Omega The Unknown - Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis

Unlike many other superhero titles, the main focus of Omega the Unknown is not on the super-powered person in an iconic costume and cape. Instead the story largely deals with an unusually mature 12 year old boy named James-Michael Starling. Through the 10 issue run of this comic book it is made clear that there is a connection between the laconic Omega and the strangely analytical James-Michael, with most issues adding to the mysterious nature of their relationship.

In the premiere issue, the character of Omega is shown as the last surviving member of an unnamed alien race. He escapes the mechanical beings who have devastated his planet in a ship headed to Earth. The story then cuts to James-Michael waking up in bed having dreamed the events that just occurred with Omega.

In his waking world, James-Michael and his parents are moving to New York City from the mountains so he can improve his socialization skills after years of home-schooling. En route to New York the Starlings' car is driven off the road and both of James-Michael's parents are killed, but not before the boy discovers that both of them were robots. James-Michael collapses into a coma and awakens a month later in a private hospital exhibiting an eerie lack of emotional response to his parents' deaths. The hospital is later attacked by one of the mechanical beings that destroyed Omega's home world, and Omega himself appears to defend James-Michael. The superhero and the android fight but the conflict ends when James-Michael himself destroys the alien mechanism with energy bursts from his hands (an effect used by Omega in James-Michael's dreams).

After this beginning, the story follows James-Michael's life as he is fostered to two young women in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. The series explores the problems he encounters in a strange new place, and his trials and friendships in a New York City public school. Issues of racism and bullying are addressed, although the stories' focus is on how the reserved and detached James-Michael relates to the world around him.

Meanwhile Omega the Unknown becomes a superhero figure in New York City, tending to fight only second-string super-villains (though he did once confront the Incredible Hulk) with a variety of outcomes. Otherwise, Omega tends to appear when James-Michael is in danger and then takes a more proactive role. As the series progresses Omega and James-Michael eventually meet and interact, although the nature of their relationship remains unclear.

Omega himself is killed in the 10th (and final) issue, leaving the mysteries of the story unresolved. In late 1979, writer Steven Grant brought the characters to a conclusion in two issues of The Defenders, at the end of which most of the original series' characters were killed. While Gerber seemed unhappy with Grant's conclusion, it nevertheless tied up the loose ends of the comic series, and is considered "canon" by Marvel. Gerber took what he considers the "true ending" to his grave, and Skrenes intends to as well unless a deal can be worked out with Marvel to publish such a story.