What is Omega Level Mutants?
Since House of X and Powers of 10 have been released, the X-Men universe has been turned on its head. One of the biggest revelations Jonathan Hickman has given within the books is an official list for the known omega-level mutant in the Marvel Universe, which consists of 14 mutants. This article will be about omega-level mutants and a brief overview of each character. But first off, for those who don’t know what an omega-level mutant is, it’s a classification that was coined for the first time in Uncanny X-Men issue 208 in 1986. It’s basically a way to describe a mutant who has an undefinable upper limit to their power or, as the official definition says, a mutant whose dominant power is deemed to register or reach an undefinable upper limit of that specific classification. In short, off-the-charts crazy powerful with a particular power. Like the example given to us in House of X issue 1, Jean Grey is both a telepath and a telekinetic, but she’s only an omega-level telepath.
Jean Grey
The most people are already familiar with Jean Grey; she’s one of the five original X-Men and the most reoccurring host for the Phoenix Force. She’s a telekinetic and telepath, but it’s her telepathy that makes her an omega-level mutant. Jean is able to use her telepathy in a ton of different ways, such as mind communication, mind reading, mind transferal, erase someone’s memories, increase another mutant’s power, decrease another mutant’s power, change someone’s personality, do psychic surgery, cast near-flawless illusions, project her astral form, control the astral plane, create psychic links with other beings, and all sorts of mind manipulation. Essentially, since your brain controls your body, she could almost do anything to anyone.
Jamie Braddock
He’s Psylocke and Captain Britain’s brother. His power is the ability to interact with and perceive reality on a quantum level so much so he sees reality as an endless web of strings that he can manipulate. Because of this ability, Jamie can reshape reality itself. He can also reshape humans to the point where he could morph them into other people entirely. And let’s not forget he can control and manipulate all manner of energy.
Iceman
Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, could reduce the temperature of anything to absolute zero and turn the moisture in air to ice, which allows him to make ice slides, ice armor, and spikes—all the stuff we know Iceman for. But the thing that makes him an omega-level mutant is the fact that Iceman doesn’t emanate cold; he instead decreases thermal energy, meaning he has the power to influence the ecosystem of the entire world as mentioned by writer Mike Carey. In short, his power gives him the ability to affect the entire world, which makes him an omega-level mutant. Also, on a more badass note, he could theoretically freeze the moisture in your body, freezing you from the inside out—terrifying but awesome.
Elixir
Josh Foley, aka Elixir. Elixir was once a student at the Xavier Institute. As for his ability, he has biological manipulation which allows him to restore life or take it. Essentially, he could manipulate organic material on a genetic level and use it to heal someone or kill someone. For instance, one of his classmates’ hearts was taken by an enemy, and he just grew a new one for said classmate. Also, he has the capacity to alter his own genetic code, which is one of the reasons he’s considered an omega-level mutant.
Legion
Legion, Charles Xavier’s son, has hundreds upon hundreds of mutant powers. Said powers range from reality-warping to telekinesis, time manipulation, emotional control, pain induction, soul absorption, super-strength, pyrokinesis, telepathy, and the list goes on for days. With that said, each of his powers is controlled by a different personality, and he has thousands of personalities. So just imagine. In any case, since he has so many abilities, several of which are insane like reality warping and time manipulation, it’s easy to see why he’s an omega-level mutant.
Magneto
As any X-Man fan knows, Magneto is the master of magnetism. But this article will not discuss about how he could bend and control metal because he can. But he also can perceive the magnetic forces of the earth as well as the biological patterns in all living beings. Because of his ability to manipulate magnetic fields, he can theoretically alter and destroy the Earth’s magnetic field, killing everything on earth. So much like Iceman, he’s omega-level because he could alter the entire planet and/or destroy it.
Proteus
Next up, Proteus. Putting it simply, this is an insane mutant who has the power to warp the very fabric of reality itself. Now you’re seeing a trend here where a lot of Omega-level mutants have reality-warping abilities because, that’s an insane power, literally warping reality. Anyway, what’s unique with him is that he exists as living energy that can essentially inhabit a human body. But with that said, he constantly has to hop from body to body because the energies that he controls literally burn out living flesh.
Mr. M
Mr. M has the ability of matter manipulation with his psionic abilities. He has power over pretty much anything at an atomic level, which means he could do virtually anything his mind can imagine. And here’s the crazy part: it’s been said that if he was to reach his full potential, he could possibly be beyond an omega-level mutant.
Storm
Storm’s omega-level power is weather manipulation. When you really think of it, it makes all the sense in the world that she’s an omega-level mutant because she has the power to manipulate weather, meaning she could create the worst natural disasters the world has ever seen by creating global hyper storms that could cover the entire planet, destroying all life itself. She could literally pull a Noah’s Ark, except she wouldn’t be Noah; she would be god, flooding the entire planet and resetting everything. So again, just like Iceman, she has the power to influence the ecosystem of the entire world, yet somehow she’s underrated when she’s one of the most powerful superheroes in all of Marvel’s.
Exodus
Exodus has insane telekinetic abilities. He is easily one of the most powerful telekinetics in all of Marvel. With these abilities, he could also lift extremely heavy objects, generate highly durable force fields, and create insane energy blasts. He could also use his psionic powers to increase his strength and durability. In terms of telekinetic power, he’s up there with the likes of Jean Grey.
Kid Omega
Kid Omega whose primary powers are telepathy and hyper intelligence, but his omega-level power is telepathy. The article discussed about telepathy so much on this list, there’s not much more to say about it, besides he’s an extremely powerful telepath. Although there was one time where he locked Wolverine in a memory loop. That’s not nice, but something pretty cool Kid Omega can do is he could make psychic constructs, similar to that of the Green Lantern Corps.
Franklin Richards
Franklin Richards, aka Powerhouse. This one should be no surprise to anyone as everyone’s known he’s an omega-level mutant for a long time now and, of course, he’s the son of Reed and Sue Storm. To make this simple, even as a kid, he’s one of the most powerful beings in the universe. He has vast reality-warping and psionic powers. But the kicker is he has complete control over the fundamental forces of the universe. Romo, the guardian of all realities, said that his power level is equal to the freaking Celestials, you know, the beings that created the mutants in the first place.
Vulcan
Vulcan has the ability to manipulate all known forms of energy. He’s the forgotten third Summers brother who would later become a tyrannical Emperor. To really drive home how crazy his energy manipulation powers are, Charles Xavier said that he’s the most powerful energy manipulator he’s ever seen, and considering Charles Xavier has access to every mutant on the planet through Cerebro.
Hope Summers
Last but certainly not least, we have Hope Summers. Hope has the ability of power manipulation and power mimic. She could manipulate or mimic the powers for mutants that are near her, which obviously makes her omega-level because that means she could mimic the powers of other omega-level mutants. It’s also speculated that Hope has all the powers of the mutant race as she’s been called the voodoo doll of the mutant race.
Conclusion
Finally, Omega-Level Mutants are important characters whose deeds may have a big impact on the Marvel Universe and are not only strong characters. Some of the most interesting characters in the X-Men series, these mutants’ tales are full of both cosmic conflicts and personal hardships. As we go through several story arcs with these characters, readers are treated to a rich tapestry of human struggles and heroic deeds as their real potential and influence on the Marvel Universe become clear.