The Dehumanization of Omega Red
Dehumanize: defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as the action to deprive (someone or something) of human qualities, personality, or dignity: such as
A. to subject (someone, such as a prisoner) to inhuman or degrading conditions or treatment
B. to address or portray (someone) in a way that obscures or demeans that person's humanity or individuality
C. to remove or reduce human involvement or interaction in (something, such as a process or place)
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The most recent X-men Infinity Comic put out by Marvel -- along with the ongoing open wound on X-men comics that is Greymalkin Prison -- has brought my attention to a very tragic direction the X-men as a whole have been on for a while with regards to how they handle certain villains they face, and the language choices they use in interactions with certain characters. And I think there is no character that exemplifies this problem with the X-men more than Arkady Rossovich, a.k.a, Omega Red, and I wanted to take the time to really break this issue down and explain first of all how the X-men's actions are acts of dehumanization, and secondly, why it is a problem and behavior that really puts the X-men in a bad light.
I will start first with the 2026 X-men Infinity Comic, which doesn't seem to actually have a place anywhere in the 616 timeline, but has been referred to as the "evergreen" versions of these characters by writer Steven Orlando. This characterization, at the very least, means how Marvel takes these characters to be perceived by the wider public and the essence of their character. How they chose to handle Omega Red really highlights this issue of dehumanization that he has experienced at the hands of the X-men over the course of his existence as a character, being essentially boiled down as a caricaturized version of himself in one story that ended up sending a rather horrific message about the treatment of individuals who suffer from mental health challenges and have experienced horrific trauma. I will start by explaining what the essence of Omega Red was shown to be in this story arc, what thematically was the point of the story, and then finally how the X-men chose to address that theme.
The Essence of Omega Red
So, who is Omega Red? In this comic, Wolverine is surprisingly one of the more generous characters in breaking down Arkady for the other members of the team and, by extension, us as the audience. Omega Red, as he explains, is a troubled man, one with dangerous mutant powers that he has no choice but to use on others. Otherwise, his powers turn on him and eat him alive. That's a hard enough burden for a character to have to live with -- to have a power that only brings pain which you only get relief from if you make others feel it; but what makes it even worse is what Logan says was done to Omega Red by his own countrymen:
This right here is the crux of the theme behind this story. Marvel's Russia has an incredibly long history of treating its mutants like objects. Worse than animals. In this "evergreen" version of these characters, S.I.C.K.L.E is used extensively (which is an organization that doesn't get much attention or use in 616 comics beyond the Weapon X run by Greg Pak) and the X-men continually point out their knowledge of how cruel S.I.C.K.L.E is known to be here. Omega Red was a victim of this regime, and through the dialogue that he uses throughout the story, we are presented with the image of an incredibly broken man who was so destroyed by what he had experienced that he sees evil and threats everywhere. He, as Logan puts it, "hates like it keeps him alive," -- because it really did -- and Arkady's own words prove that this method of survival he used to make it through what was done to him is true:
What does Omega Red teach us?
This is where his villain role comes into play, and thereby, the theme of this story as a whole. Omega Red is traumatized. What was done to him to make him into a weapon was horrific and made him into a walking, weeping wound of pain and agony. He is tired of answering to other's beck and call, being their attack dog (which is something that stands in contrast to Logan's role as a "guard dog" which is a very important distinction to make) and views everyone outside of himself as the cause of suffering he just wants to see end, and end by having everyone experience the pain that they brought to him.
Now, is this a healthy way to respond to trauma? No, but when a person is faced with traumatic experiences, they don't react with logic. They react with emotion. This is further shown by what Omega Red's plan ultimately is, and it -- again -- reflects the worldview that he learned during his years of torture by the Soviet Union. Omega Red is in pain, and he wants to make everyone else experience it and tear each other apart as punishment for how he was treated. How does he do this? By channeling his pain into Charles, having it multiplied, and then shared with the people down on earth. The people affected by the mind blast as the story continues on showcases this: that they can't see past their pain to the point where even good, even offered help, is looked on as an attempt to harm.
That is what Omega Red's mind is like. He is exactly like the people who are affected by the blast: broken to the point that even good and an attempt to help can be seen as a threat. Arkady has been tortured for so long that he doesn't know how to ask for help or relief. He can't recognize help for what it is: help. And with his lived memory he shares about the wolves and his powers, Arkady tells us that the way he learned how to end his pain was to share that pain with others in a violent way. To make something else suffer the way he was made to suffer. Thematically, Omega Red is a stand-in for mental trauma and how it has a real effect on people, being the original victim who can't process what happened to him in a healthy way and thereby, hurting others.
Something to keep in mind too about all of this (which will be further touched on later) is the lack of support Omega Red actually has. He has no one, always having to try to bear the weight of these experiences alone using his terrible coping mechanisms he learned to use in order to survive. Unlike the X-men, Omega Red has no network that can actually help him until he reaches this point of crisis and lashes out. In this story, the X-men are battling his thematic position on how to deal with trauma and these mental struggles that he has and shares with the other characters in this story:
"If you are hurting, spread the pain around."
For a fleeting moment, the comic does toy with the idea of the X-men actually going to the source wound and healing the pain that originally led to this problem in the first place. We see it in how Charles one by one reaches into the minds of the X-men and pulls them out of their traumatic and painful memories, helping each of them to heal. Reaching the humanity inside each character and drawing that part of them out. But that is not where the story ends, nor is it something ever offered to Omega Red as an option for his trauma. In the end, the X-men do not hold that thematic position as Omega Red's opposite, rather, take up Omega Red's own thematic argument in order to defeat him:
"But Soviet-Supersoldier," I can already hear the question being asked, "How is Charles wrong in defeating Omega Red like this? Sure thematically, the X-men don't end up refuting his point, but that doesn't really matter, right? He deserved what he got. Look at him. Charles does call him a monster after all."
And that, dear reader, is exactly the problem.
What's in a name?
I have talked on my blog here before about the power of names. In the Krakoa era of comics, we see how the character Teresia Karisik, a.k.a, Sage, continually calls Omega Red by his real name of Arkady, even in moments where a person could struggle to see his humanity:
💬 0 🔁 4 ❤️ 23 · Something that I noticed with Omega Red and Sage's dynamic throughout X-Force was how often Sage used Arkady’s real name w
This is an in-character attempt by Sage to bring out Omega Red's humanity -- which does exist, despite how wider fan perception assumes he's a character who lacks depth -- and a call for him to act better than how he was made to respond to his environment. But there is another part of this to consider as well: how the audience ends up perceiving a character because of these in-character interactions and views. During the 2019 X-Force run, he's not looked at as a boogeyman figure or someone to necessarily fear. He is a man first and foremost, one who has been hurt deeply by the horrors he has seen in his long life, and the characters he interacts with (primarily Sage) do humanize him by addressing him using human words to describe him. Using his name. It is truly remarkable how much that alone can make a difference in how someone is perceived.
Even in the From the Ashes Infinity Comic Arc (printed under the title of Demons and Death), this humanization of Omega Red continues. For the first time in his character history, we get to read his inner monologue and how melancholy he truly is and how poorly he actually views himself. Characters he interacts with call him by the familiar diminutive name of "Arkasha," which was another first for his character. These are the sorts of moments that show readers that they are dealing with a three-dimensional person who has his own thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams. That this is a man who feels pain and has experienced incredible amounts of loss, but who still carries on because it's all he knows how to do.
Contrast that to the latest Infinity comic and the mentions of Omega Red by the X-men in the comics published since then in books such as Uncanny X-men. This Infinity comic lasted 10-issues total, which -- based on printed versions of other Infinity comics Marvel has put out -- equals out to maybe an oversized issue of a printed comic book. Within this story arc alone, Omega Red was called "monster" or "creature" by the heroes of the comic no less than 8 times -- almost once per issue, about half of which were said directly to his face.
And outside of that comic? You get moments like this:
I will again note the use of the word "monster" here, as this is the greatest trap, and the worst part of how dehumanization works. This is where the second definition of dehumanization comes into play:
B. to address or portray (someone) in a way that obscures or demeans that person's humanity or individuality
Are you starting to see the problem?
These characters -- who are supposed to be heroes -- are taking up language that strips away the humanity of another character. Arkady is no longer Arkady, instead he is pushed into territory where he is viewed as less than human. Something other. Something and not someone. He is called "monster" and "creature" which suddenly creates a barrier to humanity, both for Arkady (who is being denied the basic human right to be seen and treated as a human being) and for us, the readers. We are not allowed to see "Arkady the man" because of the word choices used to describe him in the text and dialogue, and that is where our perception of the man that he is begins to be warped.
Because if you stop calling someone a man, are you going to actually continue to treat him as a man?
As we have seen here in the comics -- and in real-life scenarios as well -- the answer is no. Instead, it is a tactic that is used to justify the terrible treatment Arkady is forced to face. It's a subtle, infectious earworm that chips away at moral resolve. The questions start to be asked, "Is there even anything here to save?" "Doesn't he deserve this?" "This isn't a human being, is it?"
And it snowballs from there.
Now, I have gone back in comics a bit to see just how common it is for Arkady to be referred to using dehumanizing terms and it's... a lot of the dialogue that is directed at him over his 30+ years of existence. I considered making a collage of those moments, but it just ended up being too much. Too many examples to use. He is called monster, he is called a parasite, he is called all sorts of things by characters we place on that pedestal of moral righteousness and count on to be in the right. That is what ultimately makes this behavior even worse as this is supposed to be a trusted source that we look to on thematically teach those moral lessons on right and wrong.
Now, why does this phenomenon happen? In Arkady's case, Marvel has a problem of telling, not showing. He is a character who really has a damn good justification for the actions that he does (the fight for his survival and to not have to kill to keep himself alive), and yet, he is typecast as a villain. The narrative needs him to be the bad guy, but the motive Arkady possesses as his drive isn't the right one to make an irredeemable villain that the heroes can punch without a guilty conscience.
So what do the writers do?
They use charged language. By repeatedly having the characters use words like "monster," "creature," and "parasite," the effect of dehumanization begins to set in. The characters view Arkady through this lens, and as many readers read the story from the perspective of the various heroes -- or even self-insert as one -- they start to view Arkady in the same way, despite his actual actions never matching the mental image that is projected into people's minds about him. For Arkady, his reputation of a terrible villain is like a giant shadow being created from a small mouse: reading his actual appearances (and reading them from his point of view) reveals that he has actually done very little as a villain to garner the fear people have about him.
But yet, this image of him persists because of the dehumanizing language that is used to continually describe him. People think that he must be this terrible, irredeemable thing because almost every single character he ends up running into calls him anything besides human.
And for an X-men comic -- for the X-men to engage in this behavior -- it is particularly egregious. These are characters who are more often than not stand-ins for marginalized groups. They have been on the receiving end of many forms of discrimination, and yet here they are using dehumanizing language on one of their own fellow mutants, one who carries some of the deepest scars of humanity's cruelty.
The effects
The question has to be asked then on how this affects Arkady. Because whether a person wants to believe it or not, it does affect him and his behavior as a character and does circle back to the themes of trauma that I spoke about earlier. As I said before, Arkady is a character that more often than not does not have a support system to help him cope with the things he had to experience in life. Part of the reason for that lack of support? Almost everyone he interacts with dehumanizes him. He's never built up, he is continually torn down.
What happens? Well, there is a lack of progress for his character. It took him 30 years to finally be cured of Carbonadium poisoning, just to give an example. But, perhaps more importantly, his perspective on life is unable to be changed.
The opening page that I started this essay with is a moment I have always felt drives home the point of how Arkady has viewed himself from the moment his powers first manifested. He calls himself a vampire and refers to speeches he hears from leaders in the Soviet Union on how he is a "genetic accident" and a sign of deterioration within his homeland. At that point in his life already, society is projecting these horrible words and views at him, and like any child at that age, he listens. And he changes in response.
Hear a lie enough times and you start to believe it. If everyone around you calls you something, at some point you stop fighting back against it. There comes a point of defeat where you give up trying to advocate for yourself and instead start letting people say and believe whatever they want about you. Because you've learned people do not listen, nor do they care about your views, your thoughts, your dreams.
Because to the world, you've become something else. You are no longer a fellow man. Dehumanization has done its work and done it well. The world is now incapable of seeing you in any other way besides what it has long called you. And, in Arkady's case, it has reached the point where he has accepted the lies as truth. It is hard for him to be able to see himself as a man anymore. Instead, as his own inner monologue reveals, he can't see himself as anything besides a monster:
Words have power, and in the case of Omega Red, it is an abuse of power that results in tragedy. He is forever affected by the X-men's choice on how to define him, making his humanity hard for audiences to be able to see and interact with in any truly meaningful way. And it is a trap that prevents Arkady from actually being able to grow as a character and actually try to heal from the decades of trauma he has because of how he was made into a government weapon.
Meanwhile, the X-men themselves fall victim to a moral crime that is not called out on often enough. This should not be the standard behavior that the X-men espouse. They should not be using dehumanizing language towards their own kind (or anyone else for that matter) because it is the type of crime that strips away the very essence of humanity away from a person. Humanity that is inherent to every person.
As I said before, the X-men often thematically represent minority groups. These should be the kinds of things that the X-men stand against, not use themselves, as they should know better than anyone else how horrible it is to be dehumanized.
Do better Marvel.
