Omactivate!

Normally, I'd stay away from anything having to do with DC's "New 52" project. I made an exception for this fun tale, though. One of the chief reasons was because of the Jack Kirby connection. Even though this isn't the same OMAC featured in the original tale of the same name (which I also have in my collection), it had the visual style, feel, and flavor of a silver age, Jack Kirby original. A large part of this has to do with artist/co-plotter Keith Giffen, who channels Kirby very well here. Co-writer Dan Didio surprised me. I didn't know he had it in him.Let's get this out of the way: this book perfectly channels silver age Marvel even down to the nicknames for the creators in the opening credits. I had to do a double-take and make sure I wasn't reading a Stan Lee/Jack Kirby production. Some may call it a pastiche, but I love this book. The character sort of reminds me of the original OMAC blended with the Incredible Hulk (if you could picture a somewhat sinister Artificial Intelligence parceling out the big guy to Bruce Banner). I love that the story moved along briskly and wasn't as mired down as some of the other New 52 books tended to be. I enjoyed the odd combination of new and classic elements presented in this book.Not all is perfect, though. The confrontation with the New 52 Superman was really pointless and unnecessary. The story would've been better served without including it. Also, I would've liked to have seen some flashbacks to the early life of the protagonist, Kevin Khoi. It was told but not shown. This is what kept me from giving an otherwise excellent miniseries 5 stars.The ending is a bit more satisfactory than in Kirby's original tale. I hope this won't be yet another instance of DC not knowing what to do with this character and letting him languish in obscurity. This is a character who could shine under the stewardship of the right writer and artist. If the former scenario is to be the outcome, then at least I'll have this collection and the Kirby original to pore over. All in all, I greatly enjoyed this book.

I freakin loved this bad boy. It reminder me of the Hulk in the MCU. You have this twerpy, nerdy guy named Kevin Kho who somehow gets chosen to become OMAC by this sentient satellite, similar to Bruce Banner transforming into the Hulk, only OMAC is “controlled” by this sentient satellite, who speaks with Kevin, tells him what to do, they have conversations, etc. That’s the kicker. Kevin’s got a love life, goes on a double date, has no idea what the hell is going on, tries to be his own man...I’d buy it.

I loved this! Taking place at the same time as the second story in Frankenstein Vol. 1, these are the same events from OMAC's point of view and the continuing story involving Checkmate. I like Kevin Kho and his OMAC alter ego. This whole book basically covers his origin story and the time he's being controlled by Brother Eye. Both Checkmate and Cadmus are interesting organizations, which I'd like to see more of. There are some interesting battles and villains OMAC goes up against, including a guest appearance by both Frankenstein and later Superman. OMAC is an anti-hero to begin with but Kevin begins to regain a small amount of his own thoughts while under control and the ending brings him into his own right as a superhero and this is, unfortunately, where this series was cancelled. But not to worry, as he pops up here and there in the 52 universe again from this point on.

For the art in OMAC, I give 5 stars.But for the story by Didio, some points off. Especially the infantile dialogue for Brother Eye, substituting "Eye" for "I" in every sentence. "Eye think this", "Eye will do that"... it really dumbs down the story to almost unreadability.I still prefer the original 8-issue Kirby run (released in hardcover in 2008), and Giffen thankfully follows consistently in the Kirby tradition, with very dynamic and consistent art.But the story, while fun on a less complex action level, offers little story or character development, as OMAC each issue gets in a slugfest with whatever monster-of-the-month is thrown at him. My favorite of these is Spawn of Frankenstein. And while two interesting sentient tigers named Tuftan and Caesar (characters familiar to any KAMANDI reader) are introduced, they are again basically cameos with no development, and not the characters they are made to seem like.This was okay reading, but definitely not material (such as Kirby's original OMAC, DEMON, or KAMANDI work, or Giffen's own LEGION "Great Darkness Saga") that I'll re-read and enjoy the clever twists of over and over again. Nice art, vacuous story. I'll only keep it in my collection because I'm a Giffen completist.

This series is excellent. The art is fantastic. The story, a man is taken over by a super powered computer and transformed into "OMAC", is really well done. Reminded me of "Terminator" and " Transcendence" with the Hulk thrown in. Written very much like a 60's comic, this was a joy to read. The Battle between "Eye" and the human head of the corporation was very well handled. It threaded all the books together nicely. The Easter eggs for Kirby fans are wonderful. I loved how the "mother box" and "kamandi" ideas, were woven into the books. Too bad it was only this 8 issues. But it's a great 8 issues. As thrilling as reading an actual Jack Kirby book. The art is fantastic.

Kevin Kho is OMAC (which stands for One Machine Attack Construct) basically a blue Hulk wearing armour from "Fear Itself" with a tropical fish tail mohawk.Once again this is a "New 52" title that fails to introduce a character to a new readership, as well as failing to do anything new with the character and ultimately falling on its face in trying to do anything at all. And it's disappointing, not least because OMAC is an interesting character, one of the few DC has which allows them to go cosmic and do some nifty sci-fi storylines; with OMAC cancelled, all they've got is Green Lantern and his many spin-offs.As a Jack Kirby creation, there's a lot of cool stuff in "OMAC" like Brother Eye, a sentient satellite, Father Time who is inexplicably a young Japanese girl in a schoolgirl outfit, Maxwell Lord, a chain-smoking psychic space dude, along with Sarge Steel and the Checkmate Elite, a chess-themed military squad. OMAC himself is an arresting vision, a very alien looking creature who looks futuristic and scary but is also the hero of the book.Story-wise there's nothing much to say: OMAC fights a monster, he fights some talking crocodiles with holographic weapons attached to their heads, he fights Frankenstein, he fights Superman, he fights more monsters, the end. There's a lot of fighting and not much else besides.It's a shame a terrible writer like Dan Didio was given this title as, in the right hands, the series could've been great. Didio's idea of a good comic book is to introduce the Kirby creations and then have OMAC fight something. I don't understand why so many titles in the New 52 promote the fact that they're emulating old versions of the characters - why not do something, uh, new with them? OMAC, while being a tribute to Kirby right down to the art, doesn't break new ground for the character it just goes over it. There's more to imagination than simply putting zany characters on the page; Didio and Giffen really needed to approach this series from a new perspective instead of relying on the old Kirby comics formula that worked back then but reads stale and trite today.Having read the 8 issues in this book, I have no idea what OMAC's point was - where was the series headed? What are his goals? Why is Kevin so accepting of being transformed - by a talking satellite only he hears - into a raging cyborg killing machine? The ending is also truly abysmal. Fair enough, they knew the series was being cancelled, but couldn't they have come up with a more creative way to bow out?If all you want out of comics is superstrong characters smashing each other pointlessly, OMAC is your book - for everyone else, this is one to miss.

There's nothing subtle about this re-working of the Jack Kirby character whose name stood for One Man Army Corp but is now in, DC's New 52, One-Machine Army Construct in the hands of Dan Didio (DC head honcho) who co-scripts with artist Keith Giffen. Giffen's art channels Jack Kirby to perfection while remaining clearly Giffen's own. Matching the art, the script also echoes Kirby's massive sound and thunder in a completely unsubtle assult on the reader and it's just great.Didio and Giffen have done an excellent job of transforming elements of Kirby's work for DC in the 70's into a new form. Originally OMAC was just a tough enhanced human with a Mohawk haircut. Now he's something closer to a human monster with the Mohawk transformed into some kind of energy field. Utilising the body of Asian-American Kevin Kho, the enigmatic Brother Eye controls the monstrous OMAC into attacking the enigmatic scientific research institute Cadmus (itself secretly funded by the Checkmate organisation under the leadership of the ruthless Maxwell Lord). This brings OMAC into conflict with a variety of supervillains (at least one from Apocalips), monsters, and heroes (the latter including Frankenstein and a certain Kryptonian) and meeting a few characters who once appeared in Kamandi.Fans of Jack Kirby will be squeeing in their seats and I couldn't blame them. This is a massive explosion of comic book energy.Disappointingly, the comic was cancelled after the eight issues included here so, for the time being, OMAC is de-omactivated. At least it ends in a satisfying manner and I'm sure the character will return somewhere.

OMAC, der Shazam aus der Feder von Jack Kirby, ein Held aus der dritten Reihe, und in seiner New 52 Version ein Lehrstück über klassische US Superhelden-Comics. Zuerst fällt die brachial Grafik auf: Klobige Fäuste hämmern in grellen Farben auf die Leser ein. Beim Lesen stolpert der Leser über eine sehr flache und sich irgendwie ständig wiederholende Handlung. Bei der illusteren Mischung der Macher dieser Serie darf man da entweder schnelles Geldverdienen zum Bezahlen der Krdikartenrechnung (wenn man böse sein will) oder eine - und das möchte ich eher glauben und liebe diesen Gedanken - ehrfurchtsvolle Verneigung vor der alten Art, Comics zu erzählen. Das wurde leider weder von den Lesern so nicht honoriert und dieser Trade beinhaltet, unabgeschlossen wie er ist, die gesamte Serie.

OMAC und Checkmate hatten immer einen klaren Bezug zum Dunklen Ritter und den hatte ich hier eigentlich auch erhofft. Was es anstatt dessen gab war eine mit einer hanebüchenen Geschichte verbundenen Reihe von hirnlosen Prügeleien, mit Dialogen, wie ich sie - zum Glück - lange nicht mehr in einem Comic gelesen hatte.