OMEGA GANG | uncannyxmen.net

Written By:

Monolith.

Image Work:

Douglas Mangum.

Last Updated:

11th August 2021

Membership: Kid Omega, Glob Herman, Redneck, Radian, Tattoo

First Appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #135
Last Appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #138

BEFORE

Charles Xavier publicly declared himself as a mutant and the guiding force behind the outlaw heroes known as the X-Men. He opened the doors of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning for enrollment in the wake of a mutant population boom. Over a hundred teenaged mutants came to the school for studies, including “Glob” Herman [New X-Men (1st series) #117], Redneck and the brother-sister duo of Tattoo and Radian. [New X-Men (1st series) #126]
Quentin Quire was a brilliant but unassuming young mutant gifted with superhuman intelligence and growing telepathy. After a secondary mutation began and his parents told him over the phone he was adopted, Quentin started acting out at school and questioning the validity of “Xavier’s dream.” He also began abusing Kick, an aerosol drug that provided a “high” and enhanced mutant abilities, which also secretly contained the bacterial consciousness of the entity known as Sublime. [New X-Men (1st series) #134]

CHRONOLOGY

Quentin Quire, as “Kid Omega,” quickly became an agitator and troublemaker at the Xavier Institute. In the week leading up to the Open Day celebration, during which humans would visit the campus, Quentin adopted a new fashion based on artistic depictions from early human fears of mutant supremacy. He challenged Xavier over his ideas of peaceful co-existence after the apparent murder in the streets of the mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation by humans.

With his Kick supply and growing telepathic charisma, Kid Omega convinced Glob, Tattoo, Radian and Redneck to adopt the same clothing and join his Omega Gang. High on Kick, the Omega Gang went out into Manhattan and beat up a group of humans caught thinking bad thoughts about mutants. Professor Xavier continued to preach non-confrontational behavior towards humans, but refused to take direct disciplinary action against Quire and his posse while the X-Men debated the case. [New X-Men (1st series) #135]

The Omega Gang continued their vigilantism by attacking a U-Men funeral / organ harvesting. Glob and Redneck combined their powers to burn a U-Man alive with burning wax as a message to the humans. Omega graffiti became increasingly common around the Xavier Institute as Open Day approached.

Quentin decided to hold an anti-human protest to commemorate the Open Day celebrations, and the Omega Gang kidnapped Professor Xavier the night before by beating him with a baseball bat. While Xavier was unconscious, Quentin fitted him with a helmet he had designed based on Magneto’s telepath-proofing, blocking Xavier from his powers. After more Kick, Kid Omega used a megaphone to declare a riot at Xavier’s during the arrival of the first guests. [New X-Men (1st series) #136]

Quentin Quire’s telepathic prodding pushed students into trying to claim the mansion for themselves and throw out the humans. The protesting got even more chaotic as Redneck lit Glob on fire, and Herman starting lobbing flaming wax bombs from the window. Kid Omega shut down Wolverine with a telepathic booby trap and felt emboldened to confront the rest of the X-Men. Beast tried to dissuade the Omega Gang by revealing the autopsy reports on Jumbo Carnation had come back and confirmed he died of an overdose of Kick, not human violence. Past the point of reason, the Omegans continued the fight. Cyclops broke Redneck’s nose with a single precision optic blast, then broke Radian’s leg with a second. Emma Frost intervened before Tattoo could cause Cyclops any harm with her powers. Glob set himself completely on fire as the “Inhuman Torch” and chased after a bus full of human guests fleeing Open Day.

As the chaos continued, the Stepford Cuckoos decided to take charge and end the rioting. Sophie Cuckoo took a hit of Kick and plugged herself into Cerebra, augmented her telepathic powers and those of her sisters as well. Charles Xavier overloaded Kid Omega’s anti-telepathy helmet and went out to confront him, but the Cuckoos intervened. Quentin admitted how confused he felt, and

that he started his “movement” to impress Sophie. The Cuckoos rejected him and reduced Kid Omega to a jabbering mess with a telepathic blast. The effort was too much for Sophie, however, and she died as the Kick overloaded in her system while she was plugged into Cerebra. [New X-Men (1st series) #137]

Cyclops, Beast and Xorn chased down Glob Herman, disabling the last of the Omega Gang rioters. The gang members tried to claim they were under the influence of Quentin’s powers, but they were turned over to the human authorities to stand trial for their crimes. The stress caused by the riot and his abuse of Kick brought about a transcendental secondary mutation in Quentin Quire. He left behind his human body, dissolving into faster-than-light particles as his mind adapted to a new state of being. Although he regretted Sophie’s death and had doubts about his actions, Quentin maintained to his dying breath that Xavier may have missed something, too. [New X-Men (1st series) #138]

AFTERWARDS

Most of the Omega Gang were prosecuted and spent time in prison for their crimes during the riot. On M-Day, Redneck, Radian and Tattoo lost their mutant powers to the Scarlet Witch’s “No More Mutants” spell. Along with several other Decimated mutants, they were recruited by the new Night Thrasher to join the New Warriors, becoming tech-based super-heroes named Skybolt, Phaser and Longstrike, respectively. They fared poorly, though, with Longstrike being killed by Cancer of Zodiac [New Warriors (4th series) #4] and Skybolt later dying in conflict with the Initiative’s Cape-Killer squad. [New Warriors (4th series) #16] Radian / Phaser’s current status is unknown.
Glob Herman retained his powers after M-Day and eventually reconnected with the X-Men in San Francisco. He turned on the X-Men again and betrayed them to the Hellfire Academy, but eventually sought redemption. Glob is among the mutants of Krakoa who live in the Akademos Habitat, a collection of biomes for the younger generation. [New Mutants (4th series) #1]
Quentin Quire’s secondary mutation unlocked his Omega-class potential, causing him to evolve into a quasi-energy state. He eventually reconstructed his body and caused a ruckus in human-mutant relations before being paroled to the custody of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning to reform. [X-Men: Schism #1-5, Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #1] After some halting steps at maturing, Kid Omega joined X-Force, working covert operations and security for the mutant nation of Krakoa. [X-Force (6th series) #2]