Omega Red
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Omega Red | |
 Art by Andy Kubert |
|
| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Men (Vol. 2) #4 (January 1992) |
| Created by | Jim Lee John Byrne |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Arkady Rossovich |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | Red Mafia USSR the Hand |
| Notable aliases | Arkady Gregorivich, Vasyliev Arkady |
| Abilities |
|
Omega Red (Arkady Rossovich) is a comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe and a foe of the X-Men. His first appearance was X-Men (vol. 2) #4 (January 1992).
A mutant, Rossovich possesses the ability to siphon the life-force of others. The Soviet counterpart to the Weapon X program of the United States and Canada turned him into a supersoldier, bonding a super strong metal alloy called "carbonadium" to his body and implanting metal tentacles, which focus his life-draining abilities, into each of his arms.
Omega Red possesses a variety of superhuman attributes as a part of both genetic mutation and artificial enhancements granted to him by the Soviet government. Omega Red possesses superhuman strength, endurance, and a high degree of resistance to physical injury and radioactivity. He has a superhuman regenerative healing factor similar to that of Wolverine and Sabretooth.
He also possesses the ability to secrete an odorless pheromone that weakens anybody within his immediate vicinity. The pheromone has never been given an official name, but has often been called his “Death Factor” and also the “Death Spore Pheromone” in opposition to Wolverine and Sabretooth's “Healing factor”. The pheromone is sufficient enough to render his targets unconscious, or even kill them, if exposed to the pheromone for a long enough period. He must secrete this pheromone, or it will start to feed off of his own body.
Omega Red battled Weapon X subject Wolverine sometime during the Cold War, the start of a decades-long feud between the two. The Soviets eventually realized that Red was an uncontrollable psychopath and placed him in suspended animation. He has since been freed and become a world-renowned criminal and mercenary.
Omega Red is a popular X-Men villain, appearing in the 1990s-era X-Men animated series; its successor, X-Men: Evolution; and several X-Men video games.
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Past life
Little is known about the past of Arkady Rossovich except that he was a serial killer born in Russia. He was captured by the Interpol agent Banshee and turned over to the KGB, which wanted to create a super soldier similar to Captain America. Omega Red is the end result.
In another version of Omega Red's past, as told in a Maverick one-shot, Arkady was a Soviet soldier stationed in a small Siberian town. He was also a child rapist and murderer, crimes easily discoverable due to the town's small size and limited number of potential victims. He was caught by his fellow soldiers and executed without trial via a gunshot to the back of the head. His superiors are astonished when Arkady survives the execution, and recommend him for the aforementioned Soviet super soldier project, a brutal process which it is suggested that Arkady survives solely due to the evil and meanness of his nature. He becomes an operative for Soviet intelligence and a KGB operative.
The Soviet government implanted one retractable carbonadium tentacle within each of Omega Red's arms. Carbonadium was the Soviets' attempt to recreate the artificial alloy known as adamantium. It is a more malleable form of adamantium. He uses them as weapons and as grappling appendages. He is able to a wrap a victim in his coils to literally drain them of their "life" energy. This vampiric tendency is essential to Omega Red's survival; the carbonadium implants, while great offensive weapons, slowly poisoned him and he was required to regularly drain the life energy of a person, or perhaps take small amounts from larger numbers of individuals, in order to temporarily sustain his immune system.
In order to stabilize his condition, Omega Red requires the "Carbonadium Synthesizer," a device that was stolen by Wolverine, Maverick, and Sabretooth during their final mission together as "Team X" and attempted rescue of double agent Janice Hollenbeck sometime during the 1960s.[1] It is because of his need for the Carbonadium Synthesizer that Omega Red has continuously sought out these three individuals over the years, believing they may know of its whereabouts.
Omega Red also battled John Wraith in Berlin at that time.[2]
[edit] Present times
At some time in the past the Soviet government decided that Omega Red was too unpredictable and treacherous to be relied upon, and so needed to be put in cryogenic suspended animation until a method could be found to control him. After the fall of Communism in Russia he was revived from suspended animation by Matsu'o Tsurayaba, who led his own renegade faction of the clan of ninja known as The Hand. Omega Red became a warrior serving Matsu'o Tsurayaba and was led to believe that Wolverine knew the whereabouts of the Carbonadium Synthesizer which could save his life, and sought him out in an effort to find this device. In doing so, he came into conflict with the X-Men many times. In their first encounter in modern times, Omega Red captured Wolverine.[3] He fought and defeated Wolverine, and brought him to Tsuryaba, Fenris, and Cornelius in Berlin.[4] He battled the X-Men,[5] and was wounded by Psylocke and defeated by the X-Men and Maverick and escaped.[6] Later, Omega Red battled and fell under the mental control of the Soul Skinner in Siberia. The Soul Skinner then used him to battle Wolverine and the X-Men. Omega Red was able to subdue the team, captured Wolverine and Jubilee and was then sent to capture Colossus, who had retreated. Omega Red eluded capture by Wolverine after the Soul Skinner's death.[7] He later fought against Chamber of Generation X, but suffered a humiliating defeat. Ultimately, Omega Red failed to eliminate Wolverine and proved to be no more loyal to the Hand than he was to the Soviet government.
He has worked for Neocommunist organizations and tried to kill a member of the Americomp organization, but was stopped by Daredevil and Black Widow.
Omega Red was later employed by Russian gangster Ivan Pushkin to incite a war between the subversive terrorist organization HYDRA and the technology suppliers A. I. M..
Most recently, whilst working for the drug lord known as the General, Omega Red was recruited by Sabretooth to attack Wolverine's friends and family alongside Lady Deathstrike. Sabretooth had promised both Omega Red and Deathstrike information on almost every mutant on Earth, but betrayed his new henchmen by teleporting away with Wolverine, his ward Amiko, and the information.
Omega Red is currently a crime lord (head of the Red Mafia) who poses as a legitimate business man, much like Wilson Fisk does in the U.S. At present, Omega Red has resumed his search for the Carbonadium Synthesizer. In Wolverine: Origins #6 and #7, Omega Red locates former Team X member, and now one of the numerous depowered mutants, Agent Zero, who is the only person that knows the location of the Carbonadium Synthesizer. This brings him into direct confrontation with Wolverine, who has also sought out Maverick in hopes of locating the Carbonadium Synthesizer. The result of this encounter is that Wolverine outsmarts Omega Red, landing him in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Months later it becomes known that the Russian Red Room bought Omega Red's freedom with the hopes of using him to their own ends. Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler encounter him after he has freed himself from his master however, and they prepare to battle.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Omega Red is a mutant with superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes, and the ability to secrete pheromones from his body typically referred to as Death Spores. The death spores result in the weakness or death of humans in his immediate vicinity. The severity of the effect is based on the endurance, health, and relative proximity of the victims. The spores are fatal to ordinary humans within seconds, though some superhumanly powered beings can withstand exposure to them for extended periods of time.
Implanted within Omega Red's arms are long retractable tendril-like coils made of carbonadium, an artificial alloy that is the former Soviet Union's attempt at creating True Adamantium. Carbonadium is more malleable than adamantium and, while being vastly stronger than steel, is considerably less durable than adamantium. Carbonadium, however, is for all practical purposes virtually indestructible. Omega Red can cause the coils to shoot forward from openings in the undersides of his wrists in order to ensnare his victims. Omega Red is able to use the tentacles as highly effective offensive weapons, often brandishing them like whips during combat. The natural durability of the tentacles, combined with his physical strength, are sufficient to cause damage to most conventional materials.
Omega Red also has superhuman levels of stamina sufficient to engage Wolverine in combat continuously for over eighteen hours with no signs of fatigue. His bodily tissues are harder and more resistant to certain types of injury than those of an ordinary human. While he isn't invulnerable, his body can withstand great impact and blunt trauma forces that would result in severe injury or death in an ordinary human. However, his resistance to injury is considerably enhanced due to the red armor that he wears. While it is unknown what the armor is composed of, it is sufficient to allow him to withstand powerful energy blasts from the likes of Chamber without sustaining injury.[1]
Omega Red has the ability, and need, to drain the life force of victims of his pheromones in order to sustain his own. Omega Red can likewise ensnare his victims within his tentacles, and use the coils as a conduit for his lethal pheromones. Due to the his mutant "death factor" and the presence of the carbonadium within his body, Omega Red must drain the life force of others on a regular basis in order to sustain his own physical health and remain active. Omega Red can use these absorbed energies to, temporarily, increase his body's healing capabilities to the point where he can fully heal from a punctured lung within a few minutes. Only a device known as the Carbonadium Synthesizer can stabilize his condition, as carbonadium is the only metal that can neutralize the "death factor," thereby stabilizing it within his body.
Omega Red is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant and military tactician. He was trained in various forms of armed and unarmed combat by both the Soviet government and various organizations throughout the Japanese and Russian criminal underworlds. Highly intelligent, he has quickly become highly skilled in the management of criminal organizations.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse timeline, there is a different version of Omega Red known only as Rossovich. He has practically the same abilities as Omega Red of Earth-616, with the carbonadium tentacles and "Death Factor". However, he was much more vulnerable because he did not have the red armor and wore a blue uniform instead. Instead of a homicidal maniac, Rossovich appeared more sane and business-like. He had ties to the mutant underground and the black market. There he was able to secure access to food, weapons, and valuable information. Domino went to Rossovich in search for X-Man but Rossovich fought back. In the fight with Domino and Grizzly, Rossovich was killed by Domino, who ran him through with her sword. His presence in the Age of Apocalypse timeline was very brief compared to that of his regular Marvel counterpart.
[edit] Ultimate Omega Red
In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Omega Red makes a cameo as an enemy of Spider-Man, notably in #86 of the series. It is unclear what exactly his powers are, but his wrist tentacles appear to be fully organic rather than made of carbonadium, and sprout from the backs of his hands, rather than from below his palms. It is also unclear if this version of Omega Red possesses the ability to secrete death spores, although Wrecker claimed afterwards that he might have sprayed the area with 'toxins'. Spider-Man refers to him as "President of the Doctor Octopus Fan Club" because of his tentacles. He was seen recently in a cameo appearance in Ultimate Spiderman #113 as one of the prisoners who escaped the Triskelion. Based on solicitations for Ultimate Spiderman #121, Omega Red will be returning, this time targeting J. Jonah Jameson for as of yet unknown reasons.[8]
[edit] In other media
[edit] Animation
Omega Red has appeared in the X-Men and X-Men: Evolution animated series.
- In X-Men, he was voiced by Len Doncheff. He appeared in the episodes Red Dawn, in which he tries to restore the Soviet Union, and A Deal with the Devil, in which he cuts a deal with the United States military to retrieve a sunken Soviet Submarine in exchange for his humanity but betrays the US and threatens to use the submarine for his own ends.
- In X-Men: Evolution, he was voiced by Richard Newman; his first and only appearance was in the episode "Target X" working for HYDRA. In this episode he mentions several of Wolverine and Sabretooth's then-unseen Weapon X accomplices, including Maverick, but nothing more of this was made before the show was cancelled.
[edit] Video games
Omega Red is a playable character in the Capcom fighting games X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. His mutant death factor is present here as one of his normal attacks as well as the "Energy Drain" that lets him deplete an opponent's life meter and add the energy to his own.
Omega Red also appears in the video games X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse voiced by Steven Blum.
Omega Red appears in X2: Wolverine's Revenge.
Prior to this, he had appeared as a Danger Room opponent in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the SNES.
[edit] Toys
Omega Red has also been made into an action figure.[9]
In 2007, Omega Red appeared as a rare figure in the Mutations & Monsters expansion set of the table top miniature game, Heroclix.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Marvel Directory's entry on Omega Red
- Uncanny X-men; Omega Red Profile
- Mutant High; Omega Red FAQ
- Omega Red at the Marvel Universe bio wiki
