Omega Red

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Contents 1 Stats 2 Character biography 3 Powers and abilities 4 Other versions 4.1 Age of Apocalypse 4.2 Ultimate Marvel 5 Other media 5.1 Television 5.2 Film 5.3 Video games 5.4 Toys 6 External links

Stats

• Height: 6 ft. 11 in.
• Weight: 425 lbs.
• Eyes: Red
• Hair: Blonde
• character name: Omega Red
• real name: Arkady Rossovich
• species:Human Mutant
• publisher:Marvel Comics
• debut:X-Men #4 (vol. 2, January 1992)
• creators:Jim Lee ,Scott Lobdell
• alliances:USSR, The Hand, Red Mafia
• aliases*Arkady Gregorivich, Vasyliev Arkady
• powers* Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes, Regenerative Healing factor, Carbonadium retractable tentacles housed within each arm ,Ability to secrete pheromones that result in sickness and death ,Life Force absorption, Skilled hand-to-hand combatant and military tactician.

Omega Red' is a character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in X-Men #4 (vol. 2, January 1992), and was created by Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell.

Character biography

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 a 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 the KGB.

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.*as revealed in X-Men Vol. 2 #6* 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.*Wolverine: Origins #31*

Omega Red also battled John Wraith in Berlin at that time.*Wolverine #61*

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.*X-Men Vol. 2 #4* He fought and defeated Wolverine, and brought him to Tsuryaba, Fenris, and Cornelius in Berlin.*X-Men Vol. 2 #5* He battled the X-Men,*X-Men Vol. 2 #6* and was wounded by Psylocke and defeated by the X-Men and Maverick and escaped.*X-Men Vol. 2 #7* 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.*X-Men Vol. 2 #18-19* 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..

While 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 SHIELD.

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 engage in combat. Omega Red is largely impervious to Wolverine's claws; the Red Room had been experimenting on his body in an effort to enhance his healing factor. After Nightcrawler intervenes and knocks Omega Red unconscious, he is returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.

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.

Omega Red has the ability, and need, to drain the life force of victims with 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 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.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse timeline, there is a different version of Omega Red known only as Rossovich. Instead of a homicidal maniac, Rossovich appeared more sane and business-like. He had ties to the mutant underground and the black market.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Omega Red is an enemy of Spider-Man.

He is depicted as a mutant with the hate for humans. At some point, he had been hired to attack a cargo ship belonging to Roxxon Industries as a conspiracy against its leader Donald Roxxon. After his fight with Spider-Man, he is arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. However, he managed to escape when the Green Goblin escaped. When Spider-Man defeated him, his clients stopped going to him. He blamed the Daily Bugle because of the article that was written by J Jonah Jameson of how he was humiliated. Omega Red went to the Daily Bugle disguised as a janitor and trashed the place up until Spider-Man arrived and once again defeated him.

His tentacles extend from the tops of his wrists instead of the bottom and appear to be organic, not artificial. He has demonstrated superhuman strength. It is not clear if his other powers are the same as his mainstream counterpart.

Other media

Television

• Omega Red appears in the episodes "Red Dawn" and "A Deal with the Devil" of X-Men: The Animated Series voiced by Len Doncheff. In the original X-Men TV series produced by Saban, Omega Red claimed that the armor, like his tentacles, was made of carbonadium. Whether or not this means the armor in the comics is also be made of the material is unknown.

• Omega Red appears in the episode "Target X" of X-Men: Evolution voiced by Richard Newman. He is depicted as an agent of HYDRA.

Film

• Omega Red's name can be seen in X2: X-Men United on the computer when Mystique hacks into Stryker's computer.
• Omega Red has appeared in the Hulk Vs segment "Hulk Vs Wolverine" voiced by Colin Murdock. He works with Weapon X (opposite of the comics) to capture Hulk so they can use him as their ultimate weapon. Like all members of Weapon X, he hates Wolverine, although he is not especially fond of his teammates (especially of Deadpool).

Video games

• Omega Red is a Danger Room opponent in X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the SNES.

• 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.Template:Fact

• Omega Red appears in X2: Wolverine's Revenge.

• Omega Red appears as a boss in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse voiced by Steven Blum He is encountered in the Beyonder's Sanctum within the Savage Land. He is shown working for Mikhail Rasputin. Omega Red stated that Apocalypse had promised him his own domain in Apocalypse's "new world order" and also stated that Beast was used to translate the symbols on the temple walls.

Toys

• Omega Red has also been made into an action figure. In 2007, Omega Red appeared as a rare figure in the Mutations & Monsters expansion set of the table top miniature game, Heroclix.

External links

• Omega Red at Marvel.com
• Marvel Directory's entry on Omega Red