Jack Kirby sure loves his flying chairs. |
I had to learn
how to like Jack Kirby as a creator. In a medium where he’s quite realistically
dominated for several decades, its understandable why he’s known as Jack “The
King” Kirby in comics circle. The sheer volume of output he’s had since he
started making comics in the forties and the impressive versatility of genre he’s
worked in. He’s also the co-creator of a significant portion of the Marvel
Universe but despite all these accomplishments, Kirby’s had the short end of the
stick for most of his career which also corresponds to most of his life. I get
rather bitter when I consider the success of people who worked with Kirby
throughout the years compare to the wealth and fame he’s accumulated. It all
just seems unfair. I think that’s one of the reasons I gave him a second chance
and that’s why I continue to explore his work.
This is my
second time reading OMAC and although
I really liked it during my first reading I absolutely loved it the second time
around. The same goes for the introduction by Mark Evanier. In his
introduction, Evanier points out how OMAC
is almost prophetic in its story about the future. He’s had a chance to read
all eight issues every few years since it was first published and he’s
personally noted just how closely Kirby got it right on so many different aspects
of what our future would be like. I didn’t really see the same thing while reading
OMAC for the first time. The world OMAC inhabits is so drastically different
from our own. There’s one important thing I’ve learn about Kirby though. His
ideas are really big ideas. He doesn’t think in small scale. When he chose the
future as the setting of his new comic, he chose the far, far flung future. Not
something that was going to happen in twenty or thirty years. But you know
what? Mark Evanier was right. The prophetic quality of these OMAC issues is utterly impressive it not
always accurate.
Jack Kirby
created OMAC to fill his weekly quota
of pages for DC Comics. According to Evanier’s introduction (and that’s a
pretty good source since Evanier has worked closely with Kirby for many years
and has even written a biography of the man) he mentions that Kirby was
contracted to put out fifteen pages of comics per week. That’s insane! And you
know what? Kirby did so by creating insane comics. OMAC lasted eight issues after which it was cancelled. I’m not so
sure why but OMAC’s definitively
endured as a comic. John Byrne did a four issue limited series on it. Paul Pope
had an OMAC story in his issue of Solo.
OMAC was even one of the New 52
titles from DC’s reboot of a little while back (unfortunately only lasting
eight issues as well). It’s survive and rightfully so. OMAC is perhaps my second favourite of all of Kirby’s comics that I’ve
had a pleasure of reading.
Those fish of the future look like fish form the past! |
In short, OMAC is the story of a man who undergoes
long range molecular surgery to transform his being into a One Man Army Corp
unbeknownst to himself. Buddy Blank doesn’t coexist with OMAC; one replaces the
other. OMAC was created by the Global Peace Agency (GPA) an international
organization that works in complete anonymity (they are nameless and faceless;
they can be from any nation and thus represent all nations). Members of the GPA
don’t carry weapons and act entirely without harming others. They have created
for that purpose. In the future world where large armies are outlawed, OMAC is
there to fight on behave of the GPA and serve as some sort of futuristic cop. There
is so much that can be written about just the first issue of OMAC but what I’m going to focus on is
the portrayal of the future. That’s one of the things I found the most
interesting about this short lived series.
In the future that can be found in the pages of OMAC, large armies are outlawed, cities have continued to grow and have become immense. The rich have continued to get richer and some people are now so wealthy they can rent and entire city for 24 hours if they so wish (and they do). Movies have become virtual space video games that people experience instead of viewing in passivity. Computerized dating (did this even exist in the 70s? I have no idea where Kirby got this idea) has evolved into a way for people to construct their entire families. “Packaged Living” as it’s called is responsible for giving OMAC new parents, assigned to him by a computer! There are ecological terrorists; the most villainous of all being Dr. Skuba who uses his mastery of the atom to compress huge quantities of water from lakes into brick sized cubes. He plans to blackmail the world into making him stupidly wealthy. One of the creepiest ideas from OMAC and one of my favourites is that there is a black market for young attractive bodies. These people are kidnapped, induced into a comatose state and sold to rich individuals who would like younger bodies. It’s one of the darker takes on immortality that I’ve encountered. That all sounds crazy right? Well there are more ideas and snippets into our future that what I’ve presented and it all takes place in eight issues. The more impressive feat is that Kirby doesn’t make it seem to unrealistic. Well, I didn’t think so the second time I read it.
The villainous Dr. Skuba! |
OMAC, like many Jack Kirby comics, is filled with high adventure, science
fiction gadgets, explosion and incredibly energetic art. I actually feel bad
that I’ve neglected to talk about his art on OMAC because it’s very, very good. It blows my mind that Kirby
could produce such great art under such tight deadlines. Kirby regularly draws
ugly faces and characters that have faces like those of a prehistoric humans
but that’s his style and they’re meant to be ugly. OMAC’s got a normal face, so
do many of the other characters (well, those who have faces, I’m talking about
you GPA). I feel bad but I feel like I need to explore OMAC more in depth some other time. To try and make up for it, I’ve
included several pages of art from OMAC
that I’ve found online (I’m too lazy to scan some pages). What impressed me the
most about this little comic is it’s depiction of the future in a way that was
close to reality (or the reality that will someday exist) thing without being
preachy. Kirby has managed to excite me and worry me about the days of tomorrow
and that’s alright. It’s good to have action comics that provide food for
thought and OMAC is a damn nutritious
read.
OMAC walks on the bottom of a lake that was emptied by Dr. Skuba. That lake look so otherworldly. Do you think it was pollution that mutated those fish and those plants? |
Kirby loves to draw monsters. OMAC while "watching" a movie. |
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