THE OMEGA MEN No. 5, December 2015 |
Misleadingly advertised by “DC Comics” as containing “their
most atrocious act to date”, Issue Five of “The Omega Men” doesn’t actually
depict “the wretched” titular characters besieging “the holy planet of
Changralyn” and taking “hostage its ruler, the wise and benevolent Space Pope
Pontifix”. Instead it simply shows the “deadly outlaws” strongest member pummelling
away at a sacred rock with his bare hands until, bloody and supposedly close to
death, the “apostate” frees “the Key of Alpha” from its blessed resting place; “I
am… I am dying. I am being only a Broot... I am being condemned… I am knowing
truth. I am knowing Omega.”
Such a somewhat lack-lustre narrative is made all the
worse by Tom King’s insistence on populating every single panel with as much
dialogue as “the ex-CIA agent” can possibly muster. Something which must have
proved especially wearisome to the 10,532 buyers of this twenty-page periodical
as its ponderous plot progresses and the supporting cast’s convoluted sacrosanct-sounding
conversations increasingly focus upon Broot’s “desire to escape sin”. Indeed by
the time the grey-skinned behemoth finally smashes the heavily-chiselled, sanctified
stone formation hard enough to release the tiny blue “key to salvation” and it
becomes clear that the planet’s ‘Holy Father’ has “arranged” for the so-called
terrorists “to be destroyed”, few readers could probably stomach even another
small speech bubble solely stating “May it please Omega.”
Admittedly once the intergalactic Pontiff’s trap is
sprung and the “people see that the Omega Men are humble before the Gods”, the
American author’s storyline does momentarily liven up. Yet even the few scenes
of the Citadel soldiers storming the Temple of Omega en masse and encircling
Primus, Tigorr and Scrapps is frustratingly interspersed with pictures of “the
high Pontifex of Changralyn” worrying his ‘fallen son’ Charis-Nar with even
more perplexing ministerial mumbo jumbo.
Fortunately the one saving grace for this “beloved comic
in the brand new DC launch line-up” is Barnaby Bagenda’s terrific breakdowns. The
Jakarta Institute of Art freelancer is clearly aware that “sometimes you can’t
put too much information in one small panel, otherwise it would looked cramped.”
But that doesn’t stop him still creating, in collaboration with Romulo Fajardo
Junior’s discerning colours, some exquisite-looking, highly-detailed drawings throughout
this papal publication.
Writer: Tom King, Artist: Barnaby Bagenda, and Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Junior |
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