Omega Sentinel (Karima Shapandar) is a superhero later supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is associated with the X-Men and its spinoff Excalibur.
Publication history
Karima Shapandar first appeared in X-Men Unlimited #27 (June 2000) and was created by Chris Claremont and Brett Booth.
Fictional character biography
Prime Sentinel
Shapandar was a police officer from India who was transformed into an Omega Prime Sentinel by Bastion of the Operation: Zero Tolerance program. It all started when Karima was dispatched to look after Neal Shaara (who would later become known as Thunderbird). Neal was looking for his brother Sanjit who had gone missing while researching some mysterious disappearances in Calcutta. A bond quickly developed between the two, and they were on the verge of beginning a romantic relationship when they were attacked and captured by Bastion. Neal learned that Sanjit had become a Prime Sentinel, programmed to seek out and destroy mutants. Bastion intended to do the same to Neal and Karima, but the morphing process catalyzed Neal's latent mutant power, which destroyed the building around him. Sanjit fought his programming long enough to disable the other Sentinels, but died in the process.
As Neal cradled Sanjit's body, Shapandar quietly told Neal to run. She had discovered that she was a Prime Sentinel; humans transformed into sentinels and set up as 'sleeper' agents, unaware of their programming until a nearby mutant activated them (as in Neal's usage of his mutant powers).
Neal refused, saying he loved Karima. Karima begged him to leave, saying she couldn't hold on much longer. Neal was forced to flee.
Genoshan Excalibur
Karima later resurfaces on the decimated island of Genosha, where she encounters Charles Xavier and Magneto. The two were able to disable her Sentinel programming and restore her mind, but the technological modifications to her body remained.
Karima stayed on the island with the others, working as a police officer to restore order. She is trying to adjust to her new form, which comes into conflicts with her Hindu beliefs. It is assumed she left the island with most of the other residents after Decimation.
Joining the X-Men
The X-Men discovered a disassembled Karima, along with Lady Mastermind in a lab of the Fordyce Clinic that was testing on mutants to see if someone can catch mutation like a disease. Beast reassembled her, but she appears to have lost part of her memory from the moment she got disassembled. Rogue officially recruited her onto the team to help fight the Children of the Vault.
Since then she was able to help fix a teleporter in the search to find Pandemic, helping in the fight to defeat him. After Rogue was infected with a virus by Pandemic, Cable took the team to his island so Rogue could be cared for. On the island, Karima helped the team and the island residents who were attacked by the Hecatomb.
Marauders and Malice
Omega Sentinel is possessed by Malice, who is now a digital entity instead of a psionic one, via email virus; thus, she unwillingly ends up joining the new Marauders. The other X-Men, save Emma Frost, were unaware of her being possessed until they were attacked by her along with the rest of the new Marauders, including Mystique and Lady Mastermind. She later fights alongside the other Marauders in Flint, Michigan, against Iceman and Cannonball, as both sides try to obtain the Diaries of Destiny.
Messiah Complex
Along with fellow Marauders Sunfire, Gambit, Prism, Blockbuster, Lady Mastermind, and Scalphunter, Malice travels to Cooperstown, Alaska to find the baby but instead come across the Purifiers and they come to blows.
The next time she is seen, she is fighting Colossus along with Arclight, Frenzy, and Unuscione. She then teams up with Lady Mastermind in taking out Wolverine by throwing a disguised Scrambler at him. After he realizes the deception, she hits him with an energy blast. While asking him about how he wants to die, Nightcrawler teleports in and knocks her out along with Lady Mastermind.
She recovers and joins Gambit, Sunfire and Vertigo when they confront Bishop, who is about to kill the baby. She seems to show a lot of affection towards the baby and finds it extraordinary that she isn't scared at all when she picks her up. She is present when Gambit delivers the baby to Mystique (in the guise of Mister Sinister) at the Marauders' base on Muir Isle and later battles the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force when they arrive to take the baby. During the final battle over the child, Omega Sentinel is stabbed and somehow incapacitated by Pixie's Soul Dagger.