Karima Shapandar

Superherobox


caption=Omega Sentinel.
Art by Chris Bachalo.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Omega Sentinel
real_name=Karima Shapandar
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="X-Men Unlimited" vol. 1 #27 (June, 2000)
creators=Chris Claremont
Brett Booth
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=Acolytes Marauders X-Men Genoshan Excalibur Omega Prime Sentinels
powers=As a Prime Sentinel;
Superhuman strength.
Resistance to injury and regenerative abilities.
Electrostatic poles mounted on her arms.
Flight.
Selection of unspecified weapons and mechanisms that retract into body.|

Omega Sentinel (Karima Shapandar) is a fictional character associated with the X-Men and its spinoff Excalibur. She first appeared in "X-Men Unlimited" #27 and was created by Chris Claremont and Brett Booth.

Fictional character biography

Prime Sentinel

Shapandar was a police officer from India who was transformed into an Omega Prime Sentinel by Bastion of the program. It all started when Karima was dispatched to look after Neal Shaara (who would later become known as Thunderbird). Neal was looking for his brother, Sanjit, who had gone missing while researching some mysterious disappearances in Calcutta. A bond quickly developed between the two, and they were on the verge of beginning a romantic relationship when they were attacked and captured by Bastion. Neal learned that Sanjit had become a Prime Sentinel, programmed to seek out and destroy mutants. Bastion intended to do the same to Neal and Karima, but the morphing process catalyzed Neal’s latent mutant power, which destroyed the building around him. Sanjit fought his programming long enough to disable the other Sentinels, but died in the process.

As Neal cradled Sanjit’s body, Shapandar quietly told Neal to run. She had discovered that she was a Prime Sentinel; humans transformed into sentinels and set up as 'sleeper' agents, unaware of their programming until a nearby mutant activated them (as in Neal's usage of his mutant powers).

Neal refused, saying he loved Karima. Karima begged him to leave, saying she couldn't hold on much longer. Neal was forced to flee.

Genoshan Excalibur

Karima later resurfaces on the decimated island of Genosha, where she encounters Charles Xavier and Magneto. The two were able to disable her Sentinel programming and restore her mind, but the technological modifications to her body remained.

Karima stayed on the island with the others, working as a police officer to restore order. She is trying to adjust to her new form, which comes into conflicts with her Hindu beliefs. It is assumed she left the island with most of the other residents after Decimation.

Joining the X-Men

The X-Men recently discovered a disassembled Karima, along with Lady Mastermind in a lab of the Fordyce Clinic that was testing on mutants to see if someone can catch mutation like a disease. Beast has reassembled her, ["X-Men" (vol. 2) #189] but she appears to have lost part of her memory from the moment she got disassembled. Rogue officially recruited her onto the team to help fight the Children of the Vault. ["X-Men" (vol. 2) #192]

Since then she was able to help fix a teleporter in the search to find Pandemic, helping in the fight to defeat him. After Rogue was infected with a virus by Pandemic, Cable took the team to his island so Rogue could be cared for. On the island, Karima helped the team and the island residents who were attacked by the Hecatomb.

Marauders and Malice

Omega Sentinel is possessed by Malice, who is now a digital entity instead of a psionic one, via email virus; thus, she unwillingly ends up joining the new Marauders. Whether being part machine and part human will allow her to overcome Malice's influence has yet to be seen. The other X-Men, save Emma Frost, were unaware of her being possessed until they were attacked by her along with the rest of the new Marauders, including Mystique and Lady Mastermind. She later fights alongside the other Marauders in Flint, Michigan, against Iceman and Cannonball, as both sides try to obtain the Diaries of Destiny.

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Along with fellow Marauders Sunfire, Gambit, Prism, Blockbuster, Lady Mastermind and Scalphunter, Malice travels to Cooperstown, Alaska to find the baby but instead come across the Purifers and they come to blows.

The next time she is seen, she is fighting Colossus along with Arclight, Frenzy and Unuscione. She then teams up with Lady Mastermind in taking out Wolverine by throwing a disguised Scrambler at him. After he realizes the deception, she hits him with an energy blast. While asking him about how he wants to die, Nightcrawler teleports in and knocks her out along with Lady Mastermind.

She recovers and joins Gambit, Sunfire and Vertigo when they confront Bishop who is about to kill the baby. She seems to show a lot of affection towards the baby and finds it extraordinary that she isn’t scared at all when she picks her up. She is present when Gambit delivers the baby to Mystique (in the guise of Sinister) at the Marauders' base on Muir Isle and later battles the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force when they arrive to take the baby. During the final battle over the child, Omega Sentinel is stabbed and somehow incapacitated by Pixie's Soul Dagger.

Divided We Stand

After the events of Messiah Complex, Karima manages to recover being taken over by the digital Malice, but has no memory of the events that took place, apparently a side effect of being wounded with Pixie's Soul Dagger. All she knows is that some of her files have been infected or damaged by a virus and can no longer access them in case of reinfection. She is currently staying with the Acolytes and says the only reason she is there is because Professor Xavier was there for her when she was first turned into a Sentinel.

After asking Magneto which of their philosophies was right, Karima helps Magneto to revive the Professor from his coma and defends him against Joanna Cargill's murder attempt. Karima tries to stop Cargill by bombarding her with microwave radiation, but her physical invulnerability proves to be too much for her, and Cargill severely damages her. Magneto manages to stop Cargil from killing Xavier by firing a surgical laser into her eye when Exodus shows up and after trying to kill Magneto, engages the Professor in a fight on the astral plane.

When they finish their skirmish, Karima, Magneto and Xavier leave the Acolytes and as Xavier parts with Karima and Magneto, he asks them not follow him.

Powers and abilities

Karima is fitted with Omega-Prime Sentinel nanite technology which gives her superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and endurance. She also has flight capacity, regeneration to repair any physical injury/damage she receives, and several projectile weapons, including high energy power blasts, as well as electrostatic poles built into her forearms that generate massive amounts of electrical energy. Her strength and durability were enhanced after she was rebuilt by the Beast. She appears to show limited technopathy and machine control, due to being able to "find" information from machines, and having the ability to control nanites in others' blood. She also has life-support technology built into her systems as evidenced in X-Men Legacy #208

Before she was a detective in India, she is trained in basic combat skills, identity tracking, and other basic skills that come with being a human detective. She also possesses knowledge on how to work most basic and highly Earth-based advanced technology.

Other versions

House of M

She appears in the House of M still as an Omega Sentinel but as the leader of the Sentinel Police for the House of Magnus.

X-Men: The End

Karima briefly appears fighting alongside the other X-Men in outer space. Not much is known about her.

References

External links

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