Throughout the truly fantastical history of Marvel, the world has been treated to a dazzling tapestry of powerful, weird, and wonderful characters. By the time the X-Men were created, constantly creating backstories and explanations for every new character’s abilities was quickly becoming a tedious affair given the sheer range of characters already in existence by then. By leaning on the key angle prevalent in the X-Universe, categorizing enhanced individuals as mutants became a lazy way out, but one that has nonetheless given birth to some of the greatest characters in comic book history.
The mutants created ever since have built up a stunning array of characters with wide-ranging abilities that traverse everything from cosmically powerful, to merely grotesque or whimsical. To add intrigue to the mutant world, over the years, a number of classifications were created in an effort to categorize the most powerful mutants and their abilities. While the other lower-level classifications are barely mentioned, the so-called Omega Level classification has become the most intriguing.
Used to classify the most powerful mutants, whose abilities and power levels have practically limitless potential, it’s these mutants who usually cause the biggest stir, whether fighting for good or evil. Amid a plethora of them that have emerged over the years, here are our picks for the 10 most powerful Omega Level mutants created by Marvel.
10 Nate Grey
Also known as X-Man, Nate Grey is a member of the Summers family. An alternate version of Cable, Nate appears during the legendary comic book saga known as “The Age of Apocalypse.” In this alternate world, Professor X has been killed before he ever formed the X-Men. Without his tutelage, the world is eventually thrown into a dystopian reality where Apocalypse has conquered large parts of it.
Nate Grey Has a Dazzling Range of Powers
As a genetically engineered mutant, Nate has been created from the genes of Cyclops and Jean Grey, giving him powerful psychic gifts that aren’t subject to the limitations Cable experiences from the virus he has. Created to be the ultimate telepath, Nate Grey is able to combine powerful telepathy, telekinesis, and astral projection. The fact that he can control matter and manipulate objects on a molecular level also makes him extremely powerful. Add in psionic blasts and precognition, and it starts to become clear just how powerful he truly is.
9 Legion
David Haller is the son of Charles Xavier, which should already tell you everything you need to know about how powerful he is. Co-created by the iconic Chris Claremont, Legion first appeared in 1985. Between his mother, Gabrielle Haller, being a catatonic Holocaust survivor with serious mental trauma, and his father being Charles Xavier, Legion was always bound to be a complex character.
Legion Is a Powerful and Tragic Character
That complexity becomes evident in the fact that he suffers from severe neurological differences that include dissociative identity disorder. The danger comes from the fact that each of his identities manifests a different mutant power. Since new identities emerge all the time, his array of abilities keeps growing, and he becomes more powerful and unstable in the process. Some of those powers include telekinesis, telepathy, time travel, and pyrokinesis, making him deadly, extremely powerful, and tragic all at the same time — case in point being the fact that it was Legion who killed Professor X and plunged the world into the infamous Age of Apocalypse timeline.
8 Hope Summers
The Summers family members are like royalty to X-Men fans. A surname that was initially associated with iconic characters from some of the earliest teams, like Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Alex Summers (Havok), Scott’s relationships with Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor would go on to spawn their descendants, Nate Grey and Cable. Known for his numerous exploits as a John Connor kind of character from dystopian futures, Cable becomes the adoptive father of Hope Summers during the X-Men: Messiah Complex crossover storyline.
Hope Summers Becomes a Messianic Figure
After Scarlet Witch turns all but 198 of the world’s mutants into ordinary humans with no powers, Hope is the first mutant born after that event, which became known as the Decimation. Cable saves Hope from mutant exterminators, and she goes on to become a crucial Messianic figure.
With psionic powers and a deep connection to the Phoenix Force, Hope is able to amplify her powers to virtually limitless levels. However, Hope’s main power of mutant mimicry is what makes her extraordinary. With the ability to absorb the powers of nearby mutants and mimic them, she’s able to constantly expand her array of abilities and can constantly adapt to any situation.
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7 Kid Omega
Also known as Quentin Quire, Kid Omega was first created in 2003 and was initially portrayed as a troublesome teenager. Joining Xavier’s school, he often becomes a central figure and fights alongside the X-Men on behalf of the mutant world. He was even trained by Professor X and took over the school during his time in the comics.
It’s All in the Mind With Kid Omega
Primarily possessing psychic abilities, Quentin is quickly established as one of the most powerful telepaths around. Aside from his formidable intelligence, he is able to create psychic weapons, project images and realities into the minds of others, read minds, and even create false memories in the minds of others. These gifts are augmented by his telekinetic gifts that enable him to create shields and levitate objects.
His ability to warp reality to an extent also makes him both very useful and very dangerous. Some spectacular uses of his power include fooling the Phoenix, becoming the Phoenix himself, and returning from death.
6 Storm
Easily one of the most popular and enduring X-characters of all time, Storm was introduced in 1975 as a mutant living in Kenya. At the time, she was being worshiped as a Goddess due to her ability to control the weather and help bring relief to drought-stricken areas of Africa. She represented a new era after the original X-Men team since she joined the team at the same time as Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine. She’s become known for a myriad of cool moments throughout Marvel Comics history, such as co-leading The Fantastic Four and being married to Black Panther.
Storm Has Taken on the Silver Surfer
Storm’s ability to manipulate the atmosphere and the weather can be used to devastating effect. At her most powerful, she’s done things like stop a tsunami, ignite the atmosphere, control oceanic currents, once merged herself with a storm, cocooned others from her powers, and even pressurized hydrogen atoms around the Silver Surfer, so she could stun him with a powerful lightning bolt. With no upper limit to her powers, she’s truly one of the most powerful mutants that’s ever lived.
5 Vulcan
Yet another member of the Summers family, Vulcan is also known as Gabriel Summers and is the third Summers brother together with Scott and Alex. However, he surpasses both Cyclops and Havok, since Vulcan can control and manipulate basically all forms of energy on a tremendous scale. This means he can absorb, redirect, and even become pure energy himself.
Vulcan Has An Intriguing Background
It’s later revealed that Vulcan is half Shi’ar, with his father, Christopher Summers (Corsair), having been experimented on by the interstellar race. His vast powers also include the ability to fly, and to create and manipulate energy in others, meaning he can heal or cause pain in others at will. He’s also able to create and channel powerful blasts or conjure energy shields, so when his full range of powers is at play, there isn’t much that can stop Vulcan.
4 Iceman
As one of the first members of the X-Men, Iceman (Robert “Bobby” Drake) has the ability to create and manipulate ice. He does this by rapidly cooling and condensing moisture in the atmosphere. While Bobby’s powers once seemed relatively benign compared to more powerful mutants, he continued to expand them, eventually learning how to transform his entire body into ice. He’s since continued increasing his power until it became evident that he’s actually one of the most powerful Omega Level mutants there are.
Iceman Terraformed an Entire Planet
While under the care and control of Emma Frost, it is discovered that Iceman can exist without a body, is essentially indestructible, and can re-form his physical body if it’s ever destroyed. His ice-forming powers also continued to grow to almost epic levels, since he’s able to create entire armies of himself out of ice copies.
His ice powers could also be used in reverse to suck out cold from the atmosphere, effectively heating up regions and giving him more specialized atmospheric manipulation powers than Storm in that aspect. Without his powers having any limit, he was even able to create polar ice caps and terraform Mars for colonization.
However, as Rolling Stone explained, these weren’t the only reasons why he was once revered as a landmark character.
In the time-twisting issue of All-New X-Men, Jean Grey – the crew’s telepath – travels back in time and reads the mind of a young Iceman, revealing that he was gay when he was a teenager.
3 Magneto
Although mostly portrayed as a villain throughout his comic and movie history with the X-Men, Magneto has always remained a central figure among the biggest battles mutantkind has had to face. He has a tragic backstory that saw him born to a Jewish family in Nazi Germany. While he survived the Holocaust, his parents did not, leaving him with a deep sense of hatred for anyone who seeks to persecute mutants, given all the horror he witnessed as a child.
Magneto Truly Is the Master of Magnetism
Unfortunately for humans, Magneto’s disdain for them is backed up by the fact that he has virtually limitless power to manipulate metal objects and control electromagnetic fields. He can generate such fields on his own, manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, giving him the ability to generate electromagnetic pulses, and even manipulate radio waves and gamma rays, harness current, bond with metals, fly, create immensely powerful force fields, project concussive energy blasts, and manipulate the iron in a person’s body.
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2 Proteus
Another Chris Claremont creation, Proteus is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous mutants of the X-Universe. That’s largely because he’s basically made up of psionic energy. He also has some serious reality-warping abilities and can possess the bodies of others before burning out their energy and killing them.
Proteus Is Treated as a Universal Threat
Far from just being able to warp reality, Proteus can actually alter reality by doing things like reshaping the physical laws of the universe. He also has psychic abilities and is immune to physical and energy attacks. His inability to have a permanent physical form is what makes him especially dangerous and unstable. At his worst, Proteus has so much power that he poses a threat to the entire universe.
1 Jean Grey
She’s a mutant so powerful, Professor X had to place psychic inhibitors in her mind to contain the full range of her abilities. Jean Grey is also one of the most intriguing mutants, too. As herself, she’s kind, warm, and loving, one of the original X-Men members who would never hesitate to sacrifice herself to save her teammates. However, at her worst, it’s her they need protection from.
Jean Grey Is Basically a God Who Can Destroy Everything
That’s because when Jean Grey becomes the Phoenix, her power becomes unlimited, making her able to instantly destroy anything with a thought. Her telekinesis and telepathy can combine to cosmic levels, giving her the ability to kill anything or anyone in her way with barely any effort. The Phoenix flames can destroy or rejuvenate anything, and as the Phoenix, Jean is practically immortal. Basically a God, Jean Grey has the potential to destroy everything, easily making her the most powerful mutant around.
With the X-Men’s full introduction to the MCU still eagerly anticipated, check out the trailer for X-Men ’97 below and see why the show and its beloved characters are causing such a stir among comic book fans.
