After the demise of the Man-Thing comic, Steve Gerber was still operating on all cylinders and his most famous follow-up was Howard the Duck, the creation for which he is most remembered today. But at the same time that he kicked off Howard's meteoric career he launched another series titled Omega the Unknown, with the help of Mary Skrenes and veteran artist Jim Mooney. In point of fact this is the comic most like Man-Thing featuring the same artist and writer team and presenting a protagonist who is mute and unusually susceptible to his surroundings. Omega the Unknown is a comic which lives up to its title and is rather inscrutable even today.
The story begins on a distant alien planet where the enigmatic figure who will be called Omega the Unknown battles against an armada of invading sentient robots. His world seems destroyed but he is able to escape. On Earth a young boy named James Michael Starling is roused by his parents and they leave their home but a car wreck ends with the boy orphaned and his parents seemingly having been robots all along. Quickly he finds himself in hospital where his unusual nature arouses the curiosity of the doctor and nurses. The same robots that invaded Omega's planet have followed him to Earth and now they attack the boy but Omega's timely intervention saves the day, though weirdly the boy is able to fire beams of his own in his defense. There is clearly a connection between James Michael and Omega.
In the second issue things heat up as James Michael gets used to life outside his parents isolated home and Omega has to confront the fury of the Hulk. Omega also meets an old man who takes him in and calls him "Sam".
Electro had acquired one of the alien robots that had followed Omega to Earth and he tries to get Omega to help him with reviving it. James Michael moves in with Ruth, his former nurse and her roommate Amber who is a streetwise photographer for the Daily Bugle.
The complexities of public school afflict James Michael and some of his new friends who have to navigate savage bullies and incompetent teachers. Gerber's lack of respect for traditional education permeates much of these early issues of James Michael's life.
Omega for his part comes into conflict with El Gato, a local warlock of sorts and crime boss. Despite some shape-changing qualities on his opponent's part, Omega still wins the day.
The brutality of life for the elderly gets a highlight when the savage Wrench mugs old women and men for their cash. Omega is at last able to stop him, but not before some dies.
One of James Michael's friends is brutally beaten and his life hangs by a thread. On the Omega front the Blockbuster, a villain from Captain America's magazine shows up to raise a ruckus. Omega gets public criticism when he fails to stop the villain from robbing a bank, though Omega does save lives.
Omega finds himself in battling Captain Marvel villain Nitro in a story by Roger Stern and Lee Elias.
Omega finishes his fight with Blockbuster though the intervention of a villain called Foolkiller creates new problems.
In the final issue of the run James Michael's friend dies of his injuries and is buried. After the funeral James Michael decides it's best to leave town and along with his friend Dian. They head back to the boy's home. Omega battles against Ruby Thursday and her demon Dibbuk, but events unfold in such a way that he is shot and seemingly killed by police. And with that the series closes with a promise of more secrets revealed in issues of The Defenders.
When the story finally shows up in the pages of the The Defenders the writer is Steven Grant and the artist is Herb Trimpe. Valkyrie and Hellcat with the assistance of the Wasp assist Ruth and Amber along with Rory to find James Michael and Dian. Meanwhile Omega is not exactly recovering from his wounds all that well.
In the frand finale Moondragon shows up to fix things somewhat and we learn at long last that the alien robots are actually the makers of both Omega and James Michael. Each was a progressively improved model of being in which the doomed aliens hoped to invest the welfare of their dying race. But the plan was messed over when Omega came to Earth and triggered the events that forced James Michael to activate his powers sooner than expected. His powers are staggering and it is only the intervention of Moondragon and the Defenders that James Michael comes to finally understand his dangerous nature and or the sake of his friends destroys himself. But as the story closes Moondragon takes both his body and Omega's are dropped off in space heading into the sun.
With solid but sadly sometimes unexciting work by the totally professional Jim Mooney this book has a visual style that feels at odds with its offbeat themes. If the intent was to create an utterly realistic setting in "Hell's Kitchen" for the characters to boil in it fails a bit in that the environment doesn't look really any different from generic NYC which adorns most Marvel books of the era. Gerber and Skrenes start the ball rolling with a very subtly done first issue but never recapture that magic as the strip gets burdened by too much of the traditional new-Marvel superhero trapping such as recognizable villains and guest-stars. This book needed really to exist outside or at a distance from the MU to be fully effective. Still it's an interesting read, if you're prepared for the sudden stop.
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