The series, written by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes and illustrated by Jim Mooney, ran for 10 issues before cancellation for low sales.

[1] Through the 10-issue run of the original comic book series it is made clear that there is a connection between the laconic superhero Omega and the strangely analytical child James-Michael, with most issues adding to the mysterious nature of their relationship.

In late 1978, Al Milgrom, the editor of The Defenders, assigned writer Steven Grant to complete the story, the conclusion of which was still being sought after in fan correspondence.

In his waking world, James-Michael and his parents are moving to New York City from the mountains so he can improve his socialization skills after years of home-schooling.

En route to New York the Starlings' car is driven off the road and both of James-Michael's parents are killed, but not before the boy discovers that both of them were robots.

James-Michael collapses into a coma and awakens a month later in a private hospital exhibiting an eerie lack of emotional response to his parents' deaths.

[10] Meanwhile, Omega the Unknown becomes a superhero figure in New York City, tending to fight only second-string supervillains (though he did once confront the Hulk)[11] with a variety of outcomes.

Omega the Unknown is a humanoid being of superhuman power bio-engineered by an extraterrestrial mechanoid race named the Protar, from the planet Protaris in the Regreb System in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Earth was the home of the final "model" in his series, the artificially created boy James-Michael Starling, whom Omega sought to protect from the Protar.

Afterward he is seen to have taken on the costume and title of Omega, and was living in rural Pennsylvania where his "mother", a floating robotic head, vowed to take care of him.

[23] When asked about Omega's appeal, Lethem stated, When Marvel invited me into their vault of iconography, I simply leapt at the icon that resonated most deeply with me.

It didn't hurt that Omega had been laying in neglect for so long, I might have had trouble trying to utilize a character who'd been put through so many paces as Spider-Man or the Hulk, say.