OMEGA

 

OMEGA

Real Name: Michael Pointer

First Appearance: New Avengers (Vol. 1) #16, April 2006

Powers: Michael Pointer is a mutant capable of harnessing the bio-energy signatures from the mutagenic auras of other mutants. This process can be carried out remotely, from a distance, and taps directly into the bio-genetic power produced by the x-gene, so even mutants with non-energy based mutations are potential sources of power for him. Michael typically utilizes these energies through bio-electric assimilation, rechanneling the power he absorbs as thrust for flight, a protective aura, and energy bolts fired from his hands. He does have the capacity to utilize the unique mutant energy signatures themselves, however, and can therefore manifest the specific powers of any mutant he is siphoning from.

Whatever his original capabilities would have been, Michael's powers have been dramatically and permanently augmented following his encounter with the Collective, the quasi-sentient energy mass formed from the energy signatures of every mutant who lost their powers on M-Day. Although the majority of the Collective has been cast into the sun, Michael still retains residual energy fields from his contact with the entity, giving him the potential to access all the powers of the decimated mutants. Among the powers Michael Pointer has manifested from the Collective and other sources are superhuman speed, telescopic vision, molecular transfiguration, size-changing, intense cold, force fields, magnetism, superhuman strength, the ability to survive in the vacuum of space, reanimating the dead, telepathy, technopathy, applied healing powers, and dinosaur-like strength, fangs and claws.

After joining Omega Flight, he adopted use of a modified Guardian micro-circuitry costume as a "power regulator", to control the amount of energy he absorbed or released at a given time. The Canadian Intelligence Services manipulated Pointer through the suit, however, using it to turn him into an addict, an "energy junkie" requiring the occasional "fix" of mutant energy to stabilize his powers and metabolic health. At this point, cutting Michael off completely from outside energy sources will apparently kill him in a matter of hours. It seems that the residual Collective energy needed to be "fed" energy like a living organism in order for Michael to maintain some level of constant super-powers.

The Canadian operatives made arrangements to remotely feed energy into the Guardian suit (and therefore Michael) from "donors" -- super-powered criminals receiving leniency for their crimes in exchange for serving on staff as a renewable power source for Omega. Although mostly non-mutant superhumans in origin, these "donors" were being fed a variant of Mutant Growth Hormone, which mixed with their non-mutant powers to create a palatable bio-energy signature similar enough to a mutant's so that Michael could feed off of it. The siphoning process seriously weakens the donors, and more than one has died from having too much of their energies fed into Omega at once.