Biography - Page 1
Quentin Quire arrived in the world of the X-Men at a very transformative time. Genosha had been destroyed by Cassandra Nova’s Mega-Sentinels, Professor Xavier had outed himself as a mutant and the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning had just opened its doors to a much larger student body. Quentin enrolled at the now bustling school of young mutants and, with his omega-level telepathy and above-average intelligence, was singled out as one of Xavier’s prize pupils. Despite his brilliance, Quentin was somewhat of an outcast amongst the students, often hanging out with the likes of Glob Herman and trying in vain to gain the attention of Sophie of the Stepford Cuckoos. Even impressive feats such as creating anti-gravity floats for Martha Johansson’s disembodied brain did little to boost his popularity. Instead, Quentin’s abrasive personality and open disillusionment with Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence caused students to avoid him, while prompting Xavier to keep a close eye on the troubled boy. [New X-Men (1st series) #134]
Unfortunately, Quentin only grew more contentious after learning that he was adopted. His identity shaken, Quentin began to act more rebelliously, forming a habit with the drug known as Kick, a inhalant that boosted mutant powers for up to five hours but also imbued the user with violent impulses. Slick, a fellow student who used his mutant illusory powers to appear attractive, was one of the first victims of Quentin’s new boisterous nature. Jealous of the adoration Slick received, Quentin used his telepathy to reveal Slick’s actual short, troll-like appearance. Not only was Slick deeply embarrassed but his girlfriend, Tattoo, left him and shifted her affection to Quentin instead. Professor Xavier reprimanded Quentin for this cruel action but Quentin affirmed that Slick was betraying everything the school stood for by hiding his mutant form. In the first of many theological 
arguments with Professor Xavier, he boldly accused the X-Men’s founder of preaching a dream but failing to take the steps to deliver it. Beast also began to notice the effects of Kick on Quentin’s psyche, performing tests that revealed his mind was in overdrive and producing millions of thoughts a second, but misdiagnosed it as a secondary mutation.
Around this time, Quentin was also affected by the death of prominent mutant fashion designer, Jumbo Carnation. Believed to have been the victim of a hate crime, Quentin wanted to issue his own form of justice on Jumbo’s killers and decided to transform his look to match his new attitude. One of Quentin’s prized possessions was an old Daily Bugle article by Sentinel creator Bolivar Trask from around the time that mutants first became known to the public. Quentin cut his hair and, using Jumbo’s designs, modeled his appearance after the article’s illustration of what a mutant overlord might look like, complete with a whip on his side. Before long, Quentin was calling himself “Kid Omega” and had a group of like-minded students followers, including Glob Herman and Tattoo as well as Radian and Redneck, who also adopted his new style and collectively became known as The Omega Gang. Professor Xavier confronted Quentin about his new look, calling it provocative, especially in lieu of the school’s upcoming “Open Day,” which would the mark the first time the Xavier Institute opened its doors to both mutants and human alike. Quentin defended himself by saying his clothing was part of a creative history project meant to reclaim some of the offensive imagery mutants produced in mass media and that Xavier inviting humans to a school of vulnerable mutant children after they murdered millions of mutants on Genosha was the real crime.
That night, Kid Omega and The Omega Gang got high off Kick and went to Mutant Town, an area of New York City that was home to many mutant clubs and businesses, to hunt down Jumbo Carnation’s killers. They confronted a human gang and took great pleasure in attacking them, using their powers viciously to kill some of the members and severely injure the rest. They celebrated their victory by getting matching tattoos of the Omega Symbol on their forearms. Tattoo began to show serious interest in Quentin but Quentin rebuffed her advances, as he still pined for Sophie.
Based on the survivor’s accounts, Xavier had every reason to believe that Quentin and his gang were responsible for the attack and sought the other X-Men’s advice on how to deal with his behavior and how to prevent his influence from spreading further amongst the student body. Wolverine thought it best to let Quentin’s tantrum ride out, while Emma blamed Kick, which had become a growing concern at the school. While the X-Men debated, the Omega Gang continued their violent crusade and murdered a group of U-Men, religious zealots who harvested mutant organs.
With his continued successes, Quentin grew more ambitious and decided it was time to take the school for himself. The night before Opening Day, the Omega Gang knocked Professor X out with a baseball bat, tied him up and blocked his telepathy using a prototype of Magneto’s helmet. Kid Omega told Xavier that his dream had failed and that it was time to try Magneto’s way of thinking. 
The next morning, as the school opened its doors to the public and humans arrived for tours, Quentin, megaphone in hand, called for a riot. Under Kid Omega’s orders, Glob Herman rained down flaming chunks of his bio-paraffin skin around the school. It’s unclear if Quentin used his telepathy to influence others but, before long, many other students outside of the Omega Gang participated in the riot, complete with signs, chants and power displays that incited violence. Wolverine continued to underestimate Quentin, thinking he could quickly put an end to the mayhem but was no match for Quentin’s telepathy and found himself trapped in a bizarre mind maze. The chaos escalated and a student codenamed Dummy was killed when his special suit was damaged by debris. While the rest of the X-Men handled the Omega Gang, Professor Xavier escaped and confronted Quentin, telling him that Kick was driving his thoughts too hard and too fast. It was also revealed by Beast that, while Jumbo Carnation was attacked by a human gang, it was an overdose of Kick that killed him, but this truth was dismissed by The Omega Gang as another of Xavier’s lies. Meanwhile, The Stepford Cuckoos, led by Sophie, decided to play hero and used Kick and Cerebro to tremendously enhance their telepathy. Upon seeing Sophie rise against him, Quentin claimed that all his actions were simply attempts to impress her. The girls were understandably disgusted and, with a single psychic attack, left Quentin a blabbering mess squirming on the ground. Sadly, the combination of Cerebro and Kick proved too much and Quentin’s beloved Sophie died 
from the strain of her heroic act. Kid Omega’s “revolution” may have lasted mere minutes but it had caused immense tragedy. [New X-Men (1st series) #135-138]
Quentin was rushed to the infirmary while the Omega Gang were sent to prison, despite their claims that Quentin mind-controlled them. Beast concluded that his overuse of Kick had caused a secondary mutation that had transformed Quentin’s brain into faster-than-light energy. With his brain cells burning away and his thoughts scrambled, Quentin tried apologizing for his crimes, insisting that he didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. Professor X felt a great deal of pity for his once prized student but was unable to help him. Even Xorn, an X-Man with apparent great healing abilities, could only put Quentin out of his misery by exposing him to the "mini-star" in his head. With that, Quentin transcended the mortal plane and his body, now a semi-alive energy form, was placed in a containment unit in Beast’s lab. [New X-Men (1st series) #139]
Remaining in Beast’s lab, Quentin’s mind and body began to heal but he still had a long road to recovery when the Phoenix Force visited Earth and took an interest in him. Driven insane by an attack from the Shi’ar, the Phoenix fled to the X-Men, seeking it’s former and favorite host, the late Jean Grey. Sensing the immense psychic powers of Kid Omega, the Phoenix Force briefly interacted with Quentin before realizing he was not the one it sought and went to find Jean instead. This visit proved enough to stir Quentin back to consciousness and he emerged from his containment. Disoriented with his memories slowly flooding back to him, Quentin immediately sought out Sophie. Refusing to listen to reason, Quentin telepathically froze the X-Men and exhumed 
Sophie’s corpse. As he remembered the events of Sophie’s death and his own downfall, Quentin was overcome with regret until he realized that the Phoenix Force had just resurrected Jean Grey and decided he would use the Phoenix to resurrect Sophie too.
Having already assessed the Phoenix as a threat this time around, the X-Men chased it to the Arctic to confront it. Quentin followed behind, dragging Sophie’s rotting corpse with him, and arrived just in time to interfere in their battle and ruin the X-Men’s plan to contain it. The Phoenix Force, struggling to comprehend the emotions it felt as it inhabited Jean and then Emma Frost, was moved and intrigued by Quentin’s intense feelings and resurrected Sophie at his request. However, Quentin’s reunion with his lost love was short-lived, as Sophie still wanted nothing to do with him. She coldly rejected him and immediately returned to being dead. The Phoenix was gravely disappointed and thought Quentin, like the rest of the world, was sick. It set out to burn the world away, resenting the love and longing that humanity was cursed with. Jean Grey managed to get the Phoenix Force under control and together they ascended to the “White Hot Room” to recover while the heartbroken Quentin admitted he wasn’t fully healed himself and voluntarily returned to his stasis in Beast’s lab. [X-Men: Phoenix Endsong #1-5]
Quentin remained in his energy form, stored away in Beast’s lab as he watched the world of the X-Men and mutant kind change around him. Mutants became an endangered species and Cyclops led the few mutants left on an “island” off the coast of San Francisco called Utopia. Angry that the X-
Men allowed his species to be decimated and bitter that they were able to achieve the goal of a mutant nation without him, Quentin set out for revenge. With Beast having abandoned the X-Men due to a disagreement with Cyclops, Quentin was able to escape his containment undetected. He enacted a plan to destroy Utopia by mind-controlling various of the island’s inhabitants. Since he was playing the role of a super villain, Kid Omega decided he needed an arch-nemesis(or perhaps a captive audience) and warned Martha Johansson, No-Girl. No-Girl tried desperately to warn the X-Men but was no match for Quentin’s superior telepathy and found Quentin in every mind she tried to connect with. Kid Omega eventually grew bored and cruelly smashed her glass container to bits, leaving her disembodied brain helpless. Still fixated with the Stepford Cuckoos, Quentin then retreated into Cerebra, which the triplets were monitoring. Martha correctly assumed that Quentin still harbored feelings for the Stepford sisters and managed to inform them of Quentin’s plan. Much to Quentin’s surprise, the Cuckoos had grown much more powerful while he was in confinement and they easily defeated him. [Nation X #2]
Quentin returned to his containment jar but it wasn’t long before he was freed yet again and, this time, for good. In an effort to secure a spot in the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle, Kade Kilgore, young CEO of Kilgore Arms, snuck onto Utopia and released Quentin. He had hoped the rebellious Kid Omega would do something foolish enough to raise anti-mutant sentiment and therefore boost his Sentinel sales. Quentin played his role perfectly and crashed an United Nations arms conference, 
where Cyclops was giving a persuasive speech urging countries to decommission their Sentinel programs. In what would later be described as a “mutant terrorist attack,” Quentin used his telepathy to force all the world leaders and representatives that were present to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets on live television. As a result, many nations dusted off their old mutant-hunting programs and the X-Men were spread far and thin responding to Sentinel attacks across the globe. Now a wanted terrorist, Quentin returned to Utopia seeking sanctuary. While Wolverine wanted to turn him over to Captain America immediately, Cyclops considered Quentin a “mutant problem” and wanted to keep him on Utopia for the X-Men to deal with themselves. Seeing Wolverine reluctant deferrence to Cyclops’ decision turn to bitterness, Quentin watched gleefully as the rift between Cyclops and Wolverine worsened until they were literally at each other’s throats. The last straw for Wolverine was Cyclops’ willingness to use the X-Men’s young students as soldiers in the fight against Kilgore’s sentinels. Realizing that the X-Men had truly lost sight of Xavier’s dream, Wolverine decided to rebuild the school in Westchester. Over the next few days, every X-Man and student had to decide whether to stay with Cyclops or follow Wolverine, with the exception of Quentin who Wolverine took with him against his will. [X-Men: Schism #1-5, X-Men: Regenesis]