Customer Reviews

Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C.

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Are you ready for the World That's Coming?
Are you ready for the One Man Army Corps?

It's great that this series of Kirby's (along with several other Kirby series at DC and Marvel) are finally being collected and published.

I just wish it could have been done while Kirby was still alive!! (what other creators also deserve collections of their works before they kick off? Ditko?)

As I hate hardbacks, I really wish this was in paperback, but I guess this is the only way we could get it. I'm not too keen on the paper, either. Same style as the Fourth World Omnibuses, and I know others have complained. I expect the future Demon and Loser collections will follow the same style.

This was one of the first short-lived series that I worked to get a complete set when got seriously into comic book collecting in the early 80s. As DC in recent years have been reusing the concept, it's great they finally collected the original series. Now, I wish they'd collect Byrne's OMAC mini, as well as some of the scattered other OMAC appearanced (short-lived backup series in Kamandi and Warlord, etc)

I wish they had shown Kirby's original last panel from issue #8. And I wish someone had tried to find out from Kirby were he was originally planning on going with the series after the cliffhanger in #8. You see that Kirby is setting things up for future stories that never happened. Other after Kirby tried to tie the series into other stuff, such as tying it into Kamandi (by claiming that Kamandi's grandfather was the now de-powered Buddy Blank; and that the absense of OMAC allowed the Great Disaster to wipe out the World That's Coming).

(REVISED REVIEW)

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.

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.

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.

One of Jack "The King" Kirby's best inventions. "O.M.A.C." was a short lived science fiction series. Great concepts, amazing art and some of Kirby's strangest images. It's some of his best work ever. It's a shame it was so short lived. Highly recommended for casual comic book readers. It's a must have for Kirby fans. This volume ranks up there with his work on Fantastic Four. Definitely on of my desert island picks.

Buddy Blank is OMAC - a futuristic super soldier ala Captain America.

Like most of Kirby's 70s works - this series is set in a sci-fi world dominated by technology and weird grotesque figures. There is however a difference. OMAC resonates by featuring a down-to-earth world more akin to Bladerunner and Judge Dredd than the Asgardian worlds of Darkseid or the Eternals. Technology here serves the darkest desires of mankind - some of them as Mark Evanier points out - seem to foretell what would actually happen.

In fact, OMAC foreshadows the coming of stories like the Matrix, Bladerunner and Judge Dredd, etc - suggesting that Kirby was an avid Sci-fi reader or had it all worked out.

Unfortunately, OMAC's environment is a lot more dimensional than OMAC himself, who feels somewhat underdeveloped. But King Kirby was no doubt churning them out by this point in time - his focus seemed to be building up these fantastic worlds and forsaking character development. The result is a colourful, in-your-face Kirby masterwork sans the usual superhero angst. OMAC is strictly pulp fiction. It's dark but not heavy reading.

While it doesn't exceed his other DC works like The New Gods in terms of scale and ambition - OMAC is worth getting to see what Kirby was up to and to enjoy some of his nifty ideas.

Jack Kirby's OMAC is collected in it's entirety in this volume , and it is great!! Other creators made use of the character over the years , but only Kirby his creator really had a flair for him. It's great being able to sit down and go through the entire collectionin one sitting. I'm very happy with this purchase.

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.

One of Jack Kirby's more science-fiction oriented titles. He throws in a few great ideas. And some fantastic artwork, among his best in places. The plotting and the pacing aren't strong throughout though. This is great in places, which is the case with every title he did, I think. The end is surprisingly abrupt, guess he found out the title was cancelled after drawing out most of issue #8.

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.