Rucka on OMAC the sequel

By now we all know the Countdown isn't really Countdown but Countdown to Infinite Crisis. So how does this change the descriptions of the four mini series that are to follow up on the one shot? Rucka answers some questions over at Newsarama.com and, as usual, leaves the reader with more.

“It’s pretty simple,” Rucka said. “If Countdown is the Countdown to Infinite Crisis, then The OMAC Project, coming as it does, out of the pages of Countdown, is clearly tied to that. If I say how, that would give away too much, but essentially, what Countdown to Infinite Crisis does is that it reveals the movement of a faction within the DC Universe that means ill. The OMAC Project is a further examination of that particular faction. You get to see exactly how powerful they are, exactly what they’re capable of doing, and exactly how far they’ll go to get it. They are ruthless enough that they actually remind you of Lex Luthor when he was a bad guy – before he was the President, Luthor as the ultimate bad guy.”

Rucka also mentioned a character named The Black King:

“The Black King ain’t anybody’s friend. You’re with the Black King, or you’re against the Black King. If you’re with him, you want to stay there, and if you’re against him, you’d best make sure your personal effects are in order. You mess with the Black King; you’d best bring your own body bag.”

And things aren't going to be nice and sunny in the DCU anytime soon:

“It is the worst day in the DC Universe ever.”

“You can define that in any number of ways,” Rucka said. “It’s going to all start coming apart. When the pillars of the DC Universe stop functioning together, bad stuff gets awful, and good stuff gets bad. At their heart, that’s what the stories we’re all telling are about.”

Rucka also explained how OMAC spins directly out of Identity Crisis:

“In the second issue of The OMAC Project, Batman relates how his memory of the incident came back, and it isn’t a bolt of lightning thing,” Rucka said. “Life happens, and when life happens, things happen that can act as triggers. He didn’t wake up one morning, and yell, ‘Oh my God! I remember!!’ but you can’t take ten minutes out of the world’s greatest detective’s head, and not expect him to eventually find that missing time. In the issue, he says that he’s the master of only one thing, and that’s my mind. He can’t even control his body – one day it will ultimately betray him - get older and slower. But the one thing that Bruce has got, and he’s got more than anybody else, because he’s worked it more than anybody else, is his mind, and the control he has over it. You can’t mess with it, and think that he wouldn’t notice. He noticed. He reacted.

“And he responded.”

I have no idea what's going on and I love it.