Broken Frontier

Hitting the halfway point and there are still far more questions than there are answers. The surreal romp through "The Unknown" continues.

Omega the Unknown has been one of the strangest, most daring comic books released by Marvel Comics in quite some time. A title like this is incredibly reminiscent of the Bill Jemas era of years past, wherein the storytellers were seemingly playing games of creative "can you top this". These methods are sorely lacking in today’s Marvel, and are absolutely welcome.

The sheer amount of passion the creators have for these characters and the series at large absolutely bleeds off the page. Not much is being said, however, at the same time the overwhelming feeling of an intricate story being woven together is ever-present.

It may have better suited Marvel to release this Limited Series under their "MAX" Mature Label Imprint. This is truly a "thinking person’s" comic book. Something I personally haven’t seen much of (out of the "Big Two") since the birth of Vertigo Comics over a decade ago. The maturity of this series would help remove the stigma that has thus far stained the MAX imprint, of books only being labeled "mature" due to their use of four-letter words and anal sex.

This Limited Series has been my first exposure to Omega the Unknown. In fact, at first glance I was forced to do a double-take to reassure myself that I’d actually seen the Marvel Comics banner on the book. I’ve since attempted to better familiarize myself with the character and the concept. I have not yet been able to procure a copy of the Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes trade paperback reprinting the 1970’s incarnation of the character as, A: I can’t find it locally, B: I don’t want to "spoil" any of the current run, and C: it’s Thirty-freakin’-dollars.

I cannot make heads or tails out of this series yet. The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m enjoying the ride immensely. Each issue is crammed full of information that you almost question yourself whether or not you’d actually just read it. Many non sequiturs and random juxtaposition abound on each page, and I absolutely love it.

This is a series I cannot wait to re-read in full, and eventually compare it to the Steve Gerber series. I would almost be remiss not to mention Mr. Gerber’s passing this past week, making this issue a bit more surreal than it would have been anyway. I do hope Marvel acknowledges Mr. Gerber as the creator of this character in future issues.

Highest recommendation on this one! It’s great being reminded of the Bill Jemas era of Marvel, where risks were taken, and creativity was at a great high.