Review: The Omega Men: The End Is Here by Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, et al.

I had three reviews go up at Unreality SF, all of 2017 Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas. Two first Doctor stories, "The Destination Wars" and "The Great White Hurricane," and two sixth Doctor stories, The Behemoth and The Middle.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2016 (contents: 2015-16)
Acquired September 2016
Read January 2017

The Omega Men: The End Is Here

Writer: Tom King

Artists: Barnaby Bagenda, Toby Cypress, Ig Guara, José Marzan Jr.
Colorists: Romula Fajardo Jr., Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Pat Brosseau

In interviews about Threshold, Keith Giffen stated his intentions to bring in the Omega Men at some point. Clearly, we need to be grateful that he did not, because it might have prevented this comic from existing. Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda present the third incarnation of the Omega Men, but possibly the first to actually deliver on their potential-- they pick up on the morally ambiguous aspects of the Omega Men set up in the early issues of the 1983 Roger Silfer/Keith Giffen run to great effect. This version of The Omega Men is violent and harsh. Former Green Lantern Kyle Rayner comes to the Vega system to try to make peace, but finds that sometimes, violence is the only response to oppression. But this is a violence beyond that of most superhero-adjacent comic books. The nine-panel grid gives the proceedings a monotonous feel-- in a good way. It's like one of those movies where there are no cuts, you just have to watch the horrible things happen.

A prisoner of the nine-panel grid... just like he's a prisoner of THE OMEGA MEN!!!
from The Omega Men vol. 3 #1 (art by Barnaby Bagenda)

King was a CIA agent of some stripe before he became a comic book writer, and his depictions of the complications of the Vega system really benefit from this. The six worlds of Vega (gone are the umpteen worlds of the old days; Starfire's homeworld of Tamaran doesn't seem to be in Vega anymore) have been conquered by the Citadel. Vega is the only source of a precious mineral, and it's impossible not to see echoes of Western involvement in the Middle East for its resources. King and Bagenda depict a lot of local conflicts, too; it's not just Star Wars-style Evil Empire vs. Hapless Rebels. Each planet has its own factions, some of whom find merit in co-operating with the Citadel for whatever reason. You even have the planet Euphorix, where the Citadel resettled the Brahmins from another system to that planet, so there's its natives, plus the Brahmins, plus the Citadel. I liked the delving into religion, too: both the Citadel and Vega worship the same god, Alpha, the first cause, but the inhabitants of Vega also worship Omega, the end. There's a lot of nuance and story here.

Scrapps, the Patchwork Girl???
from The Omega Men vol. 3 #5 (art by Barnaby Bagenda)

The End Is Here makes up one longer story, but each issue is its own standalone, too, another piece in the puzzle that is the true agenda of the Omega Men, and the slow unlocking of their backstories, and the slow breaking of Kyle Rayner. The first couple I felt were the strongest, maybe because that was when the book was new and fresh and I had no idea what could happen. It did eventually settle into a pattern, but still found ways to surprise me, like with Kyle and the Princess Kalista in hiding on Hny'xx, the market world-- suddenly it was a survival thriller, as we got a taste of what it's like to just live in Vega when you can't rebel.

Life in dystopia is always so much fun...
from The Omega Men vol. 3 #7 (art by Barnaby Bagenda & Ig Guara)

If there was ever an argument for the New 52, this book was it. In my review of the 2005-06 Omega Men revival, I commented on how the core premise of the series mutated over time-- and by the point the Omega Men were appearing in R.E.B.E.L.S., a return to the original hook would have been inexplicable and impossible. The New 52 lets DC do that. Like the best reboots, this is a different angle on something that was there all along. The Omega Men had become sort of impotent and toothless-- look at how Tigorr went from savage beast to a one-eyed cigar-chomping stereotype. Fun, but not exactly a feral freedom fighter/terrorist. In The End Is Here, King and Bagenda bring The Omega Men back, the way they always should have been.

(Also the propaganda poster style covers by Trevor Hutchison are delightful. I would buy every one of them as a print if I could.)

The Prehistory of the Omega Men

I didn't know when I began reading DC's The Omega Men that it was a spin-off of previous comics, mostly those by Marv Wolfman; I was actually surprised when I realized that Teen Titans's Starfire was from the Vega system that is the setting for The Omega Men. So now, as part of my dive back into 1970s-80s DC space comics, I'm reading a collection of random stuff that tied into The Omega Men in some way. Two enemies of the Omega Men, the Citadel and the Spider Guild, both appeared in Green Lantern originally (issues #136 and 167, respectively), for example. The Omega Men appeared in a number of stories across Green Lantern, Action Comics, and The New Teen Titans before they got their own ongoing, and it's those I want to talk about today.

* * * 

In addition to the issues of Green Lantern cited below, I also read #136-39, 164, 167, 172, and 180-90. I was in general impressed by what I read of writer Marv Wolfman's run (which in full goes from #133 to 153); Wolfman is very adept as balancing ongoing plots with standalone stories in the way that I feel is ideal, and even though I was plunged right into the middle of several ongoing stories, I never failed to understand what was going on. Those old comics where the characters spend a page thinking about what's happened to them recently might look a little silly to us now, but that conceit sure is helpful!

The Omega-Men Saga! actually gives very terrestrial roots to what would become quite a cosmic concept. Carol Ferris has been deposed as head of Ferris Aircraft by her father, so Carol and Hal Jordan-- who have only recently rekindled their relationship-- go on a trip to Newfoundland to get away from it all. Writer Wolfman implies a lot of tent sex. Because Hal Jordan is dumb, they run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, and when he uses his ring to get to the nearest town, they discover the whole thing is an illusion created by... the Omega Men! They're a group of resistance fighters from the Vega star system, who are masking themselves from the hunters of the Citadel, the evil empire that dominates their home system. Of course Green Lantern fights them, but when the Gordanian hunters arrive, they unite against their enemy. (Green Lantern previously fought the Gordanians in the 22nd and 58th centuries in Green Lantern #136-37.)

It's an okay story. With eight different Omega Men to incorporate (Primus, Kalista, Tigorr, Broot, Nimbus, Harpis, Demonia, and Auron) into what's really just two issues, none of them make much of an impression. Primus is the boss one, Kalista is the girl one, Demonia is the evil one, Auron is the god one, and that's basically it. And can I just say that Wolfman's naming is incredibly unimaginative? Primus is the leader, Tigorr is a tiger, Broot is a brute, Nimbus is a cloud, Harpis is a harpy, Demonia is a demon, and Auron is a light. Anyway, Joe Staton draws some good fights, the Gordanians are sent packing, and the Omega Men will stop hiding on Earth and go back into space to fight the Citadel.

* * * 

If this story (hardly a saga) had been their only appearance, I doubt anyone would remember them, but Marv Wolfman brought them back a year later, by which time he and Joe Staton were writing and drawing Action Comics. The end of The Omega-Men Saga! implied that the Omega Men were heading off into space, but apparently they actually didn't because they still had stuff to do. They need Green Lantern's help to finish fueling up their ship, only he's in space, so here they go ask Superman instead. However, we'vre right in the middle of an ongoing plot for Superman, where he's been split into two different people, each of which only has some of his powers, and one of which is lost in the medieval era. Just another Tuesday for Superman. So the Omega Men end up helping him and Lois (Wolfman is good at giving the female love interests stuff to do) fight some underground people who want to auction him off.

Not all of the Omega Men appear in this story, but the beginning of The Starfire Saga is also perfunctory. Some fighting, blah blah blah. Like with the holographic village in Green Lantern, the Omega Men seem to have a level of power not really consistent with what we see in the later ongoing Omega Men series by Roger Slifer and company; here, Kalista can use sorcery to summon someone on the opposite side of the Earth! It's hard to imagine the Omega Men leaving Vega at all, actually, based on the ongoing. (There definitely were some retcons when the Omega Men were made into their own thing.) The Superman stuff here was honestly more interesting than the Omega Men stuff. Which I guess makes sense; it's Superman's series after all!

However, at the end of its second issue, Superman takes the Omega Men to the Justice League satellite, where he provides them with the fuel they seek... only to be interrupted by the New Teen Titans barely reaching the satellite, as they nearly asphyxiate in space. The Starfire Saga continues from there in the pages of The New Teen Titans, which fill in how they ended up in this predicament: they were trying to rescue Starfire from being kidnapped by her sister Blackfire, who works for the Citadel. (Starfire and Blackfire's backstory was depicted by the recent Tales of the New Teen Titans #4, where we got our first glimpse of the key Vegan world of Okaara.)

The Omega Men have to go to Vega anyway, and hate the Citadel already, so they let the Titans accompany them in what leads to a series of pitched battles, as the Citadel tries to steal the Vegan god X'Hal. Some of the Titans stay on Okaara to defend the planet, while others go to the Citadel itself to rescue Starfire.

It's all exciting stuff. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez were at the top of their game in the 1980s. These are cosmic battles and personal foibles as only they can tell it, and even though I've scarcely read any of The New Teen Titans, they made me want to start collecting some expensive omnibus volumes. The Omega Men are still kind of just there, except for Demonia who is so evil that it seems improbable the rest would put up with her.

These stories do succeed in making you want the Omega Men get their own series, though, because of the worldbuilding. We see several planets in the Vega system, each with some kind of cool cosmic imagery, like the crystal interior of Okaara, or the asteroid fortress moons of the Citadel. You finish the story wanting to see more of this incredible world, and the best stories from the Omega Men ongoing would do just that. The only thing not to like is that the gorilla-like Citadelians are written as so stupid it beggars belief they could manage an interplanetary empire. (And Marv Wolfman doesn't seem to know the difference between a solar system, a galaxy, and a universe.)

* * * 

The last Omega Men story before they got their own spin-off was a two-issue return to Green Lantern. It's a simple story: Green Lantern is captured by some old enemies, the Headmen, who have really big heads. Listen, not every concept can be a winner. The Headmen seek to demonstrate their fitness to join the Citadel Empire by executing a Lantern. (The Citadel is much more expansionist in these precursor stories than it would be in the actual Omega Men series; I don't remember them ever trying to expand beyond Vega in those.) The Omega Men intercept the transmission between the Headmen and the Citadel, and go and rescue Green Lantern to repay their old debt. That's basically it, though it's a decent story; like Staton and Pérez, Pollard is a strong artist.

Its final issue came out in Feb. 1983, and The Omega Men began in Apr. 1983, so it seems likely this story was intended to directly set up the ongoing; it clarifies what would become a key part of the Omega Men mythos, that the Green Lanterns are forbidden by treaty from interfering with the Vega system. I found it weird, though, that the book doesn't actually mention that the Omega Men are about to get their own series. Shouldn't the new book get some explicit advertising?

* * * 

A collected edition of much of this material was solicited by DC a few years ago, but never released. I'm glad, then, that I tracked these issues down, and I look forward to someday rereading The Omega Men with this context in mind.

The Omega-Men Saga! originally appeared in issues #141-44 of Green Lantern vol. 2 (June-Sept. 1981). The story was written by Marv Wolfman, illustrated by Joe Staton, lettered by John Costanza (#141) and Ben Oda (#142-44), colored by Carl Gafford (#141-43) and A. Tollin (#144), and edited by Len Wein (#141-42) and Cary Burkett (#143-44).

The Starfire Saga originally appeared in Action Comics vol. 1 #535-36 (Sept.-Oct. 1982), The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #23-25 (Sept.-Nov. 1982), and The New Teen Titans Annual  vol.  1 #1 (1982). The story was plotted by Marv Wolfman (#535-36, #23-25, Annual #1) and George Pérez (#23-25, Annual #1); scripted by Marv Wolfman (#535, #23-25, Annual #1) and Paul Kupperberg (#536); illustrated/pencilled by Joe Staton (#535-36) and George Pérez (#23-25, Annual #1); embellished/inked by Pablo Marcos (#535), Sal Trapani (#536), and Romeo Tanghal (#23-25, Annual #1); lettered by Todd Klein (#535, #24) and Ben Oda (#536, #23, 25, Annual #1); colored by Gene D'Angelo (#535-36) and Carl Gafford (#23-25, Annual #1); and edited by Julius Schwartz (#535-36) and Len Wein (#23-25, Annual #1).

"Head Trip!" and "…And They Shall Crush the Headmen!" originally appeared in issues #160-61 of Green Lantern vol. 2 (Jan.-Feb. 1983). The story was written by Mike W. Barr, pencilled by Keith Pollard, embellished by Sam de la Rosa (#160) and Pablo Marcos (#161), lettered by Todd Klein (#160) and Ben Oda (#161), colored by Tom Ziuko (#160) and Anthony Tollin (#161), and edited by Ernie Colón. 

The first two of these titles are not quite official. The cover of Green Lantern #143 calls the issue "THE SHATTERING CONCLUSION OF THE OMEGA-MEN SAGA!" while the lettercol of New Teen Titans refers to the story begun in Action Comics as "the Starfire saga" on occasion. There is no overarching title given to Green Lantern #160-61.

The (First) Return of the Omega Men

DC's Omega Men has got a lot of press over the last year thanks to its revival by Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda, and I look forward to reading it, hopefully soon. But what many people forget is that after its original 1983-86 run by Roger Silfer, Keith Giffen, Tod Smith, Doug Moench, Todd Klein, and Shawn McManus, it was revived for a six-issue miniseries in 2005-06. (It has not been collected by DC. Given that a solicited collection of the beginning of the original Omega Men run was cancelled, I must imagine this incarnation will never ever be collected.) I assume this was commissioned because Adam Strange: Planet Heist had just shown the Omega Men at their coolest for the first time in twenty years.

The original Omega Men was about fighting a revolution (against the barbaric Citadel), and then it became, ambitiously, about what you do after winning a revolution-- though the writers turned out to not be really up to the task of making the new premise work. When Todd Klein took over, he had the Vega system be reconquered, this time by the mysterious Spider Guild. The series ended with the Omegans creating a refuge from the Spider Guild, but most of Vega still under their control. The Omega Men's reappearances in Invasion!, Blasters, Starman, Planet Heist, and the like have made it clear that Vega is still under the control of the Spider Guild, and so, despite years of losses (only three of the Omega Men in this miniseries were also in the original Omega Men #1), the Omega Men fight on.

The focus of Andersen Gabrych and Henry Flint's revival isn't really on liberating Vega, however. The Omega Men have discovered the Spider Emperor has accessed an object of enormous power-- much as their own Ryand'r has-- and have come to Earth to find out what's going on. So has Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N. There are in fact four Heartstones, coveted by Lady Styx, a villain introduced in 52 who has occasionally bedeviled the space heroes in various titles.

Things get pretty cosmic pretty quickly, which is both the strength and weakness of this series. Flint's gigantic panels of enormous events are evocative, but it's sometimes difficult to make out what's actually happening in the midst of them. Gabrych provides the series with a real scope, but it's one so big that the Omega Men become mere accessories to its events. Tigorr gets a lot of focus: I like that he was confronted with all the dead Omegans from over the years (there are a lot), and I was pleasantly surprised to see his lover Felicity make a comeback. But beyond him, they don't get to shine very much, especially Broot, who's just muscle (Doc and Elu get to make jokes occasionally, at least). L.E.G.I.O.N.'s Vril Dox gets a good showing here-- basically too good a showing, as he gets a lot of the best lines, and makes too many of the important moves.

I haven't cared much for Lady Styx in many of her appearances; she often comes across, like so many comics villains, as a cut-rate Darkseid. But here I really liked her. Her creepy army of Darkstars, her being made up of the bodies of her adherents, the chanting and her emphasis on love all conspire to make her seem like a deep, genuine threat to the cosmos. This is the best she's ever been, I reckon, thanks to Gabrych and Flint.

This is an interesting comic, but an imperfect one. I don't think the cosmic threat plays to the strengths of Omega Men as a concept-- I want more sense of them as a band of misfits coming together against great odds, but here it feels like they spend most of their time standing around and watching. There are touches of greatness here, but the writing and the art are both too frequently too obscure.