind of reading experience it seemed to have been promising, and I wasn’t all that enamored of what it was actually doing. I didn’t really need or want more blood and more sex in my comics, so those aspects weren’t seen by me as a plus, but rather as a negative. Nevertheless, OMEGA MEN represented another small step forward towards what DC ultimately became in the middle part of the decade.