DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE OMAC PROJECT #4

The King Is Dead...

September 2005

Written by Greg Rucka

Pencils by Jesus Saiz, Cliff Richards

Inks by Jesus Saiz and Bob Wiacek

Cover by Jose Ladronn

Synopsis

[This issue picks up immediately after the 4-part “Sacrifice” -- Superman #219, Action Comics #829, Adventures of Superman #642, and Wonder Woman #219]

Max Lord is dead.  Superman wants to know what Wonder Woman.  She tells him she did what she needed to do.  Before they can discuss even further, Black Canary calls and says there are problems around the world and the JLA needs their.  Superman and Wonder Woman fly away in different directions.  The events were orchestrated by Brother Eye, who initiates the “kingisdead” protocol to secure the Checkmate compound.  Agents are turned in OMACS, who then start to kill other agents.  In her jail cell, Sasha Bourdeaux hears the noise and wonders what Lord is up to.  She is let go of her chains.  She frees Jessica Midnight and the two of them go in search of Max Lord.  They find him dead and Sasha realizes Brother Eye is in control.  In Rio de Janeiro, Guy Gardner and Booster Gold visit Beatriz DaCosta (aka Fire), who is investigating Ted Kord’s (aka Blue Beetle) death.  She wants to know if Kord had any contact recently with Max Lord. In the Batcave, Brother Eye decides to talk to his creator.  Brother Eye tells Batman that he is alive and he has a purpose:  to save humanity from the tyranny of metahuman control.  Brother Eye then shows scenes of an OMAC killing Sasha Bourdeaux and Rocket Red.

Review

Chilling.  The discussion between Brother Eye and Batman was just plain chilling.  Here we have a physically beaten and bruised man learning for the first time that his creation has taken his original intent and subverted for something far worse.  And to top it all off, he is forced to watch as his love, a woman he just recently reconnected with, is impaled with a sword by an OMAC.  As I said, this is just plain chilling.  And brilliant.  The beginning was also very spooky as Brother Eye replayed Lord’s death and then began to initiate the “kingisdead” protocol. 

The misogyny of Guy Gardner continues.  He tells Booster he is trying to keep things light, but it comes across (to me at least) as very heavy handed.  As much as I like the idea that Fire was trying to solve the case, I wonder why she didn’t contact anyone before.  How did she learn of Blue Beetle’s death in the first place?  Did word spread through the super hero community that quickly since Batman spilled the news in the second issue?  Actually, I don’t think it really matters all that much, although I have to wonder if Fire’s investigation leads to learning Wonder Woman killed Lord.  There are going to be ramifications.

Sooner or later Superman and Wonder Woman will have to discuss what she did.  Superman abhors taking another life, no matter the cost, so they are on opposite sides of the issue.  What really impressed me is that no only did this issue avoid that discussion, but it did it in a way that did leave me scratching my head wondering:  why don’t they talk about it.  The false emergencies were a perfect distraction, not only from a writing point to separate them, but also from a plot point to show Brother Eye taking control:  he had to get rid of them to maintain control.

Speaking of ramifications, DC has felt it on the back end for not being able to keep this mini-series contained within six issues.  I’m not that peeved there are ancillary issues, but it is bad tactic for the first villain (the second being Brother Eye) to be killed in an issue not called OMAC.  Additionally, from what I have read of the other issues, some of them could easily have gone longer that six issues to begin with, especially Rann-Thanagar War.  For an even that DC has claimed is years in the making, this seems like rather poor planning.-- MRB

 

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