Omega The Unknown #7



The Cover
An okay Gil Kane cover here. Not too sure what is happening in the background...almost seems like Omega is bursting onto the scene. Those wispy strands could be smoke but they look more like really this strands of webbing. Not one of Kane's best IMO.

The Story
Poor John Nedley (the heavier set nerdy kid who hangs out with JM) staggers into the cafeteria. He is very badly injured (they mention broken bones and possible internal bleeding!). I have yet to ever read a comic from this era that describes teenage violence/bullying in this way and I must say, it stands out. He ends up being taken off in an ambulance.

Meanwhile, Omega is trailing the lame named El Gato after he escaped last ish. El Gato has Teresa under his spell and he marches her into his little coven, where she announces to a bunch of other women that she will be El Gato's bride. El Gato then tells the other women to prepare Teresa for some ritual. El Gato then appears to head for bed.

Omega sneaks inside and starts exploring. He sees a cat skull and as he approaches it, two cat demons attack him. He enters another dimension (in his mind?) and tries to fight off the demons but instead poor Omega's fire blasts end up backfiring and blowing up his own body!

Back to JM now. He is with Amber and together they barge into the Daily Bugle. Amber demands payment for her pictures from when Omega and Hulk battled and Jonah tries to say he does not owe her as much as she says. JM steps in and sticks up for Amber, using his very intellectual wording to get the best of Jonah. Peter Parker happens to overhear and jokes with JM about helping him get his worth. It was a very humourous side scene! After they leave, they hit up a ice cream shop and JM tells Amber about the voices he hears. He explains it almost as though he can feel other's emotions or thoughts. Just then, he asks if Ruth is nearby because he can hear her in his mind and it just so happens she walks by the store where JM and Amber are eating. This surprises Amber. JM then asks if he and Dian can visit John in the hospital.

We transition to find Omega waking up outside of Gramps' pawn shop. He goes in and Gramps exclaims how Omega has been gone for hours. Omega notices a strange voodoo charm with a snake in it and it intrigues him. He picks it up and we are given the impression he has an idea how to combat El Gato.

JM and Dian are in the hospital. Thanks to Dr. Barrow, they are able to go see their injured friend, John. He is in critical condition and we see his bandaged face, and how he is all hooked up to different tubes. Again, not something I can say I have seen drawn in a mainstream comic from this period.



Back to El Gato. He is preparing Teresa for the purification ritual and is about to brand her forehead with the image of a cat when Omega bursts in. A battle ensues and Omega seems to understand that El Gato's power is the ability to make people think and feel what he wants. El Gato turns into a large cat but Omega is able to come away victorious in battle. Freed from his control, Teresa then uses the branding iron to brand an inverted cat image on El Gato's forehead, which supposedly locks his cat-like form within him forever.

And that's a wrap right? Wrong! Back at the hospital, another young teen is being rushed into the hospital. JM and Dian gasp when they realize it is Nick, the bully who they believe (and who I also thought) was responsible for the attack on John.

Opinions
Well, this was a pleasant return to the stellar storytelling that the first three issues brought. Issue #4, while still good, introduced what I felt was a lame duck character (and I still think the name is very cheesy) but actually worked out very well. This story had a much better conclusion than I was expecting and even added a further twist. We still don't know the connection between Omega and JM, we still don't know if John will live and we now have a mystery...what happened to Nick, the bully!?! Also, a very humourous Peter Parker cameo made this my favourite issue so far!

Quote of the Issue
"His vision clouds. His brain dulls. His body trembles as though he'd been doused with Freon"- the narrator describing the demon cats attacking Omega. I like the metaphorical use of Freon here.

^Interesting...Marvel's website and the Comic DB both list Hannigan....who is correct!?!?

The GCD's credit comes from the owner of the original art, which is signed by Chaykin.

Omega The Unknown #6



The Cover
A Romita/Cockrum collaboration here. A good action battle cover here. Once again, we get a villain that could be rather bland. The Wrench? A guy with a wrench? Well, he looks pretty terrifying on the cover so that is promising.

The Story
We start once again with a dream sequence in which JM is envisioning Omega trying to fend off an attack from the space robots from issue #1. They have joined forces with the two bullies at JM's school and are killing people we know...Ruth, Amber. JM eventually awakes to Ruth asking if he is okay. He tells her it was just a dream and decides he needs to get some fresh air.

When he steps out, he is confronted by a homeless man. When the man grabs him, JM knocks him down. Feeling bad, he offers the man some money. At the same time, we see Omega out with Gramps at a bar. Eventually, Omega is persuaded into taking a shot of something (and we see his head full of strange shapes). They leave the bar and Gramps and Omega help Mamie home. Gramps hints at a future date, as Mamie heads up to her apartment. Gramps tells Omega of how Mamie lost her best friend recently who was recently murdered.

As he is retelling this tale, we hear a shriek from above. Omega leaps up and through Mamie's window only to be attacked by a man with a Wrench. The Wrench takes off and Omega pursues. We see Gramps holding the lifeless figure of Mamie in the background.

JM is not faring much better on his walk. He is told to mind his own business by a hooker when he tries to stand up for her after her pimp hits her. He then sees Amber on her date. Obviously, he has some feelings for her. Amber ends up making it home to find Ruth hysterical that JM is missing, so Amber turns and heads back out to look for JM.

Omega follows the Wrench home and we find out that he is the son of Ethel, Mamie's best friend. He seems to be dealing with some issues from this. JM, meanwhile, has wandered into a pool hall and accidentally hustled some kid at pinball. He is about to get beat up again but Amber walks in to take JM away. They are walking in the alley, which happens to be near where this Wrench guy lives. He leaps down to attack them. Omega tries to stop the Wrench, but he pulls out a gun and fires at Omega, knocking him out. Amber sees this as a chance to get some pictures and does, then foolishly tries to knock out the Wrench. He overpowers her and is about to smash her skull in when JM summons his "powers" to blast the Wrench unconscious. We finish with JM sobbing next to the three fallen figures.

Opinions
Well, this series just continues to move along nicely. Another very good story. There is a definite disconnect though between the cover and the villain seen on the inside pages. The covers evokes some superhuman being but the actual character seems like he has the mind of a child (as evidence by his caveman-like speech). He also has no superpowers...just uses a wrench because he works as a handy-man (in fact, the narrator refers to him as the handyman in the story, as he used to do repair work). Whether or not the death of his mother caused this psychotic break has yet to be determined. The story mentions him having a headache that has not gone away since his mother died. Also, why did he attack his mother's best friend Mamie? And is she dead, injured or had she just fainted? We don't see her face as she is lying on the floor after the attack.

At any rate, this entire series continues to keep me wanting to continue reading. The writing is top notch and you just get hooked on wanting to know more, which I love.

Quote of the Issue
"I declare! I didn't believe such masculine pulchritude could be genuine, Gramps."- Gramps' elderly lady friend, Mamie, as she pinches Omega's cheeks. Pulchritude? What a great word! I love finding vocabulary that is very advanced in comics. For those wondering, it simply means beauty.

Question for those who know...did Gerber have an end goal in mind with Omega? Did he ever reveal this to anyone or talk about it in a comic panel at a con or even an interview?

We shouldn't forget that the series co-writer (and Omega co-creator), Mary Skrenes, is still with us. However, like Gerber, she's never said anything about how they were planning to continue and eventually conclude the story.