soviet-supersoldier

[soviet-supersoldier]

Oh yeah!! Omega Red gets in on the Swimsuit Special!!

Commission wrapped for purplegoatwrote on IG.

Commissions are open ✨️

[soviet-supersoldier]

A new Marvel Legends series of Marvel vs. Capcom figures were just revealed earlier today. Preorder dates haven't been announced yet, but I will keep an eye on it as one of the sets is Omega Red vs. War Machine.

From the images shared, Arkady looks like he will have a new head, hands, and a different color scheme, shoulder pads and kneepads/boots to match his design from the video game. Which is also rather close to the design he had in his earliest appearances:

So if you are in the market for a new (or another) Omega Red figure, get your wallet ready!!

[soviet-supersoldier]

Arkady does make a very great point. X-Force disbanded for one reason or another, but absolutely no one came for him when he was locked up in Greymalkin to be tortured. Kurt acknowledged he was in prison there when they had their Raid and said -- out loud -- that he was going to leave Arkady behind. It wouldn't be a stretch to the imagination to think he overheard that. That he was being abandoned by the X-men despite everything he did to be a good and loyal member of X-Force. He was still discarded and treated as if he deserved the sub-human treatment of Greymalkin. No wonder why he's angry.

If the X-men ever wonder once stop to wonder why their villains act the way they do, they should look in the mirror. Because their lack of support is what drives these characters to survive any way they can and leave them bitter when they're left to fend entirely for themselves in a world that hates them. They won't be able to continue on the path to change without a network to keep them on the straight and narrow. The X-men have each other. Who do people like Arkady have? No one.

(Spider-man & Wolverine 2025)

Well the brief redemption arc was nice while we had it but Arkady makes a great point here, he was good and all he got in return was abandoned the second they didn’t want to use him anymore. Once again left behind in a prison cell by so called allies

[soviet-supersoldier]

We have a preview of Spider-man and Wolverine #1. Still not sure on where in the timeline this run is supposed to fit, but if it's present day, then this means somehow Arkady broke out of Greymalkin Prison and is now free! But he does seem to be crashing out here, which I would feel is completely justified due to the torture going on in that place while the X-men left everyone behind. He deserves to be upset.

I will be watching this story unfold with great interest to see how they handle Arkady here. I hope that it doesn't undo his progress, and from the preview, he seems to be ok so far, just really pissed at Logan for justifiable reasons. I guess we will see how this goes.

[soviet-supersoldier]

I don't think I've ever shared these action figures of mine, but a new place to live means I have real room to take out the toys and play with them! Arkady is a Marvel Legends from the Sauron wave, while Sage was custom-made for me by one of my siblings, since Marvel refuses to make an official figure for her. My Sage was made using a Sersi body that came in a pack with Black Knight and an Elektra Marvel Legends head and hands from the Man-Thing wave.

And of course, my various props. They are very nice for setting up scenes:

Especially romantic ones:

As a bonus, I did also get a set of tiger cub figurines. So Arkady has Kotik as well:

I have six little figures, which gives me six options for poses. It allows Kotik to be more expressive:

It's fun to have these figures and the ability to pose them for scenes. They're all so adorable!

[soviet-supersoldier]

The date for our first annual Omega Red Week is fast approaching! The week-long event will be held from Aug. 10-16 in conjunction with the celebration of Arkady’s birthday as voted on by members of our Omega Red Discord server.

Everyone is free to take part in any way they wish to celebrate Arkady -- whether through fan art or fanfiction. We have themes selected for each day, and you are free to choose your level of participation and how you would like to explore the themes we have selected. One day or all seven, be sure to tag your creations with "Omega Red Week 2025" and it will be reblogged here on my blog during the week.

The only thing that we ask of participants is that you do not use ANY AI-generated content for this event. This is supposed to be a week where we fans of his share our love of Omega Red, an expression of each fan's connection with his character. AI takes away that individual heart put into real artwork and writing and steals from real artists and writers who use their talents to create heartfelt and personal pieces. It has no place in our fan space.

If you want to participate, be sure to mark your calendars!! The countdown to Omega Red Week continues on!!

[soviet-supersoldier]

I just found out browsing through Ao3's relationship tags for Sage that she has nine fics where she is paired with Sebastian Shaw. So now, I have a goal: 10. At least 10 OmegaSage fics where she gets to have a good, happy, healthy, and healing relationship for once and where her character gets some love and focus. So far, there are 6 where she is paired with Arkady. That means at least 4 to go!

I have noticed when it comes to characters like Arkady and Sage, if they appear in a fan work, it's not often at all (Arkady's tag has 64 listings while Sage has 141) and they're not given much attention, even if they're a listed character. More often than not, they're regulated to a side role or are just used/named-dropped once and never heard from again. It's really a shame since both Arkady and Sage are great characters with a lot more going for them that make them fun to use in major roles and to explore themes and concepts with.

This is something I do also note doesn't help much in encouraging fanfic writers to try their hand at writing these less used/popular characters. They don't have as many appearances to their name in the comics, so for some people, it's hard to figure out how to write them even after some research. And that gets reflected in fanfiction where they're not used as much because -- unless you happen to be a die-hard fan of one or both of them -- people aren't sure how to write them or how to use them. It's a perpetual motion machine in a bad way: readers of fics only ever see these characters in supporting roles in fics and don't get to see the real magic that comes with a deep dive. So even when you see that a character like Omega Red or Sage is in a fic, there's a high chance they still get put into a support role because that's all people ever see them appear as and nothing more. Nothing deeper for either of them.

So that will be my goal. Keep writing OmegaSage content and hope that my writing for both Arkady and Teresia helps change some of the narrative and use of them in fanfiction if anyone ever happens to stumble on my writing. They're both interesting and engaging characters -- and personally I think they're even more fun/better together -- and they deserve some love.

[soviet-supersoldier]

Here is the first chapter of "Blood and Lipstick," a fic set earlier in the Marvel timeline between Omega Red and Sage, using the Russian Mafia and Hellfire Club as a backdrop. My sincere thanks to @combatantwriter for your help in creating this work and to all the members of the Omega Red discord server for encouraging me to try writing this kind of story.

As I have decided to lock all of my fics to better protect them against AI scraping, I am just putting out the reminder that you will need to have an Ao3 account to read. Updates might be haphazard with this fic, but I will post here on Tumblr whenever there's an update. Enjoy!!

[soviet-supersoldier]

I hate to have to do this as well, but AI has to ruin everything and this way, at least the works I have created thus far and will continue to create will be a little bit more protected from AI trying to steal it. The last thing I want is AI creating soulless "works" based off ideas and works lovingly crafted by real writers. Here is how this will go:

All of my currently completed works, which include "The Bliss of Christmas," "Баю Баюшки Баю," and "Can You Just Walk Away?" will be locked at some point today. My final work, "Living Weapon, Living Computer and a Touch of Luck," will remain open for one week after I put up the next chapter this weekend before it, too, will be locked. That way, I can inform any of my guest readers and any other readers who are reading and following that ongoing work the chance to know what is going on and what will change. With luck, that will give my guest readers enough of a heads up to begin the process to get their own account to continue reading my Omega Red fics. Any future works that I add (including the soon-to-be-released "Blood and Lipstick") will be locked upon release, meaning you will need an Ao3 account in order to read the work in the first place.

I hate to have to do this, I really do, as it punishes those guest readers of mine who read and enjoy the works I create, and it does automatically decrease the amount of visibility for Omega Red-centered works as a whole for casual Ao3 readers (and he has so few in the first place), but I do not want AI doing any more damage. If I can do something to make it more difficult for people to cheat their way through the writing experience, I will. Writing is an art form, expressing inner creativity and ideas that showcase our humanity and talents. AI has NO right to our space and no right to steal our words, styles, and forms of expression.

So, if you are a guest reader of mine or of other Ao3 works right now, I ask that you strongly consider getting your own Ao3 account in order to continue to be able to read the works you love. The process does take some time as there is a waiting period to get in, but it really is worth it. Especially if you want to be able to continue to read and support fanfic writers.

To my fellow Ao3 authors, I ask that you likewise consider locking your fics to protect them against AI. It's not a 100% foolproof method to keep AI and "users" from trying to steal your works, but it's better than no protection at all.

Attention all Fanfic Writers and Our Beloved Readers

I hate making this post, but want to spread the word as best I can. It seems that AO3 has been recently scraped for data used to train AI. I have linked a Reddit post going into detail from one of the AO3 mods. It is strongly being encouraged that AO3 authors lock their fics, making them only accessible to users with a registered account. That being said, all completed fics on my account will be locked effective immediately. The fics that are still in progress will be updated to locked once I post a new chapter for each. This really makes me sad, because I know some people who enjoy reading fanfiction (not just mine, but others) did so with a guest account, and locked fics are not viewable to guests. Anyway, the main message is: Fuck you, AI.

[soviet-supersoldier]

And if I have been convinced to try my hand at an explicit Russian mafia romance between Arkady and Sage?? What then??

[soviet-supersoldier]

*Tagged as mature due to the topic of death threats and suicide*

So, for the past few weeks, I have been seeing more and more posts and/or comments from people on Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit and other social media sites for people who like certain characters or ships in the X-men/Marvel fandom to "kill themselves," among other rather hateful messages directed towards them. Now, while I myself have not seen such messages directed towards Omega Red and his fans (for which I am deeply thankful for our fortune thus far, it can change at any time), I have seen these messages directed towards many of my mutuals here who like other characters and ships in Marvel, and it has reached a point where I feel I cannot be silent on this matter any longer. My mutuals are my friends, they have supported me in many ways, encouraged me to express my own love of the characters I enjoy, have put up with my weirdness, and have had my back at every turn. So, just as they have my back, I have theirs. To quote one of my favorite lines from the Lord of the Rings appendices about the hatred currently being directed towards my mutuals: "This cannot be borne." You attack one of us, you attack us all.

To those so-called "fans" who are writing such hateful and ugly messages on their accounts: just who do you think you are? What right do you have to call for the actual death of real people over their love of certain fictional characters and their fictional relationships? This is abhorrent behavior plain and simple. No one should be bullying other people and certainly never to the extreme of demanding death no matter the cause. These are real people, human beings you are threatening. Where is your compassion? Your empathy? Your ability to see others as equals and as fellow humans and fans of these characters? Clearly, you lost it somewhere along the way.

Many of these accounts -- I do note with a great deal of irony -- are fans of heroic characters or ships. I ask those fans: does being a fan of a more "heroic" character put you above reproach? That you are unable to ever be at fault because you chose to like a hero over a villain? Or like a ship you don't see as "problematic?" Do you think that makes your actions excusable? That you and the characters and ships you like are inherently better just because they happen to be the popular ones/heroes? If you sincerely believe that, then I am very disappointed in you. You do not truly understand what it means to be a hero or follow along the tenants that the characters you follow and love actually try to practice. Perhaps it is time to take a real good look at yourself and ask if the heroes you love and claim to support would support the hate you spread in their name. Knowing these heroes and what they stand, fight for, and believe in, I know what the answer would be. Do you?

In the case of X-men characters specifically, the entire message of that section of Marvel Comics is a message that asks for tolerance. Understanding of the minority and acceptance of others because of the differences they have. There is an understanding that mutants and humanity are not a monolith, and it is our differences that make us stronger. Allow us to see things from a different point of view. Challenge us. It's the same for the fandom. We are not a monolith, nor should we try to be. We all have our own tastes. Likes and dislikes. Things that attract us to one character over another. And people should not be hated, feared and bullied with death threats because of who they happen to like and connect to.

And I know what some out there are thinking. There is that hatred and disgust towards anyone would choose to like these characters and ships, asking: "Why them? Why these characters and relationships?" And I will tell you this: the things you hate and view as wrong with these characters and ships? Those things "fans" like you spout off as the reasons why people like these things? That is NOT why these fans like the ships and characters they do.

Speaking as an Omega Red fan, I know that there are people out there who dislike him. They have certain views about his character because he is a villain. But I still enjoy him as a character IN SPITE OF his flaws and worst traits. Why? Because I see a different side. I look deeper than surface level to see a human being in this fictional character, that human reminding me much of myself. I relate to his struggles. In Omega Red, I see a man who has been abused by the world at every turn, rejected by his family, society, and country because of what his mutant powers made him become. I saw a man trapped trying to chase for things he was never allowed to attain: a normal life. During the lowest part of my life thus far, I related strongly to his struggles and story -- looked forward to his appearances month to month in the Krakoa era -- because I related to Omega Red and his journey far more than I did any hero before or since. At that time, I was on the outside looking in at life. Left dreaming about a "someday" when my life wasn't so awful. And I found a character who best represented those real-life struggles I had. And I saw -- for once -- his life getting better. His journey as a character gave me hope that if his life -- as awful as it had been -- could actually get better, then mine could too. I just needed to hold on just a little bit longer. And I am in a much better place now because of that. Because I connected with the personal story of a villain over that of a hero.

Now, not everyone has a story like mine, and they don't have to. Everyone has a valid reason for liking the characters and ships that they do. They see something there that makes these characters and ships special to them. That they deeply relate to and oftentimes will never be comfortable with speaking out loud due to how personal those stories are. I ask that you try to understand that. Understand that these people you are interacting with are just that: PEOPLE. Real flesh and blood humans who have their own fears. Dreams. Desires. Hopes for life and parts of stories that they relate to and connect with over others. We are all different and do not look at these stories, characters, and dynamics in the same way. This is an art medium and, as such, is one open to quite a vast array of interpretation. It is NEVER right to dehumanize the people on the other side of your screen for the things they like. You don't know their stories, you don't know why they like the things they do, and speaking from ignorance makes you look exactly like the enemies that heroes like the X-men fight and oppose. You fear what you do not understand.

So if there is anything I want anyone reading this to take away from this essay it's this: stop spreading hate. Stop calling for death towards those who are different and who like different things. Educate yourself on these characters and ships. Try to approach these subjects through the lens of understanding and wanting to understand. I know it can be hard, but I sincerely ask that you try. Try to see that there is nothing that makes us different from you -- it's only in how our tastes are expressed that make us different.

And if you can't bring yourself to look deeper because of your hatred and disgust? Then I ask that you at the very least stop posting and commenting such hate. There are valid reasons for disliking any character or ship -- and there are places and times for such discourse -- but these messages my mutuals have been receiving aren't arguments or valid reasonings for disliking things, they're threats that can deeply affect the mental health of real people who use these stories as escapes from the harshness of reality. The world is cruel and difficult enough as it is. Must you make it harder?

To my mutuals: I stand with you. I support you. If there is ever anything any of you ever need, never hesitate to reach out. I'll do what I can to help you no matter what it is you're going through. And I extend this message to anyone else who is not a mutual of mine but who has similarly been threatened for the things they enjoy: you are not alone, and I stand with you.

Please, let us make the Marvel and X-men fandoms more positive places and at least accept fans of all characters and ships as equally valid in their own unique ways.

[soviet-supersoldier]

Some headcanons I have for Arkady:

--Now that he has the C-Synthesizer in his chest, the device makes whirrs and clicks in line with his heartbeat. It's filtering his blood of the Carbonadium poisoning, and if a person stands close enough to his chest, they can hear it working.

-- He has a slightly higher body temperature than the average human. As a supersoldier, he was augmented enough to change his metabolism and biochemistry, and as such has a higher body temperature. It makes him very nice to cuddle with if a person ever bonds with him enough to allow them to come close.

-- He's demisexual. We have never seen Arkady take romantic interest in the comics, but he has started to form some close bonds of friendship with a few characters that could possibly develop into romance. What this really shows is that he needs to have a strong emotional bond and trust with someone else before he would ever commit to a relationship. And after he does, though, he's loyal as hell.

-- He has a habit of rubbing his wrists where the implants are for his coils as well as running his hands through his hair to feel the cybernetics on his skull. Feeling the implants grounds him when he's struggling through nightmares and instances where he may be talking about his past experiences of being weaponized.

-- For many years he used eggs as a way to wash his hair. Growing up in Siberia, he didn't have access to shampoo, and that didn't change much when he joined the military and was later weaponized. After he grew his hair out, he maintained it on missions by stealing eggs from any farms he would come across and making a "shampoo" out of the eggs to wash his hair.

-- He's immune to gas attacks. Another thing about his biology altered by the Soviets when they were experimenting on him to make him their supersoldier. They didn't want him to be taken down by gas attacks and changed him to make certain he could walk through a field of whatever gas a person would use on the battlefield and he would not be affected.

[soviet-supersoldier]

So, I just heard that the upcoming Spider-Man and Wolverine comic is going to be featuring Omega Red as a villain, teamed up with Kraven the Hunter.

It comes out May 7 and, from the article, it sounds like it is set in the present From the Ashes era. Only problem: Omega Red is currently in Greymalkin prison and has been for months. How can he be there and appearing here at the same time? Is this actually current, or does this take place earlier/later in the Marvel timeline? There's something about this timeline that isn't sitting right with me. Is this even Omega Red, or are both the clone boys causing trouble? I have no idea. It isn't making any sense.

I will check it out, because it has Omega Red set to appear, but I am rather confused at the moment, if not frustrated with Marvel for not keeping track of their own characters and their continuity. Omega Red only just appeared in Sentinels, has been name-dropped in Uncanny and Adjectiveless X-men, and he appeared constantly in the Krakoa era. It's not like Marvel is reviving a character who has been gone for years. Editorial should know where he is, if he is able to be used, and should be able to tell a writer "no" in cases like this where he's being used elsewhere.

This upcoming comic also highlights a concern that I and other Omega Red fans have had ever since Arkady was thrown into Greymalkin: that Marvel is trying to walk back Arkady’s redemption arc he's been on since 2017 just so Wolverine can have someone to punch. Just because Omega Red has historically been a villain is no excuse to not respect his continuity and story arc as a character over the past several years. He was just teammates with Wolverine in the last era. Kraven the Hunter was an enemy to them both when he attacked Krakoa during Judgment Day. Wolverine and Spider-man even just had a recent team-up in Fall of X, there shouldn't be anything between those two to cause the conflict that is being teased between the two of them. Marvel should not be ignoring recent events to revert to the perceived status quo -- and this goes for all the characters involved in this upcoming book.

This is really a problem when they bring back writers who are fans of specific, older eras: they want to return back to those days of nostalgia rather than respect the character progress that has been made in the decades since they have read/wrote about these characters. Especially with regards to villains, who they almost never consider when they make stories like these. Their continuity needs to be respected the same way the hero's continuity is respected -- especially when they're involved in other storylines taking place at the same time that makes a double appearance like this very conflicting. Omega Red can't be in prison and palling around with Kraven the Hunter at the same time. You can have one or the other, not both.

We will see what this comic (which is being promoted as an ongoing) will actually do and if Marvel will respect the continuity they themselves have made or toss it aside to make money off of their cash cows at the expense of making the timeline make sense. I'm not holding my breath, though. Marvel seems to do this sort of thing when they're out of ideas and want to make quick money, falling back on the Wolverine and Spider-man zombie fanbases to save them and get guaranteed money. Unfortunately, no matter how Marvel tries to spin this as an easy jumping-on point/accessible story for new readers stories like these just never fit easy into the timeline that Marvel has and make it even harder for anyone to follow what is going on. Marvel really needs to get their act together. Continuity has to be respected.

[soviet-supersoldier]

Character Examination: Omega Red

Part 6: X-men (1991) #17

A (kinda) short one this time around, as Omega Red doesn't technically appear in this issue. This is the beginning of the Soul Skinner arc, and as Arkady is mentioned on a few pages, I think that I should examine the dialogue, as it does give a little insight into what Arkady is up to leading into this arc, and, perhaps more importantly, what the government view of him seems to be at the time. It also does bring up questions that I doubt Marvel will ever answer, as well as begin the trend of trying to make Arkady look like a villain with his motives, with the execution of that being rather worthy of deeper examination as we get into these issues.

So, this page of dialogue is intriguing, as we get to see some of the set-up to this conflict with the Soul Skinner. He's causing problems in the town of Neftelensk, so much so that the government/military is concerned. We have these military leaders here talking about the situation, as well as the resources at their disposal. They don't seem very eager to spend their own resources to deal with the issue (almost viewing it as a suicide mission) and by the end of the page, have decided to look to "outside" help in the form of Omega Red.

So, the piece of dialogue that really stands out here on this page puts a bit of focus on what Arkady is viewed like. Alexei Vazhin, who is being set up here to be pro-mutant, says this about Arkady: "You want someone eminently expendable who would only go into a danger zone for self-serving reasons."

This sort of seems to highlight what the Russian government views Arkady are like and their reaction to finding out he was bought by a Japanese criminal and revived: they don't care. He's not viewed as a lost asset that needs to be recovered. They don't have any desire to have him back, let alone fix him, but instead view him like a piece of old outdated equipment that won't be a real loss if they lose him on a dangerous assignment like this. They're fine with using him and him having the high risk of being killed on this assignment as they have other mutant assets (like Magik) they feel are more valuable.

And then the other part of the dialogue. How he says Arkady will only go into a dangerous situation if it serves his own purposes. It's clearly meant to be a dig at Arkady’s character, that he's a bad person who is selfish for not wanting to help. It's the start of a trend in picking specific dialogue to try to spin the narrative that Omega Red is an awful person. But I want to point out a few things. This is a dangerous situation that Omega Red would be signing up for -- a mission that I already pointed out is being viewed almost like a suicide mission. Why should he be putting himself at risk to clean up a government-caused mess (they do this to him a lot, as you will see) when there is such a high risk to himself? He also has his own concerns, namely, finding a cure for that chronic condition he has in order to keep himself alive. He may be viewed as selfish, but then, Omega Red has very legitimate reasons for refusing it he wants. He doesn't owe the Russian government a thing, especially since they're the ones responsible for never fixing him (Team X stealing the C-Synthesizer aside).

It is only through emotional manipulation that Omega Red is convinced to do this. We don't ever see the exchange -- what was actually said to convince him to go -- but the set-up here indicates Arkady is being gaslit into doing the government's dirty work with the vague promise of getting something in return. The X-men too end up getting manipulated here in this story arc to help, so it does seem unfair to look at Arkady needing to be tricked into cleaning up this mess as a mark against his character -- while the X-men are viewed as heroes in this situation. Arkady has his own personal needs to take care of, and, as we will see in the next examination, his own goals point out he's not happy being stuck with Matsu'o either.

So, the next mention here points out that off-panel, they talked to Omega Red and convinced him to go on this assignment and that he has been no-contact for 48 hours -- two days. In the next issue, we see that the reason Arkady lost contact with them was due to his battle with the Soul Skinner, which he lost. It does beg the question of how long he actually was subjected to mental battle at the hands of the Soul Skinner and why it took two days for the Russian leaders to actually send out more help to address the situation. Two days is a long time to leave a man to fend for himself, and really goes to show the inefficiencies in the government at the time.

That's it for this one. Up next, we get to really dive into Arkady’s psyche during his battle with the Soul Skinner and get further insight into his fears and the actual reality of Omega Red’s mind. It's not as monstrous of a place as a person would think, and I for one have always thought these next few issues are very important ones for Arkady and anyone trying to get to understand him.

[soviet-supersoldier]

Yes!!!! I think about this story arc and many others like it quite a bit for the very points that you bring up. The X-men clearly state in this book what Arkady’s motivations are. Arkady himself makes it even clearer that finding a cure for his cursed powers is what is driving him. The man is sick and tired of killing and not a single person is offering him a solution. He has only himself to rely on and trust to take care of this situation. It really is a sad and cruel situation that I'm sure some people can relate to: how you can be living in some of the worst conditions known to man and no one cares. Your problems are invisible to those with good and stable lives.

I do find it a very interesting oversight that we are never given a solid reason why the X-men never helped him. Even here, when they're discussing Arkady and his motives in this arc, not a single person asks the question of: why don't we offer an alternative? Wouldn't offering Omega Red a more ethical cure for his powers be the best thing to do? The righteous and morally correct path? The heroic path? He stops killing and no one else has to die. Not a one of the X-men ever considers it. They just go after him to stop him, not actually help him. And we the readers are expected to just accept that is the right course of action. We're not supposed to question why the X-men just attack Arkady for wanting a cure from all the pain and cycle of killing he's trapped in. We're supposed to just accept: he's a villain, he deserves it. It's a really childlike, naive take on a person's suffering and makes the X-men look like incredibly selfish jerks.

It's also a situation that adds to the dehumanization Arkady has continually faced in the stories he's in. The X-men don't see an actual human being who was transformed into a cyborg against his will. A symbol of what horrors a government can unleash onto mutants if they allow it. Who has similar -- if not worse -- pains that he has experienced compared to Logan, who the X-men allowed into their home and are friends and family with. No, Arkady is viewed by everyone as a monster who is unworthy of being helped or saved for the vaguest of reasons. Again, the whole situation and how the X-men treated Arkady (and continue to treat Arkady if some of their recent dialogue is to be believed) makes the X-men look like some of the worst people out there. That they don't actually care about other mutants and their sufferings. They only care about themselves and the mutants who offer the best skills to them. So often, they just treat other mutants like tools or that they're expendable. Especially the ones who struggle the most.

It's through this treatment by the X-men over the years that cemented Arkady’s distrust and overall hatred of them until the Krakoa era when Sage did what she did to save his life and give him an actual second chance that the X-men would have otherwise denied him for the crime of trying to take care of himself and his own basic human needs. Arkady has always had really good reasons to hate the X-men, and the more you read his stories, you see not only how his fears and hatred towards them are founded, but also how he has a very outsized reputation compared to what he's actually done. For a man who is claimed by some to be equal to or worse than Sabretooth in terms of crimes, he has far less on his record than Victor and most other X-men villains for that matter. His kill count is very low. But his heroic acts are actually pretty high.

Arkady really does deserve better. The X-men really do owe Omega Red better treatment and should stop treating him like a boogyman that doesn't deserve to be treated like an actual human being. Arkady is a man, not a mindless killing machine. The X-men need to realize this before they ruin the hard work Sage put in to build that trust with Arkady in the Krakoa era. Don't let their negligence on treating Omega Red right undo his progress.

the entirety of Cable: the killing field could have been avoided if they just actually offered Omega Red help

Pretty early on the x-men figure out that Arkady’s key motivation for many of his actions is because he’s trying to fix his body. His mutation is eating away at him, he’s stuck in a state that is constantly dying plus the wear of the modifications he’s received we can imagine he’s probably in pretty constant pain. It makes perfect sense that he would go to any lengths to resolve this. Yet time after time we see people like Logan and Cable that come in to stop Arkady but offer him no other resources or help, dooming him to try once again after he recovers . They know that he’s in pain but instead of trying to come up with a solution that would help him without harming others they simply leave him to remain in pain. I think it’s pretty telling how once he received proper help on Krakoa he was more content to just do x-force work instead of actively being a villain. If anybody had offered him a resolve before it’s pretty fair to say that he would not have done so much damage in his pursuit of the synthesizer. Omega Red’s “curse” has been well known to the other mutants for decades and yet not one person had compassion for him up until Creed in 2017, and even before then victor pays a massive role in prohibiting Red from his goals. I just want someone to be nice to him for once oh my god

[soviet-supersoldier]

The snowy battles between Logan and Arkady are a classic!

[soviet-supersoldier]

Arkady gets his own little Swimsuit Special! He's adorable!!

Honestly, I was in the mood to draw omega red again but instead I decided to draw him for the keychain design for my Esty shop. However, I decided to draw him in a summer outfit for fun since it going to be summer soon. I was planning to do an easter version of him but scratch out the idea for him and went with summer version instead.