science

Michael Costner

Michael Costner is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael Costner rather than just read about it. In short: OMAC (Michael Costner) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Costner was introduced in OMAC #1 (July 2006) and was created by Bruce Jones and Allan Goldman.

Key takeaways

Michael Costner belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael Costner to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael Costner from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

OMAC (Michael Costner) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Costner was introduced in OMAC #1 (July 2006) and was created by Bruce Jones and Allan Goldman.

Fictional character biography

Origin Michael Costner, a seventeen-year-old petty thief, spent his entire life in Gotham City; first as an orphan in care of a local hospital, then scraping his life on the streets, stealing to sate his addiction to heroin. While at the hospital, Costner is infected with the OMAC nanovirus through a contaminated vaccine. However, Brother Eye never activates Costner's OMAC programming due to losing contact with him. Instead, Brother Eye keeps Costner as a "sleeper agent" who will only activate in times of dire need. After Brother Eye is nearly destroyed by Sasha Bordeaux, it activates Costner's OMAC programming. While other OMACs have no personality or qualms with used as killing machines, Costner defies his programming and opposes Brother Eye. Despite the obvious inconsistencies in his programming, Brother Eye orders Costner to steal a hard drive from NORAD to restart the OMAC project at full capacity. Resenting Brother Eye for forcing him to kill and for stealing his personality, Costner flies to outer space, taking enough control of his OMAC form to jettison the hard drive and Brother Eye. Enraged, Brother Eye casts him back to Earth.

Later history While on the run, Costner meets Vienna Barstow, a showgirl who falls in love with him. Able to balance his new form, Costner shows an increased control over his body, becoming able to access several OMAC powers in his human form, mostly for Vienna's benefit. At first skeptical and angry at Costner for OMAC's early doings, Vienna softens up, steadily falling in love with him. Brother Eye watches over the two, planning to turn Vienna into a new, more obedient OMAC unit. Elsewhere, Batman notices strange activities in space and sends Superman to search for Brother Eye. Superman is captured by Brother Eye and held in a kryptonite-laced chamber. He manages to contact Costner, transmitting him Brother Eye's plans about Vienna and the world: to kill every metahuman on Earth to avenge its defeat; and ultimately smash Earth and the Moon together, thus ending a "corrupt" humanity. Moreover, Vienna is now pregnant with Costner's son. Hoping to stop Costner from garnering enough courage to make a stand, Brother Eye awakens Vienna, now an OMAC, and sends her to kill Costner. Costner shocks Vienna into control by telling her of her pregnancy and reminding her about their previous charade. As Superman battles Brother Eye, Vienna sacrifices herself to destroy the atomic furnace that sustains it.

Powers and abilities As an OMAC, Michael Costner is able to access the extensive knowledge on metahumans stored by Brother Eye, shapeshift parts of his body, and enlarge his body mass. He later gains the ability to use his invulnerability, heat vision, and shapeshifting abilities in human form.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Costner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael Costner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael Costner before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael Costner ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael Costner

In research: Michael Costner appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael Costner in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael Costner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Comics characters introduced in 2006, DC Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability, DC Comics characters with superhuman strength, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Costner outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael Costner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael Costner means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael Costner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Costner in simple terms?

Why does Michael Costner matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael Costner?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael Costner.