I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in this book, but I think I like it.
From what I gather, the Omega Men have been around for a while. My familiarity with them much begins and ends with Andy Diggle’s Adam Strange mini, though I’ve also read a couple of Alan Moore backups that don’t actually include the Omega Men themselves. But they seem cool enough – I have a weakness for intergalactic rogues, and the team doesn’t seem to be built around standard superheroics.
It’s possible that if I were familiar with the team, this book would move up from “good” to “great”, but the lack of any meaningful attempt to explain exactly who these people are hamstrings the book. (Yes, I realize I seem to be making that complaint a lot lately, but if you’re going to put out a book starring c-list characters it’s fairly stupid to assume everyone knows who they are and all the details of their backstory)
There’s a bit of opening exposition, but it’s mostly devoted to setting up the plot: A new religion is sweeping across the universe, devoted to The Lady, and it’s both powerful and sinister. The Omega Men don’t like it much, as they show up to blow up a church and kill a bunch of priests. They’re looking for something because the guy who looks like the human torch and might be a prince had a dream about it. Or something.
The Omega Men themselves are almost backup characters in their own book, as more attention is given over to Vril Dox and his L.E.G.I.O.N. as he tries to figure out what the Omega Men are up to. It’s possible that Dox is being set up as the exposition guy following the enigmatic Omega Men, and that after a brief fight their misunderstanding will be cleared up and he’ll tag along with the team, not unlike his role in Adam Strange. But for now, the book is treading a very fine line between being mysterious and simply unclear.
There’s something to be said for jumping right into the story, though, and Anderson Gabrych makes the most of it: There’s plenty of action and cool aliens, including a a swarm of spider aliens attacking a city. The story certainly seems to be structured well: Gabrych seems to know what’s going on with the plot, even if he’s not sharing quite enough with the audience.
Henry Flint makes up for the weaknesses in the story, and is the major reason why I’ll probably come back for the second issue. He’s perfect for the creepy, alien characters and has a good flair for action. He reminds me mostly of Howard Chaykin and Doug Mahnke’s work on Frankenstein, which is a pretty decent place to be. The spider aliens are genuinely scary, both in singular and when descending up on a city in a massive swarm.
It’s nice to see DC getting their Outer Space francise back in order, and while Omega Men isn’t a triumph, it’s a nice bit of experimentation with some lesser known characters an a plot with some potential. If Gabrych starts explaining what’s going on and gets into the main characters’ personalities a bit more, this could be a very nice little series.