This is one of those new series I snatched off the spinner rack when I was young in hope of getting in at the start of the next "big thing." I also bought issues #4-5 back then, but those were the only three issues I ever saw. By the time I was in college I was collecting The Defenders as backissues, and read the conclusion (such as it was) in #76-77. I didn't read the whole thing until it came out in tpb back in 2005. I was decidedly underwhelmed. For one thing, the series' original writers, Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes, didn't write issues #7-8 (for whatever rrason), nor did they write the wrap-up in Defenders. The series definitely had its good points, but it came to a premature end with #10 was was somewhat disjointed. After Gerber's death, Mary Skrenes said she knew how he intended to end the series, but resolved to keep it to herself since he was no longer around to tell the story himself. That didn't make any sense to me; it seems that would have been the perfect opportunity to reveal his intentions. Then again, I guess he had planty of time before 2008 to do so if he really wanted (and that's assuming he did have an ending in mind).
Marvel Masterworks released a new edition of Omega the Unknown today, Mary Skrenes wrote the introduction, and she was more forthcoming than I have ever seen her before. "Omega was shot in the last panel," she writes. "We had established that he could be hurt. Did we actually mean for him to die on the streets of Las Vegas? Probably not, but it played right into the demise of our characters." That would seem to indicate that Gerber did not have a plan for the end of the series, but this is the version I believe. But that's not the part of her introduction that interests me. She writes about the behind-the-scenes politics, and being taken off for #7-8 and all kinds of other stuff. Omega the Unknown is a kind of a dud (IMO), but knowing some of the reasons behind why it was (arguably) a failure makes it that much more interesting, to me, again.
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Oh man, I remember buying a collection of this series years ago for like 2 bucks and felt like I got ripped off.
I eventually just mailed it out to Chris Fluit who was interested in the series, and told him to keep it.