DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE OMAC PROJECT #6

Loss Of Signal

November 2005

Written by Greg Rucka

Pencils by Jesus Saiz and Cliff Richards

Inks by Jesus Saiz and Bob Wiacek

Cover by Jose Ladronn

Synopsis

Brother Eye is alive and it has a purpose:  to save humanity from the tyranny of metahuman control.  To that end, it has activated over 1.3 million OMACs all over the world.  Sasha Bourdeaux, who has undergone her own transformation, and Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) are attempting to find a way to counteract all of the OMACs. Sasha sends out a general alert to all Checkmate Agents asking for their help.  STAR Labs suggest an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), but there is not an EMP strong enough to penetrate the OMAC shields.  Batman investigates the Kord Omniversal warehouse from which the kryptonite was stolen.  Batman realizes they were not after the kryptonite but after something else:  a prototype EMP, which sits in the warehouse.  Batman asks Hal Jordan and John Stewart to gather heroes at the Sahara Desert to draw the OMACs to them.  Meanwhile, Guy Gardner and Booster Gold are visiting Fire in the hospital when he gets word of the plan.  Since he lost his power in the battle with the OMAC, Guy tells Booster to stay behind.  Instead, Booster tells Fire he is going home.  At Checkmate headquarters, Sasha realizes she can interface with the computers, so she begins the process to hopefully destroy some. In the desert, the OMACs attack, followed moments later by Batman’s deployment of the EMP.  At the same time, Sasha is able to shut down more OMACs all over the world.  Brother Eye catches onto Sasha’s plan and explodes the computer console she was attached to.  Although both plans worked, there are still 200,000 OMACs still out there.  At the Checkmate base, Batman and Sasha share a kiss as he tells her that Brother Eye is the machine, not her.  Meanwhile, Brother Eye initiates “Vengeance” protocol by broadcasting the scene of Wonder killing Max Lord to all over the world.

Review

I love it when a plan comes together.  When Batman mentioned Max Lord was after something other than the kryptonite, I smiled because this was not a “deus ex machina” but an event that was planned for since the beginning.  I say this because Brother Eye would not know about the EMP, but Max Lord would.  With him dead, there is obviously no one there to get it when he realized it was not there to begin with.

I really liked the two page splash of the heroes gathering to fight the OMACs.  It is fun to try and pick out how many you recognize, much like a lot of the drawings in Villains United.  I love Cyborg’s line: “You guys give machines a bad name.”  I also liked the brief non-verbal exchange between Hal Jordan and Batman, which provides a good sense of continuity for those who have read the rebirth series.  These two men don’t trust or like each other.  And what exactly did Booster mean when he says he is going home.  Back to his present-day home or back to the future?

I still am having trouble with the way Sasha looks with that eye.  Actually both eyes since there does not seem to be a pupil in the other one.  I’m conflicting when Batman kisses her.  In one sense, I like the fact that he confirms she is still human.  But it still looked creepy.

This, by far, was the best of all of the series coming out of Countdown.  I loved the ending.  There was some definite resolution to the main story with the emergence of Brother Eye and the OMACs in terms of the heroes being able to find a way to stop them, but at the same time, man that cliffhanger really makes you want to know what is going to happen next.  It is a great way to start Infinite Crisis and certainly a good way to get someone to read Wonder Woman.  Since Rucka is the writer, you just know he is going to address this situation.-- MRB

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