Omega the Unknown #6

History

The series was conceived and scripted jointly by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes — a notably rare co-writing credit for a woman in mid-1970s mainstream comics — with Jim Mooney providing pencil breakdowns finished by inker Mike Esposito throughout most of the run, under the editorship of Archie Goodwin. Gerber was already riding the cult success of Howard the Duck when the book launched in March 1976, and the two writers designed Omega as a long-arc story that Marvel's bimonthly, sales-driven publishing model ultimately could not sustain; the series was cancelled after ten issues, its plotlines eventually wrapped up — to Gerber's displeasure, after his 1978 firing from Marvel — by writer Steven Grant in two issues of The Defenders. Issue #6's interior credits list Skrenes's name first in the script slot, reflecting the fluid and collaborative nature of their partnership across the run.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Cover date January 1977 (on-sale October 19, 1976); story title 'A Tug of the Wrench!'
• First appearance of the Wrench, real name Kurt Klemmer — a mentally ill handyman-turned-killer who wields an ordinary wrench and carries a handgun, later retroactively classified as a supervillain after being photographed fighting Omega.
• First appearance (and death in the same issue) of Mamie, Gramps's elderly friend, who is the Wrench's first on-panel victim.
• Written by Mary Skrenes and Steve Gerber; pencils (breakdowns) by Jim Mooney; inks by Mike Esposito; letters by Joe Rosen; edited by Archie Goodwin; cover by John Romita Sr. and Dave Cockrum.
• Key plot development: with both Omega knocked unconscious and Amber Grant subdued, James-Michael Starling independently manifests the shared Omega energy blasts from his palms to stop the Wrench — the clearest proof yet that his powers operate independently of Omega's proximity.
• A subplot runs in parallel: Omega accompanies Gramps and his elderly friends for a rare social outing, drinks alcohol for the first time, and observes that it dulls his alien senses — one of the series's characteristic moments of quiet character texture amid the action.
• The issue was reprinted in the Omega: The Unknown Classic trade paperback (Marvel, December 2005), which collects the full original ten-issue run alongside Defenders #76–77.
• The Wrench's story did not end here: the character was later referenced in Captain America #394 as a reported victim of the Scourge of the Underworld, tying this one-issue villain into a much later Marvel continuity thread.

Full credits

Key issues in Omega the Unknown

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#1 1st appearance — Omega the Unknown

Variants (1)