Omega: The Unknown by Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple
Title: Omega: The Unknown
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Artist: Farel Dalrymple
Genre: Fiction, graphic novel, Bildungsroman, adventure, super heroes, fantasy, science fiction.
Country: New York, U.S.
Language: English
Publication Date: 2008
Summary: The story of a mute, reluctant super hero 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! A re-telling of the 1975 original by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes.
My rating: 5.5/10
♥ Maybe it's time to quit going it alone. Maybe it's too late to decide to quit anything. You came from too far away, too late and alone, and now your cohorts are what passes for an edge on the competition. Strange, isn't it, 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. Only trace elements distinguish your trusted friends from those who might become your worst enemies. You do what you can to spread the good vibes. Call it better living through chemistry.
♥ Alone again, naturally. Maybe they should have left you in the labyrinth, all things being equal. When your sort are distributed one-per-world, your language doesn't require a word for loneliness. Or perhaps can't afford one. The truth, though, is that you find this planet a shade... gregarious. Passive-aggressive, grabby. Then again, negotiating interpersonal expectations is hardly what you'd have called your strong suit. When you locate a space exactly the size of your thoughts and no larger, you're satisfied. Can't hurt if it also has wheels. Yet just when you think you might have earned a little contemplative interlude, the line is deluged with cold-callers. Wearily, you answer the line, even knowing that some folks just won't take no for an answer, and that it's impossible to get your name taken off their list. What they've got going for them is a certain dull persistence, a can't-beat-'em, better-join-'em philosophy that's proven sadly persuasive over the long haul. After all, how many can say they've never pulled off the interstate for a superbutterdog burger? That is, apart from vegetarians, and other posers. Even those have been known to succumb to the hard sell.
Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Engulf and devour. Don't play with your food. What makes you think you're exempt from this special one-time offer? "The individual" is one of our preferred marketing categories. So let rage be your voice once again. Nihilism may be the sole brand of self-assertion that can't be packaged and sold back to its original owner. Your aloofness, your insensitivity, your tendency to brood, who knows? These may be the best you've got going for you. If that makes you Mr. Negative, so be it. Still, when the kitchen is strewn with evidence of your latest binge, it isn't pretty. You're tainted, and so is your space. Ablution is required. Back into circulation you go. It's a "no-win" situation.