Comic of the Week: OMAC #3

A few years ago, I stopped by monthly comics. There were a number of reasons for this. I was finding it difficult to store all those individual issues and preferred to have the collected editions that sat nicely on my bookshelf. I no longer worked in the city, so regularly getting to a comic shop to pick up my order was increasingly difficult. And frankly, most monthly comics were just losing my interest. I still loved comics, but the collections were where it was at for me.

That was until three months ago. DC Comics, in a bold move, relaunched their entire comic line, sending everything back to #1. And on top of that, they began to release all of their titles digitally through the Comixology app the same day the print versions hit the store. And now I’ve got the comic bug again. First thing I do on a Thursday morning is to fire up the iPad and see what comics have been released. And the fact that I can get them cheaper digitally than I can in print is a big bonus. Since DC got the ball rolling, more and more books are released on the same day digitally as they are in stores.

To give you an idea of what comics are grabbing my attention, check out my favourite book of this week – OMAC #3.

OMAC was a character created by Jack Kirby back in the 70s. If you know your comic history, you know that means some seriously far out stuff. In this 2011 series, Kevin Kho is an ordinary guy who has been pulled into a high-tech shadow war that he knows nothing about. Without warning, he can be transformed into the cybernetic monstrosity called OMAC, fighting on behalf of the artificial intelligence Brother Eye against the secret organisation Checkmate. Big fight scenes, over-the-top bad guys and beyond cutting edge technology combine for one heck of a fun ride.

Here’s the moment in OMAC #3 that really got me giddy with excitement:

The characters are using something called “ambient tech” which enables them to literally create weapons out of thin air. And then they proceed to use this tech in all kinds of fun ways. I want one! I can’t wait to see what crazy ideas will be in next issue.