WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? Episode #33 - Buddy Blank (The Original OMAC) By Bruce MacIntosh Each week, DC's weekly series Countdown features characters who may be unfamiliar to some readers. With Black Canary's bachelorette party taking place in the pages of this series, you can bet we're going to see some interesting guest appearances. If you get blank looks about Buddy Blank, Fear Not!The Pulse will help you avoid this Great Disaster!
BUDDY BLANK (The Original OMAC)
With New Gods literally dropping like flies in Countdown, and teasers of the Source Wall and the Great Disaster, OMAC, Kamandi, Darkseid, et al… it is clear that DC is making a conscious effort to not only revitalize Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" creations, but make them all an integral part of the new Multiverse and the coming Final Crisis. The most recent Kirby creation to re-appear is Buddy Blank – also known as the "original" OMAC ("One Man Army Corps").
A word of introduction about the "OMAC" we will be talking about here and which will be featured in Countdown, and other titles in the DC Universe in the coming months (almost certainly Final Crisis): This is not the same "OMAC" as in the 2005 8-issue mini-series OMAC Project leading up to Infinite Crisis, nor is it the same as the OMAC series that followed. Those recent series most definitely were inspired by the original 1970s title we will be discussing, and there are certainly similarities. But this OMAC is a whole 'nuther animal altogether.
In the early 1970s, Jack Kirby (comics' most prolific creator from way back in its roots in the 40s) moved from his hallowed home at Marvel to DC, because DC promised him free reign to create comics and characters from his wildest dreams. And wild they were! He created the New Gods, Darkseid, DeSaad, Kamandi, and a host of others… All of whom have or will be appearing in Countdown and next year's climactic event, Final Crisis.
One of his other creations was OMAC – the "One Man Army Corps". Kirby's OMAC series was canceled in 1975 after only eight issues, as one-by-one all of his creations at DC fell. Purportedly, this was due to low sales, but there may also be some truth to the rumor that Kirby's creations were too wild for even the comics-reading public of the 1970s. The story goes that at some time in the late 21st to early 22nd Century, the faceless Global Peace Agency transformed a nebbish named Buddy Blank into the super-hero OMAC (One Man Army Corps). OMAC's purpose was to fight certain threats to space and time in order to prevent the "Great Disaster". An advanced computer named Brother Eye assisted him.
The series was never concluded, it we never knew whether OMAC succeeded in preventing the Great Disaster. In fact, it was never revealed exactly what was the Great Disaster exactly was, other than it would result in the end of all human civilization. As life was winding down for Buddy Blank, he lived in a bunker with his grandson Kamandi. When Buddy died, Admiral Horatio Tomorrow of the Planeteers found Kamandi. Kamandi then grew up to became the hero Tommy Tomorrow.
As I mentioned at the introduction to this section, the Buddy Blank/OMAC character is not the same as the OMACs that were featured prominently in and after DC's big event in 2005, Infinite Crisis. Writer Greg Rucka rebooted Jack Kirby's creation into cyborgs who take over human bodies via a nanovirus in order to assassinate all superpowered beings. There are physical similarities to Kirby's original OMAC, such as the blue color and Mohawk-style crest, but the superficial resemblance is where the connection ends.
DC has assiduously maintained their silence about the composition of all 52 different Universes – but I suspect at least one of those is the "Kirbyverse". I'm also thinking that the Kirbyverse is the most important in terms of the coming "Great Disaster" (naturally – since that is one of the King's conceits) and Final Crisis.
NEXT WEEK IN WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN?
If anyone was paying attention and is disappointed that we didn't cover Mr. Mxyzptlk in this week's column, don't blame me: It was Mxy himself, playing one of his impish pranks on yours truly. As soon as I can get him to say his name backwards, I'll get back to writing that article about him and it will appear in two weeks.
Meanwhile, next week in Who Counts in Countdown?, we'll feature examine the story of that spooky blue teen Klarion the Witch Boy. Klarion is the next questionable character who is trying to prey on Mary Marvel's naïveté and take some of that awesome Black Marvel power from her.
Posts: 21254 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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I still own my original run of OMAC. I haven't read these in many years, maybe I should dig em out and look for clues as to what's coming.
Posts: 57 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Jennifer M. Contino: As life was winding down for Buddy Blank, he lived in a bunker with his grandson Kamandi. When Buddy died, Admiral Horatio Tomorrow of the Planeteers found Kamandi. Kamandi then grew up to became the hero Tommy Tomorrow.
Is this correct? I thought that Kamandi and Tommy Tomorrow were the same person, but from alternate timelines. Kamandi's world was the one where OMAC failed to prevent the Great Disaster, while Tommy's was the one where he succeeded.
Posts: 51 | Registered: Oct 2003
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The Great Disaster was mentioned in Legion books a couple times as part of the reason that records were hazy between the 20th and 30th centuries. There were also indications that the Great Disaster is what had happened prior to the Hex series, although I don't know if that was every made explicit.
Posts: 84 | From: Seattle, WA | Registered: Jul 2001
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