Omega: The Unknown
I've been a Jonathan Lethem fan since I read his first book, Gun, With Occasional Music, a futuristic detective story as written by the love-child of Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick. Lethem wrote a few more science fiction novels before writing Motherless Brooklyn, whose main character is man with Tourette's Syndrome. It is an unbelievably fantastic novel and, if you haven't read it, you should do so immediately. His latest offerings, however, have not lived up to the promise of his earlier work and it seems, at least to me, that he has discovered there's more money in writing about music lovers who may or may not love each other than post apocalyptic fiction.
That said, he has not completely left his love of sci-fi behind. As well as recently editing a collection of the works of the aforementioned Philip K. Dick, he is also writing a ten issue series of Omega: The Unknown for Marvel with art by Farel Dalrymple. The character was created by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes and ran for ten issues in the late 70s. The story is interesting because of its focus, not so much on the titular Omega, but on his child companion James-Michael Starling who are connected in mysterious ways. The first issue of Lethem's run is available, for free, online and is worth checking out.
[Via SF Signal]
