OMACs
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- This article is about the cyborgs involved in Infinite Crisis. For the Jack Kirby character, see One-Man Army Corps.
OMACs are an organization of powerful cyborgs that exist in the DC Universe.
Organization History
The OMAC Project
OMAC (One-Man Army Corps) was originally a superhero comic book created by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics. OMAC was a corporate nobody named Buddy Blank who was changed by an A.I. satellite called Brother Eye into the super-powered OMAC.The character, along with the Brother Eye satellite, was recently rebooted by Greg Rucka for the Infinite Crisis storyline. Although OMACs are now cyborgs who take over human bodies via a virus (created from Brainiac-13 derived technology acquired by the U.S. Department of Defense and Lexcorp, which was introduced into general vaccine supplies) in order to assassinate any and all beings with superpowers, they still retain OMAC's familiar mohawk and Brother Eye symbol on their chest. The OMACs are featured in the OMAC Project mini-series that leads up to Infinite Crisis.
The new OMACs are controlled by the Brother I satellite. Brother I was created by the Batman to keep an eye on all metahumans, both villain and hero, after he grew distrustful over the Justice League's mindwiping (see Identity Crisis). Alexander Luthor, Jr. later gave the satellite sentience as part of his plans, and Maxwell Lord subverted the original mission of the Brother I satellite by inculcating a fear and suspicion of all metahumans when he rose to the top rank of the government agency Checkmate.
Sacrifice
When Maxwell Lord brainwashed Superman to kill Batman, Wonder Woman, and possibly the rest of the JLA, Wonder Woman broke Lord's neck to free Superman from his control.Brother I, rechristening itself Brother Eye, initiated the King Is Dead protocol specifically designed to be used in the event of Lord's death, ordering all the OMACs (1,373,462 of them) to attack and kill all the metahumans on Earth. A group superhero effort stopped the attack, reducing the numbers of OMACs to roughly two hundred thousand by disabling the majority with an EMP blast, freeing the OMACs' human personas.
Infinite Crisis
\"Truth and Justice\"
In response, the satellite broadcasted the footage of Wonder Woman murdering Maxwell Lord, preceded by the word MURDER, to media outlets all over the world, destroying her reputation. After this, he initiated the final protocol Truth and Justice, by having all the remaining OMACS invade and attack her homeland Themyscira to wipe out all of the Amazons.It was revealed that Alex Luthor was the one who wrested control of Brother Eye away from Batman. He used it to calculate the coordinates of where the multiverse Tower would concentrate its energy. Brother Eye continues to aid Alex Luthor and helps guard the tower.
The destruction of Brother Eye
Batman leads a collection of superheroes to Earth's orbit, including: Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Green Lantern (John Stewart), Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen), Mister Terrific (Michael Holt), Black Canary II, the new Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), Metamorpho, Booster Gold and Sasha Bordeaux. Blue Beetle manages to reveal Brother Eye in orbit by negating its vibrational frequency. Brother Eye sends OMACS and the two groups clash.With the two Green Lantern's fighting off the OMACS, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Metamorpho remain behind on the ship. Batman goes to distract Brother Eye by attempting to shut down the central computer. Sasha, linked to Oracle, goes to download every computer virus on Earth into Brother Eye's system as well trying to prevent the artificial gravity from shutting down. Black Canary goes to the surveillance room to try using her sonic scream to blind the Eye. Black Lightning and Mr. Terrific go together so that Black Lightning fries as much circuitry as possible while Mr. Terrific, invisible to machines and electronics, delivers the real blow by knocking Brother Eye off orbit.
It works and Brother Eye is deactivated. All of the activated OMACS shut down, releasing their hosts. Brother Eye tries to take Batman with him, but Hal Jordan gets him away to safety.
After crashlanding in Saudi Arabia, Brother Eye is destroyed by Sasha Bourdeaux, freeing her from the nanobots infecting her.
DCU: A Brave New World/OMAC
On June 28th, 2006, DC is releasing "DCU: A Brave New World" which is the prequel to six new miniseries, one being called OMAC.Brother Eye has not been fully decomissioned, and it lies in a Norad facility. Michael Costner is the last OMAC unit, kept as emergency backup, and Brother Eye calls to him.
Threat classification
Brother Eye and the OMACs identify targets on sight with names and classifications based on the Greek alphabet, with Alpha apparently being the high level of threat. The Alpha and Beta levels are usually reserved for superpowered individuals, with notable exceptions, such as Nightwing (beta) and Batman (alpha).The following characters have more specific designations:
- Batman — Creator (Alpha-level)
- Superman — Alpha-One
- Wonder Woman — Alpha-Two
- Bizarro — Alpha-Negative
Alpha-level
- Captain Marvel
- Captain Marvel Jr.
- Flash III (Wally West)
- Green Lantern IV (Guy Gardner)
- Green Lantern II (Hal Jordan)
- Green Lantern III (John Stewart)
- Kyle Rayner (before becoming Ion)
- Mary Marvel
- Martian Manhunter
- Superboy (Conner Kent)
- Supergirl
- Wonder Girl II (Cassandra Sandsmark)
Beta-level
- Black Lightning
- Kid Flash II (Bart Allen)
- The Flash I (Jay Garrick)
- Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen)
- Lex Luthor (without his Apokoliptan battle-suit)
- Metamorpho
- Nightwing
Epsilon-level
- Booster Gold
- Fire
- Speedy II (Mia Dearden)
Gamma-level
Powers
Brother Eye can activate the OMAC virus in any infected person, at any time, in planetary range. Once activated, the person is covered in cybernetic armor, and becomes a thrall to Brother Eye's commands.An OMAC unit has archives on almost every metahuman on file, and can simulate the powers of a variety of superheroes and supervillains in order to target its opponent's weaknesses. Among the powers displayed were the ability to shoot fire, needles of artificial cellulose (against Alan Scott) and fire beams from its eye. In addition, the OMAC unit can morph its extremities into blades and pincers. It is also able to simulate Shazam's lightning and force Mary Marvel to revert to her human form. It can disable the Eradicator effortlessly.
The only superhero consistently capable of avoiding the OMACs was Mr. Terrific, who is invisible to all technology.
Inspiration
OMAC (One-Man Army Corps) was originally a superhero comic book created by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics. OMAC was a corporate nobody named Buddy Blank who was changed by an A.I. satellite called Brother Eye into the super-powered OMAC.Trivia
- Greg Rucka on the OMACs' Mohawks; "The Mohawk isn't actually a Mohawk; don't mistake it for hair. What's the most vulnerable place on your body? Soft tissue in the brain. So the Mohawk serves as a defense for the head, protecting the process network."
- The new OMACs have a different meaning behind the acronym. The new acronym first stood for "Observational Meta-human Activity Construct". The acronym was briefly changed back to the original Kirby "One-Man Army Corps" before changing to another new acronym: "Omni Mind And Community", which remains their current name for now.
- As an homage to the original Jack Kirby creation, the first OMAC seen in Countdown to Infinite Crisis was named Buddy Blank.
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