Cecelia Cobbina has new superpowers, just like many others across the globe. But, her powers may just reveal the truth about what is happening to the planet and the people on it. Your Major Spoilers review awaits.
OMNI #1
Writer: Devin Grayson
Art: Alitha E. Martinez
Colors: Bryan Valenza
Letters: A Larger World Studios
Editor: Fabrice Sapolsky
Publisher: Humanoids Inc.
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August, 14 2019
Previously in Omni: Something strange is happening across the world. In moments of great stress and trauma, people are developing superpowers or “igniting”. So far, these powers have created more questions than answers among the people who have gained them. But when Cecelia develops her powers, she realizes that she now possesses what she needs to reach the bottom of the mystery.
Concise and Effective Origin Tale
Omni #1 is the newest title in Humanoid’s, H1 imprint. Just like the other titles, this one focuses on characters who develop powers during incredibly tense situations. This issue though, doesn’t immediately start with one of those moments. Instead, the issue kicks off with Cecelia and two other people standing in the way of an oncoming bus. At the last moment the trio become intangible and the bus passes right through them. Then we jump back in the timeline to when Cecelia obtained her powers. It turns out that Cecelia is an M.D. who was working with Doctors Without Borders when her clinic was hijacked by a militant group. During the holdup Cecelia found herself able to be everywhere at once and able to properly diagnose everyone’s maladies and work out the best course of action for each one. From there we follow Cecelia and companion Mae as they try to find others with powers. This search leads to Atlanta where there’s reports of a man who’s seeing angels made out of purple energy. It’s also in Atlanta that we get a fuller explanation of Cecelia’s powers. It turns out her mind breaks into nine different entities based on intelligent modalities. After following up on this lead, Cecelia and Mae are introduced to Antony who has phasing powers. Over a cup of coffee Cecelia explains that the trio’s next course of action is to somehow examine Earth itself to find answers.
Feels Like Good Representation
The thing that really stands out about the art in Omni #1 are the character designs. It really feels like inclusion and representation is very important in not only this issue but the whole H1 imprint. In this issue a majority of our speaking characters are POC, Mae is a larger woman, and everyone tends to have realistic body proportions and features. Also, Cecelia’s “costume” is just great, it’s not particularly original but it makes perfect sense. Also, one of the complaints I’ve had about the H1 imprint is that a lot of the superpowers are hard to comprehend without some sort of exposition explaining them, this book though depicts Cecelia’s powers very effectively and I feel like I could understand them without being told about them.
Bottom Line: A Good but Flawed Introduction
I’m going to go out on a limb right now and say that so far, this has been the best book in the H1 imprint. That’s not to say it’s a perfect book though. My biggest issue with Omni #1 is its timeline. It’s not completely clear exactly where the various scenes line up with each other and that leads to some strange character moments, especially after Antony is introduced to the group. But, other than that I think this is a solid comic, Cecelia is a unique character that values intelligence over anything else. So far, she has shown no desire to go out and punch bad guys or stand up to injustice, or even change the world. Her motivation seems to be completely academic and humanitarian. It should also be mentioned that there’s an interesting narrative style being used that I don’t think was utilized in a completely effective way, but it shows potential to be a unique attribute to the series. 4 out of 5 stars.
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Omni #1
Omni #1 is a good addition to the H1 imprint that introduces a new character that feels original.
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Writing8
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Art8
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Coloring8
