The OMAC Project #1-6

The OMAC Project #1-6

Originally released in 2005

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Jesus Saiz

While I don't know which series or comics are absolutely required reading for Infinite Crisis (or if any series beyond Crisis On Infinite Earths are required reading - I've already read Crisis On Infinite Earths before, though given the sheer amount of content in the DC universe, I feel like there was a lot that I missed out on), I figure I might as well read the miniseries with direct ties to the event before I read Infinite Crisis.

The next one that I'm reading is the OMAC Project. The OMAC, or One Man Army Corps., were created by Jack Kirby after the cancellation of the New Gods series. The series starts off by focusing on the organization Checkmate and its leader Maxwell Lord.  I'm used to him from Justice League International, where he was the financier and an 80s businessman, and his biggest conflict with the heroes was generally Blue Beetle saying things like "I can't believe Booster bought a $3000 stereo system with the League's money! We've got to earn that money back in a day or else Max's gonna kill us!"

I'm not sure if this takes place during the events of Infinite Crisis, or in the aftermath of a Justice League issue, or something else, but Max does kill Blue Beetle here. (Not over a stereo system - that I know of) If this does happen during Infinite Crisis, then it seems like an odd move to show the aftermath here when this series is billed as leading up to Infinite Crisis.

Taking on a villainous role as an ominous overseer and mastermind behind some kind of conspiracy, Max hijacked the Brother Mk. 1 surveillance system that Batman created and is using to spy on the world's superheroes. Ordinary people have seemingly become sleeper agents for Brother, apparently being transformed into OMAC members and used as drones for the surveillance system.

While Maxwell Lord's behaviour here seems inexplicably different from his previous portrayal (at least based on my limited experience with the character - there is a fifteen year gap or so between what I'm familiar with and this event), Batman's development of Brother (which seems paranoid even by his standards) is justified as a lingering sense of distrust left over from Zatanna wiping his memory in the backstory of Identity Crisis.  Feeling like he can't trust his fellow Justice League members (even if he's not entirely sure why) does seem like it would lead to that kind of mindset.

It seems weird to me that Batman built, and Maxwell has access to, a global surveillance satellite that can locate and spy on superheroes on planet and in orbit with pinpoint accuracy, but it seemingly only targets superheroes, and targeting superheroes is explicitly its intended purpose. (You'd think keeping tabs on various supervillains would be just as important, if not moreso) Also, the Big Brother reference from George Orwell's 1984 seems completely lost on them.

Batman has someone working on the inside of Checkmate, Sasha Bourdeaux, who sends him Blue Beetle's goggles, informing him about Beetle's death, that Checkmate (and Maxwell Lord) are involved, and that he no longer has control over his surveillance system.  Fortunately, she's better at covering her tracks than other members of the organization, who are plotting a coup against Lord and unaware of blind spots in the camera system. (this includes his supposed equals in the organization, which should really make him question the effectiveness of his leadership if all of his allies think he's crazy and are turning against him)

When the Black Queen of the organization attempts to kill Max (the Black King), he reveals that he has the ability to control the minds of others.  Given that the organization as a whole (and Max in particular) seems distrustful of people with superpowers (they say the term "meta", as in metahuman, like it's a slur), it seems hypocritical for him to view all superhumans (but himself) as a threat when he's leading a secret organization with seemingly unlimited authority and no oversight.

Bourdeaux is in a relationship with Batman (and close enough to know his identity), and once Max finds out, that's enough justification for him to send OMACs after them.  Meanwhile, Guy Gardner shows up once he hears what happened to Ted Kord, planning to have a reunion of Justice League International so they can track down whoever's responsible.  He and Booster set out to gather the old gang: Fire, Max...

With Batman on his trail, Max decides to handle the problem as thoroughly as possible, activating his last resort - a mind-controlled Clark Kent.  The story continues through several Superman and Wonder Woman comic books, though thankfully issue 4 provides a recap of the key moments.

Lord uses a brainwashed Superman to try and kill the Justice League, starting with Wonder Woman.  Tying Lord up with the Lasso of Truth, Diana asks Max how to stop the mind control and bring Superman back to normal.  He says the only way to do that is to kill him.  She complies, in what seems like it would be a controversial moment for the character. (even if there's no other option, it seems at odds with any of the major heroes - there's a reason why the death of General Zod in the movie Man of Steel was met with so much backlash)

With Maxwell Lord dead, this is where I feel like I missed out by not reading earlier issues, as it seems unlikely for the series to explain his change in attitude now that he's a corpse.  He's apparently still on good standing with the heroes if Guy and Booster consider him one of their group, but he's secretly a paranoid bigoted lunatic who would slaughter his own current and former teammates with the tiniest amount of justification possible.

Even in death, he comes across as irredeemable, setting off a bunch of disasters at the same time (including having China launch nuclear weapons at Taiwan), along with false flags to distract the heroes like making it seem like there's a massive earthquake, in the event of his death in an attempt to plunge the planet into chaos out of nothing but spite and pettiness.

In the middle of all of this, Brother I (or Brother Eye, as it now goes by) gets in touch with its creator, Batman, to inform him of its upgrade from passive observer to autonomous neutralizer.  Rather than keeping an eye on superhumans to determine if they could be a threat, it has determined all superhumans are a threat and is using the OMACs in an attempt to kill them all and save humanity from their "tyranny".

The Justice League International members (and Mary Marvel - I guess she's standing in for Billy) fend off one OMAC, but a group of them proves to be too much, even with several heavy hitters in their line-up.  Rocket Red sacrifices himself to take out three of them; I'm not a fan of C-listers getting killed to pad up the body counts in big event comics, but this one felt justified and seemed like it accomplished something, even if it was just giving the other heroes a short reprieve from the OMAC attack.

Sasha Bordeaux is attacked while trying to shut down Brother Eye, and seemingly fatally wounded, but she survives and is rebuilt with nanomachines as a robot or cyborg separate from the OMAC program. (I'm not sure if this was a contingency plan on Max's part in case the OMACs turned against him, though I'm not sure if he was even aware of it; it seems like he would have given that sort of back-up to himself. At any rate, Sasha was unaware of it before the transformation happened)

Issue five ends with every single OMAC agent being activated, beginning the "Annihilation Protocol", which is presumably exactly what it sounds like: annihilating every single person with superpowers (or people with the skills to be superheroes, like Batman or Green Arrow) on the planet.  It's unclear what it would do after that, though it seems like it would either decide that with its superior intellect, the only logical decision would be to rule over humanity for "their own protection" or, since humans are the source of metahumans, it would follow in the footsteps of the Sentinels from X-Men and decide that humans need to die as well in order to prevent the existence of metahumans. It doesn't seem like it would end well in any case.

Sasha works with the remnants of Checkmate to pool their knowledge about the OMAC program and find a way to disable the nanomachines that turned them into OMACs while sparing the human hosts.  One method is using a virus to shut down communication between the Brother Eye satellite and the nanobots, while the other is to make a massive electromagnetic pulse, though the second plan has some major issues.

Ted Kord had built a mass EMP generator, which Max tried to steal.  As it hadn't arrived yet, he had the OMACs steal other things to cover his tracks, but this got Ted on his trail and ultimately got him killed.  It's a nice touch to have Ted ultimately be the one responsible for stopping Max and Brother Eye's plan, given that this started with his death; he gets more respect than some heroes who died in this event. (the OMACs kill a bunch of heroes that I'm unfamiliar with, along with the Batman villain Firefly, in a montage)

Not all of the OMACs are stopped (there are still two hundred thousand out there), but Brother Eye's forces have been depleted enough that it goes into hiding. (somehow, it's able to hide in Earth's orbit despite everyone knowing it's there and multiple superheroes having enhanced or X-ray vision - it must have learned stealth from Batman)  In a last act of spite, it puts a recording of Wonder Woman snapping Maxwell Lord's neck onto every video screen on the planet, presumably leaving out as much context as possible to make it look worse.

This feels like a big blockbuster event in itself, which has me curious about how much bigger Infinite Crisis is going to get. I feel like I'm missing a lot of key context, though it would be much worse if I hadn't read Justice League International and Identity Crisis. (I wouldn't recommend this as someone's first foray into the DC universe; it doesn't give a ton of context for new readers)  I had my issues with it (Max's apparently sudden villainous turn being the big one), but it was all right.