Trivia / O.M.A.C.

• Accidental Downer Ending: In Jack Kirby's 1974 run, issue 8 ends with the protagonist depowered and at the villain's mercy, while Brother Eye is left powerless after being trapped in a prison of molten space debris. Though the story was supposed to reach its grand finale in the following issue, Jack Kirby left DC for Marvel Comics before writing it, and the executives at the time decided that the comic's sales weren't good enough to warrant hiring a replacement. As a result, a new panel was hastily edited into the ending of issue 8, where the villain's lair is shown exploding, implying that the entirety of the main cast died.
• What Could Have Been: OMAC's universe has a lot of Orwellian overtones, the most blatant being "Brother Eye" (as in, "Big Brother Is Watching You"). Remember that Buddy is not just drafted into the job, his memory is erased and he's given a new, GPA approved set of parents. All of this is, of course, incredibly creepy and makes the "good guys" who created OMAC look very suspect. But, maddeningly, the series was Cut Short before we got to see where Kirby was going with any of it. The very last issue involves Buddy's old identity and memory being restored. How was he going to react when he realized what had been done to him? The world will never know.