By: Jack Kirby Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 200 Publication Date: June 10, 2008 Release Date: June 10, 2008 Studio: DC Comics
Product Description: In one of his last major works, Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and many others, envisions a 1984-inspired dystopia.
The protagonist is corporate nobody Buddy Blank, who is changed by a satellite called Brother Eye into the super-powered OMAC (One Man Army Corps). Enlisted by the Global Peace Agency, who police the world using pacifist means, OMAC battles the forces of conformity in this short-lived but legendary series that serves as a companion to the JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS series.
Flawed but innovative 1970s Jack Kirby work. Far-fetched and fun. ^ OMAC: One Man Army Corps was a bizarre and unfortunately short-lived dystopian science-fiction comic created, written, and pencilled by legendary innovator Jack "King" Kirby (co-creator and illustrator of Marvel's Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, and Thor; creator, writer, and illustrator of DC's Fourth World; creator of the Romance genre in comic books; inventor of the "Kirby Krackle" or "Kirby Dots," a much-imitated illustrative technique in comic books) during his brief stay at DC Comics in the 1970s. While his 1940's-60's output is widely regarded as pioneering work in the comics field, critics and fans have always been divided on Kirby's strange 70's work; and it's no secret that many of his submissions were circulated and laughed-at by industry insiders prior to their publication. What's perhaps ironically appropriate is that decades after the fact, many readers are beginning to view Kirby's work at DC (and his subsequent return to Marvel) as the pinnacle of his creative talents.
I make no pretense as to having read enough Kirby to make this kind of judgment, however I do understand the historical and cultural significance of his groundbreaking work on Captain America and Fantastic Four, as well as the impact of his increasingly "cosmic" mid-60's Thor and FF art on the idiom of superhero comics. And I have read the incredible O.M.A.C.
If you're not a comics connoisseur, it's very important to note before delving into an oddity like OMAC that compared to artforms like film, literature, music, "fine" art, and even the comic STRIP, the comic book is a relatively young medium and has to contend with public prejudice, technological limitations (such as the severely restrictive four-color printing process that was chosen as the industry standard by publishers for financial reasons), and extreme censorship from within and without (even the MPAA allows werewolves!). As such, comics' maturation as an art came very slowly and awkwardly. In the '40s when Kirby was making a name for himself, it was unlikely that a reader would see two consecutive issues so there was no such thing as continuous continuity. Also the average reader was automatically presumed to be a small child, an illiterate adult, or at best a soldier in need of light disposable entertainment. Publishers discouraged two-syllable words, and three-syllables were often banned outright. As if such limitations weren't enough, comic writers and artists were contractually obligated to crank out material at a rate that discouraged them from dwelling on any one comic for too long. During those days, Kirby was solely an illustrator and relied on collaborators Joe Simon and Stan Lee for all dialogue and much of the plotting. It wasn't until the 1970's that Kirby was allowed to stretch out and take on writing duties (while still being obligated to turn over a disproportionate amount of pages compared to other writers of the day, of course) and as such there is an awkward, blocky feel to his dialog. Kirby uses choppy simple sentences, choose strange words to emphasize with italics and quotation marks, attempts to incorporate what he believes to be current slang or imagines to be slang of the future, even invents his compound words, and as a result parts of OMAC read almost as if they had been translated into English from another language. While there is no doubt that this is the primary reason for much of the disrespect Kirby's 70s output has received, once the reader adjusts to his style it takes on a unique naive charm.
However what is really on display in OMAC and the other books of this era is Jack Kirby's IDEAS. BIG. BIG. IDEAS. Many of the ideas for Kirby's titles came straight of the top of his head when pressed for a new series, and only since the 80's have (American and English) comic writers been catching up with them.
OMAC (originally conceived as a futuristic Capt America story that was rejected by Marvel, and finally manifested itself at DC to become precursor to the cyberpunk genre) is set in a dystopian near-future where faceless agents of a central world government transform an awkward working class geek into a mohawked super-soldier peacekeeping officer whose only friend is Brother Eye, a remote surveillance satellite that communicates with OMAC from space. His love interest is an exploding suicide-bomber sex robot mannequin. He must prevent a villain from stealing the world's oceans by solidifying them into hyper-dense cubes. Themes of class warfare and fascism abound.
The visual art of OMAC is not as impressive as some of Kirby's other titles of the time, the stories are a bit too episodic to completely gel, and as soon as you're getting into the spirit of things the series has been canceled and the book is over. However, this is an amazing exercise in creativity and is quite fun to read.
If you are interested in sci-fi, dystopian fiction, cyberpunk, kitsch, comics history, anything generally outlandish, psychedelic, absurd, and far-fetched, or if you want to read a mindblowing title by one of the legendary pioneers of the comic medium, pick up OMAC.
OMAC Part of the Second DC Wave ^ This book contains the first run of Jack Kirby's OMAC series which ran eight issues in the early 1970's. OMAC along with Kamandi and the Demon were part of the second wave of Kirby titles after his ambitious Fourth World Series of titles was cancelled.
OMAC is set in the "World that's coming." and deals with a time where armies are too risky. The Global Peace Agency creates OMAC from a character named (of all things) Buddy Blank. Buddy is transformed into the mohawked superhuman OMAC through electronic surgery performed by his (shades of HAL) satellite partner Brother Eye.
OMAC goes on to fight the mega rich who can rent a city for murder; a dictator who can by living bio weapons; a group that wants to assassinate through the use of pseudo-people; body transplant snatchers; and a man who wants to steal the world's water.
These stories show Kirby strutting his science fiction stuff with a shade of Superman (OMAC even receives foster partents).
The series is cut short in issue 8 with a panel thrown in to explain what happened off camera. Kirby left for his return to Marvel shortly thereafter. OMAC would go on as a back up character in an excellent series of shorts; and was revealed to be related to the character Kamandi.
Extras include some original pencils; a forward by Mark Evanier; Kirby friend and creator in his own right.
Like the Charles Dickens book the Mystery of Edwin Drood (which was only half completed) enjoy the stories that are there and imagine how it might have ended. Still a fun read.
A really fun look at the "World That's Coming" ^ I'm not a Jack Kirby fan, but I do enjoy most of his DC work. OMAC has been my favorite so far. This book contains eight short stories that explore the "World That's Coming" as Kirby described it. Basically, it's his view of the future assuming the current corruption of the 70s had continued including the rich buying up the world, doing whatever they wanted, and weapons becoming so powerful, we couldn't afford to have large armies fight each other. His version wasn't so far off.
What I really liked was how fun the stories were. They're like the Saturday Morning cartoons I remember in the 80s. Each one is a complete story (except for a two-parter in the middle) where OMAC takes on a different social problem in the form of a villain. The art has a lot of energy. The stories are simple, but deal with social issues and make their point. I also enjoy a superhero who's actually a hero (has good moral character) and can use his powers to stop the bad guy (instead of losing the powers every issue or facing some kryptonite that forces him to solve the problem some other way).
If you like comics with real heroes, or 80's style cartoons, I think you'll enjoy OMAC.
Future Warrior ^ War is a constant theme of Kirby. In this work, the One-Man Army Corps is an agent for a worldwide peace organization. Living in a nightmarish near-future, he fights corporatism and science gone mad. This series may have been the precursor to both the punk hairstyle and the British SF comics magazine, 2000 AD. Late in his career, assisted by Mike Royer, Jack Kirby delivers his trademark pulse-pounding action and high-tech machinery at breakneck speed.
Not bad but hardly essential reading ^ Jack Kirby is the creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and countless other comic book heroes. His 70s work is famous for its energy and insane ideas, OMAC is no exception. A cyberpunk book from before cyberpunk existed, it does have some interesting predictions including virtual reality and cell phones as well as some off the wall crazy ones.
But Kirby left early and book ends with an unfulfilling cliffhanger. Conflicts set up early in the book are left unresolved. If you're looking for Kirby magic would be better off checking out the New Gods collections, this is really only for the compleatist.
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