The Curious Case of the Carbonadium Synthesizer
Remember this thing?
This little device, which plagued Omega Red's life for decades in comics is such an interesting little thing. It had such a stranglehold on him as a character in the comics for almost 30 years and is pretty much his go-to villain plot whenever writers want to have him battle Wolverine. I got to thinking about the Carbonadium Synthesizer (C-Synthesizer or C-Synth for short) after Arkady's appearance in Episode 5 of the X-Men 97 cartoon. Because there is something that I have noticed about his appearances there and in the original show that is different than the comics, which is having an interesting impact on his character, and I wanted to talk about it. And it all boils down to this little device.
So, for those who do not know what this little device is or why it is so important for Omega Red, the C-Synthesizer was created by the people behind the Soviet Supersoldier Program which made Omega Red in the first place. When he was made into a weapon, Arkady had carbonadium implanted into his body, which is most obviously shown by the two coils that come from his wrists made of the same material. While working for Team X -- the CIA's black ops hit squad that ran around committing war crimes in the name of United States interests -- Wolverine, Maverick, Sabretooth and John Wraith stole the device, with Wolverine and Maverick going the extra mile to hide the device away, and later on played a very, very, very long game of keep-away with Omega Red when he was revived in the modern day to prevent him from having it.
Why does Omega Red want it so badly? Well, carbonadium is radioactive. It is constantly poisoning Arkady to the point that the only thing keeping him alive is his mutant powers. Omega Red needs to kill constantly -- draining other living beings of their life force -- to sustain his own immune system in order to heal his body being poisoned by the toxic metal. It is an agonizing situation for Arkady, who is affected both physically and mentally by the toll of the poison in his body. The only cure is the C-Synthesizer, and as such, he is constantly on the hunt for it, taking any job from any person who offers to give him what he needs to live.
If you read my blog posts, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the story by now, and you are probably also aware of how this plot was finally resolved several years ago now during the Krakoa era of comics, where Arkady first got the C-Synthesizer from Dracula in a lousy deal that forced him to work for the vampire, then got murdered when the X-men found out about it, before finally being revived with an unaltered C-Synthesizer and given a second chance at life.
Now, this plot has dragged on for so long in the comics that I am incredibly thankful that it is finally over. Omega Red is cured at long last. But there is a side to this story that I haven't really dove into before and how -- even though it felt like a curse -- having this plot run for three decades probably changed Arkady's trajectory as a character in a way that not only secured him a shot at redemption in the comics, but also is showing how different of a person he could have been without this plot. Because unlike the comics -- which took 30 years to give Omega Red a cure -- the TAS/X-men 97 cartoon took a completely different approach to Arkady. They eliminated the C-Synthesizer as a plot for him entirely.
His biggest, most important villain plot and his main drive as a character for hundreds of issues of comics, is suddenly, not a thing.
How does that change him??
Well, it changes quite a lot actually.
The impact of the C-Synthesizer
First, I am going to start by explaining how the hunt for the C-Synthesizer affected Arkady's growth -- or, lack thereof -- in the comics. From his very first appearance, Omega Red was introduced with this device as part of his lore. He needed it, and his first conflict with the X-men and Wolverine was about Matsu'o Tsurayaba -- who had bought and owned Omega Red -- and his allies trying to find the device so they could use Omega Red as their weapon for their rich man's games. The X-men stopped this from happening of course, and Logan dug up the device and handed it off to Maverick which is the start of the very long chase that Arkady goes on in the decades after that. Unlike what Maverick says here, the C-Synthesizer is not used appropriately. It's not used at all besides as the magic MacGuffin needed to get Omega Red involved in plots.
This is where Omega Red's character gets put into the bind that really determines his path. Because there are a couple times where it seems like writers would like to try to take Omega Red on a different path in the comics and give him other ties or things to do in order to advance him as a "big bad." But the problem?? The people who have the C-Synthesizer are Wolverine and Maverick. Logan was already a hot character then -- being pushed everywhere in the 90s -- and Maverick was the new character that had all the hallmarks of what made a popular character at the time: edgy anti-hero type with military background and GUNS. The popularity of these two and the role that they played in stories cannot be understated. Because this determined one very important thing that shaped the entire conflict with Omega Red:
They couldn't lose.
To lose the C-Synthesizer would have been seen as a blow to the ego and mythos of these bad boy archetypes. They couldn't be allowed to lose to the "bad guy," which meant the plot with Omega Red could never evolve beyond the chase. Which.... if this was any other type of MacGuffin, it might not have stifled Arkady's growth like it did. But this is a life-saving medical device. Arkady literally cannot function as a normal person without it. He can't make any long-term plans because he always has to worry about just surviving until tomorrow. Just being able to wake up the next morning. Figure out who his next victim will be and make the kill. He can't really hold onto anything, let alone build anything of value. So what happens?
Progression stagnates.
It becomes a vicious circle. A writer wants to use Omega Red. He gets used for maybe an issue or two where the device or his hunt for it doesn't get mentioned. But then the writers remember that it's an unresolved thing and kinda a pretty big deal for him to get his hands on in order to be able to continue to be used, otherwise he -- you know -- dies. So off he goes to chase it again, only for him to hit the wall of Wolverine and Maverick and their "I can't lose" plot armor, keeping Arkady trapped without a cure and killing more people to keep himself alive. And repeat. For 30 years.
But, this eventually caused an interesting change. Omega Red was defined by the hunt, but where he initially started out much more driven, anti-authoritarian, and rebellious, over time, Arkady began to become much more disillusioned, tired, and desperate. The chase was wearing him down, and between all the trips to prison, the continued tortures and experimentations, the backstabbing, the lies, and the manipulation he faced, Arkady started to change as a character in response to the man we see in comics now. Now, those better traits of his were always there -- he was doing good deeds every once in a while even in the 90s -- but the direction of Omega Red being a major supervillain who had plans for world domination and to unleash his own agenda onto the world was not something that was ever realized. The presence of the C-Synthesizer, and the never-ending chase that kept him locked into a plot that was never allowed to be resolved or progress in any way, completely changed his trajectory as a character and whatever plans writers may have originally intended for him.
What is he like without it?
This is where something like X-men 97 is interesting. Because when the original TAS came out, Omega Red was a new character. The C-Synthesizer was introduced in the comics, and got one flashback reference in Logan's memories in the show, but it had absolutely no bearing on Omega Red's story in the cartoon. It was never mentioned as a problem. Arkady has never once demanded Logan tell him where it is, even though they have shared quite a bit of screen time between both the original show and now. It's not an issue for him here (that we have seen, anyway), which suddenly takes all of the problems that Comic Arkady struggled with for decades and throws them out the window.
For the first time, we get to see what Omega Red fully realized as a villain could be like.
His limits are gone. He doesn't have to worry about trying to combat the poison in his body and dedicating every second of every day to just staying alive and trying to hunt for his cure. He can put his focus towards other things -- the things that drove him when he was a weapon, the philosophies that shaped him during his years as a government experiment. And the things that led him to breaking from their control and making everyone fear him.
So when a person sees Omega Red saying things about having plans to dominate the world and starts thinking: "Huh? Where the hell is this coming from??" It's coming from the fact that Omega Red in this cartoon does not have the things that happened in the comics shaping who he becomes. He does not have the C-Synthesizer plot forcing him to live day to day, selling himself to anyone willing to pay him the device in return for his work. He hasn't been worn down by years of continued torture, experiments, and betrayals that led to him changing as a character in response. We haven't gotten an Omega Red who has been humbled. He hasn't realized that the armor and fearsome persona that he uses to strike fear into people's hearts and protect the damaged core of his humanity doesn't protect him from the things he hates the most.
The hunt for the C-Synthesizer changed Arkady in a very interesting way, and now, we have a situation where we can actually see what the difference is and what sort of effect that whole plot had on his character in a much deeper way than ever before. I am very intrigued by it -- the cartoon is almost a "What if" type reality for me at the moment -- so we will see where they end up taking him. Because there is still a chance Arkady eventually goes down a similar path that he does in the comics, but without the C-Synthesizer chase, it's going to be a much harder path to get him to go down. We will have to just wait and see how Omega Red continues to be handled in episodes down the line in future seasons. Will he remain or continue to grow as a villain?? Or will things start to happen that leads to the disillusionment and fatigue that eventually seeps into Omega Red's character in the comics and leads him to getting that shot at redemption?? Only time will tell.
