Omega Men

After appearances in Green Lantern, Action Comics and The New Teen Titans, the Omega Men were featured in their own comics series which ran for 38 issues from April 1983 to May 1986. During its run, writer Roger Slifer and artist Keith Giffen created the mercenary anti-hero Lobo. Later creators included writers Doug Moench and Todd Klein (who also lettered later issues in the run), artists Tod Smith, Shawn McManus and Alex Niño, and inkers Mike DeCarlo, Jim McDermott and Greg Theakston.

Members of the Omega Men also appeared in the 2004 eight-issue Adam Strange limited series, as well as the 2005 Infinite Crisis lead-in 6-issue limited series, Rann-Thanagar War and the 2008 follow-up Rann-Thanagar Holy War.[2]

In 2006 they had their own six issue limited series with Tigorr, Doc, Elu, Broot and Ryand'r - written by Andersen Gabrych and art by Henry Flint.[3][4]

The Omega Men hail from the Vega system, a planetary system with twenty-five habitable planets, which as of the early 1980s had been ruled for millennia by the Citadelians, a race of warriors cloned from the First Citadelian, the demi-godlike son of X'Hal.[5]

Cover of Green Lantern (vol. 2) #141, art by George Pérez.

The Citadelians established a tyrannical regime based in a fortress moon known as the Citadel. The Citadel then set about to conquer the younger races of Vega. Originally there were only two races in the Vegan system, the primitive Branx and the pacifistic Okaarans, but the Psions used Okaaran DNA to create the other twenty-three races of Vega such as the Tamaraneans, Euphorixians, Aelloans, Karnans, and the Changralyns.

The Omega Men were assembled as a group of renegades and representatives of conquered Vegan worlds to fight Citadelian aggression. Pre-Infinite Crisis the team was based on the planet Kuraq. The Omega Men are important peacekeepers in their sector because the Green Lantern Corps is not allowed into Vegan space, due to a long-standing agreement with the Psions.

The Omega Men made a return appearance in the Adam Strange mini-series. Still led by Tigorr, with veteran members Broot, Doc, Elu, Artin and Harpis. They were joined by a group of new members whose names were given, but not identified in the book. They were still fighting the Spider Empire. A vision by one of their new members, a precog, results in them waiting in a Rannian space station for some time; their ultimate purpose to meet Adam Strange. It was in this storyline that the first Doc is discovered to be a Durlan assassin. Doc himself is presumed slain.

In the recent Omega Men mini-series, it had been revealed that upon returning to the remains of Tamaran with Ryand'r (who was not part of the team in the Adam Strange mini-series), the Omegans are attacked by the Darkstar zombies of Lady Styx and all but five of them died.

The Omega Men have been seen fleeing L.E.G.I.O.N. robots during a hostile takeover ousting Vril Dox.[6]

In The New 52, a modified version of the Omega Men dubbed The Omegas was introduced. The new group consists of young aliens under the tutelage of Zealot. Each of the aliens' parents were enslaved by Lobo, and they are united in seeking revenge on the marauder.[8]

In 2015, as part of the "DC You" revamp of the DC Comics, a new Omega Men series was launched. The new series, which lasted 12 issues, retroactively replaced the previous "New 52" Omega group in canon.

The series, written by Tom King, rebooted the entire story of the Omega Men. In the new canon, the Citadel is now an interplanetary corporation. The Citadel, exploiting the chaos from the destruction of Krypton, has begun selling thousands of worlds rare metal that can be used to "stabilize planetary cores" to prevent a world from exploding ala Krypton. The rare, planetary core stabilizing metal, is only available in the Vega Star system. The planets of the Vega Star system as a result, have been wholesale enslaved by the alien corporation. Several worlds, whose inhabitants resisted the Citadal, were subjected to genocide: survivors of the genocide from these worlds, became the Omega Men. The group is led by Primus, recast as a wealthy pacifist who was imprisoned by the Citadel to silence him.

Due to the power and influence over thousands of worlds, the Citadel has framed the Omega Men as terrorists and murderers. The reach of the Citadel even ascends to Earth: after making contact with the US Military, to broker a deal to sell them metal from the Vega Star System, the US Government secretly sends Kyle Rayner to broker a deal with the Citadel at the start of the twelve issue series. However, the head of the Citadel corporation forces Kyle to surrender his white power ring upon meeting him (for "security" reasons; in truth, due to him coveting the ring for his own selfish desires). Shortly afterwards, Kyle is kidnapped by the Omega Men, who fake his death and then force Kyle to join them on a tour of the Vega Star System so he could see the evil of the Citadel and expose their sins.

Kyle eventually realizes the truth about the Citadel and with the Omega Men's help, crash an interview with the head of the Citadel, in order to air recorded footage of the Citadel destroying an entire populated planet that had been mined dry of the rare metal. The move clears the Omega Men's good name but fails to stop the Citadel's activities in the Vega Star System. A final battle between the Citadel and the Omega Men then ensues, ending in the death of the Citadel's leadership caste. Meanwhile, Kyle, who had assumed the alias of "Green Man" during the time with the Omega Men, regains his White Lantern ring and is ultimately banished back to Earth by the Omega Men when he fails to convince them to spare the leaders of the Citadel.

• Titans Tower: The Vegan Star System
• An index of the Omega Men series
• Welcome to Vega: Omega Men at Cosmic Teams!
• DCU Guide: Omega Men
• Preview pages for issue #1 of the current mini-series and issue #2