Comic Info
Comic Name: O.M.A.C. (Volume 1)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jack Kirby
Artist: Jack Kirby
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2021
OMAC (1) #5
Buddy Blank lives in a future in question. When he is empowered by Professor Myron Forest and his creation Brother Eye, Buddy is transformed into OMAC aka One Man Army Corps. OMAC has the power and strength to defend the world and teamed with the Global Peace Agency, he is the hero that the world needs. OMAC is taking on tyrants and warmongers, and with the help of Brother Eye, the Earth might stand a chance!
Written and illustrated by Jack Kirby, OMAC: One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby is a DC Comics superhero collection. The series was cancelled before storylines could wrap-up. It has been collected in multiple versions.
OMAC is just odd. The character bopped around DC after this Kirby run, but always was a bit of mystery…what he a robot? Was he a human? Is Buddy Blanks OMAC or is OMAC a separate entity? It feels like reading the origin issues of the character that Kirby had bigger plans for the character and that never really play out.
Kirby envisioned OMAC as a Captain America of the future, but it feels like more intrigue with the character than Captain America. Later versions of OMAC (sometimes referred to as Observational Meta-human Activity Construct or Omni Mind And Community) had a more sinister approach with Brother Eye being a more sinister Big Brother type. Little of this plays out in this collection, but it is perceivable that Kirby had a similar future vision for the character.
OMAC (1) #8
Largely, the stories are one or two issue arcs. OMAC is sent to face a baddy by the GPA. He generally has to call on Brother Eye for help in powering himself and then OMAC takes down the villain. The last storyline involves an ocean thief, and Brother Eye potentially facing destruction…but then nothing. The story was later tied into Kamandi by other writers, but even there, OMAC faltered.
What really feels underdeveloped in OMAC is the Global Peace Agency which frankly is both inspired and shady. Like the police in HBO’s Watchmen, the characters are masked to make them both anonymous and the “everyman”, but they also take on a sinister side in that approach. OMAC seems to blindly work for them and doesn’t seem to have as many questions about their role as judge and jury when it comes to his assignments.
OMAC is a comic with potential but unrecognized potential in its initial release. It is also a comic that feels very creator geared so it is hard for people other than Kirby to write it. The series like his other series including DC’s The Forever People and Marvel’s Eternals has that weird, wild, and wacky style that was innate to Kirby. Despite Kirby’s general classic appeal, I do think that he is acquired taste and newer readers might have a hard time getting into the strange worlds he created…especially if they don’t get the ending they need and deserve like OMAC.
