The O Men: The Complete Story Vol. 1-3

Written, Illustrated and published by: Martin Eden

Reviewed by: Kristian Horn

I’ve gotta admit, I have a ton of respect for Martin Eden. It takes a lot of guts to go out into the world and decide that, no matter what, you’re going to show it your stuff…whether it’s ready to be seen or not. Of the many great challenges that comic artists face, the greatest one of all is having the ability to get out of your own way. One of the first steps in becoming an artist of any kind is being able to look at yourself, be unsatisfied with your ability, and then still be able to move on and create something despite your own misgivings regarding your own talent. It’s something I have struggled with being an amateur cartoonist myself. It’s hard not to tear yourself down even before you get started and Martin’s ability to transcend those doubts about himself and carry on with his dream of making his own superhero comics is one of the biggest reasons I have such admiration for the man. As he says in the introduction to the first volume of this O Men series, “I knew I wasn’t quite ready…And if I’d waited till I felt ready-felt good enough to start-well, I’d still be waiting, right now.” It’s this sense of Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland gumption that makes me smile when I think of Eden and his comics…that and the fact that the comics he makes are actually quite good indeed.

Eden gained some notoriety with his comic book Spandex which featured the exploits of the world’s first gay superhero team. The O Men is a bit of a different beast than Spandex in that it was Eden’s very first foray into self-published comic books. It’s a bit more of a generic superhero book that doesn’t really serve any sort of agenda like Spandex did. It’s a straightforward superhero drama in the vein of Chris Claremont’s X-Men or just about any other mainstream comic from the 1980’s. What Martin Eden has done, however, is put a slight Vertigo Comics-like twist on the proceedings. So what you get is something that is very much influenced by the Marvel Comics of a bygone era but which also has its own snarky and somewhat mature spin to it. In short, The O Men encapsulates the fun soap operatic style and adventure of comics when they were a bit less full of their own self-importance but also adds a bit of an adult spin to them.

The O Men is, as I stated earlier, Martin Eden’s very first comic enterprise so it must be said that as well written as the O Men is the art, particularly in the opening chapters, can be a bit crude. Again, it is a self- published indie comic, which is absolutely part of its charm but for anyone who sets the visual bar at current Marvel and DC comic book Photoshopped technology the graphics in this book might present a bit of a challenge. The O Men is hand-made, old school, ‘zine like quality comics at their best and the visual approach of the book made it a refreshing respite from the slightly over-produced comics out in the mainstream today. Sure, the art has its shortcomings, but Martin’s imagination, characterizations, and wit help it become a comic that is just as entertaining as anything out on the stands today.

Volume one of the series begins somewhat at the end of the tale. We find a team of superheroes that has fallen apart and is attempting to pull itself together. Eden very wisely avoids any real attempt at an origin story and drops us into the O Men’s history at a time where there may not even be an O Men any more. He draws us in by intriguing us as to why things may have turned out the way they have and lets the events and characterization trump any typical method of superheroic storytelling. The histories and personalities of the O Men reveal themselves quite organically as events begin to unfold in a mature and direct pace. The O Men are complex and well-rounded characters and Eden does a great job in this first book of setting up events and spinning out a fascinating tale of infiltration and betrayal.

By the time Eden gets readers to volume two, many of the players have already been established and events set into motion. It’s in this section where the creator of the O Men seems to have built his confidence enough to experiment with the story he’s telling. The results of this experimentation in book two are a little bit mixed in my opinion. They do lean more towards the positive than the negative, however. The biggest problem in volume two is the fact that Eden begins playing with the narrative a bit too much. You can tell that he’s attempting to test his storytelling formula a bit as he employs flashbacks and jumps in time to help tell this particular sequence of the tale. It’s in this volume where things get a bit tricky as I feel that Martin Eden the writer’s talents may be a bit over ambitious for Martin Eden the artist’s abilities. There were times in this book where I found myself a bit confused as to which character was which and exactly when events were occurring. I’d find myself having to flip back and forth between pages to make sure I knew who was who and what was happening when. With Spandex, Eden had the added benefit of color to help distinguish the characters between each other. Because the O Men is a black and white comic book and because of the fact that it seemed that at times Eden was pulling together a story that might have been a bit more difficult for him to illustrate, I found myself having to concentrate more than I felt I should have on identifying the different events and characters in the book. Despite all of this this, volume two of the O Men still turned out to be a fantastic read. It’s a testament to Eden’s talent as a writer that his story comes across as powerfully as it does even though I felt that there were some shortcomings with the art. It’s in this second book where the story very much does kick into high gear and things become a bit more complex. Building on the concepts he’s established in volume one, Eden is able to take his O Men to some very dire places and puts them through some very tough paces. You can tell that Eden’s enjoying himself while he’s creating this book as he begins to weave a web of intricacy that leads to quite a huge payoff in volume three.

The third volume is definitely the one where everything comes to a head and leads to a somewhat epic conclusion. From what I understand it took years for Eden to self-publish all of the individual issues that comprise the original O Men run. I have to say that I was quite impressed that he was able to keep all of his storylines straight throughout the years to lead to this fulfilling confluence of events. Eden abandons the somewhat complex attempts at manipulating the narrative that he tested out in volume two and returns to a more direct method of storytelling in this edition. His illustration ability has improved and everything is laid out in crystal clear fashion. This is the book that the whole saga has been leading up to and I can definitely say that what Eden serves up in this third chapter of the O Men is a terrifically satisfying dish of superheroic derring-do wrapped up in soap opera dramatics.

Fans of Eden’s latest work, Spandex, will find that many of the events in book three mirror much of what Eden did in the later issues of Spandex. Despite this, I still feel comfortable in saying that anyone who is interested in hand made ‘zine comics with solid writing, interesting ideas, and terrific characterization will certainly enjoy Martin Eden’s O Men. I’m sure that many people may be a bit put off by the art at first because the O Men is a little less glossy in its presentation than many comics out there but if you give it a chance you will find a comic that has more heart in it than anything else that is out there in the comic shops today.

The last thing I want to say about Martin Eden is that while I enjoy his self-published books I very much I hope that he’s able to somewhat branch out into mainstream comic books. I believe that Eden is a talent that is very much deserving of wider recognition. He reminds me a bit of an indie writer I met at a comic convention a very long time ago. That artist offered me one of his books and I dismissed it because I thought the art was a bit crude. A couple of years later that same writer was tapped by Marvel Comics and became one of the biggest writers in the industry. That writer’s name was Brian Michael Bendis. While Martin Eden’s books may not be as complex as Mr. Bendis’s there is a quality in them that I find sorely lacking in many of today’s mainstream superhero books. The big two could do a lot worse than bring Martin Eden into their stable. Maybe he could help them bring back a bit of the heart and soul that’s missing from a lot of their comics these days.

 

 

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