Comics : Spotlight

Last Updated: Jan 1, 2009 - 6:19:39 PM

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Omega The Unknown, A Look At A Remarkable Marvel Series By Henry Chamberlain Jul 21, 2008 - 10:19:25 AM Marvel Comics Writer(s): Jonathan Lethem with Karl Rusnak Penciller(s): Farel Dalrymple Inker(s): Farel Dalrymple Colourist(s): Paul Hornschemeier Cover Artist(s): Farel Dalrymple

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Panels from the original Omega the Unknown

The collected Omega the Unknown will undoubtedly be a much anticipated book with its quirky take on the original. The following excerpt from Jonathan Lethem's novel, The Fortress of Solitude, is an apt introduction to his retelling of the Marvel Comics classic:

The heralded Omega? He turns out to be a mute superhero from another planet, pretty much Black Bolt mated with Superman, if you allowed the comparison. The comic is weird, worse than unsatisfying. Omega, it turns out, isn't the main point of the thing. The majority of pages are given over to another character, a twelve-year-old kid with an unexplained psychic connection to Omega, a bullied, orphaned kid who's going to a public  junior high in Hell's Kitchen.

Jonathan Lethem gets to do something a lot of us would like to do, rewrite a little of our own childhood. He is allowed to recreate Omega the Unknown, a short-lived Marvel Comics cult classic from the '70s and bring it up to a level it might have achieved. It would be a mistake to say that Lethem is spinning gold from just another piece of pulp fiction. Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes created something ahead of its time with the original Omega. It is easy to see that due to whatever constraints at the time, including the use of other writers to cobble together an altogether unsatisfying ending, the original was fated to drift off into obscurity. The magic was there and it took thirty years for it to wait until Lethem came around.

The new Omega the Unknown is a glorious celebration of the offbeat. In a way, Lethem has picked up where Gerber and Skrenes left off and brought out a full expression of alienation that is at the heart of the original. And, in similar fashion, Farel Dalrymple has carried on what Jim Mooney was doing with his art. You see it, by turns, the same spirit of the misfit. In Mooney it is a more muscular look; and in Dalrymple it is a more whimsical look.

When Marvel Comics chose to resurrect the original Omega the Unknown from the '70s something very cool happened along the way: a misunderstood and unsung hero found his voice, even if he happened to be mute. A very strange

Panels from the new Omega the Unknown

tale found a home in the loving care of new creators. Even a loser can get lucky sometimes and that's exactly what's happened to Omega the Unknown. This reworking of such curious material has resulted in something that speaks to a current mood of uncertainty in a spooky and refreshing manner.

Stever Gerber's Omega the Unknown and Howard the Duck, among other works, introduced into comics a new type of anti-hero, not only imperfect like Spiderman but downright unreliable and even unstable and circulating amongst the most questionable and gritty environments. We're all trapped in a world we didn't create. That is the recurring theme in the work of the late and great Steve Gerber. And that is what a novelist of the caliber of Jonathan Lethem finds so appealing. He clearly runs with it in his version of the story. This time around, the main characters of Omega and the boy raised by robots take a darker tone. Not only are they reticent but even more withdrawn and prone to debilitating depression.

Where the original duo adhered to the standard issue robust physiques of comic book characters, the new Omega and boy are both tall, lanky and awkward creatures. This also holds true for a faux supervillan, part of a sprawling subplot, and the supposedly fearsome robot invaders. Everyone, in fact, in the new Omega, is melancholy and scrawny, smaller than life. No one is a hero. No one wants to step up in a world they didn't create.

While, back in the '70s, Steve Gerber himself was trapped within a creative process he didn't create or have control over, Lethem is able to take his time and linger here and there with the story, teasing out a more developed narrative. In one scene, as a fitting tribute, he even incorporates a snatch of prose from the original. In # 9 of the series, on the first page, there is this credit: "Page Eight, Panel Four, text by Gerber and Skrenes." In that panel, the prose reads: "You're tainted, and so is your space. Ablution is required. Back into circulation you go. It's a 'no-win' situation." Trippy. If you're curious like me, you go to the collected Omega classic and look up the original panel on page 173. Also trippy.

All of the new Omega is a tripped out affair, tricked out to do its own thing. The biggest problem with the original is that it is such a product of its day. Back then, you couldn't just enjoy an unconventional story like the new Omega. No, back then, such a character had to run the guantlet of battles with other Marvel properties like the Hulk and get a thumbs up from Peter Parker and everything had to be tediously explained. The new Omega has all the freedom in the world to tell a good offbeat story. It's more like some subversive movie from the '70s starring Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland where the convoluted plot is exploited for full entertainment value.

The  collected edition of Omega the Unknown, due out in September, will surely please someone looking for that certain unusual quality and will be on anyone's short list of best work in comics for 2008. All that and a bonus: this is the first time that the art of Gary Panter as appeared in a Marvel comic.

Lastly, a special note: During the publication of the new Omega the Unknown, Steve Gerber passed away, as did the original artist on the series, Jim Mooney. Both taletns will be sorely missed. As for Gerber, he came around to supporting the project. In the end, he was in great pain battling cancer. He did not have the luxury of fully evaluating the new version of his creation. Had he been able to, most likely he would have appreciated what Lethem was able to achieve.   

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