Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Omega the Unknown by Comic Book / Omega the Unknown. Omega the Unknown was a short-lived yet influential comic created by Steve Gerber which ran for 10 issues (March, 1976-October, 1977). Tired of annoyingly plucky boy sidekicks, Gerber pitched it as a realistic portrayal of a young boy's life, but Stan Lee insisted on more supernatural elements and crossovers with in-universe heroes. However, Gerber ably worked around these restrictions, writing a fairly down-to-earth, emotionally-driven story about a young boy's difficult life. Sure he was raised (then orphaned) by robots and had a Psychic Link with a Last of His Kind Alien superhero, but for all that, it can be surprisingly touching. Gerber wrote about the kinds of small, difficult struggles which affect the average child, such as bullying, the death of a friend, getting along in a new place, and trying to understand the motivations of others. One of the unusual elements in the book was the realistic portrayal of Hell's Kitchen, complete with sex workers, drug addicts, the homeless, porno theaters, and roving muggers. These were sometimes played for humor, such as Bruce Banner lying in the gutter in his trademark torn purple pants while pedestrians step over him, disparaging him as a 'wino'. The series was canceled mid-way through when Gerber entered a struggle with the publisher over creator's rights. Omega was summarily given to another writer, who killed off most of the characters in the pages of The Defenders. Gerber was eventually let go. Despite its short run, the comic proved influential and memorable amongst comic authors, who have praised Gerber as the forerunner to revolutionary authors like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, who used comics to tackle serious issues, leading to the Darker and Grittier comics familiar to us today. One author influenced by Gerber was Jonathan Lethem, a MacArthur Grant-winning novelist who rebooted the series in 2007. When Gerber heard about Lethem's reboot, he reacted with anger and disbelief that someone who called themselves a fan of his would conspire with the company that he fought with so long to take away his creation and remake it, without so much as a by-your-leave. Gerber and Lethem later spoke, and Gerber softened his critique, typifying Lethem as naive and starry-eyed. The new series also lasted for 10 issues (December, 2007-September, 2008). Lethem spent much of his run retelling Gerber's story, and then moved on to his own variations, thick with satire and hallucinogenic reality shifts. It's questionable how pertinent Lethem could be, when Gerber was writing a decade before the revolution, and Lethem is writing the same story thirty years after the fact. Omega The Unknown (2007 2nd Series) comic books. Written by JONATHAN LETHEM with KARL RUSNAK Art by FAREL DALRYMPLE & PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER The story of a mute, reluctant superhero from another planet, and the earthly teenager with whom he shares a strange destiny -- and the legion of robots and nanoviruses that have been sent from afar to hunt the two of them down. Created in 1975 by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes, the original Omega The Unknown lasted only ten issues but was a legend to those who recall it -- an ahead-of-its-time tale of an anti-hero, inflected with brilliant ambiguity. One of Omega's teenage fans was award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem, who has used the original as a springboard for a superbly strange, funny, and moving graphic novel in ten chapters. Cover price $2.99. Written by JONATHAN LETHEM WITH KARL RUSNAK Art by FAREL DALRYMPLE & PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER The plot deepens and thickens and grows strange in author Jonathan Lethem's labor-of-love retelling of the legend of Omega the Unknown, the noble and enigmatic superhero from another world, and Titus Alexander Island, the earthly teenager lucky -- or is it unlucky? -- enough to find himself under the wing of this uncanny protector. Cover price $2.99. This item is not in stock. If you use the "Add to want list" tab to add this issue to your want list, we will email you when it becomes available. Contains a reader survey from Marvel glued to the inside of the centerfold. Written by JONATHAN LETHEM WITH KARL RUSNAK Art by FAREL DALRYMPLE & PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER The plot deepens and thickens and grows strange in author Jonathan Lethem's labor-of- love retelling of the legend of Omega the Unknown, the noble and enigmatic superhero from another world, and Titus Alexander Island, the earthly teenager lucky -- or is it unlucky? -- enough to find himself under the wing of this uncanny protector. Cover price $2.99. When Marvel Went Weird – “Omega the Unknown” [Review] Originally published from 2007 to 2008, “Omega the Unknown” came from a period of time when corporate superhero comic companies were looking beyond their usual rosters for writers, artists, and other creators to help contribute to their universes. Following his success on The Fortress of Solitude , Marvel asked Jonathan Lethem to write a comic, and he chose to revive “Omega the Unknown.” Bringing along indie kid Farel Dalrymple, Lethem set out to make one of the more interesting and odd comics Marvel has in their back catalogue. Written by Jonathan Lethem and Karl Rushnak Illustrated by Farel Dalrymple and Paul Hornschemeier The story of a mute, reluctant superhero from another planet, and the earthly teenager with whom he shares a strange destiny — and the legion of robots and nanoviruses that have been sent from afar to hunt the two of them down. Created in 1975 by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes, the original Omega The Unknown lasted only ten issues but was a legend to those who recall it — an ahead-of-its-time tale of an anti-hero, inflected with brilliant ambiguity. One of Omega’s teenage fans was award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem, who has used the original as a springboard for a superbly strange, funny, and moving graphic novel in ten chapters. Marvel isn’t exactly a company that takes a lot of chances. Even when it seems like they’re doing new and progressive things — Sam Wilson as Captain America, that Northstar wedding, the current and coolest Thor — their stories often fall into the same rhythms and conventions. There’s a definite formula they follow for practically all their stories, where smaller, more personal dilemmas are pushed to the side for some major cataclysmic crossover event, culminating in all their characters joining some team or another. I guess it’s the nature of mainstream superhero comics, trying to be accessible to the broadest audience. Every so often Marvel will release a book like “”, which, like DC’s “Bizarro Comics”, gathers an assortment of cartoonists and creators to play around with their roster of famous characters. As interesting as these stories can be, the platform for them from Marvel is infrequent. It seems like when a creator is invited to play in the MCU, they have to adhere to a very specific set of rules. Which makes “Omega the Unknown” such an odd entity. Written by Jonathan Lethem with Karl Rusnak, and featuring art by Farel Dalrymple, “Omega the Unknown” is a reboot of this 70s series created by Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, and Jim Mooney (who get credit for their creation only in the afterword) about robots, aliens, and teenage superheroes. Lethem incorporates some elements of the Marvel formula into the narrative (built up from years and years of reading comic books), and he definitely has a lot of fun with the premise from the main series; however, he and Dalrymple have totally made this their own weird thing. There’s a lot going on in this story, which originally was serialized as a 10-issue miniseries. First up: young Titus Alexander Island, who’s been living secluded in the woods with his robot parents for his entire life. Ridiculously smart but socially stunted, the Islands have decided it’s time to enroll Alex in school. However, on the way to drop him off on his first day, they’re involved in a horrible car accident and liquidated. (Dalrymple renders a haunting image, based off the Mooney original, where Alex’s mother’s face melts on an engine.) A series of events, including Alex conjuring fire that leaves an omega symbol on his palms, leads him to move into an apartment in Washington Heights, attending an inner city school, and trying to figure out why everyone wants to beat him up when all he wants to do is pursue his developing interest in robotics. Meanwhile, there’s this dude in a blue suit and cape with the omega symbol also burned on his palms, who’s crash landed on Earth, pursued by this batch of malevolent robots, who in turn start possessing people around with nanobots. Silent but mobile, he takes a job as a fry cook in a french fry truck, where he speckles this salt over all the food. Silent but mobile, he seems to suddenly appear whenever Alex finds himself in trouble. Then there’s The Mink, a D-list superhero more concerned with his brand and image than with actually helping people. He has this labyrinth in his lair to run experiments or keep prisoners. Like Alex, he’s also trying to figure out what’s going on with these robots, however mostly out of vengeance than curiosity, after losing his hand to them. That hand, by the way, sprouts legs and becomes sentient, running around Washington Heights. And I haven’t even brought up the floating head thinker statue character, also the narrator of the story. An omnipresent entity, it can grow and shrink and get vandalized. Primarily a novelist, Lethem unsurprisingly structures this thing in a more novelistic fashion. Initially, it seems like there’s all these disparate elements thrown on the page that don’t seem to have anything to do with one another, and it can make the start of this book feel cold, enigmatic, and sort of impenetrable. But I think this is a truly warm book. Like his prose fiction, Lethem spends a lot of time exploring friendships and relationships. “Strange, isn’t it,” one character says, “how you seem to need to be forgiven for what you can’t help in the first place? Here’s to friends who know what you want without making you ask.” The sheer amount of ambition and character work here doesn’t feel like something from a corporate superhero comic company or something that was concerned with making each single chapter stand on its own. “Omega the Unknown” reads a lot better as a completed collection rather than a bunch of single issues. For his weird, bizarre superhero story, Lethem could not have found anyone better to illustrate the thing than Farel Dalrymple. Though his linework is tighter and more conventional than his recent work on “The Wrenchies” or “It Will All Hurt,” this book still bears hallmarks of a unique perspective. His expressions are on point, some of the more horrifying elements feel genuinely terrifying, and there’s plenty of his off-beat sense of humor. The further and further in Dalrymple goes into “Omega the Unknown,” the less interested he seems in maintaining a more accustomed style. Toward the end, he has this frenetic energy in the art, like he’s so excited to deliver the next part of the action, that it creates its own intensity. The fact that Dalrymple letters the book himself helps give it a more complete presence. For “Omega the Unknown,” Marvel let Jonathan Lethem, Karl Rusnak, and Farel Dalrymple go off on their own wavelength, and the end results are much more interesting because of it. The book, though incredibly odd, has a warm heart and strong message to it. The thing is fun in the way a superhero comic ought to be fun (seriously, still love the giant hand running around on little legs) but loaded with interesting insights from a strong novelist. Books like this are what I wish Marvel, and DC, would take bigger chances on. Lethem Exits the Unknown with "Omega" Jonathan Lethem's revival of Marvel's cult classic "Omega: The Unknown" wrapped with this week's #10. The bestselling writer shared with CBR his thoughts and the prospect of more omega-sized adventures. Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem and acclaimed cartoonists Farel Dalrymple and Paul Hornschemeier's revival of Marvel's cult classic "Omega: The Unknown" wrapped this week with issue #10. The New York Times bestselling writer shared with CBR News some thoughts about his first foray into comics with and specifically about the prospect of more omega-sized adventures. Originally created in 1975 by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes, "Omega: The Unknown" was the story of a mute, reluctant superhero from another planet and a 12-year-old boy with whom Omega not only shared a strange destiny, but also a common enemy -- a legion of robots and nanoviruses that were sent from afar to hunt the two of them down. One of book's teenage fans was Jonathan Lethem, and nearly 30 years later, the celebrated author paid tribute to Gerber and Skrenes with multiple references to the comic in his own semiautobiographical, genre (and gender) bending novel, "The Fortress of Solitude." For those considering picking up Letham's collected "Omega: The Unknown" in Premiere Hardcover come September 10, the writer offered this selling point: "A superhero who really doesn't know the first thing about our planet is nevertheless forced to perform an important intervention on behalf of a human boy, whose fate is tied up with the fate of the universe. Neither of them is particularly ready for life in New York City, which is too bad for them." Lethem, who was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 (an award popularly known as the "genius grant"), laughed off the notion that "Omega: The Unknown" was bigger than your average superhero comic book and was in fact rooted in deep philosophical thought and an attack of societal norms. "I'm never thinking about what I or my characters might have to tell to 'society.' It just isn't a term I think in," Letham said. "The story has some themes, I guess: conformity, franchising versus the small businessman, mediated versus 'real' experience, etcetera, but those are pretty much just what sneaked in when I wasn't looking. In writing it, I concerned myself primarily with the character and material directly -- teenagers with problems, evil robots, corrupt and borderline-autistic superheroes, hamburgers, that sort of thing." Lethem is very pleased with his and Dalrymple's final product, yet in many ways, the outcome was quite different than what he would have imagined at the outset. "I felt the series growing and expanding and finding its range increasingly through the second half and all of my favorite issues are crowded towards the finale," said Lethem. "And I suspect, or at least hope, that the cumulative effect of the complete ten chapters is going to be even more satisfying for readers, and for me to reconsider." The writer also said he has received only limited feedback about "Omega," except for a few of his friends, who are comic book fans. "They have been very complimentary, but what else are friends going to say? I haven't been in very many situations where comic book readers could find me to give me direct feedback, not yet anyway," he teased. "And book readers, those who read my novels, but aren't denizens of comic book shops, are mostly still in the dark about it. That's going to change when the collection hits the bookstores in October, I hope." Originally solicited as a "graphic novel in 10 parts," Lethem stands by the decision to release the series as a monthly miniseries as opposed to a traditional graphic novel. "All along I wanted to work in the form and context of the traditional comic book," he said. "I write novels regularly, and this was something different." Without spoiling the conclusion in issue #10, Lethem said he was happy to leave it open enough that Marvel could do more Omega stories if they wanted to -- or if there was the demand. "But it won't be continued by me," confirmed Lethem. "I've always been fascinated by the fate of comic book characters as they wander through one set of creative hands to another, and if Omega stood that chance now, I'd be pleased." Lethem said there were no plans in place, at the moment, to write more comics. "I really was tremendously lucky to enjoy the collaboration with these artists, and the particular set of circumstances that led to this work would be difficult to duplicate," he explained. "I've been spoiled, perhaps. As for other characters, I don't have any I'm particularly fantasizing about writing, but I'd probably be more inclined to do a supervillain than a hero." In closing, Lethem teased CBR readers with a glimpse into the world he is creating for his yet-to-be-named next novel. "It is coming together, and it should be published in the fall of 2009. It still doesn't have a title, but I can tell you, it's set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, it's strongly influenced by Saul Bellow, Philip K. Dick, Charles Finney and Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' and it concerns a circle of friends including a faded child-star actor, a cultural critic, a hack ghost-writer of autobiographies, and a city official. And it's long and strange." "Omega: The Unknown" Premiere Hardcover, with covers and pencils by Farel Dalrymple and Paul Hornschemeier, is scheduled for release on September 10. Jonathan Lethem Enters the Unknown with "Omega" Author Jonathan Lethem revives Marvel's cult classic, "Omega: The Unknown," and CBR News speaks with him about the comic he loved so much as a teenager, he paid homage to it in his seminal novel, "The Fortress of Solitude." Author Jonathan Lethem's highly anticipated, long in gestation, revival of "Omega: The Unknown" finally hits shelves next week with covers, pencils, inks and letters by award winning artist Farel Dalrymple. CBR News spoke with the New York Times bestselling writer about his take on the cult classic. Originally created in 1975 by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes, "Omega the Unknown" is the story of a mute, reluctant superhero from another planet and a 12-year-old boy with whom Omega not only shares a strange destiny, but also a common enemy – a legion of robots and nanoviruses that have been sent from afar to hunt the two of them down. One of book's teenage fans was Jonathan Lethem, and nearly 30 years later, the celebrated author paid tribute to Gerber and Skrenes with multiple references to "Omega the Unknown" in his own semiautobiographical, genre bending novel, "The Fortress of Solitude." As to why he would choose a relatively unknown character as the nexus of his first foray into mainstream comics, Lethem told CBR News, "Sheer and perverse adoration of the original. When Marvel invited me into their vault of iconography, I simply leapt at the icon that resonated most deeply with me. "It didn't hurt that Omega had been laying in neglect for so long," Lethem continued. "I might have had trouble trying to utilize a character who'd been put through so many paces as Spider-Man or the Hulk, say. Omega seemed a resource of thwarted possibility, open to speculation, not plumbed-out." Lethem, who featured his own Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill in both "The Fortress of Solitude" and "Motherless Brooklyn," says that New York was portrayed very realistically in the original "Omega: The Unknown," and was a major factor in drawing him to the book. "I always adored Marvel's setting so many stories in a 'realistic' New York in the 1970s, that being the world I knew growing up," Lethem explained. "The original Omega's great innovation, among others, was to commit even more scrupulously and extensively to letting the city become a subject in the comic book. And several of the characters went to a rather disastrous public middle school, which was my situation exactly when Omega was on the stands. "Apart from that, it was simply the brilliance of Gerber and Skrenes' original story, especially in the first few issues, before it began to be derailed by circumstances and unsympathetic editing. Their notions of what might be done with ambiguity and complexity in a superhero comic were, needless to say, terrifically ahead of their time." Lethem, who was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 (an award popularly known as the "genius grant"), drew comparisons between Omega and Shakespeare's Danish Prince of Darkness when asked what separated Omega from more iconic superheroes like Superman or Spiderman. "Omega sort of represents an X-ray of the existential condition of so many other costumed heroes, their dilemma at being the screen for the projection of fantasies of rescue, transcendence, and idealism," said Lethem. "In his hesitation he's a sort of Hamlet figure. And the radically contradictory and unfinished nature of his original story left him as a kind of icon of confusion, a cloud of dangling signifiers. This was something I thought I could take advantage of." Solicited by Marvel as "a graphic novel in ten parts," Lethem says readers don't need a crash course in nanotechnology to pick up his10-issue miniseries. "No need to know anything in advance; I'm telling a full story, complete on its own terms, loading with references and even appropriations from the earlier story but ignoring it in terms of any sort of continuity," explained Lethem. In the '70s, "Omega: The Unknown" was prematurely cancelled by Marvel after ten issues, leaving writer Steven Grant the unenviable task of having to tie up the series' loose ends more than two years later in "The Defenders" #76 and 77. This time, Lethem says "Omega" has a definite beginning and end -- sort of. "Well, the ending is definite to me, though it doesn't happen to be one that would make a continuation impossible," Letham remarked. "I somehow don't expect further Omega stories, or at least not ones following directly from my ten issues. But I'd welcome that surprise, if somehow it was 'demanded.' It wouldn't be my work, if so." Steve Gerber was so displeased that Marvel was re-imagining his creation, he launched his own website that featured a swirling logo and a tagline that read, "Omega the Unknown was created in 1975 by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes." The prolific Gerber, who more famously created Howard the Duck, later backed off his "enemy for life" stance against Lethem, a story retraced in a 2005 LYING IN THE GUTTERS column by Rich Johnston, which you can read here. As to how Lethem feels now that he has Gerber's blessing, Lethem offered, "That's a question for Gerber and Skrenes, not me." Once described as "something of a hipster celebrity" by The New York Times, Lethem says he has no immediate plans to write more comics. "I'm devoting myself next to an ambitious plan for a new novel, which should take me a few years to write," explained Lethem. "After that, I'm hoping to revive Fig Leaf Man."