X-Men Used 2024 to Upgrade a Classic Hero to Omega Level

Even in a year when Marvel revamped and relaunched its entire X-Men franchise, a new Omega mutant is still huge news - especially when it's a classic character who found a way to supercharge their powers. Omega mutants are incredibly rare in X-Men lore, with only a few dozen ever formally identified. The most powerful superhumans in existence, Omega mutants have powers that toy with the building blocks of reality, often warping it completely around them.

The number of Omega mutants grew by at least one in 2024, as the mutant inventor Forge achieved the impossible. A 'technopath' inventor whose power allows him to construct any machine or gadget he can conceive of, Forge turned his powers on himself, attempting to find a way to make the entire world his project. And in Geoffrey Thorne, Marcus To, Erick Arciniega and Joe Caramagna's X-Force #1 he succeeded, attaining Omega level.

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While before Forge could "see mechanical solutions to physical problems," now he's tapped into a global web of causality. That means he can now sense world-ending events in time to prevent them taking place, assembling a team of mutant heroes to save the Marvel Universe before it even knows it's in trouble.

Forge upgraded his powers using a machine he codenamed 'The McCoy Project,' taking inspiration from Beast's failed experiments to rid himself of his powers. Forge bathed himself in radiation, causing his mutant gifts to develop further - just as Beast's disastrous experiment enhanced his animalistic appearance.

Forge Has Upgraded His Powers to Omega Level, Creating the Analog

But the X-Men Hero's New Powers Have a Shocking Side-Effect

Forge's new powers are channeled through the Analog - a handheld 'crystal ball' that depicts the shifting web of causality, ley lines, and exotic energy that can essentially predict the future. Throughout 2024, Forge and his X-Force have faced off against threats like the gigantic Nuklo and a fungal superweapon developed by the villainous Mister Sinister. Forge is able to intuit the perfect team for every problem, adding heroes such as Deadpool and Man-Thing to his core team as needed. However, that ability has come with a huge downside.

While Forge's intuitive understanding of engineering was just about comprehensible by a mortal mind, his new relationship with causality isn't. That means that while Forge's Omega-level powers can predict where new 'Fracture points' will occur and assemble the right team to stop them, he doesn't always know exactly how his solution will play out. That had devastating consequences in X-Force #5 when young mutant Surge sacrificed herself to stop Nuklo.

Since then, Forge has been unable to figure out if his powers caused him to maneuver Surge into her sacrifice. While she wasn't part of his original team he planned for the mission, his actions are now bound up in a web of cause and effect, meaning it's possible that he somehow subconsciously knew how events would play out. Surge's death also caused key teammate Sage to leave X-Force, removing a piece that Forge senses is vital to his continued success.

2024 saw the end of X-Men's multi-year Krakoan Era, followed by the total-line relaunch of 'From the Ashes.' Each of Marvel's new titles has worked hard and fast to establish a new status quo, with Forge's new Omega powers acting as the centerpiece of the new X-Force. However, Omega powers are so wildly powerful that there's no real way to chart their limits. It's entirely possible that in assembling a team to save the world, Forge is setting up his friends and allies to die one after the other for his cause, potentially making this classic X-Men hero regret his choice to go from mutant hero to mutant god.

X-Force #1-6 are available now from Marvel Comics.