Clearly not. Because he's certainly unknown to me.
This is odd - because a perusal of the Grand Comics Database tells me I may once have owned, not just one, but two issues of his mag.
Despite this, I have no recall at all of anything that happened in either of them.
While perhaps it's no surprise that the villain known as, "The Wrench," has somehow slipped from my consciousness with the passage of time, it seems that even issue #3's inclusion of Electro himself was not enough to make the title leave an impression on me.
Who was Omega?
Where was he from?
How did he get his powers?
Was he, as his name suggests, the living end?
Reader, I must confess I don't know.
This amnesia is odd, as the strip was co-written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Jim "The Eyes" Mooney, two creators for whom I've always had the highest levels of affection. In fact, after Jim Starlin, Steve Gerber was probably my favourite 1970s writer.It seems the strip was co-written with Mary Skrenes, a writer I must confess to knowing even less about than I know about Omega. But I gather from the internet that there was something of an Original Captain Marvel vibe to the strip, with Omega's alter-ego being a schoolboy.
Also, it seems Omega himself never spoke and may have been no stranger to forgetting things himself.
Sadly, Omega only lasted for ten issues, suggesting he was one of those 1970s' Marvel try-outs, like Skull the Slayer, who never took flight.
But, if it was co-written by Steve Gerber, surely it must have had something going for it?
Mustn't it?
Omega The Unknown was a strange little comic - not Gerber's best by any means but it had potential. The problem was Omega himself: he was just such a dull character, with a Silver Surfer-esque line in noble suffering. But at least, being virtually silent, he didn't whinge as much as the Surfer.
ReplyDeleteThe kid who was the other main character, James-Michael, was far more interesting than the supposed "star" of the comic, which couldn't have been good for the mag...
Omega was one of my favorite comics as a kid. I still like it having reread it a few years ago. I always liked the odd and off kilter comics.It's certainly not a finished work though. It's more an unfilled potential type comic.
ReplyDeleteSteve-O, I can at least answer some of your questions--but whether or not the mag had something going for it may remain *ahem* unknown. I'm sure that it has its staunch fan base in some capacity.
ReplyDeleteIt is an unfinished symphony, very recognizable as a Gerber story, and something that might have made a great movie pitch, if they'd had an eye for trans-media and mini-series in those days. It ends abruptly and was never resolved to Gerber's satisfaction -- I expect it was a heartbreak for him, but one that was dwarfed by the Howard The Duck A-bomb. I read it as part of my digital sub last year and was intrigued.
ReplyDeleteHave to say I never quite "got" or liked "Omega the Unknown" and only picked up a few issues when nothing else was available on the spinner racks. It always seemed to me to be borrowing a bit from Superman and (as you state) Capt Marvel (SHAZAM) and trying too hard to be clever . Plus his costume wouldn't have been out of place on Bowies "Ziggy Stardust" and was way too 70s even for the 70s (up there with Luke Cage and Killraven imho). Perhaps I never gave it a chance as it seems fondly remembered by some and had a great creative team , but for me at the time at least it was a turkey. Omega himself was created as a bio-engineered creation by the Protar, from the planet Protaris (they were robots) - there was a 2007 mini series that was well received as well. Actually wasn't Omega "killed" in the original series wonder how they got out of that one!
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