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Publisher: Th3rd World Studios
Writer: Keith Dallas
Artist: Julio Molina-Muscara
Cover: Ryan Drake

“Home Field Disadvantage“:  Mack Baron is not the type of guy to leave his friends in a lurch, however he has no control over what’s been happening to him lately. He was last seen bleeding out in the Texas town of Providence Fields in the year 1881.  Now it’s the year 2381, and Mack has awakened not only to find himself suffering from a horrible wound, but he is also aboard a space ship.  And to think, the guy closed his eyes for only a second in the last issue, and now a routine mission to explore a nebula has turned into a death trap.

He is now Lieutenant Commander of the Paladin, and it seems that his crew was attacked and many are dead; however the Chief Medical Officer who is also his fiancee is right there to make sure he isn’t among the casualties.  After he is patched up via an alien “ball of snot,”  it’s time to get to the bottom of the assault on the ship; and with the Captain and the Commander dead, it all falls on Mack’s shoulders to make sure these next few hours aren’t their last.  Of course this is easier said than done, when an alert goes out that the intruder has been found and he’s putting up quite a fight against the security team.  Mack arrives in time to see an officer die and the intruder teleport away, having accomplished his task.  He has been nicknamed the Minotaur by the crew, and has effectively destroyed communications, slaughtered most of the engineering crew, and compromised the bridge, setting the ship’s course directly into the nebula.  So after regrouping, the remaining crew members come up with a long shot of a plan to get them all to safety. Unfortunately, while on a task Mack opens up a door in the ship and ends up looking at his friends in Providence Fields being attacked by the zombies; and that’s the good news, because  he’s been found by the Minotaur and he’s alone!

Keith Dallas brings a little more detail to his 3rd installment in the wild, time spanning adventure Mack Baron is on.  He’s able to balance a dialogue heavy book with the right amount of action, suspense, and humor, courtesy of characters like Lieutenant Charles Fielding, the 80 year old engineer with a mouth dirtier than the Hudson River!  Keith isn’t revealing much either, and we  get yet another one-page teaser of the two men from the first issue who seem to know a lot more about what’s happening to Mack than Mack does.  Problem is, they too have lost Mack due to him appearing in the far future, and are scrambling to locate him.  Julio’s work here is, in my opinion, better than in the first two issues, and this painted cover by Ryan Drake is just great as well.

Doing what a lot of books should be doing, Omega Chase gets better and better as the story progresses. From the Star Trek references to the new characters introduced, this was just a great read. Though I am hoping that we get a bit more information about what’s going on in this mystery building, where everyone seems to actually know what’s going on, and maybe how it all started for Mack.  Next issue maybe?

Infinite Speech
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