OMAC (Buddy Blank)

OMAC was created by writer-artist Jack Kirby towards the end of his contract with the publisher following the cancellation of his New Gods series; it was reportedly developed due to Kirby needing to fill his contractual quota of 15 pages a week.^[2][3] The character is inspired by Captain America, but lives in the future, an idea Kirby had conceived years earlier while at Marvel Comics but had never realized.^[3]

Set in the near future ("The World That's Coming"),^[4] OMAC is a corporate nobody named Buddy Blank who is changed via a "computer-hormonal operation done by remote control" by an A.I. satellite called "Brother Eye" into the super-powered One-Man Army Corps (OMAC).^[5]

OMAC works for the Global Peace Agency (GPA), a group of faceless people who police the world using pacifistic weapons.^[6] The world balance is too dangerous for large armies, so OMAC is used as the main field enforcement agent for the GPA. The character initially uses his abilities to save a female coworker at the Pseudo-People factory (manufacturers of androids initially intended as companions but later developed as assassins). The coworker is revealed to be in actuality a bomb, and Blank is left in the employ of the GPA, sacrificing his identity in their relentless war, with faux parents his only consolation and companions.^[5]

The original OMAC series ended with its eighth issue (December 1975),^[7] canceled before the last storyline could be completed, and Kirby wrote an abrupt ending to the series. ( in actuality Kirby was already gone and DC editorial hastily pasted an abrupt ending panel. ) In Kamandi #50 (May 1977), by other creators, OMAC is revealed to be Kamandi's grandfather.^[8] An "OMAC" back-up feature by Jim Starlin began in issue #59 (October 1978), but Kamandi was cancelled after its first appearance. The story was later printed in Warlord, and led to a new OMAC back-up series in that title (#37–39, 42–47). OMAC appeared with Superman in DC Comics Presents #61.^[9]

In 1991 OMAC was featured in a four-issue prestige format limited series by writer/artist John Byrne that was independent of the previous series. ( it did resolve prior plot points however including a quick resolution to the cliffhanger from the first series.) Byrne later reused OMAC in Superman & Batman: Generations 3, an Elseworlds limited series.

A contemporary incarnation of Buddy Blank appears in Countdown to Final Crisis.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} Following the release of the Morticoccus virus, Blank and his grandson flee to the scientific facility Command D, where Brother Eye rescues them and transforms Blank into a prototype OMAC.^[15]

As OMAC, Buddy Blank possesses various abilities derived from Brother Eye. For example, an increase in his density grants superhuman strength and enhanced durability, and a decrease in his density allows flight and super-speed. Brother Eye could provide other abilities as well, such as self-repair functions and energy generation.

The character and the Brother Eye satellite were reimagined for the Infinite Crisis storyline. OMACs are portrayed as humans whose bodies have been corrupted by a nano-virus. The acronym has multiple meanings throughout the series: "Observational Meta-human Activity Construct",^[16] "One-Man Army Corps",^[17] and "Omni Mind and Community".^[18]

• "Omegatech Mechanoid Armored Cop", a parody of OMAC, appears in the Tangent Comics comic The Joker's Wild.^[19]
• Two versions of Equus, amalgamated with OMAC, appear in "For Tomorrow".^[20]
• Alternate timeline variants of Superboy and Lex Luthor, amalgamated with OMAC, appear in DC One Million.^[21][22]
• A gender-flipped version of OMAC named OWAC (One-Woman Army Corps) appears in Kingdom Come.^[23]
• OMAC makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in JLA: Another Nail.^[24]
• Basic OMAC units resembling the first OMAC appear in Final Crisis.
• bioMAC, an alternate universe variant of Ben Boxer amalgamated with OMAC, appears in The Multiversity.^[25]

• Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C.: One Man Army Corps collects O.M.A.C.: One Man Army Corps #1–8, 200 pages, May 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1790-7^[29]

• Jack Kirby bibliography