The issue begins with former N.O.W.H.E.R.E. scientist Caitlin Fairchild leading a group of survivors that were subjected to torturous genetic experiments out of the facility. Fresh from their battle with Harvest which was the basis of THE CULLING crossovers, your primary characters here are: Fairchild, Beast Boy, Terra, Ridge, Thunder and Lightning (who are identified as each other on the front cover of the book-that’s not good: a MAJOR mistake like that on the cover of your first issue!). So they have broken free and find themselves stranded on the Alaskan tundra. Mere moments after they get out, two groups head off on their own, including the pair or Terra and Beast Boy who, in the NEW 52, is now red (animals gain their power from The Red while plants receive their power from The Green in the NEW 52). Fairchild insults Ridge, who was a tormentor for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. who agrees to follow her lead…to a point.
A N.O.W.H.E.R.E. security detail arrives and offers to surrender but Thunder and Lightning decide they were tortured for too long and take matters into their own hands and deliver their own form of revenge. Meanwhile, two of the escapees find themselves being pursued by Warblade and Rose Wilson and also find themselves dispatched in short order. Fairchild proves to be an inept leader and very inept at breaking up fights among teammates. So, when Warblade and Rose Wilson arrive on the scene, it becomes wholesale carnage, as they quickly wipe out several of the escapees in grisly fashion. A weapon goes astray and it looks like the whole team is headed for a cold drink in melting snow.
Man, this book is a MAJOR, MAJOR MESS! Let’s start with the fact that we have two characters misidentified on the cover. Add in a typo…Pat McCallum and Eddie Berganza…TWO EDITORS and you let this happen? REALLY!!!? Let’s look at the fact that these characters are whiny in a 1990’s whiny sort of way. Can we please have Rose and Warblade finish the job and be done with it! How awful can this book be when you want all the characters dead in the first issue?
Howard Mackie has written a book that is twenty years out of time. This book makes me actually YEARN for HEROES REBORN and I still feel the scars that series of retooled books left on me. This book is all about the worst things that Nineties comics brought us: ZERO HOUR, GEN 13, MAXIMUM CARNAGE, PROPHET, Valiant Comics and let’s not forget what the DEATH OF SUPERMAN did to the comics market in general! Even Ian Churchill's artwork is boring. Hey wait: there’s Fairchild and Terra with their boobs popping out on the cover. Really!!? Yeah…this is SO NINETIES!!! Big muscles, big boobs and wait…where are the big guns?
DC axed six comic titles to bring out six new titles. One of those titles was O.M.A.C., which was a Seventies title reborn. I so want that book back, despite all its critics, in place of this nightmare. I have already bought issue #2, which I have yet to read. My hope is that this is first issue jitters and issue #2 will be better. Actually, that’s not so tough to do, as this is so bad. Lame dialogue, less than inspired art and a bunch of heroes who are so annoying. Give me GEN13 back because at least you know how much cheese you were getting with that title.
BTW: Pandora is hiding in the background watching the team. She appears on page four.
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