Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

OMAC (2011) #1-8

O.M.A.C., Volume 1: Attivato

Rate this book
Kevin Kho era un semplice impiegato alle Industrie Cadmus prima di essere trasformato in un incredibile e inarrestabile mostro: O.M.A.C., Organismo Macchina Attacchi Calibrati. Ossessivo compulsivo, fidanzato con la bella Jody Robbins, Kevin non poteva sospettare di essere finito al centro di una battaglia tra Brother Eye, il satellite senziente che controlla le sue trasformazioni e che ne dirige le azioni, e l'agenzia occulta che controlla segretamente le Industrie Cadmus: Checkmate! È l'inizio di una vera e propria partita a scacchi tra Brother Eye e il leader di Checkmate e Kevin è solo una pedina.

Paperback

First published December 1, 2011

8 people are currently reading
265 people want to read

About the author

Dan DiDio

219 books18 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
65 (14%)
4 stars
98 (21%)
3 stars
139 (30%)
2 stars
91 (20%)
1 star
60 (13%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
Profile Image for mark monday.
1,861 reviews6,257 followers
July 12, 2016
meet Mokkari and Simyan:

 photo Untitled_zpsmetauw1z.jpg

these delightful gents are two of my favorite obscure supporting characters in the DC universe. they are half-brothers, brilliant scientists, and the often-disguised leaders of The Evil Factory - a literally underground parallel to the world-renown Cadmus Project. both agencies are interested in genetic manipulation; Mokkari and Simyan are interested in doing terrible things with their experiments, which makes sense because they are wicked and serve Darkseid and they work for a place called "The Evil Factory". arrogant, cruel, petty, and often charmingly devoted to each other... so much to enjoy about those two. unfortunately, like many of their appearances, they exist on the outskirts of the O.M.A.C. narrative. still, I will take what I can get of them and so I bought this book.

Question: What does "O.M.A.C." stand for?

(a) Omni Mind And Community
(b) Observational Metahuman Activity Construct
(c) One-Machine Attack Construct

Answer: all of the above! depending on the time period.

Brother Eye is a sentient satellite in the sky. he sees himself as one of the good guys because all he wants to do is protect Earth. unfortunately he's also an entitled, paranoid control freak, which makes him a bit of a challenge to deal with. poor O.M.A.C. is his version of a field agent. Brother Eye uses his beyond-me technological mumbo jumbo to activate O.M.A.C. any time he pleases. which pretty much amounts to poor Kevin Kho suddenly turning into a rampaging blue mohawked version of the Incredible Hulk whenever Brother Eye wants to get something done. despite O.M.A.C.'s incredible power, Brother Eye is definitely the top in this relationship.

the story is a sloppy, confusing mess but it has many fun moments. the writing may be insipid and the art is ho hum side of things but at times I really enjoyed the colorful chaos of it all.



 photo gallery_zpslt2dxrcj.jpg
Profile Image for Evan Leach.
466 reviews163 followers
February 12, 2013
O.M.A.C. is basically DC’s answer to the Incredible Hulk: he’s big, he’s not real bright, and he likes to smash things while grunting angrily. He’s blue instead of green, and is imbued with some kind of robo-tech instead of gamma rays, but the shoe definitely fits.

img: OMAC

Based on the Jack Kirby character of the same name, O.M.A.C. is at its best when emulating the Kirby style. The series definitely pays tribute to its creator with the artwork and its somewhat campy tone, and has some wild villains that would have fit right in 40 years ago. I liked these elements, but otherwise this series didn’t really resonate with me. Like the Hulk, O.M.A.C. can be kind of a bore (he can’t really think or anything, just plod around and smash things). The plot, while action-packed, was pretty convoluted at times. There are two separate secret agencies (with annoyingly similar names) trying to go after O.M.A.C., along with the rogue satellite controlling him, a third covert agency featuring Frankenstein gets involved, etc. It’s all a bit much.

Poor O.M.A.C. was cancelled after his eighth issue, so this collection contains the entire New 52 run. I genuinely liked a few issues, but overall this was just OK. 2.5 stars.
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,780 reviews13.4k followers
November 22, 2012
Kevin Kho is OMAC (which stands for One Machine Attack Construct) basically a blue Hulk wearing armour from "Fear Itself" with a tropical fish tail mohawk.

Once again this is a "New 52" title that fails to introduce a character to a new readership, as well as failing to do anything new with the character and ultimately falling on its face in trying to do anything at all. And it's disappointing, not least because OMAC is an interesting character, one of the few DC has which allows them to go cosmic and do some nifty sci-fi storylines; with OMAC cancelled, all they've got is Green Lantern and his many spin-offs.

As a Jack Kirby creation, there's a lot of cool stuff in "OMAC" like Brother Eye, a sentient satellite, Father Time who is inexplicably a young Japanese girl in a schoolgirl outfit, Maxwell Lord, a chain-smoking psychic space dude, along with Sarge Steel and the Checkmate Elite, a chess-themed military squad. OMAC himself is an arresting vision, a very alien looking creature who looks futuristic and scary but is also the hero of the book.

Story-wise there's nothing much to say: OMAC fights a monster, he fights some talking crocodiles with holographic weapons attached to their heads, he fights Frankenstein, he fights Superman, he fights more monsters, the end. There's a lot of fighting and not much else besides.

It's a shame a terrible writer like Dan Didio was given this title as, in the right hands, the series could've been great. Didio's idea of a good comic book is to introduce the Kirby creations and then have OMAC fight something. I don't understand why so many titles in the New 52 promote the fact that they're emulating old versions of the characters - why not do something, uh, new with them? OMAC, while being a tribute to Kirby right down to the art, doesn't break new ground for the character it just goes over it. There's more to imagination than simply putting zany characters on the page; Didio and Giffen really needed to approach this series from a new perspective instead of relying on the old Kirby comics formula that worked back then but reads stale and trite today.

Having read the 8 issues in this book, I have no idea what OMAC's point was - where was the series headed? What are his goals? Why is Kevin so accepting of being transformed - by a talking satellite only he hears - into a raging cyborg killing machine? The ending is also truly abysmal. Fair enough, they knew the series was being cancelled, but couldn't they have come up with a more creative way to bow out?

If all you want out of comics is superstrong characters smashing each other pointlessly, OMAC is your book - for everyone else, this is one to miss.
Profile Image for Robert.
4,482 reviews28 followers
November 5, 2014
Hulk ripoff and a Blue Beetle clone all rolled in to one. I'm surprised it ever got published let alone lasted 8 issues. and if ANYONE can tell me why he spent an entire issue in a random zoo with anthropomorphic animals...
10 reviews
August 31, 2012
Short version, it was an okay attempt at emulating Jack Kirby.

As a Jack Kirby tribute I guess I should call it... the few things they got right were it's seemingly constant need to keep this story sounding current, it's constant introduction of new things ( whether the story needed them or not), and Brother eye using eye instead of I when talking.

Things they got wrong however ( at least in my eyes ) were that the lines on the art were too thin, and it wasn't ambitious enough.

Aside from some swearing and one graphically violent scene, I think this would be a great kids comic, seeing as how those are very few and far in between these days.

If you are going to be reading this I have to warn that the ending isn't all that great ( which is most likely the fault of it's early cancellation ). Also the Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. tie in isn't necessary to read, since its just the same issue told from Frankenstein's point of view.
Profile Image for Ronald Esporlas.
167 reviews5 followers
September 24, 2025
I think I am one of the target audience of this book because I love two super strong characters just fighting each other. OMAC is like a techno-alien-Hulk hybrid who wanted to smash anything. Yes, the overall story has no purpose or flow because it got cancelled early but there is potential if it only ends to 52 issues.

I love the Kirby inspired arc by Giffen especially the action scenes where I can feel every punch and every destruction.

The story has a lot of potential but this was released during the New 52 era but instead of telling a new direction for the character it dwells to the Kirby-inspired stories of old.
Profile Image for Alan.
2,050 reviews15 followers
February 12, 2013
Usually when modern creators take on a Jack Kirby concept they can't execute it because they won't do what Kirby did. Which is, for better and worse, just go so far over the top that people will wonder if you are doing drugs.

This version of OMAC has very loose ties to Kirby's original creation, but strong ties to the over the top action and fun that Kirby was capable of at his best. Instead of being a One Man Army Corps dedicated to the goals of the Global Peace Agency and teamed with the orbiting A.I. Brother Eye we have Kevin Kho, office shulb and middle manager at a bio-tech firm who finds his body and mind hijacked by a paranoid Brother Eye.

Dan DiDio and co-writer and artist Keith Giffen turn in a fun roller coaster ride and Giffen returns to his early Kirby influenced art style. A small homage to Kirby comes at the end of the book when Brother Eye meets the same fate he did in Kirby's run. The benefits I suppose of the co-writer also being the company's EIC and knowing that the monthly title was being cancelled.

Another thing I want to give the title credit for is highlighting the DC relaunch's attempts at diversity. Kho is an Asian-America, a bit of a slacker, regardless he is in managment at Cadmus. His girlfriend Jody is also a manager. For all the failed titles, missteps, and some of the good work that the DCNU has accomplished its biggest achievement might have been the attempt to introduce more female chacarets and people of color into a shared universe.
Profile Image for Robert.
2 reviews
October 10, 2012
When the new 52 came out I started getting into comics. Most of the ones I picked up were "A" class heroes and I had very few regrets with them. After O.M.A.C. was canceled and the trade paper back came out I thought I'd see what it was all about. I was happily surprised the first couple of issues, the hero of the story doesn't really want to be the hero, Brother Eye is a confusing mix of good and evil, and the bad guys are kinda after both of them. As the book got closer to its end the story arc got lost. It almost felt to me that they knew the series was being canceled and stopped caring. There were many characters introduced that you thought and hoped would have some bigger contribution that after the issue they were in were never seen again. Over all the story was pretty good and so was the art, but I feel it could have wrapped up better. For all I know maybe the questions I had were later solved in justice league international, but that doesn't help me here knowing that the series has been terminated.
Profile Image for Craig.
Author 16 books40 followers
March 18, 2016
I have hated all of the New 52 I have read, with the exception of WONDER WOMAN. I picked this up because I have always been a huge Giffen/ LEGION fan, and so I wanted to see what he did here. The problem with this book is that it is too rooted in Kirby riffs. Rather than coming up with something new, we get a rehash of concepts that have been kicking around for the last 20-30 years, making it not-so-new at all. The other problem is that this is an inaccessible book unless you've been reading comics for 20-30 years. New readers would have zero idea about Maxwell Lord (drawn to look like Kirby, insult to injury for the way he and his family were treated by DC), Checkmate, Cadmus, etc, and there is no context here except for people with a total recall of the DC continuity that the New 52 was meant to jettison. And since the Editor in Chief is the writer here, that makes zero sense in terms of the marketing hype. This gets one star: for the art and for a non-white lead. Overall: merely a confusion.
Profile Image for Kris.
764 reviews39 followers
November 16, 2012


This one almost ended up in my "did not finish" category. So poorly written, and Giffen's artwork was a poor imitation of Jack Kirby, the creator of OMAC. Having been the writer of Justice League International, Giffen had plenty of opportunity to see Maxwell Lord being drawn by J.M. DeMatteis, but Lord looks like something completely inhuman in this book. The appearance of all the New Gods characters just serves to remind us that this is Giffen's homage to Kirby; but it's a poor imitation.
Profile Image for David.
2,565 reviews85 followers
August 20, 2012
Best book of DC's NEW 52 so far. The new series have mostly been a bit disappointing but this one's terrific. If you're a fan of Jack Kirby, you have to read this book. It's the best modern treatment of Kirbyness I've ever seen. Keith Giffin's art's never looked better and the lighthearted slam bang stories are a hoot. Maybe not as out there as Kirby's OMAC, but it's close. It's a perfect reboot.
Profile Image for Jedi Master Nate Lightray.
262 reviews4 followers
April 24, 2021
Keith Giffen and Dan Didio are both better writers than this. It's very "meh". It's obvious that if you are writing 52 books a month, some will get thrown together. That being said, it's not the worst thing I've read, but it felt unfocused and meandering, and the art left everyone's faces looking squished. I wish I could be more positive about it.
Profile Image for John Yelverton.
4,417 reviews38 followers
August 2, 2012
Thank goodness that they deactivated this awful book before it could rot my brain even more.
Profile Image for Dan.
2,231 reviews66 followers
November 24, 2014
DCs attempt at a Hulk like character. This obvious unoriginality mixed with a bad storyline made this book stink. The 50s style art didn't help it any. Wtf was with the mohawk???
Profile Image for Rick Hunter.
503 reviews48 followers
January 23, 2017
This is the 48th of the original 52 series released under the New 52 banner that I've started on. I expected this book to be complete rubbish. Going into the book with that attitude, I ended up being mildly surprised since it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Part of the reason I didn't expect much from this series is because it was written by Dan DiDio, who has mainly been in upper management at DC and has written very few comics in his career. Another reason I didn't think this would be very good is due to the fact that O.M.A.C. is the main character. The original version of the character was created by Jack Kirby and the initials stood for "One Man Army Corps". I read a few of these books as a kid, but they never really impressed me. This isn't the first time DC has tried to bring the O.M.A.C. character back, but I've never read any of those books so I can't really say how good they were. This time around O.M.A.C. stands for "One-Machine Attack Construct" which is one of the lamest things I've ever read. They could've come up with something way better than that.

Dan DiDio isn't the only writer on the series. Artist Keith Giffen helps out with the story on most issues and Jeff Lemire helped write the Frankenstein crossover that ran an issue each in this book and in Frankenstein. The series was supposed to be a modernized version of an older character to bring them into the 21st century, but the writing seemed like something that could have been from written between the 1960's to 1980's. While it was better than I expected the story to be, it still wasn't very good. The writing gets 2 stars.

Giffen's art is the best thing about the book. It isn't fantastic. Yet, it is much better than some art I've seen in the New 52. His human characters look a lot better than O.M.A.C. or Frankenstein. There are a few fights in the book, but the action scenes are very lackluster. Action isn't something Giffen portrays well. The art gets 3 stars.

The art and writing scores average out to make this a 2.5 star book. I can't really recommend this series to anybody. There aren't many people in the world that really give a crap about the character O.M.A.C. and since this is a completely different character than the ones that have come before I doubt even fans of the original version would like it.
Profile Image for Krzysztof Grabowski.
1,843 reviews7 followers
October 30, 2019
To chyba będzie moja najszybciej napisana opinia na GoodReads. O.M.A.C. "szczęśliwie" tak jak większość odgrzewanych tytułów trzecioligowych postaci z portfolio wydawniczego DC kończy się na pierwszym tomie. To "dzieło" liczy sobie zaledwie osiem zeszytów, ale i tak przejście przez nie było istną udręką.

O.M.A.C. jest zwyczajnie nudny. Nie ma tu nic, może za wyjątkiem zaskakującego i świeżego zakończenia, które w ogólnym rozliczeniu zapewnia ten jeden punkcik. Cała reszta jest mdła, stylizowana graficznie na komiks z lat 80. czy 90. Seria Deadpool z linii Marvel NOW! miała takie wstawki, które jednak potrafiono wykorzystać odpowiednio. Tutaj... No nie wyszło.

Niebieskoskóry osiłek z okładki tak naprawdę jest człowiekiem. Kevin Kho ma to nieszczęście spotkać na swojej drodze Brata Oko... Co za nazwa dla pozaziemskiej sztucznej inteligencji, która "obdarzyła" bohatera mocami zamiany w to coś, co ma być odpowiedzią na Hulka z przeciwnego wydawnictwa. Tyle, że O.M.A.C. to imbecyl i typowy karczek, który za jedyne rozwiązanie uznaje prawo pięści. W opozycji do niego mamy złola noszącego nazwę Checkmate (SZACH-MAT?, noż k..) wraz z grupą podwładnych posiadających charaktery równie płaskie co kartka papieru...

Odradzam. Było nudno. Było nijako i nawet gościnne występy Supermana, któremu nasz niebieski bohater zdołał w jakiś sposób dobrać się trochę do skóry czy pojawienie się samego Frankensteina, z organizacja SHADE nie było w stanie podnieść atrakcyjności omawianego tytułu. Polecić mogę tylko sadystom, którzy lubią sobie robić różne, bolesne rzeczy. I jeszcze jedno...

O.M.A.C. wróci gościnnie w kilku innych tytułach. Szczęśliwie tam jego występy nie będą aż tak tragiczne, co tylko świadczy, że we właściwych rękach można go jakoś wykorzystać. Panu Didio niestety nie wyszło.
984 reviews2 followers
March 6, 2023
The non-Fourth World world of Jack Kirby is given the New 52 treatment in this oh too brief miniseries. I'm typically not impressed with the grandstanding style of Dan DiDio. He's self-indulgent and smarmy. Plus, DC Comics wouldn't be in half of the financial mess that they're in right now if not for DiDio. Yet, this time around, I was more than impressed. It's probably because of the assist by Keith Giffen (Larfleeze) on the script. But I will give kudos where kudos are due.

Not only does this book retool the character of OMAC, this book also ties in another Kirby classic, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth. Add in Project Cadmus from Kirby's Jimmy Olsen tenure, Max Lord (a Keith Giffen creation) and Dick Giordano's Sarge Steel, this felt like a tribute to classic DC Comics.

I did not want this book to end. It was so very fun. I would love for this to be turned into a movie. Heck, I would love for there to be a sequel. Though, with this being New 52, I'm not sure how connected to continuity this is and I don't want to support something that would contradict DC canon. But if a sequel doesn't do such a thing- please, oh please, continue the story!

With artwork by Scott Koblish (Scotch McTeirnan's Halloween Party), this is a fantastic story for those who like their DC Comics to be a little off-the-wall. A reluctant sci-fi superhero in the vein of Neo from The Matrix. You don't have to be a Kirby fanatic (of which I am). But it helps. And for those established Kirby-ites, as long as you understand that this book isn't trying to replace Kirby's OMAC, they should enjoy this as well!

Don't ask me why this is listed as Volume 1. There is no volume 2. This sort of oversight infuriates me and is about the only thing about this book I dislike.

Profile Image for One Flew.
708 reviews20 followers
August 5, 2017
You read some utter bullshit being a comic book nerd. It comes with the teritory, only so many people can write quality stories about men in tights beating the crap out of each other. That's fine, I don't mind skim reading the occasional daft superhero soap opera bollocks to try and find the few great stories.

OMAC is beyond that though, this a new level of trash fiction. I can not find a single redeeming quality in this steaming pile of shit. Boring characters, laughable dialogue, nonsensical plot, lame repitive action sequences, mediocre artwork and a stupid concept. Everyone involved with this travesty should be ashamed of themselves, hell I felt ashamed just for reading it.
Profile Image for Sarah.
1,733 reviews34 followers
July 11, 2021
*Lots of reading + no time review = Knee-jerk reactions!*

I'm on a kick of reading "lesser known" heroes at the moment. I stumbled upon this and thought, "Why not?" While it's not poorly written or drawn by any means, it just doesn't have any particular "wow" factor. The best way to describe it: Perfectly fine. I feel like the writers were having fun with it, and that shines through, but the overall comic... Well, as far as I know there's not a volume 2, and that's not really a loss. If you're looking for something random, this is a good choice. But it's far from DC's best.
Profile Image for Sean Sexton.
723 reviews8 followers
December 29, 2019
Here's yet another title that DC Comics launched with the New 52 initiative. This one tells the story of some poor schmuck who somehow gets transformed into a "One Man Army Corps" creature. He's also inexplicably under the control of a rogue satellite with AI level intelligence. When OMAC "activates", he turns into the creature, smashes things near him, and destroys enemies.

This O.M.A.C. series didn't make it past the first eight issues.
90 reviews
November 18, 2021
Great attempt at staying true to Kirby. Not much of a story, but plenty of action. Omac is just fighting Superman for whatever reason at the start of an issue and then is transported to help humanoid animals save their king from a torture laboratory underneath a merry go round. This comic isn't concerned with the story, don't listen to people who have been brainwashed into worshipping plot, themes, characters. They are pigs.
Profile Image for Sean.
4,085 reviews25 followers
September 7, 2025
Dan DiDio & OMAC together equals a miserable reading experience. You get one of comics' constantly bad writers with one of comics' worst characters and its exactly what it sounds like. The book might have hit the nostalgia button for some hardcore Jack Kirby fans but this book made no sense, had no purpose, and leaves me wanting to rethink my decision making processes. Keith Giffen imitated Kirby's art here and it was...well, it was a thing. Overall, an awful read.
Profile Image for Michael.
3,359 reviews
May 14, 2025
Giffen's artwork is probably the only redeeming point. I did enjoy seeing obscure Kirby characters referenced and reinvented in different ways, but I can't say the tiresome fights, dull Checkmate melodrama, or even the Jack Kirby reverence were compelling in any way.
Profile Image for Jiro Dreams of Suchy.
1,278 reviews8 followers
March 9, 2022
OMAC smacks up a bunch of different giant monsters and other scifi type creatures. It was quick enough.
Profile Image for Dow.
240 reviews8 followers
June 9, 2022
dc sure loves their "possessed by an alien/computer/overlord" storylines. it was ok i guess. just didn't really get much of a resolution, especially considering the series was canceled after 8 issues
Profile Image for Lillian Francis.
Author 15 books100 followers
November 21, 2023
Read #1 - 5.
OMAC is a low budget Hulk like creature. Not much more to say. Kinda boring, with too many conflicting factions that I know nothing about.
#5 is somewhat interesting in that they call SHADE in to deal with OMAC, but Frank here is all whack a mole and shows none of the depth that is normal for his character.
#6 & 7. Issue 7 has a quick Superman appearance and then Kevin is transported to a zoo with generically modified animals!
#8 last issue, and it felt like it was thrown together. Even worse than other issues.

Overall a very mediocre and short run.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.