Omega Men

Omega Men 1-12

I didn’t think much of this the first time I read it.  I bought it coming off of reading Vision, my first exposure to Tom King.  I didn’t get it.  What a difference a couple of years makes.  The key for me was getting a few more Tom King stories under my belt (Batman, Mr Miracle, Heroes in Crisis, Strange Adventures, Up in the Sky) and realizing that Tom King comics all have a certain mood - There’s a dreamlike, ethereal quality to his tales, and I have to willingly sink into that mindset when I read his work.  

Much of it has to do with the pencillers and colorists that King collaborates with.  They add a hazy softness to the stories, and make me feel like I’m experiencing what I’m reading through a filter that makes me keenly aware that I’m observing while participating at the same time, just like in my dreams.  

It’s hard to explain.  King basically writes amazing lucid dreams, which somehow feels appropriate with his frequent themes of trauma and flashback

None of this speaks directly to Omega Men.  It’s good.  It’s an unflinching look at the cost of revolution, the price of victory, and the ambiguity of good/evil, right/wrong.  It’s about how today’s liberators are tomorrow’s tyrants, and how nothing ever ends, it only goes in endless cycles.  (I’m surprised that DC was willing to use Kyle Rayner to tell such a dark story.)

It’s not King’s best, but it definitely went up a few grades after the re-read.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

DC Box 6 summary!

Time spent reading: 23 hours 32 minutes

Issues read: 207

Issues cut: 24

Highlights (Good or better): Justice League of America 11, Offspring 1, Waid’s Legion of Superheroes 5-14, 21-30, Sanctuary, Omega Men

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 29 days, 3 hours, 8 minutes

Issues read: 5931

Issues cut: 797