After Jack "King" Kirby had left DC for Marvel and parts unknown, he left behind a remarkable trove of characters for the talent there to play with. There was a revival of the New Gods and Mister Miracle with great art by the likes of Don Newton and Marshall Rogers. But one of the most intriguing revivals was of OMAC (One-Man Army Corp) by the exceedingly talented Jim Starlin.
For his part Starlin revised the origin of OMAC, but first he brought the fans up to date and even supplied an ending of sorts onto the saga which had so summarily been halted with Kirby's abrupt departure.
In this variation of the OMAC story, the GPA (Global Peace Agency) aren't human at all, but aliens seeking some measure of control of the Earth .
The saga unfolded first in the pages of Kamandi but when that book too was cancelled it was shifted over to Mike Grell's Warlord title.
OMAC in these stories is much more assured and while confronted with a somewhat new reality approaches it with a mixture of realism and bravura which keeps him still much the hero in a somewhat grittier universe.
After some spectacular battles Starlin takes his leave of the character.
But OMAC would continue for a few episodes further in the lands of other talents. The concept would prove to be a sturdy one for DC and has been revised and revisited many times since, always coherent largely due to the strong concepts originally devised by Kirby.
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