Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, will write a ten-issue comic book series for Marvel Comics based on the enigmatic 1970s superhero Omega the Unknown.  The original Omega the Unknown comic series, which also ran for 10 issues from May of 1976 to October of 1977, featured a silent superhero who appeared whenever teenager James-Michael Starling was in danger.  Letham, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Motherless Brooklyn, is one of the few devotees of the original series, which he recalled, '... had an uncanny power over my imagination, and seemed potentially to have the intrigue and complexity of a great novel.'

The fact that the once lowly regarded comic book medium has been able to attract such distinguished writers as Lethem, whose stint on Omega will be his first work in comics, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Chabon, who has worked for DC and writes The Escapist for Dark Horse, speaks volumes about the comic book's newly acquired respectability.  Interestingly enough the history and iconic mythology of comic book superheroes provided key themes for the novels by both Chabon and Lethem, so their involvement in the actual writing of comics should come as no surprise to the readers of their fictional prose efforts.