OMAC PROJECT versus BLUE BEETLEBrother's Keeper (DC)
Where: Blue Beetle #7 When: November 2006
Why: John Rogers How: Cully Hamner
The Story So Far...
Before the Second World War; a man named Dan Garrett retrieved a mysterious blue scarab from the tomb of Pharaoh Kha-Ef-Re -- transforming him into the daring mystery man known as Blue Beetle!
Where: Blue Beetle #7 When: November 2006
Why: John Rogers How: Cully Hamner
The Story So Far...
Before the Second World War; a man named Dan Garrett retrieved a mysterious blue scarab from the tomb of Pharaoh Kha-Ef-Re -- transforming him into the daring mystery man known as Blue Beetle!
Upon his death, the scarab passed to the hands of his successor, Ted Kord, but the brilliant industrialist was never able to unlock the secret of its powers. That would be the fate of Jaime Reyes -- a hapless high school student who discovered the lost scarab in the desert and became the third Blue Beetle!
Transformed in the midst of a multi-faceted crisis threatening reality itself -- Jaime is hastily recruited to use the scarab's mysterious alien technology to find and bring an end to the threat of AI satellite Brother Eye, and its endless hordes of citizens-turned-killing machines known as OMACs!
Transformed in the midst of a multi-faceted crisis threatening reality itself -- Jaime is hastily recruited to use the scarab's mysterious alien technology to find and bring an end to the threat of AI satellite Brother Eye, and its endless hordes of citizens-turned-killing machines known as OMACs!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: OMAC 5 (Super-Human)Intelligence: OMAC 4 (Tactician)
Speed: OMAC 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: OMAC 6 (Generator)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: OMAC 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: OMAC 5 (Lasers)
Total: OMAC 28 (Metahuman)
The OMAC Project is a collective of common American citizens unwittingly injected with a nanotechnology virus derived from Brainiac-13.
Upon activation, the sleeper agents are transformed into Observational Metahuman Activity Constructs connected via a digital hivemind.
"OMACs" are capable of manipulating the nano-cybernetic coating over their limbs to form a variety of weapons, including blades and energy cannons, which can also deploy specialist counter-measures for dealing with key metahuman targets, and adapt machine-learned strategies for new threats.
"OMACs" are capable of manipulating the nano-cybernetic coating over their limbs to form a variety of weapons, including blades and energy cannons, which can also deploy specialist counter-measures for dealing with key metahuman targets, and adapt machine-learned strategies for new threats.
If that doesn't sound Terminator 2 enough for you -- the OMACs are controlled by an AI satellite called Brother I, which was originally created in secret by Batman, usurped by Maxwell Lord & Checkmate, and ultimately achieved independent sentience while becoming hellbent on killing all organic lifeforms on Earth!
Unfortunately for rookie hero Blue Beetle -- that includes him!
Jaime Reyes discovered the blue scarab when it inadvertently landed in the desert of El Paso, Texas after a battle between Shazam and The Spectre.
Grafting itself to Jaime's spine; the scarab transformed him into another kind of hi-tech blue soldier, capable of generating powerful energy weapons and blades with his alien suit. He can also detect spectrums of electricity and magic -- making him the perfect tech weapon against the undetectable Brother Eye and OMACs!
Grafting itself to Jaime's spine; the scarab transformed him into another kind of hi-tech blue soldier, capable of generating powerful energy weapons and blades with his alien suit. He can also detect spectrums of electricity and magic -- making him the perfect tech weapon against the undetectable Brother Eye and OMACs!
Young Jaime has been thrown into the deep end of superhero conflict, but what he lacks in experience, his onboard alien AI can make up for. We saw it help defend against the Green Lantern when their respective weapons turned against one another. So how did it cope with an army of OMACs? Let's find out!
The Tape: OMACs Ranking: Blue Beetle (#467)
What Went Down...
On board Brother Eye, Jaime is left by the rest of the Justice League to guard Ted Kord's Blue Beetle Bug that they flew in on, but it soon becomes the target of a swarm of OMAC soldiers. The blue scarab compels him to run!
An eye beam blasts the Blue Beetle in the back as he tumbles through the halls of the satellite with flying OMACs firing in hot pursuit!
He calls for assistance from Booster Gold, but the time travelling hero isn't there to help him. Fortunately, the blue scarab comes with its own sophisticated onboard artificial intelligence -- and fingertip electric shocks that disrupt OMACs!
The sudden whip of his arm being pointed behind him leaves Jaime feeling worse for wear, but his troubles get far worse when he runs into another chamber filled to the brim with OMACs!
The suit forms a massive shield on his forearm and directs the Blue Beetle through the clambering horde -- barging his way through in what Jaime thinks is the wrong direction.
Reaching a smaller room Blue Beetle finally finds some friendly faces -- Green Arrow and Black Canary!
The emerald archer spots the young hero arriving and quickly fires off a couple of "super-conductor goo" arrows invented by Ted Kord to cause a feedback loop that turns the OMAC's energy blasts back against them!
GA kicks the control to close the doors, doing his best to drive the OMACs out.
With a moment of calm, the scarab begins analyzing its technology -- determining it to be the device responsible for keeping Brother Eye undetectable by generating sub-dimensional artificial reality space.
A sonic canary cry and electric finger blasts make light work of the technology!
With explosions following them, the trio of heroes race through the satellite halls until they come across another chamber filled with OMACs and an ensnared Black Lightning!
Brother Eye's database doesn't contain the newly minted hero, so Black Canary tells the Beetle to put everything into his shot to disable the OMACs before they can adapt to his attacks.
The combined might of Blue Beetle's energy blast, Black Canary's sonic shriek, and the Green Arrow's quiver proves enough to put the OMACs out of commission!
Mister Terrific shows up at the perfect time to lead the heroes back onto the flying Blue Beetle Bug, where John Stewart, Metamorpho, and Sasha Bordeaux are waiting to pilot them off the exploding satellite!
It looks like they're home free, but the scarab wants nothing to do with the Green Lantern on board. It phases Blue Beetle out of synch with reality, shifting him out of the Bug as it takes off -- leaving Jaime on board the exploding satellite!
The Hammer...Even though it's mission accomplished for destroying Brother Eye and rescuing the innocent people turned into OMACs -- Blue Beetle is left behind all alone in space!
Even Batman can't rescue Jaime Reyes as he's carried out of the exploding satellite by Green Lantern -- completely unaware that they've flown directly past Blue Beetle, who's still phased into another plane of reality by the scarab.
It's a horrifying moment for a high school boy to find himself alone in, but we have the comfort of knowing it's all in the past. These events happened between the panels of Infinite Crisis #6, which focused on other Leaguer's efforts to bring down Brother Eye, most specifically Batman, Black Lightning, and Mr. Terrific.
In Blue Beetle #7, Jaime is recounting the memory of what happened, unlocking part of a lost year in space, while standing in the desert crater made when he finally crash-landed back to Earth in Blue Beetle #1.
In Blue Beetle #7, Jaime is recounting the memory of what happened, unlocking part of a lost year in space, while standing in the desert crater made when he finally crash-landed back to Earth in Blue Beetle #1.
As we've already documented, The Beetle's fiery return to Earth caught the attention of Guy Gardner, resulting in some spectacular superhero smackdown as his Green Lantern ring began reacting adversely to the Blue Beetle's presence.
Something similar happened with John Stewart in Infinite Crisis, and this aversion between the scarab and Green Lanterns was one of the intriguing mysteries that helped stitch a new Blue Beetle into the fabric of the DC Universe.
For those of us reading way back in 2006, it was understandably controversial that Ted Kord was killed off in the Countdown to Infinite Crisis special, but the new Blue Beetle was actually a pretty easy sell with or without a murder stunt. It was a fresh and vibrant new addition to the DC lineup, marrying forgotten aspects of Charlton Comics' 1960s revamp of Dan Garrett, with a bold new graphic conceit.
As intriguing as the new, alien Blue Beetle might've been in the pages of Infinite Crisis, it only got better once we met the boy behind the mask in his own on-going series. The art team of Cully Hamner and colorist David Self immediately sold the visual world of Jaime Reyes, in and out of costume, and with issue #4, new colorist Guy Major continued that aesthetic splendor seamlessly.
Things might look a little off in panels featured in today's entry. The colours & lines are a little less slick and sumptuous in this section, visually indicating a slightly different temperature for flashback sequences, but please note that these scans aren't very flattering. As always - seek this work out for yourself!
Blue Beetle was instantly colourful, bold, and exciting, with a palette reminiscent of contemporary animation, and the raw energy of a new young hero stepping into a fully developed superhero universe. It was little wonder the character soon found fans in cartoons through Batman: Brave and the Bold and Young Justice.
These types of characters tend to compare to early Spider-Man, but the third-generation aspect reminds me of the thrillingly uncertain energy that carried the first few years of Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern. There's also something in that 2000s approach that feels consistent with Invincible, but the Image hero could only pretend to be part of something bigger. Blue Beetle had those genuine ties.
Blue Beetle was instantly colourful, bold, and exciting, with a palette reminiscent of contemporary animation, and the raw energy of a new young hero stepping into a fully developed superhero universe. It was little wonder the character soon found fans in cartoons through Batman: Brave and the Bold and Young Justice.
These types of characters tend to compare to early Spider-Man, but the third-generation aspect reminds me of the thrillingly uncertain energy that carried the first few years of Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern. There's also something in that 2000s approach that feels consistent with Invincible, but the Image hero could only pretend to be part of something bigger. Blue Beetle had those genuine ties.
Of course, as easy as it would've been to drop Jaime Reyes directly into Ted Kord's spot, surrounding him with all the better-known DC icons of the Justice League -- they instead used a Green Lantern appearance in issue #1 to naturally transition the character far away from the other heroes, into his own naturally developing world of friends & family, and the burgeoning threat of The Reach.
We aren't quite there yet, but like a lot of DC Comics fans, I'll be rooting for the new Blue Beetle film to do well enough in theatrical release to expand the legacy on the big screen. I'm not quite expecting a five-star adaptation, but Cobra Kai fans know Xolo Maridueña has the goods to go all the way with Jaime Reyes, and there's plenty more material for the live-action character to explore. Peacemaker and Ted Kord seem like no brainers!
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Winners: Blue Beetle, Green Arrow & Black Canary
#174 (+293) Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
#16 (+3) Green Arrow
#38 (+5) Black Canary
#1019 (new) OMACs
#174 (+293) Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
#16 (+3) Green Arrow
#38 (+5) Black Canary
#1019 (new) OMACs
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