Omega Red
| Omega Red | |
|---|---|
Omega Red. Art by Dave DeVries.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Men #4 (vol. 2, January 1992) |
| Created by |
Jim Lee (writer) John Byrne (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Arkady Rossovich |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations |
The Hand Red Mafia |
| Notable aliases | Arkady Gregorivich, Vasyliev Arkady |
| Abilities | Excellent hand-to-hand combatant and military tactician Highly skilled criminal organizer Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability and reflexes High-level intellect Regenerative healing factor Carbonadium retractable tentacles housed within each arm Life Force absorption Ability to secrete pheromones that result in sickness and death |
Omega Red is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. In 2009, Omega Red was ranked as IGN's 95th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
Omega Red first appeared in X-Men #4 (vol. 2, January 1992), and was created by Jim Lee and John Byrne.
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 Sean Cassidy and turned over to the KGB, which wanted to experiment and attempt to create a supersoldier similar to Captain America. Omega Red is the end result.
In another version of Omega Red's past, Arkady was a Soviet soldier stationed in a small Siberian town. He was a murderer; his crimes easily discoverable due to the town's small size and limited number of potential victims. He was caught by his fellow soldiers and summarily executed 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; it is suggested that Arkady survives solely due to his evil and mean nature. He becomes an operative for Soviet intelligence and the KGB.
The Soviet government implanted a retractable carbonadium tentacle within each of Omega Red's arms. Carbonadium was the Soviets' attempt to recreate the artificial alloy known as adamantium, as Carbonadium 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 in the 1960s. 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. While Sabretooth and Maverick might have been aware of its location, it was eventually revealed that Wolverine actually does know where it is.
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