Comics I Bought: July 10, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 2 new comics plus a hard cover collection:

Age of Bronze - 27

Berlin - 16

Marvel Masterworks Tales of Suspense Volume 2

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

Jack Kirby's OMAC: One Man Army Corps

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Jack Kirby's 1970's and early 1980's works are my favorites. It's not a widely held opinion but I think Jack Kirby was a better writer than Stan Lee. I've heard people make apologies for Kirby's writing but I don't know why.

That said I thoroughly enjoyed this volume that reprints issues 1-8 of Kirby's OMAC from the mid 70's. They are the only issues he did of OMAC and the story is cut off in the middle after eight issues but still it's good stuff. I have read about half of these issues before but this is the first I've read them all.

OMAC the "One Man Army Corps" takes place in the future. In a world of atomic weapons and despots it is often too dangerous to send armies in to solve a problem. So the "Global Peace Agency" created OMAC as a super soldier to take out those who would threaten the peace of the world. Buddy Blank was a normal guy until he was transformed into OMAC by "Brother Eye". Brother Eye is a satellite that feeds OMAC the power and energy he needs for missions and watches over him in general.

The frenetic pace of the book is pure Kirby. OMAC is constantly on the move going from one place to the next and tangling with one evil SOB after another. Kirby is constantly giving him new gadgets, enemies, and challenges. There is a reason writers have gone back and picked ideas out of Kirby's concepts to work on for themselves. There are just so many of them. Evil scientists, crazy suicide monsters, rich guys who can rent a city, water stealers, and plenty more.

I also like that OMAC is a hero. Anti-heros rule nowadays and I get tired of them. I never understood when people say that the villains are more interesting than the heroes. I know what makes a villain tick: greed and selfishness. That's proven everyday by people we all know. What makes a guy jump on a live grenade to save his buddies? I find that a more interesting question. I'm pretty sure I can be greedy and selfish but jump on a live grenade? That I don't think many of us know that about ourselves or anyone else. But that's another discussion.

I'm really glad that DC, Marvel, and Image have been reprinting so much of Jack Kirby's 1970's work. I always liked it but never had all of it in my collection. I probably didn't even have half of it. I still have more to get but the stuff I have is great. Don't miss out.