First Appearance Review-Omega Red X-Men #4-7

[jakefury]

I thought it'd be fun to go back and review some first appearances of characters. These will focus more on the specific characters than the issues themselves. I decided to start this off with everyone's favorite Russian super soldier: Omega Red.


There's a whole lot going on in this issue. At this point in time, a new group of super villains had banded together calling themselves the Upstarts. They engaged in a game to eliminate mutants and earn points for the quality of the kill. The members in this issue include the Strucker twins Andrea & Andreas & Matsuo Tsurayaba, who at this time was the leader of the Hand.

In this issue, Matsuo has had Omega Red restored to life after being dead for several years. He's used him to target Wolverine and bring him into Upstart custody. Omega Red and a group of hand Ninjas attack the X-Men in upstate NY near the X-Mansion. Omega Red shows off his skills here by taking down not only Wolverine but Gambit, Rogue, Beast and Jubilee. He makes short work of them all with his patented death spores and they're captured by the Upstarts.

In issue 5 the rest of the X-Men team (Cyclops, Colossus & Psylocke) show up to free their teammates. However, Omega Red has made off with Wolverine and he again defeats Logan in combat. Logan is then taken to Berlin where Omega Red takes him to the Upstarts. We find out the Upstarts are looking for the Carbonadium Synthesizer and we see Wolverine flashback to 30 years ago and a previous mission in Berlin with Sabretooth. We also see the mutant known as Maverick come to Logan's rescue and free him from the Upstarts. Finally, we see the rest of the X-Men arriving in Berlin to find their missing friend.

Debut Thoughts:
Omega Red definitely showed here he was a force to be reckoned with. He easily took down the X-Men team, even though he had surprise on his side. The solo battle with Wolverine was impressive as well, especially considering the writer says the fight lasted nearly 18 hours. all in all, a great debut for one of Wolverine's deadliest enemies. It also gives me hope we may see Arkady again some day soon.

8/10

Any suggestions for my next first appearance review? Let me know.

-JF

[Admin]

Nice! He's also in 6 and 7, so maybe review those too?

[jakefury]

I can do that. Then I'll figure out who to do next.

[jakefury]

Issues 6 & 7 see even more of Omega Red's badassery. He easily takes down Cyclops, Beast & Jubilee when they come looking for Logan. The X-Men get taken down when Matsuo uses a hypnotic command on Psylocke and she betrays the team. We see Logan with Maverick again and he's still having flashbacks to his original CIA mission in Berlin.

The Upstarts have arranged a specialist to arrive and assist them in finding Logan. He arrives in the form of Sabretooth. He and Psylocke track down Maverick & Logan and take them down without much problem (or so it appears). It turns out Psylocke had snapped out of her trance with Matsuo and was playing possum. she takes the fight to Omega Red and manages to mix in enough of her telepathy to give herself an advantage. (She used it to make Arkady believe he was using his death spores when he actually wasn't.) This gives Maverick time to free the rest of the x-Men and it's just in time. Psylocke was knocked out by Matsuo and it broke her telepathic hold on Sabretooth. The X-Men come to Maverick's aid.

Logan frees himself and has better luck with Omega Red this time due to him not being able to rejuvenate himself with the carbonadium synthesizer. The rest of the X-Men show up and assist with the Upstarts. They make their escape from the building and the Blackbird gets them away from the preset explosions just in time.

Finally, we see Logan recover the C-Synthesizer from the grave of the double agent who had it in her possession when she died. Her and Maverick send Matsuo and the Hand ninjas running. Logan turns the device over to Maverick and that's where our story ends.

It turns out this arc was not only Omega Red's first appearance but Maverick's as well. This was a great story that showed off how bad ass Omega Red was when he was fully powered. He handled the X-Men and Logan with ease here until he was weakened. This is a great debut for the Russian Super Soldier.

[Admin]

I APPROVE!