Endless Mike
Preeminent
Another entry in my Pre-Crisis Powerhouses series, and yet another Legion of Super-Heroes villain (they seem to feature very powerful villains quite often)
Previous threads:
Zha-Vam
Drang the Destroyer
Composite Superman
Duplicate Boy
Pulsar Stargrave
Overview:
Despite only having 2 real appearances, this character is somewhat well-known among comic book vs forums, and you may have heard me talking about him before. Still, he definitely qualifies for this series, as most casual DC fans, even those familiar with the Legion, have probably never heard of him.
Here is a profile on him (see Notes though).
Background:
Omega is a creature composed of the combined hatred of every being in the universe (also stated to include the hatred of every being that has ever existed throughout time in the universe). He/it was created using the Miracle Machine, a massively powerful reality-warping device invented by the Controllers, an offshoot of the Oans (also known as the Guardians of the Universe, the creators of the Green Lantern Corps) who lived in a separate universe. The Miracle Machine can transform thoughts into reality, and Brainiac 5 (driven temporarily insane by the villain Glorith) used it to give life and a physical form to the hatred of all beings in the universe, and thus Omega was born.
Powers and Abilities:
Omega is maybe not as versatile in terms of powers as some of the other characters profiled in this series of respect threads, but he more than makes up for that in raw power. It was repeatedly emphasized that he had the capability to destroy the entire universe, and he nearly did so.
Super Strength:
Omega is one of the physically strongest characters in the history of DC Comics. The physical feats of Pre-Crisis Kryptonians have been well-documented (and include such insane things as destroying a structure that could sit unharmed in the middle of the Big Bang, or correcting the flow of timelines as a side effect of a fistfight). The LOSH villain Validus (who may or may not get his own thread later... he might not be obscure enough to qualify, though) was repeatedly shown to be stronger than the likes of Superboy and Mon-El (and Superboy, aka Superman as a teenager, was not much weaker than his adult self... usually shown to not be weaker to any noticeable degree, in fact). Superboy once stated that Validus was a dozen times stronger than him, but it was confirmed in his appearance that Omega is even stronger than Validus. With a single blow, he knocked out Mon-El (who was stated to be stronger than Superboy at the time, and had a similar "invulnerability" power) and even gave him a severe concussion. Superboy even stated that it was just from the shockwave from Omega's punch, possibly implying that it didn't even connect directly.
Super Speed/Reactions:
Omega is also fast. He was able to casually walk through space at a speed that crossed light-years in seconds (seen in the Super Strength section), and this was shown to be a casual pace, as he was deliberately taking his time to reach Earth. (He also said that much of the universe would have to be trod before he reached there, and the time it took him to actually reach Earth seemed to be at most a day or so). He was able to react to and counter Dawnstar attempting to blitz him with a "dimensional transport bomb", and Dawnstar has insane FTL speed herself (she is able to cross the universe and keep up with the likes of Superboy and Mon-El in space).
Super Durability/Indestructibility:
Until the destruction of the Miracle Machine, nothing was shown to be able to harm Omega or even meaningfully slow him down. That includes a punch from Mon-El which he says could have "flattened asteroids" (which didn't even knock him back), attacks from Ultra Boy and a point-blank blast from his Flash Vision (comparable to Kryptonian and Daxamite heat vision), a precision strike from Karate Kid targeting his weakest point (and he has shown the ability to damage and destroy materials that even Kryptonians and Daxamites failed to), and even Wildfire releasing all of his energy at once in a single blast (Wildfire is a being made of "pure anti-energy", shown to be one of the most powerful Legion members, and his powers have proven dangerous to even Kryptonians and Daxamites. A combined punch from him and Superboy was stated to have more power than a nova, as can be seen in my Pulsar Stargrave thread). It's suggested that no weapon or power in the universe - aside from the Miracle Machine - is able to harm Omega.
Energy Projection:
Omega showed the ability to fire destructive energy beams from his eyes. This ability was only seen once, and not against any targets of consequence, but it could probably be reasonably inferred that it's at least somewhat comparable in power to his other abilities.
Supernatural Senses:
Omega can perceive and react to things at speeds much greater than light, as shown above. Being the living incarnation of the hatred of every being in the universe, he also seems to have a form of limited omniscience, being able to read the minds (or at least the hateful parts) and know the identities of every being with even the slightest bit of hatred within them. He said that Validus was unknown to him, because he did not feel any hatred (which makes sense, as Validus effectively has the mind of an infant, and only causes trouble when someone else is controlling/manipulating him to do so). This power is probably how he was able to know what Dawnstar was up to when she tried to hit him with the dimensional transport bomb, even though she was only thinking it to herself.
Hatred Empowerment/Embodiment:
Omega is stated to be the total sum of all the hatred that has ever existed in the universe, with a number given of 100 billion trillion (10^23) beings, although even this may be an understatement. This effectively makes Omega an abstract being - the embodiment of a concept. He gains power from any living or thinking being that feels even the slightest hatred. If you're fighting him, being angry or hating anyone or anything, including Omega himself, will just make him stronger. This also goes to help explain his invulnerability - you can't exactly punch/blast an abstract concept to death.
Weaknesses:
He doesn't have many. His most obvious weakness, and the one that eventually allowed the Legion to defeat him, was that his existence was tied to the existence of the Miracle Machine - if the machine was destroyed, he would disappear as well. This is easier said than done, though, since the machine is, for all intents and purposes, indestructible - Kryptonian and Daxamite superpowers can't harm it, and Brainiac 5 said no weapon in the universe could either. The only thing that could actually destroy the Miracle Machine was, believe it or not, Matter - Eater Lad - his ability to eat and digest anything allowed him to eat the machine. Doing so drove him insane due to its alien energies, though.
Omega has a few other potential weaknesses, although none of them were truly confirmed.
- He felt the need to stop Dawnstar from hitting him with the dimensional transport bomb - implying that it might be possible to BFR him by sending him to another universe/dimension, and he may not have the power to return on his own, although this was never tested.
- When Karate Kid tried to attack his weakest point, he replied with "My weakest spot is far beyond your power, Legionnaire!". This could imply that he does have physical weaknesses in his body, just that it would take an insane amount of power to actually exploit them.
- Even with his supernatural senses, he was unable to instantly determine that an illusory copy of himself, created by Princess Projectra, was fake. This was only shown to be a stopgap measure, however, as the only purpose of the illusion was to distract him for a few seconds while Karate Kid prepared his attack, indicating he would probably see through it eventually.
- Being the incarnation of all the hate in the universe, it's possible that, if someone or something was able to significantly diminish that amount of hate (throughout time as well as space), he could be weakened. But it would take some serious power to reprogram the minds of every being in history to have never felt hate. Retroactively wiping the universe from existence, and thus all of the beings in it who could have ever felt hate, would probably also either destroy Omega or render him powerless (but if you have to wipe out the universe to beat him, is that really even a victory? You're doing his job for him...)
Additional Feats/Statements:
- Omega's mere existence triggers the Legion's "deep space alarm", producing readings so intense they say that nothing short of the Sun-Eater should trigger (the Sun-Eater was shown to devour entire galaxies and be a major threat to the universe).
- Superboy, who's not even a telepath, can somehow sense Omega's hatred, even from light-years away
- Continues on through space, leaving the battered and broken bodies of the Legion team assembled to stop him behind (including Superboy)
- Easily defeats Timber Wolf and Star Boy
- Easily topples Colossal Boy, saying that he was weaker than Mon-El and Ultra Boy
Notes:
- Omega's profile (taken from Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes) erroneously states that he was fed by "the negative emotions of all the beings on Earth", when it was repeatedly made clear in the actual story arc that he was composed of the hatred of every being in the universe.
- The cover to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #251, from which one of the scans in this thread is taken (specifically, the one where Superboy says "Omega has the power to destroy the universe - and we must stop him!") has a "covers always lie" moment, having Brainiac 5 saying that he created a second Omega, when in the actual comic, the 'second Omega' was just an illusion created by Princess Projectra to confuse the original. If you insist, you could use this to dismiss the other statement on the cover about Omega's power, but considering that it was stated many other times in the comics themselves and never contradicted, I decided to include it anyway. Just clarifying for context.
- The masked man in some of the scans talking about Omega was actually a hologram of Pulsar Stargrave, who was part of the plot to manipulate Brainiac 5 into going insane. His words seem to imply that Omega is stronger than he is, calling him "the ultimate evil".