OMAC (comics)
The OMACs are a fictional type of cyborg appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They are based on the character of the same name created by Jack Kirby.
The OMAC reimagined as collapsible powered armor with brain–computer interfaces appeared in the 2023 live-action film Blue Beetle, set in the DC Extended Universe.
Publication history
The OMACs first appeared in The OMAC Project #1 and were created by writer Greg Rucka and artist Jesús Saíz.Fictional team biography
The OMAC Project
The OMACs are cyborgs, human bodies transformed by a virus into living machines to assassinate any and all beings with superpowers. The virus was created from Brainiac-13's nanotechnology, which had been acquired by the U.S. Department of Defense and Lexcorp, and was then secretly introduced into general vaccine supplies. The OMACs are featured in the mini-series The OMAC Project that leads up to the Infinite Crisis series.Brother MK I
The new OMACs are controlled by the Brother MK I satellite. Brother MK I was created by Batman and programmed by Pseudopersons, Inc., scientist Buddy Blank, who in this retelling of the story is a partner of Wayne Industries. Its sole purpose was to gather data on all metahumans, both villain and hero. Batman had grown distrustful of metahumans after remembering that the Justice League altered his memories following an altercation with Doctor Light in Identity Crisis. Alexander Luthor Jr. later gave the satellite sentience as part of his plans. Maxwell Lord, promoted to the top rank of Checkmate, subverted the original mission of the Brother MK I satellite by inculcating a fear and suspicion of all metahumans. The first OMAC test subject was renamed "Buddy Blank", after the scientist who programmed the satellite.Brother Eye
When Maxwell Lord brainwashed Superman to kill Batman, Wonder Woman broke Lord's neck to free Superman from his control. Because Lord proffered this solution while held by her Lasso of Truth, Diana believed this was the only course of action possible; she was fiercely criticized from many quarters.Brother MK I, rechristening itself Brother Eye, initiated the "KingIsDead" protocol. Specifically designed to be used in the event of Lord's death, it ordered all of the OMACs to attack and kill all the metahumans on Earth and destroy Checkmate. A group superhero effort stopped the attack, using an EMP blast as well as a "Shut Down" command given by Sasha Bordeaux, who had become a cyborg linked to Brother Eye. These measures frees the majority of the OMAC hosts from their nanotech forms and reduced the number of OMACs to roughly 200,000.
Infinite Crisis
Truth and Justice
In response, the satellite broadcast footage of Wonder Woman executing Maxwell Lord, preceded by the word MURDER, to media outlets all over the world, destroying her reputation. After this, Brother Eye initiated the final protocol, "Truth and Justice", by having all the remaining OMACs invade and attack her homeland, Themyscira, to wipe out all of the Amazons.It was revealed that Alexander Luthor Jr. wrested control of Brother Eye away from Batman. He used it to program his multiverse tuning fork and redirect its energy to where he needed it as part of his attempt to re-create Earth-Two, and in turn, a perfect Earth. Brother Eye continues to aid Alex by remapping out the multiverse and helping to guard the tuning fork with its OMACs, reasoning that it would eliminate the need for heroes like those who Batman had created it to monitor by aiding in the creation of a perfect Earth.
Downfall of Brother Eye
Batman leads a collection of superheroes, consisting of: Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Green Arrow, Mister Terrific, Black Lightning, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Metamorpho, Booster Gold, and Sasha Bordeaux, to Earth's orbit using intel from Booster Gold and Ted Kord's spaceship. Blue Beetle's scarab allows him to find and reveal Brother Eye by negating its vibrational frequency. Brother Eye sends the OMACs and the two groups clash.With the two Green Lanterns fighting off most of the OMACs and Brother Eye's defenses, the heroes' ship crashes into Brother Eye. Metamorpho provides an oxygen supply as Blue Beetle and Booster Gold stay with the ship to guard it, but Blue Beetle later assists in the destruction of the device that Brother Eye used to hide in orbit and the rescuing of some of the other heroes. Batman goes to distract Brother Eye by shutting off the central computer, although Brother Eye tries to distract him by showing him Nightwing's confrontation with Superboy-Prime. Sasha, linked to Oracle, goes to upload every computer virus on Earth into Brother Eye's system as well as trying to prevent the artificial gravity from shutting down. Black Canary goes to the surveillance room to use her sonic scream to blind the Eye. Black Lightning and Mr. Terrific go to the memory banks so that Black Lightning fries as much circuitry as possible while Mr. Terrific, invisible to machines and electronics, delivers the fatal blow by knocking Brother Eye off orbit using its orbital thrusters.
The plan works, and Brother Eye is deactivated. All of the remaining activated OMACs shut down, releasing their hosts. As all of the other heroes evacuate Brother Eye as it begins falling out of orbit to Earth, falling apart in the process, it tries to take Batman down with it, telling him he can never trust the costumed heroes again after what they did to him. Batman, however, says he will take his chances, and accepts Hal Jordan's aid in getting to safety.
After crash-landing in Saudi Arabia, Brother Eye tries to download its system into Sasha as a means of self-preservation, but Sasha manages to destroy the satellite, freeing herself from the nanobots infecting her.
Michael Costner
DC released DCU: A Brave New World in June 2006, which was the epilogue to the OMAC limited series.Brother Eye has not been fully decommissioned and lies in a NORAD facility. Michael Costner is the last OMAC unit, kept as emergency backup, and Brother Eye calls to him.
This Brother Eye has corrupted programming and now believes all humans need to be subjugated or exterminated whether metahuman or not. It has also recently begun to manifest dissociative behavior with at least two "personalities" now being heard in the OMAC's internal conversations.
The 2006 OMAC limited series follows "the last OMAC" Michael Costner. Brother Eye attempts to make Costner rebuild it, but is forced to face his wrath when Costner regains control of both his forms, human and OMAC, and subsequently destroys Brother Eye again, although a tiny fraction of it is still active.
Countdown to Final Crisis
A portion of Brother Eye was later retrieved and rebuilt by Buddy Blank, a former scientist from Wayne Industries. This portion meets with the time-traveling Karate Kid who is seeking a cure for Morticoccus, a 31st-century illness that had evolved from the OMAC virus. Announcing that "the Great Disaster has come to me", Brother Eye directs him to Blüdhaven. Soon after, it reactivates its offensive protocols and assimilates the hangar it is being held in, turning the people within the hangar into new OMAC cyborgs. It then travels to the ruins of Blüdhaven and assimilates the city's infrastructure and the people within it using the Atomic Knights and Firestorm as power sources. Later, it activates a Boom Tube and travels to Apokolips, where it assimilates the planet and attempts to obtain the Morticoccus virus from Karate Kid, who has also been led there. It is forced to flee Apokolips after the Pied Piper attacks it.Later, Brother Eye transforms Buddy Blank into a modified OMAC resembling Kirby's version of the character. Buddy uses this power to save himself and his grandson from starvation in the Command-D bunker beneath Blüdhaven. Brother Eye implies that it will contact Buddy again for a future need.
Batman and the Outsiders
A modified OMAC is shown as a part of the new Outsiders team in the 2008 Batman and the Outsiders series.When a team from the Justice League attempts to seize a partially active OMAC, a leftover from The OMAC Project events, Batman takes the opportunity to reclaim it for himself—having Francine Langstrom create a clever forgery to leave in care of the League.
The OMAC, renamed ReMAC, appears to be "an iPod with its tracklist wiped". Langstrom is unable to discern who ReMAC was before being infected by the OMAC virus; finding ReMAC a mere husk, devoid of any personal identity. This complete lack of personality makes ReMAC the perfect infiltrator, using its advanced shapeshifting abilities and its unquestioning obedience for the Outsiders' sake.
Since its lack of personality allows villains to snatch control of ReMAC, turning it into an enemy, Batman rigs up a telepresence system turning ReMAC into an advanced drone for Salah Miandad, Langstrom's chief assistant, enabling operation from the Outsiders HQ, the Batcave, or other secret locations.
While testing a new neural interface, less dependent from his stamina, to control the former OMAC, Salah is knocked into a coma. His mind comes to reside in ReMAC, supplanting the missing personality of the drone for a while, until, due to the machinations of Simon Hurt, ReMAC is fed a malicious self-destruct code that destroys it, making the restoration of Salah's consciousness impossible.
Final Crisis
In Final Crisis, Darkseid and his prophets from Apokolips have taken new forms as humans on Earth after mass-distributing the Anti-Life Equation around the world. Batman has been captured; Superman is on a journey in the multiverse; and Wonder Woman has become a Female Fury. With most of the world's population under the influence of the equation, they are effectively under Darkseid's control seemingly making him the ruler of Earth.In the one-shot Final Crisis: Resist, Mister Terrific and the Checkmate organization work to mount a resistance against Darkseid, but seemingly do not have the means to do it. Sitting in despair in a Checkmate stronghold, Snapper Carr, through his hopeless rantings, gives Mister Terrific an idea. Using Sasha Bordeaux to make contact with Brother Eye, he convinces the A.I. to help them, explaining that it will be destroyed if Darkseid captures the world.
Realizing this, Brother Eye accepts Mister Terrific's terms and reveals that there are still millions of people infected with OMAC technology. These people, now mindless drones of Darkseid, are overwritten by Brother Eye and become OMAC soldiers under the command of Mister Terrific. This gives Checkmate and him the means to resist Darkseid.
During the Final Crisis events when all seems lost, Brother Eye prepares to leave the doomed Earth with his OMACs and the people of Command-D, the bunker underneath Blüdhaven, and start a new society on another Earth in another universe. To this end, he asks Renee Montoya to serve as the head of a to-be-founded Global Peacekeeping Agency.