OMAC – the One-Man Army Corps – and Brother Eye

Context

This is about the version of OMAC created by Jack “the King” Kirby in 1974 for DC Comics. OMAC, The One-Man Army Corps, is a superhuman peacekeeper living in a strange future. DC later came up with other versions of the character.

OMAC is a classic Kirby creation with a strong appeal and a world of his own. Also, he has a mohawk.

Some stories wander by mistake

However, his continuity is complicated, even if we just focus on this version. The story is suddenly interrupted as OMAC stops with issue #8, then restart 3 years later for one episode in the back of a Kamandi issue, then after a while reappears to continue as a backup feature in Warlord.

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There are differences in continuity, characterisation, etc. between Kirby’s version and what follows. This profile cheats a bit by minimizing retcons to consider it’s the same character all along, with Birby’s take always being the preferred one.

This writeup incorporates unpublished material from Kamandi 60-61 – unfortunately #62, which was to see the return of OMAC, only exists under Lucien ’s care. It also integrates story elements from Kamandi from after Kirby left – namely the OMAC/Kamandi grand-paternal link.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

OMAC is amazingly swift and has enormous superhuman strength. Howbeit, he can still be hurt by advanced enough small arms (with high intensity energy beams or special armour-piercing bullets). He has been described as a god of war, and is indeed practically unstoppable by ordinary means.

Though his personality is thin, he has considerable authority and charisma.

OMAC’s listed Hero Points are for his early, documented career – they likely increased considerably as his adventures continued.

Awoken satellite

Brother Eye always monitors OMAC, and can use a wide variety of energy beams (often invisible, and able to operate even though massive obstacles) to support OMAC. Examples have included :

• Infusing him with greater strength or raw energy.
• Nullifying his weight.
• Striking nearby targets with laser fire (including once vaporising a bullet that had just been shot at OMAC).
• Creating an heavy elements shield in front of a missile (then dispersing it).
• Beaming in two fake corpses to make the enemy believe they had killed their targets.
• Forming a “molecular cocoon” around OMAC and his allies to protect them.

Brother Eye can also remotely power some special GPA vehicles, giving them practically infinite endurance.

When Buddy turns into OMAC, his body is literally on fire. The heat levels is unclear, and my guess in the game stats is chiefly based on the 1990s OMAC series by Byrne, taking place in a different continuity, so grain of salt here.

Maintaining the GPA

The Global Peace Agency is a sort of super-UN with organic enforcement powers. It maintains global peace and security in a painstakingly non-partisan fashion and represents every country.

To emphasise their ideal of non-partisan service to mankind, GPA agents wear uniforms that resemble no previous uniforms. To emphasise that their action is done without concern toward race they show no exposed skin, wearing gloves and a mask.

The GPA mask is distinctive. It completely covers the head and neck with no visible opening (like the Question’s mask) and is a sort of uniform beige/orange, making GPA agents completely anonymous, raceless and impersonal. It is created via a cosmetic spray, and presumably dissolved with a specific solution.

GPA agents likewise never give a name. I would imagine that they the mask includes voice filters to make them all sound alike.

Mad world

The GPA’s task is extremely difficult. The world in OMAC’s future is weirdly decadent, with the rule of law weakened by the incredible power wielded by the mega-rich and widespread irresponsible rule of highly advanced technology. Both factors contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In short this world is a powder keg, and any armed conflict could easily and unpredictably escalate into a nuclear world war.

Having to act surgically, quickly and preventively, the GPA came up with the concept of one agent who could do the work of an entire army. This one-man army would enforce international law with tremendous power but also a precision impossible for any large military or law enforcement unit.

This agent would be able to beat up large forces thinking themselves to be beyond the law before anybody could react. The faceless agents of the GPA would then just have to mop up and secure a well-contained situation.

Thus was born the OMAC project.

Administrative procedures

The GPA is not one monolithic entity, but a complicated network of relatively small and well-coordinated specialised agencies. Many if not all of those seem to be descended from former national public agencies.

(Either NASA is the ancestor of the entire GPA, or the ancestor of the GPA division that led Project OMAC. The text is a bit unclear and though I have assumed the second in the writeup, upon rereading I think Kirby meant the first).

Its outlook seems to be scientific positivism. The GPA believes in, and is successful with, a highly rational and AI-driven “moderation” of human mores and lives. For instance, they help find the best possible combinations to form families from their databases of people looking to form families.

GPA’s equivalent of the International Court of Justice is a special fortress situated on top of Mount Everest.

Use of non-weapons

The GPA has *some* military assets, but those are scattered and do not really amount to much – mostly advanced vehicles and static defences such as anti-missile batteries. Nevertheless, OMAC’s name is treated literally by the GPA – he’s the equivalent of a five-star general within the GPA, and can take whatever military action he deems necessary.

Though GPA agents do not normally carry weapons, the pair of agents working with OMAC can benefit from orbital support from Brother Eye if they are close enough to OMAC for the satellite to see them. The GPA also has paramilitary field agents, who wear grey jumpsuits and visored helmets and can use non-violent containment gear (not non-lethal – non-violent).

They are very considerate and polite and they employ, among other things, gas spray that are “harmless, painless and odourless. It’s only a mild inconvenience.”. Since almost all personnel is unarmed, the GPA bases’ location are carefully kept secret.

Soundtrack

I’ve come to associate the World That Is Coming with the version of Depeche Mode’s Painkiller that was on the Ultra album.

It’s noisy, uncomfortable, dehumanized, heavy industry electronica with a grinding, relentless, badass character to it. It’s uh, not light ? But it fits OMAC and his world.

Available for download on Amazon .

History

The OMAC Project was implemented by the Global Peace Agency in an indeterminate future that might be our own. Its key enabler was Professor Myron Forest, a genius who worked in a GPA division descended from the old NASA.

Forest was running the core of the project. That meant building and launching the most sophisticated satellite to ever exist, named Brother Eye. The incredible technology wielded by this orbital AI was sufficient to provide an agent with both fantastic power and orbital support.

In parallel, GPA agents ran a search for a candidate who could match an absurd number of requirements of all kinds. This search ended up taking longer than building and launching the satellite, but one man was finally approved.

Hey, Buddy, can you spare a world ?

Logically enough, given the numerous GPA requirements about not representing anything or anybody, the subject ended up being a complete nobody. He was an obscure, clumsy, bullied office worker named Buddy Blank, gifted with the proportionate charisma and poise of a dead oyster.

As it turned out, the bland and victimised Buddy was working in an indeterminate menial position within Pseudo-People, Inc.. This company is known for its extremely realistic androids (mostly attractive and affectionate gynoids ).

A division head within the company had come with the bright idea of rigging some of those androids to become undetectable bombs. This boss and his armed and ruthless employees intended to become blackmailers and terrorists wielding this new weapon.

Hours after the OMAC Project was launched, the hapless Buddy stumbled onto their dirty little secret. He was about to be executed when Professor Forest fired up Brother Eye and told it to proceed.

Exalted

Using “remote-controlled hormone surgery… from space !”, Brother Eye turned Buddy into OMAC. The One-Man Army Corps proceeded to overcome everything his former captors could throw at him and demolished the operation as GPA agents came in. OMAC was told to immediately proceed to Electric City, where he would be briefed by Forest.

However, the mega-rich criminal Mr. Big had heard of the OMAC Project, and had bought Electric City for 24 hours. Officially, it was to throw a gigantic party ; but the real goal was to kill Forest and OMAC. His hitmen managed to kill Forest (in a scene very reminiscent of the death of professor Erskine), but had to flee from OMAC.

OMAC then found the killer and faked his own death. The trick was that Brother Eye was recording everything going on around OMAC, and soon had ample proof. GPA agents could now arrest Mr. Big, and OMAC returned to action.

After this success, the Social Engineering Division assigned to OMAC an apartment and a set of parents, the aged Mr. and Mrs. Barker. They had been selected as their psych profile indicated that they would go along well with OMAC and that they dearly wished they had a son of OMAC’s age.

Once more unto the breach

Soon after that, OMAC was rocketed off to face the hordes of the bandit Marshall Kafka. Kafka was a savage warlord with a hundred thousand heavily-armed men.

Riding in a unique flying assault chair, and continuing on foot after the chair was destroyed, OMAC impossibly ploughed through all opposing forces. He ultimately demolished Kafka’s mobile bunker and arrested the mass murderer.

However, Kafka’s men sent an enormous flying monster called the Multi-Killer to attack the GPA’s tribunal. OMAC, assuming it was too powerful even for the GPA’s Everest defences, commandeered an assault plane to intercept the Multi-Killer.

Though the thing was very powerful and conditioned to become a fission bomb that would destroy the Mount Everest facility (and possibly the mountain itself), OMAC managed to wreck its sense of direction. The Multi-Killer thus exploded high up in the atmosphere.

Truly, reflected OMAC, the experience had shown him the importance of keeping power-mad bandits like Kafka in check !

Body snatchers

OMAC’s next case occurred when a GPA undercover investigator brought back proof that Fancy Freddy Sparga, a regional manager of the Crime Cabal, was preparing an awful project. The brains of rich clients would be transplanted into the bodies of kidnapped young people selected for their health and attractiveness.

Based on GPA intelligence, OMAC chose to grab a minor Cabal employee, Buck Blue. Operating with perfect timing, OMAC took Blue to Fancy Freddy’s base, dispersing the security. They came in in time to hear that Sparga planned to kill Blue’s lover to serve as a host body.

OMAC’s goal was to obtain Buck Blue’s cooperation. He needed Blue to tell him where the main secret base for Sparga’s plan was. As a GPA agent, he could not violate Blue’s rights by interrogating him.

After some hesitation when Sparga promised him half a million to stay mum, Blue was finally swayed by OMAC’s charisma and arguments. He agreed to lead the GPA superman to the secret base, called the Terminal.

OMAC defeated all security measures of the Terminal as a long gauntlet, wrecked the operation and had everybody arrested by GPA agents (who did so non-violently, of course).

Who stole the sea, who stole the power ?

The indefatigable OMAC then learned about the dastardly Doctor Skuba. Skuba was a criminal genius stealing large bodies of water by sucking them into bars of hyperdense material. Though Brother Eye located Skuba and took OMAC there, Skuba used his incredible atomic science to return OMAC to his Buddy Blank state.

Utterly disoriented, Buddy had no idea whatsoever of what was happening and why he was there. With OMAC out of commission, Brother Eye attacked Skuba’s hideout by himself, but was spotted and bombarded by Skuba’s atomic devices.

Brother Eye was thus forced at kill all three occupants within Skuba’s base, transforming Buddy back into OMAC in the nick of time. Still, Brother Eye had been very weakened by Skuba’s attack. The satellite could no longer provide OMAC with as much power. Having been bombarded with asteroids, Brother Eye was now encased in melted stone.

War – what is it good for ?

In spite of this, OMAC was of course still needed. Paramilitary forces from the International Communication and Commerce corporation were attacking the defenceless GPA secret base in Houston and slaughtered the agents there.

The diminished OMAC could not wreck all the attacking forces alone. Worse, the sole surviving GPA agent told him that it was but one of many coordinated corporate attacks that were simultaneously destroying the GPA.

Seven major corporations had allied for this. It made little doubt that, once the GPA was demolished, they would turn against each other and the situation would escalate to nuclear holocaust, followed by massive and constant war, intellectual regression and a general destruction of civilisation for centuries.

A small chance of survival was still possible, however – likely through a great leader arising to unite mankind and prevent the wrecking of civilisation.

OMAC lives… so that man may live !

OMAC came up with a plan… and surrendered to IC&C. It did not initially work, IC&C having a no-prisoners corporate policy to save money. But OMAC eventually found a commanding officer to surrender to, and offered his services as a mercenary.

His goal was to become IC&C’s dog of war. With his might, instead of an interminable seven-sided corporate war, there would be a relatively short conflict with one clear winner.

Thus did OMAC become the field leader of IC&C infantry. He led the charge against the corporation controlling the other half of the US – Verner Bros. Tens of thousands died in the battle, causing OMAC to doubt that his desperate plan was the right thing to do. But he soldiered on.

Total war (not quite)

Eventually, providing support to the IC&C troops proved to be insufficient to bring a swift enough victory to stop the carnage. OMAC decided to single-handedly attack the corporate heads of Verner. In doing so, he ran into their superhuman agent – the Vanquisher.

The three brothers and CEOs of Verners made poor tactical decisions, however. OMAC beat the Vanquisher before knocking out the brothers, throwing Verner Bros. into disarray and ensuring the swift victory of IC&C.

As OMAC pondered the unfamiliar political manoeuvring going on around him at IC&C’s board, he entered a decadent funhouse in a carnival. There the jaded thrill seekers were promised that one visitor in six did not make it out alive. Brother Eye sensed that the funhouse had some sort of abnormal properties, and OMAC managed to destroy it.

This odd episode led him to discover that his contact within IC&C was sponsoring black market traffickers. Black markets, allowing the specialised corporations to access each other’s services even whilst they were at war, were indispensable to keep the war going.

And now for something completely different

Having stumbled upon this weak point, OMAC immediately joined the black marketeers. He managed to wreck an important arms deal in Marseille. But meanwhile, the mysterious alien Metaxa was plotting.

(Yes, the continuity goes weird at this point. Just read along we’re going to discuss the matter in the next section.)

The next events are unrevealed. OMAC was later seen battling an organisation called Intercorp. Perhaps his actions in the black market had forced the seven great corporations to merge to some extent, bringing a bit of stability to the world of the future.

Intercorp seemed desperate, and had come up with a plan to send a robot assassin called Murdermek into the past to prevent OMAC from ever existing. Fearing the potentially cataclysmic consequences of this, OMAC desperately dove through the time portal to stop the robot.

Thus did OMAC encounter Superman. Murdermek had ended up in Metropolis in 1983 to search for a certain Normal Blank and prevent Buddy Blank from ever being born, which carried an unknown risk of destroying the timeline.

After the mandatory short scuffle, Supes and OMAC allied and managed to stop Murdermek and some second-rate criminals he had allied himself with. Meanwhile Brother Eye managed to remotely repair Intercorp’s time machine and use it to reclaim OMAC from the past.

The Great Disaster

The rest of the original OMAC’s history remains largely unknown. At some point he reverted to being Buddy Blank. Perhaps as a consequence, OMAC ultimately failed after six decades of relentless peacekeeping, and the Great Disaster happened.

He took refuge in the Command D bunker in New York City, where he raised his grandson – Kamandi, the last boy on Earth.

In the later years of his life, he taught Kamandi about humanity and its history, and his duty as the Last Boy on Earth. Buddy once even disguised himself as a mutant animal to test Kamandi’s mettle during a quest he gave him. Eventually, Buddy was killed by animal raiders.

Blank being OMAC no more and the Great Disaster seemingly having destroyed humanity, Brother Eye (still encased in stone ever since Skuba’s attack) went dormant. After Kamandi was accidentally given OMAC powers (and the OMAC personality), his allies managed to free and reawaken Brother Eye who saved Kamandi and helped control his transformations.

Project OMAC having failed, the brooding Brother Eye then asked to be left alone.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

When the Crisis on Infinite Earths occurred, the post-apocalyptic world of Kamandi disappeared. The Great Disaster was not a part on the newly unified Earth’s future, and this timeline was thus gone.

This may implicitly mean that in the post-Crisis continuity, OMAC sustainably saved the world. Howbeit, the history of the unified DC New Earth narrated by Harbinger after the Crisis indicated that OMAC “happened” further in the future. It was after the era of Chris KL-99 and the Star Rovers but before the time of Tommy Tomorrow or the Space Ranger.

The post-Crisis OMAC may have been closer to the Byrne take on the character.

The name OMAC has since been used in revised DC continuities in a very different way, and does not inform this writeup. There also were significantly different versions of the Great Disaster.

In the parallel Earths that have emerged after the “52” event, though, it is likely there exists one or several Earths reminiscent of Kirby’s OMAC’s “world that is coming”.

One Man’s Approximative Continuity

Though the entry is written in such a way as to give the impression of a semi-coherent continuity (with Kirby’s approach having priority over anything else – no offence to Starlin. Besides he can’t complain after all the work I put into the Gamora profiles).

But the stories’ continuity swerves more or less sharply from one writer to the next as the tale continues in chaotic conditions.

Here is a list of the differences so people can use whatever version they like:

• When Starlin resurrects the story in Kamandi in 1978, OMAC is definitely more soldier-like than machine-like. He’s occasionally prone to long speeches, and at first swears oddly (“by the great spirit !”, “by fire !” and other vaguely animistic stuff – perhaps because he wears a mohawk ? In any case it’s weirdly out of character). He and Brother Eye start calling each other “brother”.
• The GPA is suddenly revealed by Starlin to actually be run by aliens from the planet Vision, who are advanced in the sciences. One of their brilliant psycho-historical researchers, Professor Z., made fantastic psycho-historical breakthroughs, and predicted that one of the planets he was studying, Earth, was headed toward the Great Disaster – and eventually Kamandi’s time.
  Z., slowly driven mad by his knowledge, advocated direct action, but his colleagues refused and only eventually agreed to take indirect measures – sending agents to Earth where they covertly became an early version of the GPA.
  As the GPA grew it arrested various menaces that would potentially lead to the Great Disaster, based on Z.’s work. The aliens were the one who provided the knowledge and technology for Forest to make Project OMAC a reality.
• There was an unsolved subplot about Metaxa, the IC&C’s chief of operations, being a Visionary (an alien from the planet Vision) — perhaps the escaped, insane Professor Z — and wanting to take over Earth.

Description

See illustration.

Personality

Kirby thought of OMAC as “rationality, strength and compassion”. The One-Man Army Corps is the Good Authority that maintains security and a sense of morality in a world where progress, irresponsibility and ambition have gone berserk.

OMAC has a rational, analytical demeanour that comes across as somewhat machinelike. Though he’s very compassionate and helpful with ordinary people, this too feels a bit mechanical. His life is one of responsibility and dedication.

OMAC also has a personality that is distinct from Buddy Blank. At first he only dimly remembered having been Blank. The two personalities cannot sense or remember each other or what happens to the other.

This largely artificial personality, serious and utterly devoted to the ideals of the GPA, is shallow since developing a full personality wasn’t feasible. This explains the machinelike aspect mentioned above.

While shallow he’s still human – for instance he enjoys ’watching‘ good interactive VR adventure ’movies’. GPA Social Engineering gave him parents to help him ’grow‘ a more rounded, humanlike personality.

Brother Eye is a very protective AI, also quite devoted to world peace. Surprisingly, the satellite seems to be fully authorised to use deadly force if absolutely necessary, in sharp contrast with the GPA agents.

Quotes

OMAC

“OMAC lives… so that man may live !”

“I am OMAC ! Evacuate this section ! I’m going to destroy it !”

“For the sake of world peace, I order you to pull back your forces !”

“You’re a war criminal, Kafka ! Surrender to me… and I’ll promise you a fair trial !”

“Brother Eye !! I-I need more strength… I’ve got to upset this thing !! And it’s as big as a building !”

“Thank you, Brother Eye. I trust your judgement.”

“To be honest, little men… I am like nothing you have ever seen. I am the sum total of humanity’s greatest hopes and aspirations… the living embodiment of its dreams for a better tomorrow… OMAC lives… so that man may live !”

(As an aged Buddy Blank, to Kamandi) “The world has become a jungle — and it will be up to you to rebuild the world of men !”

Brother Eye

“Don’t sweat, OMAC ! I’ll give you all the power you need !”

“No ordinary man can do it, OMAC… but *you* can !”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: DC Universe during the 1970s (OMAC v1, Warlord backup feature, etc.).

Helper(s): Darci. First illustration from Ron Frenz’s commissioned art site .