Art by Chris Bachalo, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado
- Name: Karima Shapanadar
- Code Names: Omega Sentinel
- First Appearance: X-Men Unlimited #27 (June ’00)
- Powers: All the destruction of a Sentinel in a compact human form
- Teams Affiliation: Excalibur, X-Men, Acolytes, Marauders
About
There is a story told by philosophy professors called the Ship of Theseus. In it they describe a ship that was kept in wonderful condition, every time a plank began to rot or weaken it was replaced. Years went by and every piece of the ship had been replaced. The Greek historian Plutarch first asked, was it still the original ship? His thought brought up an ancient question, what really makes up who we are? Karima Shapandar struggled to discover what made her her. Was it her badge? Her mind? The robotic body she was built into? That conflict between man and machine, against the true meaning of human nature, defined Karima and made her a fascinating member of the X-Men.
Karima was created by Chris Claremont and Brett Booth during Claremont’s second stint on the X-Books. She was a detective in the Indian National Police and she had just been given an assignment from the chief of police. His son Sanjit Shaara was missing, presumed dead, and his other son Neal had gone to find him. Karima’s task was to protect Neal until he came home, first from afar, but a run in with a street gang forced her hand. Her training was like second nature and she made quick work of the ruffians. She revealed herself to Neal was used her detective skills to help him find his brother. The two spent days running into dead ends but they were enjoying each other’s company. After a rough day of searching Karima suggested taking the evening to themselves, they shared dinner and leaned in for a kiss, happy to at least have found each other. In that bright moment Bastion appeared and quickly subdued the lovers, dragging them to the Indian branch of Operation: Zero Tolerance.
Operation: Zero Tolerance was a goal to finally eliminate all mutants, spearheaded by Bastion, a human Sentinel hybrid. The two were strapped to operating tables and approached by Bastion and, shockingly, Sanjit. Sanjit had been investigating Operation: Zero Tolerance and Bastion was none too pleased, he had the boy transformed into one of his Prime Sentinels, serving Bastion and the directives of Zero Tolerance. Karima screamed as Bastion began the procedure on her and Neal, they too would become Sentinels, no longer the intelligent detective or the charming young man they once were. At that moment Neal’s latent mutant ability erupted in a burst of plasma, reducing the facility to rubble. In the ensuing chaos, Sanjit was killed, Bastion escaped, and Karima was horrified. Her body had begun to transform but her programming had yet to activate. She pleaded with Neal to leave, fighting the urge to destroy this mutant that she loved. Tearfully he departed as the Sentinel programming took over, she was no longer Karima Shapanadar, she was the Omega Sentinel.
Art by Brett Booth, Scott Elmer, and Kevin Somers
After Operation: Zero Tolerance was shut down, so was Karima. Thought just to be a weapon she was sold and traded until she ended up in the hands of the remnants of the Genoshan Magistrates. Genosha had become a desolate wasteland after Cassandra Nova attacked and now only a handful of mutants remained. Three of those mutants, Hack, Hub, and Purge, noticed a Magistrate aircraft overhead and teleported aboard to see what was going on. There they found the Omega Sentinel in stasis and ejected the killing machine into Hammer Bay. Charles Xavier and Magneto were also on the island, working to rebuild it to its former glory, when the saw the stasis pod drop into the water. When the found that it was a Sentinel Magneto wanted to destroy it, but as always, Charles saw a different way. Using a combination of Eric’s electro-magnetic abilities and Charles telekinesis they were able to remove the Sentinel programming from Karima and restore her to her original mind. Karima decided to stay on the island to help as she rebuilt her life, joining Xavier’s new Excalibur.
Art by Aaron Lopresti, Greg Adams, Andrew Pepoy, and Liquid!
After the events of M-Day, there was nothing left on Genosha to save and Excalibur disbanded. Karima was captured by the Fordyce Clinic and rescued by a team of X-Men. Rogue had recently been given free rein to form her own X-Men squad and she asked the Omega Sentinel to join. She became an invaluable source of firepower against the Children of the Vault, Pandemic, and the Hecatome.
Art by Humberto Ramos, Carlos Cuevas, and Edgar Delgado
After her systems were damaged in the fight against the Hecatome she hooked up to a laptop to run diagnostics and forgot one important rule of the internet, she opened an email attachment from an unknown source. That email contained the Marauder Malice who possessed the Omega Sentinel and turned her against the X-Men. She would stay possessed through the events of Messiah CompleX assisting the Marauders until she was released by Pixie and her Soul Dagger.
Art by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, and Brian Reber
When she awoke, Xavier had been shot, the Marauder’s bodies were strewn around her, and time had been stopped. She was approached by Exodus and he offered for her to join his new Acolytes and help save the life of Charles Xavier. With nowhere else to go she accepted and helped nurse Xavier back to health. When the healthy Xavier convinced Exodus to disband his Acolytes, Karima made her way to Utopia, home of the remaining mutant race. After the city experienced severe damage during Bastion’s assault in Second Coming, Karima joined a construction team led by Rogue to assist the city. She had been feeling off ever since Bastion attacked but she couldn’t pinpoint it. Her Sentinel programming had begun to return and overpower her, forcing her to attack her fellow X-Men. She struggled against her programming but it was to no avail, she asked Hellion to stop her and he didn’t hold back. She was left brain dead and in stasis yet again.
Art by Paul Davidson and Brian Reber
Her body was moved to the Jean Grey School where it rested in Beast’s lab. The school was soon infected with a sentient bacterium known as Arkea who had the ability to control technology, and Arkea found the perfect host in the Omega Sentinel. She attacked the school until she discovered all there was to know about Earth from the X-Men’s computers and left to conquer the planet. The X-Men were at a loss, was any of Karima still in that body? Could they bring themselves to destroy her if necessary? These questions were taken out of their hands when Psylocke held Arkea at the point of her psychic blade, Karima broke through and knew what she had to do. She threw herself on the focused totality of Psylocke’s psychic might, purging the infection from her. More than that the Omega Sentinel implants were rendered inert. Karima was human again. She joined the X-Men for a short time but decided that it wasn’t for her after hunting down the remnants of Arkea. She accepted a job offer to become a police officer again and Karima was finally at peace with who she was.
Art by Oliver Coipel, Mark Morales, and Laura Martin
Must Read
For a pretty minor character Karima has been in supporting roles in a bunch of good comics but for a must read it comes down to Brian Wood’s X-Men (the X-Women one) or Mike Carey’s X-Men (the Supernovas) and as much as I love Woods run I have to give this one to Supernovas. Karima got to start as a blank slate here and the book began to look at what it meant for her to fight against programing. The art by Chris Bachalo and Humberto Ramos was fantastic throughout and the story features one of the best lineups in X-Men history. This series is available online on Marvel Unlimited or in a trade where ever books are sold.
Art by Chris Bachalo
Ranking
This is a weird character to rank. I like Karima but she is almost always used as a plot element, not a real character. She is constantly possessed or reprogramed to be a different character. She ends up being a blank slate which is disappointing since her initial character of a strong Indian woman who struggles with identity is very engaging. She ranks among the other great X-Men ideas that are never fully realized. Using the excitement test, I would still be happier to see her show up than Darwin so that’s where she’ll stand, as the new number 13 in the Xavier Files.
Omega Sentinel was requested by /u/BaldBombshell from reddit. Thanks for the request guys. If YOU have a character you want me to do, leave a comment and I’ll get it added to the list.
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Next week try and heal the world as we examine Elixir. See you Tuesday!
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
