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Mild Mannered Reviews - Specials

The OMAC Project - Infinite Crisis Special

The OMAC Project - Infinite Crisis Special

Scheduled to arrive in stores: April 5, 2006

Cover date: May 2006

Writer: Greg Rucka
Penciller: Jesus Saiz
Inker: Jesus Saiz

"The Lazarus Protocol"

Neal Bailey Reviewed by: Neal Bailey

Click to enlarge



Brother Eye, taking a course in ruination courtesy of Batman, plummets to Earth in Saudi Arabia.

Locals go to the wreckage. Brother Eye, trying to save itself, lashes out and assimilates them.

Sasha Bordeaux, returning from space with Green Lantern (John Stewart), feels out of place among the heroes, burdened with the responsibility of Max Lord's actions.

Batman transmits to her, asking her to take care of Brother Eye, as the villains are massing in Metropolis. John Stewart offers her a ride.

The president, after being appraised of the situation, re-initializes Checkmate, and entrusts Amanda Waller with the title of Black King, sending her to resolve the fractured organization.

Military men arrive in helicopters to take what remains of Brother Eye. The men Brother Eye assimilated arise as a large OMAC unit, monstrous, and they attack the soldiers, destroying them.

At Checkmate, Amanda Waller takes over, with the aid of Fire.

China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, all realizing the value of the intelligence in Brother Eye, prepare plans to take it. Russia unleashes a number of Rocket Reds.

Sasha, arriving at a safe-house, is almost taken over by Brother Eye. She fights it off, then moves into the safe-house to call for help. She gets Amanda Waller instead. Amanda orders her back, but Bordeaux refuses, signing off.

Waller orders Midnight and Fire after her, telling Fire that if Midnight or Sasha try and get Brother Eye back online, to kill them both. Fire balks, but Waller stresses that she was a killer before, and she'll be a killer again.

Sasha free-falls from a plane at 40,000 feet for a stealth drop. Halfway down, Brother Eye tries to take her again. She wakes up just in time to hit her parachute, and arrives to find Rocket Reds, Chinese operatives, and the Saudi Arabian commandos attacking the monster Brother Eye unit, which has grown a great deal.

Sasha moves in to blow up the Brother Eye from the inside, as the countries seek to take out the giant OMAC unit. They fail, and Fire and Midnight arrive on the scene. Attacking the unit, they are kept busy.

Brother Eye reasserts control over Sasha, and, beyond her control, she walks into the satellite remains.

Fire follows her, trying to stop her. Sasha shows the dynamite, and says she doesn't care if the blast kills her. Fire, trusting her, lets her move on, dubious.

Brother Eye sends tentacles into Sasha, telling her that she is to be the vessel for the information Brother Eye represents. Sasha, rebelling, pulls out the explosives and detonates them, whispering a goodbye to Bruce.

Brother Eye explodes.

Fire rushes into the rubble as the Frankenstein OMAC unit collapses. She finds Sasha, beaten, shedding her nanite metal cover. She's back to normal. She was protected from the explosion by the nanites, but the explosion fried them, bringing her back to normal.

5Story - 5: This read more like an issue seven to the OMAC Project series as opposed to a Special, which means that it did its job well. We re-acquaint ourselves with the mains, now faced with the new dilemma of Brother Eye's return to Earth, and we also see the groundwork for the upcoming Checkmate series.

Bringing in Waller is an intriguing, awesome idea. I know she was in jail, and as of press I am trying to find out how things got from A to B. Researching, I found that yes, as I had assumed, Waller was in jail (per this website's Who's Who files), but also, according to other sources, she's been friend for the purpose of aiding the president in this national crisis with her expertise. I don't know where this happened, and it might just be Wikipedia assuming.

UPDATE: Greg Rucka was kind enough to email me in regards to this question which several of you asked me about, and here's his response:

    "Well, bearing in mind the absolute corruption of the Luthor administration, and how it went to hell in a hand-basket, you're pretty safe in assuming that Amanda never spent more than a night behind bars. I mean, c'mon, look who we're dealing with - would you want to be on her bad side? She knows everyone's skeletons.

    I'd just leave it as she got a rap on the wrist and then called back to active duty. Presidential pardon from President Horne works for me."

Me too.

I also recall that she was associated with the new Suicide Squad, was she not?

At any rate, I don't really care if it's a jump in continuity or not. It's a good idea. JLU has established her as a solid villain with a sympathetic motivation, trying to protect the world from the people who could turn against it, and her history with Metas make her a good Black King, aside from the obvious irony.

As a subtlety, I like the fact that a device Batman created has a resurrection protocol that it calls "Lazarus". That's funny on a few levels. I wonder what information it has on Ra's?

Fire hasn't really been this much of a character for me in more than a decade. A few seconds with Amanda and she's reduced to self-doubt and a pawn. That's good character.

I like the idea of multiple Rocket Reds, as we see in One Year Later, and the fact that multiple governments are jumping at Brother Eye was cool too. I would have been hacked had all of the superhero information fallen to Earth and been ignored. Good plotting there.

Sasha's redemption comes well. I was worried she was going to die just as I was starting to get to like her, and it's a good choice to keep her alive. Though I admit, I liked the idea of her with superpowers.

Buy this book. You won't be disappointed. Of the Specials so far, this remains the best of the line.

5Art - 5: Artistically, Saiz still brings it, as he did before. Waller has lost a little bit of weight, I actually prefer that. She was kind of disgusting before, and usually someone who has it as together as she does doesn't have such a weight problem. You know, that obsessive-compulsive personality perfectionist type? It humanizes the character.

There was also a REALLY cool little homage. Maybe I hallucinated it, but if you look, Sasha enters Brother Eye and it looks just like the scene in Superman III where the robot blonde ditz-that's-not-a-ditz comes out in the Gus Gorman machine.

Yeah. I probably hallucinated that. But it's still cool.

The interior of Brother Eye ruled, as did the Frankenstein.

Gritty, yeah, but befitting the story, and good as ever.

4Cover Art - 4: Awesome painted cover goodness.

Depicts a scene that basically happens, with a ton of definition, awesome poses. My one regret and disappointment is that Fire looks a bit weak in the composition. She's just kind of standing there, going "Eh!", and shooting out a little beam. This is FIRE, she can unleash GOUTS of goodness. So I feel she wasn't utilized to her full potential, though the rest of the piece is incredible.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2006

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2006

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