Mr. Byrne,

Your work on OMAC is among my favorite in your entire oeuvre. A brief search of the web reveals similar sentiments among those who have consumed your work. Despite the obscurity of the source material (being one of the lesser-known and shorter-lived creations of Kirby’s ‘70s DC period compared to The Demon, Kamandi, or the Fourth World), you produced a powerful work that is highly regarded three decades on. The art is gorgeous, the imagery mind-bending, and the story never flags.

Drawing on the source material, you spun the narrative in novel and fascinating directions. I hope that DC will compile and reproduce this work in some high-quality over-sized manner in the near future (like they did with Cosmic Odyssey, a roughly contemporaneous 4-issue prestige series, for example). I would be the first to place an order.

That said, having re-read this work for the twentieth time only recently, I have three questions about the details of the story I thought might be worth taking the time and difficult to pose to you, as many other fans may have had similar queries. And none of these questions have been previously posted to this forum, based upon google results (the forum search function being not particularly functional).   

Before posing those questions, however, I think I may have found a small and minor typo or error in the series, the presentation and explanation of which will nicely establish the context for my questions and refresh recollections on particular details.

Chronology and a Minor Discrepancy

Although the series deals with multiple, diverging timelines, there is a clear chronology that can be deduced from the details of the books. The first book does not provide any dates or years, but the technology and narrative make clear that it is, like the original OMAC series, occurring in some distant future setting. I have, however, been able to deduce that that the events in this book occur circa 2056, in one of the timelines, for reasons I provide shortly.

Unlike the first book, the second book occurs over the better part of a decade, with time jumps occurring between scenes. The first scene – OMAC’s arrival in the 20^th century – is initially undated.  But you begin to place more overt clues in the art and narrative in subsequent scenes. This allows us to fix certain dates, including 1934 (page 9, panel 5), another jump 6 years after Molly’s father was killed, and then 1939, when Buddy is fired from his job at the docks, and Molly announces her pregnancy. Critically, however, Molly announces the 10^th anniversary of his arrival on October 9, 1939.This means that Buddy arrived on October 9, 1929, establishing the year of his(previously undated) arrival.

But what is the discrepancy? On the final page of Book 4, panel 3, Brother Eye tells Buddy/OMAC that it is sending him back to the point at which he “first appeared in 1928.”  It seems unlikely that Molly would have confused the date of his arrival by a year, nor that Brother Eye would have been mistaken either, so it must be a typo or simple error. In either case, it is fairly minor, but I thought I would note it.

Regarding the remaining chronology, the third book appears to occur entirely in 1939. The fourth book opens in 1939, and then has a time jump to 1991, as clearly evidenced by the date on Molly’s tombstone. The rest of the book recaps the Kirby series, and then spins towards the final conclusion. However, Brother Eye explains to Buddy in 1991 that the Time Machine which Mr. Big had built would not be “created for another 60 years” (p. 27,panel 2). In the first book, however, the two Global Peace Authority officers explain that it took them “nearly 5 years” to learn how to operate the Time Machine, even though they caught up with Mr. Big just as he activated it (p40). Assuming that Mr. Big completed construction and then activated it at roughly the same time, and further assuming that the “interface” from which the GPA officers pulled OMAC in Book one was merely spatial, and not temporal, then that would add just about 65 years past 1991, establishing the events of Book One in 2056.

A Question of Timelines

I have three questions arising from plot points you develop out of the architecture of your narrative.

My first question is a request to confirm a disturbing inference that seems to have gone unmentioned and largely unnoticed: as a logical result of the ultimate resolution of your story, where OMAC decides not to interfere with Mr. Big in the past or prevent WWII, we end up with the dystopian future that opens Book One. I’m wondering if this is your intent or whether you had in mind a different outcome.

My second question builds on the premise of the first, and asks whether the resolution of the story, as you’ve presented it, actually results in a new, slightly larger loop, instead of breaking the time loops, as you seem to have intended.

My third question presses for an explanation as to why Mr.Big can’t use his temporal advantages to actually overcome OMAC, given the parameters as you’ve established them. I sketch some possibilities that do not seem to be foreclosed by your story as presented.

All three questions are based on a close analysis of the presentation of events, and so require some contextual set-up and explanation.

Your story as told and depicted presents two distinct timelines resulting from the use of time travel and concerted efforts to change the past. One timeline is clearly a result of Mr. Big’s temporal machinations(going back in time to manipulate the past to his advantage), and appears to result in an extremely dystopian planet and desiccated humanity, the world that opened the first issue.  For ease of reference, I will call this Alternate Timeline #1, or ATL1 for short.

Another timeline appears to be the result of OMAC’s further interference, following Mr. Big back in time, but then murdering Hitler to prevent WWII, and preventing the outcome of ATL1. Let’s call this Alternate Timeline #2, or ATL2 for short. This timeline apparently results not only in the original Kirby series, but the circumstances that initially lead Mr. Big to go back into time (his frustration with OMAC, etc.).

The manipulation of time in this manner produces several paradoxes. The first one relates to the looping quality of ATL2: Mr. Big created a time machine in ATL2 as a result of his ongoing conflict with OMAC. His success in doing so thus precipitated OMAC’s efforts to go back in time to stop him (using the same machine), and preventing WWII in the process. Thus, ATL2,once initiated, actually reproduces itself in a loop. It never actually leads to ATL1, as Mr. Big intends, because OMAC always goes back to prevent it from maturing. From one perspective, ATL2 is actually the main timeline, in the sense that it is the one that is the ultimate result of various machinations, and ATL 1 (where Mr. Big “wins”) is simply an aberration that is always corrected and erased.  

So far, I am not suggesting anything new. This paradox is the structural centerpiece or foundation of your story, the resolution of which occurs only when both the protagonist and antagonist realize the looping problem, and then try to figure out a way to break out of the loop, concluding that the only way to do so is to let the other party succeed.

However, my first question regards a critical plot point here. The resolution you write occurs when Buddy/OMAC decide to travel into the past, but with instructions to avoid contact with Mr. Big or interfering with his plans. By permitting WWII happen and Mr. Big’s ambitions to go unchecked, you essentially resolve the story by having Mr. Big “win,” and the world ends up as it was presented in Book One. Although you give Buddy his “happy life” in the20^th century, you end up giving everyone else a miserable one in the Twenty-First!  I would like to confirm that this is your authorial intention, or whether you had in mind a different outcome.  

I would further like to point out that if I am correct about inference drawn in my first question, far from breaking the loop, you’ve actually created a new one, but with slightly greater complexity and larger scope. This is the second paradox and my second question: if Buddy/OMAC and Brother Eye let Mr. Big “win,” then won’t it lead to a future where OMAC is created, and sent back in time to stop Mr. Big, as presented in Book One?  Thus, although the ATL2 loop is broken, ATL 1and ATL 2 are now configured into loops that feed each other endlessly.  Let me diagram this to demonstrate it:

Step 1: Mr. Big goes back in time to change the past and build an empire that results in a dystopian future.

Step 2: OMAC follows Mr. Big back in time and kills Hitler to prevent WWII, preventing the future in which Mr. Big “wins.”

Step 3: Frustrated with his conflicts in the Kirby-stories, Mr. Big builds a time machine in order that he might travel into the past and change the future.  See Step 1.

Steps 1 through 3 are the loop that never ends. This is ATL2, and under this loop ATL 1 never happens. However, you break this simple loop once Buddy/OMAC realizes that when he travels into the past, he should avoid interfering Mr. Big and let WWII happen. That creates a new step:

Step 4: Buddy/OMAC realizes that he can break the Step 1-3loop by traveling back in time and letting WWII happen. He does so.

But do you see what happens? The next step (a Step 5) is back to Step 1: Mr. Big’s machinations result in a dystopian future in which he has built an empire. And a Step 6 is nothing more than Step 2: The GPA send OMAC back in time using Mr. Big’s time machine to stop Mr. Big. You are back in a loop.

So “non-interference” with Mr. Big simply results in a timeline in which ATL 1 loops into ATL 2 and back to ATL 1 again, ad infinitum.  “Interference,” on the other hand, simply results in loops of Step 1 through 3. If I’m right, then doesn’t this mean that OMAC is in a loop regardless of his actions?

My third question presses a plot point: The Step 1 through 3loop exists because Mr. Big’s plans never succeed, and he can’t get rid of OMAC. But why, exactly? You’ve established several parameters to the story, including the fact that going back in time causes memory loss (without a technological aid).  Why couldn’t Mr. Big “learn” from his past mistakes, using subsequently gathered information to defeat OMAC in the past?  After all, they are asymmetrically positioned in the past: OMAC cannot get his memory back until Brother Eye arrives, while Mr. Big has a technological memory implant. This gives Mr. Big a huge advantage that he can’t seem to exploit through the loop, either in the past or the future. I am not entirely sure why he is unable to do so or what your intended explanation was here.

Theoretically, Mr. Big could leave some sort of “message in a bottle” for himself into the future of ATL2 to aid him in future loops, and more precisely pinpoint Buddy’s location prior to Brother Eye’s arrival in the past, and take him off the board.

Or, alternatively, he could use his asymmetric knowledge to better prevent the creation of OMAC in the first place. Regarding this second possibility, one possible explanation is that the GPA agents are caught in the temporal wake can set in motion a series of events that lead to OMAC being created in ATL1, as they are shown to do near the end of Book four anyway.  So, if Mr. Big “wins” by breaking the ATL 2loop, it is like a small tributary that briefly diverges but then returns to the main river (of ATL 2). 

Brother Eye explains that these agents will be killed by Mr.Big’s assault on Myron Forrest’s lab, but not before OMAC is created. But if that is the only explanation, then it raises another obvious question: why couldn’t Mr. Big use subsequent knowledge of what happens to, say, kill Prof. Forrest in the first place, or otherwise thwart this outcome from another angle? 

It seems to me that some of these paradoxes can be resolved by having OMAC/Buddy go back in time, and split the difference: let Mr. Big live, but kill Hitler and prevent WWII. But that does not appear to be the choice you made. In fact, you make it clear that Buddy believes that WWII should have happened.

As you can see, your plot raises some difficult questions about how it can be resolved logically. I am hoping you may be able to shed some light on this. I have been unable to locate any other source capable of doing so nor been able to find anyone who has studied the story with this level of detail, analyzing various implications.   

Despite my effort to read these books closely, it is possible that I have misunderstood or misinterpreted some critical element.  I would appreciate any light you could shed.  Please correct any misunderstanding of the timelines as you’ve presented them or the authorial intent regarding the sequence of events.

To recapitulate my questions directly and succinctly:

1)     Logically, is it true that OMAC’s decision to not interfere with Mr. Big results in the future depicted in Book One? And if so, was this your intention?

2)     Doesn’t OMAC’s decision to not-interfere simply create a different, slightly enlarged loop rather than break out of the recursive sequence of events?

3)     Given Mr. Big’s technological advantage of having a memory aid in the past, why can’t he use incremental informational advantages he can gain through each loop to defeat or destroy Buddy/OMAC, either in the past (before Brother Eye arrives), or in the future by pruning events that lead to Dr. Forrest’s creation of OMAC? The parameters you’ve established don’t seem to firmly foreclose this possibility.

I realize that these questions are long and detailed, but I could not figure out a way to present them clearly and unambiguously without such detailed explanations and elaborate context-setting. A more terse approach would have greatly increased the chance of miscommunication or insufficient clarity. Even if answers prove elusive, at a minimum I hope I have clearly conveyed the substance and basis for my three questions.  And I have been pondering these questions for years, so I'm glad, at a minimum, to get them off my chest. 

Time Travel and Entropy

One other small note. In your afterward, you state “if our universe were dragging behind it every nanosecond since the beginning of time, total entropy would have overwhelmed the universe within a matter of hours after its creation.”  A Berkeley physicist has actually theorized a 4D model of the universe that pretty much suggests exactly that (and published a book about it). His theory is that the current moment of time is the surface of a wave front originated at the big bang, and that the expansion of the universe is both one of space and time. Ina sense, it is dragging beyond it the past (or, rather, moving out from it).  But more than that, he suggested several possible experimental tests to confirm or falsify his theory. Unfortunately, the LIGO instruments were insufficiently calibrated to evaluate one of the best possible tests, but it is possible that future cosmic events will generate the data to prove or falsify his theory. You can read about that here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07975  or his book here: http://www.profrichmuller.com/now-the-physics-of-time.html(highly recommended).