X-Men’s Omega-Level Mutant Lore Change Should Remind Marvel That Fans Want More Than Just Spectacle

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Warning! Spoilers ahead for Ultimate Wolverine #4

Marvel just made a major change to its Ultimate X-Men lore by confirming the Ultimatetimeline only has a single remaining Omega-level mutant, in the process making them a potentially pivotal figure in the continuity, and in the process serving as a reminder of what fans really want from superhero stories, which are stakes over spectacle.

Ultimate Wolverine #4, written by Chris Condon, with art by Alessandro Cappuccio, reveals that the Ultimate Marvel Universe has been purged of all Omega-mutants, save for one, leading to speculation about who that lone Omega-level powerhouse is going to be, while also setting up a significant arc for them in the near future.

That said, the issue also prompted renewed discourse among the fandom about what is considered the “devaluation” of the “Omega” terminology in the mainstream Marvel Universe, with many fans agreeing that they wished the term still meant something more meaningful than it does now.

The Ultimate Universe Only Has One Omega Mutant Left; Why Marvel Fans Are Excited By This Reveal

Ultimate Wolverine #4, Written By Chris Condon; Art By Alessandro Cappuccio; Color By Bryan Valenza; Lettering By Corey Petit

The original version of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, which ran from 2000-2015, was highly successful in its reimagining of classic Marvel characters. The Ultimate Universe 2.0 has been a concentrated effort to push the boundaries of this reinvention even further, but the key difference has been that, rather than the “open world” of version 1.0, this time, there has been an overarching story, into which each newly revamped character fits like a puzzle piece. For many Marvel readers, the tease of a solitary Ultimate Omega-mutant in Ultimate Wolverine #4 feels like a huge piece of the puzzle.

More than that, though, fans quickly expressed excitement about the weight this gives the Omega distinction in the Ultimate Universe; more than just making the Omega-level character a valuable part of the ongoing line-wide narrative, it adds further gravity to the Ultimate Universe as a whole, helping to give readers the feeling that the antagonists of that narrative, led by the villainous Maker, could actually win in the end. After all, if there is only one Omega-mutant left in the world, no matter how powerful they are, eliminating them would be a huge victory for the villains.

In the abstract, this should remind Marvel Comics that this is what readers want from superhero stories: real stakes, legitimate tension, and actual drama. That isn’t to say these things are entirely absent from Marvel, or X-Men stories, but there has been an increasing shift in superhero storytelling toward more spectacle-driven entertainment, in which the priority is delivering “big moments,” rather than on emphasizing the emotional impact of the story on readers. It is fair to say that the publisher’s Omega-mutant “problem” is an example of this, but its Ultimate Omega reveal could be the solution.

The Proliferation Of Omega-Level Tells Marvel Fans Not To Put Too Much Stock In The Term

Its Meaning Has Depreciated

For those unfamiliar with the term, in X-Men lore, an Omega-level mutant is one whose powers have no quantifiable upper limit; in other words, it is less a scale of mutant power, and more of mutant potential. In practice, this has led to a quasi-arms-race of sorts, as established Omega mutants continue to evolve to god-like levels of power, while new mutants are being added to the Omega-level list with increasing frequency. All of that is to say, the term has begun to lose some of its credibility among the Marvel fandom, because it isn’t being used judiciously enough.

In 2019, when author Jonathan Hickman offered the definitive in-universe explanation for the Omega terminology, he also gave readers a very limited list of Marvel’s Omega mutants. This did for the term, and these characters, much the same as what Ultimate Wolverine #4’s Omega lore-drop seems to be doing for that alternate continuity. Since then, though, the designation has been applied inconsistently, and superficially, and the list has expanded, all of which has been a result of Marvel using the term, essentially, for a “quick hit” of excitement from readers, or to justify suddenly turbo-charging a character’s powers.

X-Men’s “Omega-Level” Distinction Is Starting To Have The Opposite Effect Than It Once Did

Lowering Fans’ Expectations, Rather Than Raising Them

Marvel’s Omega-mutant “problem,” to the extent it has one, is especially interesting because it shows how the traditional tricks and tropes of superhero storytelling have, in some cases, become less effective with time. For a long time in X-Men comics, raising a character’s power level was, in itself, one way of raising the stakes of a story. Over the course of decades, however, the powering up of characters has become more formulaic, and at times, it has become a substitute for stakes, and for story in its own right.

Every issue of a superhero comic needs a hook, and it is fair to say spectacle is often an easier hook than substance. Yet starve readers of substance for too long, and they start to crave it; just like how binging nothing but candy eventually leads even sugar to start tasting unpleasant, serving up too many action-packed, lore-changing, but ultimately surface-level X-Men stories will have fans begging for the dial to be turned back down from eleven. Hopefully, Ultimate Wolverine’s twist on X-Men’s Omega-mutants is one sign that this is happening in at least one corner of the Marvel Universe.

Ultimate Wolverine #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.

“}]] X-Men’s Omega problem might have a solution.  Read More