Omega

"The only rulers of Minyos now are fear and violence."

Writer: Mark Griffiths

Format: Comic Strip

Released: January 2021

Printed in: Omega #1-4

Featuring: Omega

Synopsis 

The people of the planet Minyos are in revolt against their alien gods. This chaos is being stoked by the rogue god Omega, who longs to free himself from his black hole prison and wreak revenge. But brave Princess Malika, last of the Minyan royal family, is determined to fight back. 

Verdict 

Omega was a really good comic strip story! I’m a big fan of these Cutaway Comics adventures and it’s really nice to explore the world beyond the Doctor. He wasn’t even mentioned or referenced here and that was absolutely fine! That happens a lot in numerous spin-off ranges from Big Finish, so it only seems natural that we would have comic strips doing the same! Omega is such a strong character and is more than warranted in carrying his own series, and these four issues forming one story worked tremendously well. I liked the continuity with Underworld in tying him in with that world of Minyos. That setting was superb here and I thought the artwork was actually brilliant. It was definitely an improvement on the style of Lytton’s comic series, and the vibrant colours really added a lot to the adventure. I thought Malika was a fantastic character and she really carried the story well as the protagonist. The cliffhanger at the end of part one where she literally regenerated was wonderful, but I do think it might have had even more of an impact if the death by firing squad was the cliffhanger and then the resolution was the cellular renewal. That was nicely done and tied in very well with the Time Lords being the gods on Minyos, even if they weren’t named. I’m assuming that’s a copyright issue, but it was well established and worked neatly. It’s quite amusing that even Omega wasn’t referred to as a Time Lord. He was considered a god and rightly so given what we know about the term and it standing for. The artwork presentation of him within the mind of Oxirgi was fantastic and it was intriguing that it was probably this man who was the biggest villain of the piece, not Omega. Of course, Omega was essentially in control of Oxirgi through his perceived deity status and everything he was doing on Minyos was in an effort to being Omega back to the universe of matter and free him from the black hole prison he was held within. That was good and I really liked the efforts of using psychic power thanks to distress on Minyos to free him. It wasn’t difficult to try and implement that discontent and uprising feeling in the political space of the planet as there were conflicting views on whether the gods were welcomed. I liked the imagery of the protests. I’m fascinated that this comic strip has been adapted into an audio adventure with Brian Blessed as Omega, especially when it didn’t seem that Omega had an awful lot of dialogue. At least not until the final issue that is, but of course that could be easily expanded in an audio version. I thought Malika’s desire to defeat Omega was impressive and the depths she had to sink to at the end of part three in firing the missiles on her own planet to stop him was quite incredible. The unthinkable soon became the only option as with the whole planet dead, there would be no psychic power for Omega to feed upon and return. The matter machine looked good as his means of returning to our universe, and Oxirgi was hellbent on ensuring this god returned. His reactions to Malika surviving and constantly evading were fun, as he was really angered and wanted her dead. That never came though, even when the missiles struck her in space! His reaction to having intruders at that moment was brilliant and the action that followed in the hold was really good stuff. Oxirgi being devastated that Omega left his mind was a powerful moment and showed that the god was selfish and out for his own gain and that alone. Kyril being the one who initially showed Oxirgi how to control psychic energy was great and their battle of the minds was pretty sensational. It allowed the comic strip format to shine and the old man died, but that allowed a free body for the service of Omega which was really good. I was surprised with how different part four felt as we moved to Draktria and it was quite something to see Omega almost humanised. Malika appealed to him from within after using a funky beetle to traverse the black hole, but Omega was clearly mentally unstable. He went through a wide range of emotions and after seeing that his creations even became atheists, Omega was outraged that his own creations defied him. That was superb stuff. I thought the ending was slightly weak whilst allowing Omega’s means of return, but I was expecting Malika to fully try and destroy the god instead of keep him trapped. She did though save his creations as they were people free to think and believe in what they desired, and I do wonder if this is the last we see of her despite the toll this ordeal took on her with her apparent death at the conclusion. Regardless, a really great comic strip adventure!

Rating: 8/10