It’s a post-Christmas miracle, in that it’s a miracle there is a new post. Let us once again head back to the 1970’s, and come and knock on the door of young James-Michael Starling and the gang as I go deeper into Omega: The Unknown. After the jump there be cats, brass knuckles, demon-cats, revenge, magic, and more.

Only four issues in and we’ve seen The Hulk, Electro, and so much more, some of it baffling, some of it downright creepy, get ready for the magic portion of our show.

Part one here
Number two

Issue #4 opens with Omega saving a woman who attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge. Omega of course wonders if he has done something wrong by saving her, maybe this is something Earthlings do, and he shouldn’t have interfered. He takes her back to where he is staying, and with the help of the old guy he is staying with, gets her story. Her name is Teresa and apparently her mother owed money to the neighborhood Brujo, a cat (sorry) that goes by the name of El Gato. She refused to pay her mother’s debt to him, and has incurred the wrath of El Gato. Her fish died, her fiance was killed by a car, her roof collapsed, killing the guy that lived below her.

Back at school, James-Michael, and his friends John, Nick, and Dian, once again run afoul of the bullies, still trying to shake James-Michael down for some money. The lead bully also switches some chemicals around in an attempt to spice up chemistry class, and when James-Michael points this out to the teacher, he is ignored. John burns his hand throwing the beaker out the window where it explodes. Naturally James-Michael and John are taken to the principal’s office because the teacher believes this was somehow a stunt by them to undermine his credibility in front of the other students, because virtually every other person in this corner of the Marvel Universe is completely fucking awful. On their way to their next class, John steps into the bathroom and there he finds the bullies waiting for him. They seem to think James-Michael and John narced them out to the principal. Things do not go well for John.

 

Meanwhile, El Gato has made off with Teresa, and Omega sets off to stop him, which he easily does by standing in front of his limo. Strong guy this Omega fella, tangled with The Hulk, can stop a moving car with his bare hands, this shouldn’t be much of a fight for him.

 

Oh.

 

Luckily, Gramps is there to help get all that pussy wet. That’s not even a joke, he sprays them with a fire hydrant to get them off of Omega.

 

 

Let’s see how bad things can get for James-Michael and the gang in issue 5 shall we?

The issue opens with the beaten and bloody John, stumbling into the cafeteria and collapsing. James-Michael gets a flash of telepathy and John is taken to the hospital.

Omega is on the trail of El Gato who makes his way to his mystic lair, and tells the 3 old crones he has on staff to perform the purification ceremony, Teresa is to be his bride. Omega sneaks into the house only to be attacked by demonic cats.

 

 

Sexy Amber takes James-Michael with her to the Daily Bugle to try and get the money from her exclusive pictures of Omega and The Hulk’s battle. J. Jonah Jameson tries to back out of the agreed upon amount, and James-Michael steps in and steps up to JJJ, handling himself against JJJ and putting him in his place more effectively than Peter Parker ever has. In a funny bit Pete pulls him aside and asks if he gives lessons. James-Michael and Amber go out for an egg cream, and James-Michael has another flash of telepathy. He asks Amber if she can ask creepy Dr. Barrow to let him and Dian visit John in the hospital.

Omega wakes up, somehow outside of Gramps’ place. He goes inside and a mystical knick-knack of some sort catches his eye. Gramps talks a bit about buying magical trinkets here and there.

James-Michael and Dian go to visit John in the hospital. The sight of his friend, kid his own age forces James-Michael to look at his own mortality.

Omega breaks back into El Gato’s lair just as the magician is about to brand Teresa’s face thus locking her under his control forever. The demon-hags attack Omega and he defeats them, or really, kills them. El Gato transforms into a werejaguar and battles Omega, who emerges victorious. Teresa, freed from the influence of El Gato enacts a bit of revenge, branding El Gato on the forehead with his own mystic mark and trapping him within himself in some sort of magic feedback loop. Does he ever appear again? Not in this series, but anywhere else?

 

Back at the hospital, another kid is brought in. James-Michael and Dian are shocked to see it’s their other friend Nick.

This book is heavy, man. It goes to some dark places, and through it some a… I don’t know if I’d say cynical, but there is a creeping dread around every corner, and it doesn’t shy away from the existential questions. By the time we’ve gotten to the end of these two issues, two kids have been beaten nearly to death. This is kinda grim, right?

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. In the world of Omega:The Unknown, BTO wouldn’t even exist. Or would they? A song performed to make fun of your brother’s stuttering would fit in here, where everything, and everyone is awful. B-b-b-baby.

-Kris