Quentin Quire
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Quentin Quire is a fictional comic book character, an Omega-level mutant telepath in the Marvel Universe codenamed Kid Omega. He has transcended to a higher plane of existence as a "green" phoenix of the Phoenix Host.
Quentin Quire's first appearance was in New X-Men #122 (March 2002), although he was not actually named until New X-Men #134 (January 2003). He was created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Xavier Institute
Quentin Quire joined the student body of the Xavier Institute after Professor X's return from averting a war with Genosha and the rebuilding of the X-Mansion. He immediately stood out as a brilliant intellect and quickly became Xavier's prize pupil, though the extent and type of his mutant abilities were never clearly defined. Quire appeared to be a very powerful telepath, and the Stepford Cuckoos described him as having a 'see-through mind', but he was not necessarily limited to that.
Quentin often hung out with Glob Herman, and had a crush on Sophie, one of the Stepford Cuckoos. However, something about Quire disturbed the Cuckoos, though Emma Frost dismissed it as academic rivalry.
[edit] Omega Gang: New X-Men
While a student at Xavier's, Quire invented the anti-gravity floats for Martha Johansson's brain canister, and exposed the charisma-powered Slick's true, ugly body to the other students. On his birthday, Quentin received a call from his parents, who told him he was adopted. This seemed to destabilize him and he went to town, getting a haircut reminiscent of Bolivar Trask's depiction of a mutant overlord, from a newspaper that was published the day Quire was born. Quire also seemed to hop on the bandwagon calling for vengeance for the recently murdered mutant designer Jumbo Carnation, and took to wearing clothing based on the Trask-mutant overlord, which happened to be one of Jumbo's creations. He also debated with Professor X about the merits of the school's policies, wondering if Xavier would allow any dream other than his own to exist.
- You always encourage us to dream sir, I just wondered what you would think if we had a dream you didn't like.
Shortly afterwards, Quire and a group of like-minded students went into town wearing the Trask-overlord clothes, and Quire convinced them to overdose on the mutant drug Kick. They accosted a gang of humans in an alley and killed or maimed them all. When Herman asked what had happened to a human Quentin himself had murdered, Quire replied that he had carved his name across the man's mind. Later, back at the school, Xavier confronted the students about it, but Quire was not specifically implicated, though he did debate Xavier's outlawing of his gang's uniform and similar 'mutant anarchist' clothes at the school.
Afterwards, Quentin and his gang went to a mutant tatooist, and had their arms marked with an Omega symbol over an X. Mere hours later, they hi-jacked a van and attacked U-Man Central, feeling that the U-Men were too dangerous to be left to their own devices. Returning to the school, the "Omega Gang" ambushed Professor X, knocking him out with a baseball bat and clamping his head in a thought-proofed helmet based on Magneto's designs that Quentin had found on the internet. The next day, the school's "Open Day" to parents and the media, Quire proclaimed to the public that it was "open season on humans" and started a riot.
[edit] Riot at Xavier's
Some of the students joined Quire in protesting Xaviers' policies, but most of the damage was done by the Omegas themselves, until they were subdued by Cyclops, Emma Frost and Xorn. However, with Quire still guarding Professor X, the situation threatened to continue until the Stepford Cuckoos, led by Sophie, used Cerebra and a dose of Kick to boost their shared powers. They blasted through to the grounds and confronted Quire, mocking the 'excuse' that he was trying to please them, and blew him through a wall with a telepathic shockwave.
Quire was taken to the Infirmary, where Henry McCoy tried to stabilize him, but his body was being burnt out by his own psionic energy. This was apparently the result of his overdoses of Kick, which caused a secondary mutation that changed his brain into faster-than-light energy, apparently putting him in telepathic contact with everyone on the planet simultaneously. Seeing that Quire was terminal, Professor X called for Xorn, who opened his helmet to expose Quire to his mini star-for-a-head, and Quire left the mortal plane.
[edit] "A Higher Plane of Existence"
However, Quire was not truly dead, and remained in a semi-alive energy form in a containment unit on Beast's lab table. The potential future shown in the New X-Men story "Here Comes Tomorrow" indicated that Quentin was destined to become an avatar for the Phoenix Force.
[edit] Phoenix Endsong
A few months later, when the Phoenix Force returned to Earth, it sensed Quire and investigated him, thinking he might be Jean Grey. Though the Phoenix passed Quire up, it shocked him back to consciousness and he reconstituted his body. Furthermore, he sought out and re-animated Sophie's corpse, but was unable to complete the process, so he set off to find the Phoenix Force so he could be with his love. Quire found the Phoenix, which had resurrected Jean Grey to attract Cyclops's attention, engaged in battle with the X-Men. Just prior to his arrival on the scene, the X-Men got the Phoenix to inhabit Emma Frost, Cyclops's current lover, and imprisoned both her and Scott inside a containment vessel. Quire arrived and broke the containment chamber open, releasing the Phoenix. Quentin then asked the Phoenix to resurrect Sophie, which she did. Sophie was still disgusted by him (and/or his actions) and chose to return to death. Quire broke down in anguish, and the Phoenix left him to his "sickness". Having spent too much of his energy, Quire apologized to the X-Men for his rash behavior and returned to his non-corporeal state. He remains in the beaker in Beast's lab.
In the sequel Warsong, Kid Omega appears in his human form again and it is rumoured that the Stepford Cuckoos are responsible.
[edit] Powers and abilities
In New X-men, Quentin possessed advanced cognitive and telepathic abilities enable him to organize and construct his thoughts at accelerated rates, overtly or covertly manipulate the minds of others, resist mind probes, and disable other forms of psychic manipulation. Emma Frost stated that his mind processed several thousand brilliant thoughts a second. Which is pretty impressive and could make one wonder how powerful Quentin could've become.
In Phoenix Endsong, Quire generated massive amounts of telekinetic energy that allowed him to break free of his containment chamber, blast-through the Xavier School's foundation, pull Sophie's body out of the ground and asked the Phoenix Force to resurrect it, and fly at super-sonic speeds. It's unknown whether these were powers somehow granted to him by the Phoenix Force or his own. He didn't show any signs of telekinesis in the New x-men series.
[edit] X-Men: The Last Stand
A mutant with the power to sprout quills from his body in X-Men: The Last Stand is listed in the credits as Kid Omega, but this is not Quentin Quire. This "Kid Omega" is, in fact, the mutant Quill in the comics and is portrayed by Ken Leung. He is killed by Jean Grey in the film.
According to scriptwriter Zak Penn, the character played by Leung was not named as Kid Omega in the original script. In a Q&A on fansite thexverse.com, he said: "This was a screwup, pure and simple, albeit one that is never mentioned anywhere in the movie but the credits."
