Review | O.M.A.C. #1

Written by Dan Didio and Keith Giffen
Art by Ketih Giffen and Scott Koblish

This is how it's done. Two co-workers in a genetic research lab banter, bickering because the woman's boyfriend—another researcher—is nowhere to be found. An alarm is tripped, an evacuation begins, and by page three, there's a giant blue man with an electric mohawk smashing a concrete wall, bellowing "I…AM…O.M.A.C!" And we're off.

One of Jack Kirby's lesser-known creations, O.M.A.C. stands for One Man Army Corps, though there's no real need to dip back to the '60s to understand what's going on here. All we know is that some shady stuff is happening in the bowels of this research firm, and that the creepy Lord Makkari is creating all sorts of monsters down there, throwing many of them at the rampaging O.M.A.C., including a woman whose face turns into a gun and a horde of hungry hellions called gobblers. The fight scenes fly across the page, as O.M.A.C. obeys the commands of computer voice in his brain, a voice that wants to merge with the lab's mainframe.

While so many comics try to go dark, creepy and despondent, O.M.A.C. could easily be soundtracked by The Flaming Lips's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 2. It's a campy, relentless assault, and Keith Giffen's art is fully in sync with classic Kirby. Though the fighting rarely stops, the action is always clearly portrayed, and O.M.A.C.'s unusual physiology remains consistent throughout. Also, big ups to colorist Hi-Fi for saturating the pages. Restraint isn't in the recipe when it comes to the writing, the pencils, the inks or the coloring, and it makes for a lot of fun.