In this installment, we'll discuss OMAC, Men of War, Static and Swamp Thing.
OMAC - written by Dan Didio and Keith Giffen, this title resurrects the Kirby creation from Kirby's reunion with DC and DC's decision to let Kirby pretty much do whatever the hell he wanted to do. Like a lot of Kirby's work post-1960, its almost impossible to ignore the sheer energy of that series and to want to capture some of the residual energy of that era that's still rippling through the DCU 30-odd years later.
I was not going to pick up this comic as what little I've read by Dan Didio hasn't been my cup of tea, and I wasn't really sure I needed another swing at OMAC, after reading the painfully bad Bruce Jones OMAC series circa 2006. And I'm not entirely sold on this series yet. Didio and Giffen are trying very hard to summon the spirit of Kirby in pacing, dialog and design... but in 20 pages, pretty much nothing happens and I know less about this OMAC than I knew going into the issue. I suppose there's supposed to be a mystery here, but much like Justice League #1, it feels like the first few minutes of a movie intended to draw you in, but in this case, its not fan-favorite characters like Batman and Green Lantern, its a new, blue OMAC just tearing up Cadmus.
What's most puzzling is that, no doubt, Didio is the primary architect behind the DC Relaunch and has the most to gain and lose based upon the success of the effort. And yet... I have no idea what a "new" reader would think about this issue. Unlike the original OMAC, we don't meet the face behind the mohawk until the end of the issue, and then, its a blank slate. I just don't know if this was a particularly compelling first issue.