A little more clarity.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom King
Art: Barnaby Bagenda
What They Say:
What do you do after the entire galaxy watches you murder the White Lantern Kyle Rayner? Run.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of The Omega Men was the kind of tough read that works well if you realize and are good with the idea of being in it for the long haul before it comes together. This is done up in a more novel oriented form where it’s not all laid out clearly at the start. This works in some ways and hinders in others, and even with my ages old knowledge of The Omega Men from the past I found myself more lost than found with it. But I also really got the sense of a pretty intriguing story in terms of scope and scale here being set, one that feels like it’s very much worth the investment in time. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a wordy book with some interesting character material that really draws me in.
While the first issue focused on a good bit of action while trying to introduce us in an oblique way to the characters at hand, this one is very much dialogue heavy. Because of what’s been seen as being done by the Omega Men, with the amount of Citadel soldiers that were killed, the fallout from that is going to be swift on Ogyptu as the Viceroy has arrived in his high quality ship. It seems like half the book is dedicated to the time between the Viceroy from the Citadel and the planetary local governor as they talk about reparations that must be made through the contract that exists between the two civilizations. It’s a brutal one where the one in power is able to be casual, all smiles and friendly about it while also having some wonderful moments of playful exasperation. There are serious things going on with this as thousands of people are going to be executed for what happened, but the political side of it is intriguing to watch play out.
Balancing that, we get two different focused areas at play with the Omega Men themselves. The first is that we do see a move being made to acquire the Vicerory’s ship so that the Omega Men can be spaceworthy again and deal with their bigger goal of removing the yoke of the Citadel from the system its in control of. This provides the minor action component and it works well to provide Tigorr and Broot something to do, but not to the same level as before. The flip side is time spent with Kyle, who is still trying to grasp everything that’s going on while also being told regularly that he’s now an Omega Man himself. There’s still a lot of confusion, or lack of clarity really, about his role in this and events before and that has me really curious to see if it’ll get explored and explained more. But seeing Kyle potentially taking on this role works really well for me.
In Summary:
The Omega Men is a series where I fully feel like I get my value from the book with what it does. With a solid read to it and some beautifully detailed artwork with fantastic layout designs, I’m feeling fully immersed in this world even as I’m struggling to understand it all as a lot is place on the reader. We get a bit more about the Alpha and the Omega religious-ish aspect of the culture, more about the Citadel and their operations, and a nudge as to what Kyle’s role in all of this may be as it goes on. There’s some really stark moments that hit hard about what’s happening as it does make it clear that these aren’t heroes in the classical sense, but rather rebels that have to make hard choices in their struggles to free likeminded people. I’m definitely very hopeful about this series as it’s off to a very promising start.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 1st, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
