Marvel-ous Mondays: "Through the Rat Hole--Into the Cat's Lair!" by Gerber, Skrenes, and Mooney

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Omega the Unknown #5 (August 1977) is another shocker by the team of Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, and Jim Mooney. As with the past couple issues, the "main" part of the story, Omega vs. El Gato wasn't the most memorable part of the story. No, Gerber and Skrenes' main focus (and ingeniously so) was on our hero's kinda-sorta-perhaps alter ego, James-Michael Starling and the grim and gritty (years before it came into vogue), all-too-realistic world he lived in. Page 12's attempted branding scene would have been extremely shocking had we not already seen page 11's brutal final panel. And then there's the shocking final page...and I don't mean the actual branding scene...whoa.

Cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia