After the explosive showdown with Anathema bringing the first story-arc to an end, The O Men‘s story seemed to be all but over. But this story is far from reaching its conclusion just yet. Kelly, also known as Vixen (and Rob’s sister) isn’t willing to put the title to rest just yet and starts to build a new team to take the mantle and protect the world from the predicted evil that still seems ever-present. And as you can imagine, this new cast of super-powered individuals have great powers, but not necessarily the responsibility to work as a team. Martin Eden once again showing great creative ideas and characters that are plagued by their own twisted pasts and motivations and how these conflicts soon come to a head.
Little time has passed from the finale of the last volume, and Kelly is set on rebuilding The O Men that disbanded after the battle with Anathema and her Vicious Circle. Whilst Kelly has formed a team, the world continues to revolve with lower threats and crime still rampant. After some time has passed and a near brush with death, the relationships between its members start to fray and soon Kelly finds herself alone once more in the mansion. But Molly returns with heroes both new and old to help Kelly in her time of need. But the events of the past has caused distrust between them and an inability to connect with the other team members. However, they have to put their differences aside as their first task as a team is to stop a group known as The Vultures, who coordinate attacks on innocent people and then watch as these accidents unfold. But internal struggles once again jeopardise the mission and betrayals aplenty push each other away from truly being a team. And soon, Kelly seems to be standing alone, against insurmountable odds, with her team’s lives on the line.
A new story, and a new look for The O Men. You see a noticeable difference in the art style on show here, cleaner lines and character designs present a new phase of the story and a stronger emphasis on the smaller details. A nice touch is reverting to a more rougher design to reflect upon past events through flashbacks. And just like The O Men, Martin has learned to embrace working as part of a team as he manages to include several incredibly talented artists to interject their spin on this world that Martin has created and provide a little backstory towards certain characters linked to Asylum, a powerful hero who can communicate and utilise the abilities of fallen heroes and villains, with the trade off of his own sanity and control. A powerful hero that we get to learn of his origins, as well as how some of those voices in his head are linked to the other O Men members, in very tragic ways…
So what do I think of The O Men Volume 4? Despite bringing in a new team of fresh and returning faces, the heart and complexity of the narrative is still as strong as ever. The constant twists and turns keep the story fresh and all the characters with new secrets and malicious intent could rival a soap opera in its management of sub plots and ideas. Kelly is a new strong lead, headstrong and confident but flawed all the same, learning to cope with the complex natures of her fellow team members, And this dynamic applies to all the supers on show; each are uncomfortable with each other, and each have something to hide that stop them from reaching their true potential. But now we are down to the final volume, what new threats will we face to bring this epic saga to its conclusion? Well, only time and the final book will tell you that…
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