"The OMAC Project" Mini-Series Talkback (Spoilers)

[Clayface]

The OMAC Project #1 (of 6)

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/2866_180x270.jpg (http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/2866_400x600.jpg)

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Cover by Jose Ladrónn

Spinning from the events of DC COUNTDOWN and IDENTITY CRISIS, a crackerjack thriller by Greg Rucka (ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN) comes to life in the brooding, gorgeous art of Jesus Saiz (MANHUNTER) in a 6-issue miniseries featuring covers by Jose Ladrónn that can't be missed!

Every hero and villain in the DCU is under the gaze of an unbelievably powerful spy satellite. It's a technological marvel that answers to only one person — and he's got plans for it that are completely unknown to the superspy organization he controls: Checkmate!

In a world where men can fly and melt metal with their eyes, there's now an army created specifically as an answer to them: a One Man Army Corps. Batman and an old ally are about to learn the chilling truth behind the OMAC Project — but will they work with or against each other?




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The OMAC Project #2 (of 6)

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/2990_180x270.jpg (http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/2990_400x600.jpg)

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Cover by Jose Ladrónn

When the JLA discovers the existence of the powerful, hero-monitoring Brother Eye satellite, battle lines are drawn between Batman and Superman! And Checkmate operative Sasha Bordeaux struggles with a secret act of treason — just as her agency commands the OMAC Project to kill!




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The OMAC Project #3 (of 6)

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/3663_180x270.jpg (http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/3663_400x600.jpg)

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Cover by Jose Ladrónn

Once, she was the woman who broke Bruce Wayne's heart. Now, Checkmate agent Sasha Bordeaux might just break Batman's will by revealing the mind-blowing power behind the OMAC Project — unless an OMAC agent gets to Sasha and the Dark Knight first!




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The OMAC Project #4 (of 6)

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/3887_180x270.jpg (http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/3887_400x600.jpg)

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Cover by Jose Ladrónn

The events of "Sacrifice," rocking July's WONDER WOMAN #219 and all three SUPERMAN titles, force an endgame in THE OMAC PROJECT, one of four great miniseries spinning out of COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS! Checkmate turns against itself as titans clash in the heavens — and Brother Eye breaks free!




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The OMAC Project #5 (of 6)

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/4019_180x270.jpg (http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/4019_400x600.jpg)

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Cover by Jose Ladrónn

The penultimate issue of the miniseries spinning out of COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS! Checkmate rallies against the terrifying power of Brother Eye as the satellite begins to execute an apocalyptic final protocol! Can they succeed where the JLA failed?




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The OMAC Project #6 (of 6)

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/4173_180x270.jpg (http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/4173_400x600.jpg)

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jesus Saiz
Cover by Jose Ladrónn

The white-hot miniseries spinning out of COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS concludes! To preserve the Omac Project, Brother Eye plays the ultimate trump card!




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Comments?

[Chad Bonin]

Slightly dissappointing after the great Countdown, but hell, #1s are always slightly weak.

[halinar]

It was Ok... really rough to read that book then skip right to JLA classified though. They are just on a mission to make the bat look like a total (richard).

So he lets Ted wander off when he knows what is going on all the time?

I'm not sure about all the other mini's but I'll be picking this one up for the run.

[Darknight]

It was really slow. First issues tend to be that way though. Nice to Sasha Bordeaux back though. I though she was a good character, and the way she left before was lame. The scenes with Batman were really forced, just didn't feel like Rucka's stuff used to.

[sulimo]

I really liked it. Off to an excellent start imo.

Though I was a little confused about Diana no longer being blind. I guess this isn't happening paralell to current issues of Wonder Woman.

[Eji]

It's hard to tell what'll happen, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt since it's the first issue...

That said, why the hell was Booster just wandering around after 2 days of BB's absence? Yes, he was in the hospital, but considering how he jumped frantically out of bed in Countdown to help BB, you'd think he'd be trying to go do something instead of moping. Then again, maybe there was something going on in his head that I just didn't see.

I hope he gets some good ol' vengeance though. Speaking of vengeance, I'm seriously curious about whether Kord will be the next Spectre...

[PaQ]

Boy, that last panel of issue #3. I really wonder what control Checkmate has on Superman. I guess this "control" will be the reason why I wondered Superman never noticed being monitored like everyone has been, and how the Sacrifice crossover came about.

So Booster and Guy are going to reform their "league" to find out who killed Beetle, man is that going to be one sick surprise for them. The one thing I didn't understand was the Sasha/Black King interrogation scene, I couldn't tell how she hit him from the panels.

[Bruce Kent]

Boy, that last panel of issue #3. I really wonder what control Checkmate has on Superman. I guess this "control" will be the reason why I wondered Superman never noticed being monitored like everyone has been, and how the Sacrifice crossover came about.

So Booster and Guy are going to reform their "league" to find out who killed Beetle, man is that going to be one sick surprise for them. The one thing I didn't understand was the Sasha/Black King interrogation scene, I couldn't tell how she hit him from the panels.
She didn't hit him...

[PaQ]

She didn't hit him... Oh, whoops. :o

I didn't notice that whole "he's going to try to take my mind" part. I was wondering why he needed the hankerchief and what he meant about how could she fight him. I only saw the latter part and got confused.

[Bruce Kent]

Yeah, that was a bit unclear... though.:anime:

[Jack Frenzy]

I suspect the sudden intrusion of Brother I into that scene may have something to do with Sasha's unexpected resistance.

(That AI's been suspicious from the moment it accused Batman of deleting those files despite his obvious inability to log in.)

As for the handkerchief, remember Max's power causes his nose to bleed.

I am intrigued by Max's comment about only one person being capable of resisting him. Probably J'onn. Although, it could also be Hal. Or maybe the Spectre.

[Somejerk]

I figured that the "One Person" was Batman/Bruce, as Spectre and Jonn wouldnt really be considered a "person" especially by this portrayal. one is an alien the other is a Spirit thing (what the hell is spectre anyway?)

[Jack Frenzy]

(what the hell is spectre anyway?) Until the nineties, the story was as follows: policeman Jim Corrigan was shot in the line of duty. However, a mysterious voice (implicitly the voice of God, but never stated as such) gave his spirit the option of returning to Earth as the avenging ghost, the Spectre, whose powers grew with every story written about him.

Later, Jim Corrigan was ressurrected, becoming a person independent of the Spectre. I think the idea was that Jim was the body and mind of Jim Corrigan, and Spectre was Jim's soul set free. (Comic book metaphysics.) In any case, Jim resumed his life as a policeman, while playing host to the Spectre, who had to periodically re-enter Jim's body to replenish himself.

In the nineties, it was retconned that Spectre was the explicit incarnation of God's Wrath. Lacking human perspective and restraint, it bonded with people such as Jim Corrigan and Hal Jordan to gain their understanding of human justice and tolerance, thereby placing limits on its behavior.

This is the version being used in Day of Vengeance, in which the Spectre no longer has a human host and is running wild with Eclipso.

(Personally, I've always considered the "Wrath of God" idea to be a mistake. Dragging in religious concepts for plot devices is just asking for trouble. I still remember that when Hal became the Spectre, nobody liked the idea but many reconciled themselves to it on the grounds that, "Well, how can the writers back out of it when God himself wanted Hal to be the Spectre!" )

[Darknight]

Things picked up in this issue. My guess with the OMAC's being organic is that they are clones created from the old OMAC superhero. I don't know anything about him hopefully someone around here can give us a little history.

Supes being controlled will be interesting. It has been said many times that a Superman being taken controlled by evil can only really be taken down by Batman. That may be what happens in the next month or so. Max wants Batman gone, and he has the Man of Steel under his control.

Batman is probably the only other person that can resist Max's power. Maybe Sasha learned the technique when she was working with Batman.

All in all this has been the best of these countdown miniseries.

[Chad Bonin]

I'm surprised nobody brought up the potential of Ted Kord being the next Spectre host... the guy certainly has vengeance to enact...

My personal thoughts on the OMACs?

Either they're rewired Superman Robots (that constantly kill off members of the Teen Titans and Outsiders) or human beings.

Why Superbots? What have we seen them do? Fly, shoot laser beams, be super strong, strong enough to slam into Superman.

Why human beings? We see these suckers activate ANYWHERE on the planet. Need one watching the Birds Of Prey? Use the now-mentioned "OMAC Virus" to convert a human being unwittingly into an OMAC. Max might be wanting to give humanity a fighting chance on taking out the Metahumans.

[Jack Frenzy]

Supes being controlled will be interesting. It has been said many times that a Superman being taken controlled by evil can only really be taken down by Batman. That may be what happens in the next month or so. Max wants Batman gone, and he has the Man of Steel under his control. Reading between the lines in today's Superman comic, it appears Batman is no longer in any shape to fight back. Superman, under Max's control, hallucinated a battle with Brainiac that appears to have actually been a fist-fight with Batman in the batcave. Confirmation won't come till next week, but at the end of the story there was a LOT of blood on Superman's hands that couldn't possibly have come from Brainiac, plus a confrontation with a suddenly furious Justice League.

If future covers are any indication, Wonder Woman will be the one to bring Superman down.

[PaQ]

Use the now-mentioned "OMAC Virus" to convert a human being unwittingly into an OMAC. Max might be wanting to give humanity a fighting chance on taking out the Metahumans. That's a very interesting take on things. It could explain Max's role as the villain of all this. Didn't the priest that was Superman's friend go under an OMAC-ish transformation in the "For Tomorrow" arc? Although that's supposed to be a year ahead storyline I believe, I wonder if they're just going to throw that to the curve or if it's even related at all. Things are certainly getting complex, but I do like the ideas you keep bringing up Knux. :cool:

[Jack Frenzy]

Why human beings? We see these suckers activate ANYWHERE on the planet. Need one watching the Birds Of Prey? Use the now-mentioned "OMAC Virus" to convert a human being unwittingly into an OMAC. Max might be wanting to give humanity a fighting chance on taking out the Metahumans. Dan DiDio's introduction to "Prelude to Infinite Crisis" pretty much confirms this.

"...Brother I, an all-seeing satellite with the transformative power of OMAC, the Observation Meta-human Activity Construct. Brother I can change a normal man into a super-man..."

Basically, the OMACs are regular humans transformed by Brother I into spy/soldier units. (I suspect they're based on Manhunter technology, as possibly hinted by recent issues of Green Lantern.)

For a possible hint of how dangerous the OMACs are, note in issue one how Brother I watches Alfred from orbit for a single panel, then suddenly its view shifts from overhead to ground level, passing from room to room and ending with a view from the top of the stairs into the batcave. Next panel, that's exactly where Alfred is standing.

Oh, and according to the same issue, the OMAC count is at least up to 6349. Perhaps, when it heads toward infinity, then we get "Infinite Crisis."

[Chad Bonin]

That's a very interesting take on things. It could explain Max's role as the villain of all this. Didn't the priest that was Superman's friend go under an OMAC-ish transformation in the "For Tomorrow" arc? Although that's supposed to be a year ahead storyline I believe, I wonder if they're just going to throw that to the curve or if it's even related at all. Things are certainly getting complex, but I do like the ideas you keep bringing up Knux. :cool:Supposedly all the other comics have been brought up to the time of "For Tomorrow"'s end.

... and damn, I forgot... they did turn the priest into an OMAC.

[PaQ]

Well, this issue was definitely more story then action scenes. Pretty much a complete 180 coming out of the "Sacrifice" arc, although I guess Rocket Red & the various leaguers would say otherwise. It was interesting to see Bruce in such good condition, seems his part in this story is far from done. Also that final panel just didn't have the same impact as the first panel, probably because I'm sure Sasha's OMAC side isn't done.

[Jack Frenzy]

OMAC Count (As of #4): At least 10277. (There's going to be a lot of these things wandering around.)

Including (I suspect) Alfred.

[EinBebop]

Quick question, and not worth starting a whole new thread about:

What city is Oracle working out of now?

[Jack Frenzy]

Final OMAC count (As of #5): 1,373,462.

Welcome to DC of Future Past.:eek:

[EinBebop]

I think there would be more love for OMAC if it weren't considered merely a prelude... and moreover, just one of three preludes.

[halinar]

Lordy....

Ya know I debunked the whole anit bwa ha ha league thing at first but now it's looking like a hit has been put out on them...

[Geezil]

Things picked up in this issue. My guess with the OMAC's being organic is that they are clones created from the old OMAC superhero. I don't know anything about him hopefully someone around here can give us a little history.
Be careful what you wish for. ;)

First, this falls under that dreaded hyphenated heading: Pre-Crisis.

IIRC, the original OMAC series (also with a Brother Eye/I) was intended as a prequel to the events of the far more successful Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth ... and both therefore took place in a DC alternate future with no Legion, no Atomic Knights, no Hercules, and no Peter Porkchops, but theoretically with a Superman (though which one was never established).

Came the 1985 Crisis and Kamandi's timeline was retconned out of existence, and logically, there went OMAC Mark I as well. (Again, IIRC, that particular reshaping of the DC Universe ensured that the seed of what had been Kamandi's reality would instead become that of Tommy Tomorrow, Galactic Yutz. But who cares?)

And that's as far as I'm taking this ... who's got two aspirin?

[Darknight]

Ouch, that did hurt. Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't very big on the Sasha Bordeaux change. Something is just really off about the look of the character. The concept is cool, but she looks a little Space Pirate-ish. Last issue looks like it should turn out pretty cool though.