Omega Kids #2: Negasonic Teenage Warheads

Omega Kids definitely tries to broach the topic of the reality of child soldiers, but it doesn’t get much room to breathe on that front. Instead, the book points more at the duality of Quentin than anyone else, at times to the book’s detriment.

Quire’s become older, but his wisdom seems to have notably faded. By no means is he dumb, but certain things that should be immediately obvious to him skate beyond his vision unnoticed. That looks to be by design though. Quentin is a man stuck between what he thinks these kids want and what he feels they need. To their country they are soldiers bred to protect their land, that is their purpose, but to Quentin they are children. He tries to be the “cool teacher” and an older brother figure, but the thing about Quentin Quire is that he has never been cool and he would be the worst sibling to have. That grating against his true self creates a shell that prevents him from seeing these kids for who they really are, and just how far down they have already fallen. 

Tony Fleecs does a good job expanding more on Quentin’s tenuous relationship with the kids this issue. It’s clear that he sees them in a much better light than they do him, but really this is exactly what Quentin should have expected. The thing is, you can’t try to treat them like regular children while also ordering them to wipe the memories of an old woman’s grandson from her mind without her knowing.

That disconnect comes to a head when the children nearly invoke the wrath of a reclusive Rachel Summers, who sadly doesn’t do much despite being on the cover of the issue, but she serves her purpose in trying to nudge Quentin in the right direction. Quentin tries to treat the Omega’s like children, and they very much are, but they are also soldiers. As Rachel said:

Maybe it’s not the best idea to teach these psychic warheads to hunt and kill other mutants like it’s a game.

And by the end of this issue, Fleecs warns that that warhead is set to detonate much sooner rather than later. 

As for the art, Andres’ Genolet continues to impress with a couple standout spreads that really capture the eye. Outside of these moments the art is pretty standard.