Omega: The Unknown #1-10
Published by: Marvel – 2007
Written by: Jonathan Lethem
Illustrated by: Farel Dalrymple
Omega: The Unknown (note the colon) is a ten-issue 2007 Marvel reboot, revamp, reimagining, reinterpretation, or whatever you want to call it, based on a character not seen in comics since the seventies. The original Omega the Unknown (note the lack of a colon) series began in 1976 and ran for ten issues. The characters in that original series were not otherwise used after that decade, meaning readers had to wait until 2007 to again see Omega in action. In fact, the character’s obscurity might be one of the reasons the creators of the 2007 miniseries were allowed to wander so far afield; they were essentially allowed to start from scratch, to keep or discard whatever aspects of the original they desired.
Omega: The Unknown (2007) is unconventional. Its superheroes range from a homeless disoriented mute in a blue costume—known as "Omega"—to a purple-garbed attention-whore with no real abilities other than taking credit that’s not his, milking press coverage, and wielding a few high-tech gadgets—called “The Mink”—and is equally science-fiction, focusing on a conspiracy of aliens and robots.
The story begins simply enough, a home-schooled teenage boy-genius is on his way to start school in the big city only to end up in a car wreck that reveals—in the wreckage—his parents’ mangled bodies are in fact those of robots. From there, orphaned, he seeks to know the truth about his life that had heretofore been hidden from him. In his search, he enlists a few new friends, ends up drawing the attention of the Mink, discovers a profound connection to Omega, and intervenes in an aggressive robot invasion—and keeps an even temper the entire time. The main character—Titus Alexander Island—is emotionally detached and intellectually analytical to such a degree that he is isolated, and—more importantly for the story—those qualities render him a slightly uninvolved nexus around which everything else revolves, rather than a focal point for the plot; he may be the linchpin, but not the crux.
This summary may lead one to imagine a fairly typical comic, but Omega: The Unknown (2007) is strange in ways I can’t begin to describe because to spoil the surprises would be to diminish their impact if not their strangeness; let’s just say the Mink’s giant severed hand grows legs and wreaks havoc on the city.
Some credit for the series’ strange quirkiness should be paid to Farel Dalrymple’s art. At most times, it is a little off-kilter. The faces, though never truly off-model are never quite the same, and the lines, shading, and proportions are imprecise, if not inconsistent. It brings an indie-comic aesthetic to the realm of superheroes and science fiction, yielding an appealing amalgamation.
The writing, by Jonathan Lethem, could similarly be seen as an indie-comic-take on a mainstream premise. The main characters are in the fore while the supernatural occurrences around them seem almost like background, almost like secondary characters themselves; which is appropriate since each supernatural subplot is built around one or more of the secondary or tertiary cast members—justifying their inclusion in the story in the first place. Each character has a role to play and a purpose to fulfill.
If not for its inclusion of a suicide, Omega: The Unknown (2007) might’ve been fit for a general audience. It is in no other ways objectionable—no nudity, profanity, or graphic violence. Thus, it is essentially PG-13.
In a sad coincidence, the ten-issue run of the 2007 Omega: The Unknown saw the death of two of the three creators of the character and the original series—writer Steve Gerber and artist Jim Mooney. Gerber is perhaps most well-known for creating the iconic yet still somewhat obscure “Howard the Duck,” whom has encountered a resurgence of interest of late—even appearing as a brief cameo in the two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies.
The original Omega the Unknown (1976) begins in much the same way as the new Omega: The Unknown (2007) series and shares certain details of the premise—an analytical boy-genius is being relocated to a new school; there is an accident that reveals his parents were robots, and he is subsequently saved from a robot attack in the hospital by Omega; a high school friend is hospitalized by a classmate, and the mute Omega lives with a charitable elderly man while the young protagonist lives with two women charged with his welfare. The rest of the original series, however, evolves more like a typical superhero story of the era—in that there are episodic installments wherein supervillains are pitted against the series’ protagonists with no greater narrative significance. Omega: The Unknown (2007) gives each adversary a part in the larger scheme of things, a relation to the origins, and motives, of the heroes and the series’ various unanswered mysteries; this uniting coherence is absent in the original. Though there is some fine writing in Omega the Unknown (1976), it may not appeal to the same audience as its reboot due to a lack of stylistic similarities.
Recommendations:
Fans of Lethem’s Omega: The Unknown (2007) would likely also appreciate the melding of indie sensibilities into Marvel’s catalogue of characters found in the anthology comic Strange Tales from 2009 and its 2010 sequel Strange Tales II—reboots of a much older anthology series that bore the same name. Within their pages, small-press and indie creators are given free-reign to choose any character or characters, and do anything they desire with that character or characters—outside of continuity—yielding some very original, humorous, and bizarre takes on both the obscure and well-known parts of the Marvel universe. It should be noted, though, that the short stories in both three-issue Strange Tales miniseries are inconsistent in their degree of offensiveness; some stories are very firmly for “mature audiences” only, while others could appeal to almost anyone.
Another miniseries worth mentioning for fans of Omega: The Unknown (2007) is Unstable Molecules by James Sturm (writer) and Guy Davis (artist). In its four issues, it follows a family in the fifties—husband Reed, wife Sue, Sue’s younger brother Johnny, and family friend Ben—whom are purported to be the real-life inspiration for the comic The Fantastic Four. Sue is a neglected housewife and feels invisible; Johnny is a brash, hot-headed teenager; Reed is a distracted scientist obsessed with his research into unstable molecules that stretch and expand; and Ben is a hard-headed boxing trainer. Though it lacks the supernatural and the just plain odd, Unstable Molecules shares Omega: The Unknown’s (2007) indie-style and likewise reimagines a pre-existing premise—done, in this case, by finding in everyday occurrences analogues for fantastic adventures.
Brian Bigelow
August 12, 2017
