Or – “The Sentry Wasn’t Marvel’s FIRST Answer To Superman…”
It’s been a week or two since the first issue of the “reimagining” of Omega The Unknown came out, and I’ve been perusing what some of the other internet wags and comic store customers (Gatekeeper Hobbies! Huntoon and Gage, Topeka! Ask about our Clearance Table, approved by the Thunder God himself!) and it seems like most of the discussion is about how the book compares to it’s predecessor. Indeed, at least one of the online reviews seems as much a review of Steve Gerber’s 1975 Omega #1 as it was Jonathan Lethem’s 2007 Omega #1, which set my mental wheels in motion, and thus was born the first-ever “MYLAR SMACKDOWN.” In this corner, weighing in 4.9 ounces, wearing the yellow cover with the chipped corner… Omega The Unknoooooown! And, in this corner, weighing 4.2 ounces, wearing a strange mauve cover with a hand-drawn logo… Omeeeegaaaaa The Unknooooown! For the dozens in attendance, and for the couple dozen reading this at home…
Let’s Get Ready To REEEEECAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
Previously, on Omega The Unknown: Steve Gerber is one of my favorite writers, creator of some of the most unique comics and situations of all time (including Howard The Duck, Hard Time, the Foolkiller, as well as a run on Defenders in the ’70’s that has to be read to be believed) and Omega was my first introduction that his particular wonderful brand of madness. Back in the day, I bought all my back issues at Pat’s Book Nook by the river in Salina, Kansas, and the ever-changing selection of comics I’d never even HEARD of included a darn-near complete run of Omega The Unknown. Both new and old series begin in the same place, with a mysterious costumed man in jeopardy….
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The original version starts in an obviously alien landscape, with purple rocks and strange orangy skies, as the man in blue fights off a horde of robot assassins, dealing with a strange internal monologue of existential nature. “An organism ceases to live when it ceases to grow. The element of change, which loomed so terrifying, was in fact the only hope of salvation. To resist, to dam the flow, to go rigid… was to abandon all hope.” As Omega (though he isn’t actually CALLED that, we gotta do something here) fights, he is shot in the back… In our reinterpretation of the tale, the story starts in the woods behind a suburban home, with a similar attack.
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Again, he fights, and again the existentialism. “In fact, if you didn’t know better, you might suspect you’d generated them from inside yourself.” The caped man calls up his powers, firing mysterious energies from the Omega symbol in his palms, and once again he’s shot in the back… Both stories jump directly from the caped man being shot to a young man waking up, startled, from a nightmare. First, the Gerber version:
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James Michael Starling, a young man on the verge of a life-changing journey, preparing to leave home schooling for the first time and socialize with the frightening creatures known as “other kids.” Obviously, James Michael is a strange child, unemotional even when emotionally in turmoil, and his relationship with his parents seems more like the way a person would speak to their employer than a scared boy talking to his parents about a nightmare. In our new tale, a VERY similar moment occurs, with some dialogue actually repeating verbatim.
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What’s weird is how much more emotional Alexander seems than James Michael, and how his parents seem much more human (an irony that will come clear in a moment.) Morning dawns, and the family (families?) set out on their trip, while James Michael sulks in the back seat. When dad asks why he’s silent, he responds “‘Cause there’s only one thin on my mind… and THAT discussion’s been closed, remember?” His mother comments that she envies him, but James Michael isn’t impressed.
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Pause button engaged. Fast forward 22 years, and we once again see a similar scene play out, as young Alexander argues with his parents that other kids bore him. His mother suggests that he might feel more in common if he called her ‘Mom’ like a normal child, going so far as to suggest that he might learn something, and even have a little fun…
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It’s obviously that Lethem holds the original work in high regard, utilizing entire sequences and portions of dialogue from the original (for which I hope [but don't really expect] Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes get royalties.) Both cars crash, both families are thrown away from the wrecks, and both Alexander and James Michael open their eyes to find their mother’s decapitated head lying before them. Yes, it’s gruesome, but luckily, she’s not a human being at all, but a robot. Here’s where we see the first major diversion of new story from old. In the original, James Michael’s mother warns him to beware of the voices in his head, and then the robot melts away to nothingness, as help arrives…
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James Michael collapses, falling unconscious… Alexander, on the other hand, finds his mother who tells him that “You’ll be alright, Alexander. The world may confuse you… but… that’s true of everyone you’ll meet. Just promise me… you’ll accept their help.” Alexander passes out, and we cut to the cleanup, as a local superhero called The Mink arrives to check on the mysterious (unmelted) robot head. He decides it just needs power, and so he cross-wires it to a car battery (!) to get it to talk.
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Moron. I really dislike this plot point, as I don’t think that what OtU was missing in it’s first incarnation was a comic-relief idiot superhero. The Mink makes a couple of calls, to watch over Alexander for some unknown reason. Both Alexander and James Michael remain in their comas, and both Omegas find themselves fighting the robots again, the original on his strange planet, finally escaping via rocketship, leaving his attackers behind as he flies towards Earth. In the retelling, we see the robots in Alexander’s home, reading through his books and doing strange things when Omega awakes in the basement, breaks free and takes them out. James Michael and Alexander are watched over by kindly nurses, until they both awake… A doctor asks how J-M feels, and he dispassionately responds “as though every muscle in my body were about to explode. Please remove these restraints.”
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As for Alexander, his nurse, Edie, is the first to find him conscious, who talks with him for some time before getting help (nice healthcare there… must be an HMO.)
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Again, the doctor is amazed at how complex his mental facilities are, and Alexander replies that his parents tutored him. “Just before I lost them, I believe they were trying to explain that I would find their preparations inadequate to the world in which I now find myself.” James Michael has a similar problem, as nurse Ruth tries to relate to him, while the doctor finds that he doesn’t have the budget for another ‘charity case.’ Ruth’s roommate Amber (photographer for the Daily Bugle, who keeps getting stiffed by that obnoxious Parker kid… Heh.) is the one who breaks the silence, mentioning how the voices in her head get pretty loud sometimes, and JM suddenly starts talking. The decision is made that he will move in with Ruth temporarily, but the night before he is to leave, something strange happens…
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After a month in space, Omega has found his target, and leaps in to save James Michael from a robot exactly like the ones he left behind on Planet Omicron 12 (home of the exploding Nitro Glycerine squirrels… No, not really.) and a fight ensues. Alexander has a similar experience, as his nurse Edie agrees to temporarily take care of him, but the night before he is to leave…
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Both Omegas fight valiantly, and both robot killers get the drop on them, but just as the androids prepare to shoot the caped defenders, James Michael and Alexander have identical urges. The both raise their hands, and feel a strange power rising in their bodies, as coronas of energy surround their hands. They are both surprised to find power bolts (like the Omegas have been throwing around) shooting from their hands, destroying the robots. Both Omegas are saved, and both depart, leaving a confused teenager in the middle of a ruined room…
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Identical cliffhangers, identical sequences, and identical quandaries… Yet one is somehow diminished from the other… There’s a theory that you occasionally bump into in Doctor Who fandom that states that whichever Doctor you first encountered (in my case, Number Five, who gets little to no respect) is your favorite, and I bear that in mind when I look at my responses to these two single issues. The original has more of Gerber’s patented brand of navel-gazing and a palpable sense of isolation in a world he doesn’t understand (also a hallmark of Howard The Duck) while Lethem’s story seems to be more grounded in a coming-of-age tale. Obviously, both books are about the teenage protagonists more than the superheroes that accompany them, but in different ways. Farel Dalrymple’s art is interesting, and entertainingly crude in places, but I prefer Jim Mooney’s old-school Marvel work.
Comparing these two issues, I can’t help but remember the Gus Van Sant shot-by-shot remake of Psycho from ‘98 or so. You wonder, if someone loves the original work so much, why they would choose to remake it. Either you’ll find your creation poorly compared to the original, or you’ll undermine the popularity of the first work with a more popular remake. This is why the revamped ‘Planet of The Apes’ movie didn’t work for me, as well. Lethem and Dalrymple have put together a nice work, but I (and most of the internet) can’t separate it from the original. Using Gerber’s dialogue really gets into an uncomfortable area for me, since Steve has been one of the most vocal detractors of the ‘work-for-hire’ system in comics, and for someone else to get paid to retype his words thirty years later rubs me wrong… The new Omega The Unknown doesn’t do itself any favors with the addition of The Mink, or with Alexander’s characterization. It seems like they’ve tried to humanize him, and in the process DEhumanized him considerably from James Michael Starling… It’s not a bad book, but I can’t give it more than 2 out of 5 stars…
I have to judge in favor of the original, as the Gerber/Skrenes/Mooney issue has it’s problems, (the sudden introduction of Amber works, but Ruth’s angsty monologues really don’t) but still ranks an impressive 3.5 out of 5 stars for an intriguing premise and setup, and the moment where James Michael’s mother melts is creepy as hell even thirty years on. I give the original 3.5 stars out of 5, and judge it the winner by a three-count.
The original Omega ran 10 issues, and this new OtU limited is slated for 10 as well. I’ll be interested to see if each issue parallels the original, or if we’ll be headed far afield from the original books scope. Either way, I’m intrigued enough to stick around for the long haul, and if it disappoints, I guess I’ll still have the copies I bought at Pat’s Book Nook to keep me company…
***The Beatles... They were big.
Buddhism, too, has had it's followers...
But can any of these REALLY compare to the phenomenon that is Matthew? At the age of 37, he's finally certain that there's no such thing as an adult, only children with varying abilities to cover their own insecurities. His comic book collection is currently housed in fifty-three short boxes, and were one of the major forces behind his family's move to larger quarters. Matthew enjoys body surfing, (so long as the bodies are fresh) writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women.
Favorite writers include Gail Simone, Joss Whedon, Matt Fraction, Fred Van Lente, Doug Moench, Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek, Jeff Parker, Steve Gerber and David Anthony Kraft.
Among his favorite artists are John Byrne, Phil Jiminez, Nicola Scott, Barry Kitson, Mark Bagley, Mac Raboy, Marshall Rogers, Gil Kane, Russ Manning, Jerry Ordway, Gene Colan, and Tim Truman. Ask him tomorrow, and there'll be even more.
As a great man once said: 'The Future's Up To You... So Whatcha Gonna Do?' ***
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Reading this, for some reason, compels me to watch the video of Goriilaz’ Feel Good, Inc. over and over and over in a dark room witht he volume turned up beyond lethal levels.
Which only goes to prove how awesome it is. Stay Tuned when I do the same for an old forgotten DC Character vaguely resembling Nova and created by Jack Kirby…
nice review I really enjoyed the comparison.