ALPHA AND OMEGA STONES

Classification: Extraterrestrial power gem

Creator: Unrevealed

User/Possessors: Formerly the Basilisk (Basil Elks), Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), the Lifestone Tree

Known Relatives: The Original Stone of Power of Kree-Lar

Aliases: Ke-Thai and Vi-Sha (Life and Death)

Base of Operations: Kree-Lar, Earth

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up I#16 (December, 1973)

Powers/Abilities: The Stones produce and absorb power and energy in different forms. They can empower beings and objects. The Alpha Stone seemed to be a big emerald, while the Omega Stone was more like a big ruby and could vary its dimensions from 5cm to 2 meters of diameter.

History:
(Thunderbolts I#45 (fb)) - Thousands of years before the modern era, when the Kree race was still young, a stone of tremendous power was discovered on Kree-Lar. The Kree scientists split the stone in two parts, releasing massive energies that killed thousands of people. The two parts were called Ke-Thai and Vi-Sha (Alpha and Omega, Life and Death). The explosion had drawn the attention of more advanced races, who came to Kree-Lar to explore these energies. The races each brought their own artifacts/stones/gems, seeking a common link. They found that link, and the artifacts were all discovered to be geological survivors of the Big Bang, remnants of the previous universe. The stones were employed in research and in the search for knowledge, and they were joined together to form the Lifestone Tree, funneling the energies of the Hellfire Helix into the artifacts.

(Thunderbolts I#46 (fb)) - The Lifestone Tree's power was used to advance the evolutionary traits of eight chosen representatives of their races, who became the Chosen Eight of Fate (occasionally referred to as the Guardians of the Galaxy). These Eight protected the galaxy for two hundred years until eventually breaking up. The Lifestones were taken from Kree-Lar to prevent intergalactic pirates from stealing them. However, the mission was discovered and the ark carrying the Lifestones was attacked. Its warp drive created an implosion, which created a fissure in space, thrusting the remnants of the ark and fragments of the Lifestones to the far corners of the galaxy. One spatial anomaly opened on the fringes of Earth's solar system, and a number of the gems/fragments arrived on Earth.

(Thunderbolts I#45 (fb)) - With the Chosen Eight gone, the galactic peace eventually collapsed.

(Marvel Team-Up I#16 (fb)) - The Kree decided that the Alpha and the Omega Stones were too dangerous. They put the Stones on a spaceship and sent them to a distant planet where they were to be destroyed. One of the crew of the spaceship killed the guards and tried to steal the Stones, but something went wrong and generated an explosion seen from the Kree mother-ship. The two stones were believed destroyed; instead they arrived on the Earth.

(Marvel Team-Up#16 - BTS) - In the modern era, the Alpha Stone was believed to be a normal emerald and was found in a museum. Its power was sensed by Captain Marvel.

(Marvel Team-Up I#16) - The Alpha Stone was stolen by Basil Elks and was destroyed by a gun-shot. The fragments and the energy released in the explosion of the Stone were absorbed by Elks and transformed him into the Basilisk.

Captain Marvel reached the Omega Stone before the Basilisk could. The Stone reacted at his touch, absorbing his Kree energy and growing, entrapping Captain Marvel inside of it.

(Marvel Team-Up I#47 (fb)) - The Omega Stone then transported Captain Marvel far beneath the surface, passing through the ground as a stone falling in the water.

(Marvel Team-Up#17) - The Mole Man found the Stone and employed it (with Captain Marvel inside) to empower his laser cannon, which he intended to use against the surface world. Mar-Vell switched places with Rick Jones via the Nega-Bands; deprived of Mar-Vell's energies, the Stone reverted to its normal size, freeing Rick Jones in the process. The Basilisk claimed the Omega Stone, but was covered by a river of lava.

(Marvel Team-Up I#47 (fb)) - The Basilisk was imprisoned inside the Omega Stone as Captain Marvel was, but this protected him from the lava. He had to wander for a long time, immobilized and transported by the rivers of lava. The Stone was found by some Moloids, who worshipped it like an idol, and brought it into the deepest cave. A Moloid touched the stone and released its energies, freeing Basilisk. Basilisk absorbed the Omega Stone energies in addition to those of the Alpha Stone he already possessed, becoming even more powerful.

Comments: Created by Len Wein, Gil Kane and Jim Mooney.

   It is unclear if Basilisk only absorbed the powers of the Omega Stone and left the Stone there, or if the Stone itself was absorbed inside him. The Omega Stone grew absorbing Mar-Vell's Kree energy. Why did it also grow at the Basilisk's touch? Maybe the Alpha Stone energy changed or imbued Elks' physiology so that the Omega Stone found some Kree energy to absorb?
    Fabian Nicieza had ISAAC reveal that the Lifestones were taken from Kree-Lar to prevent intergalactic pirates from stealing them, and that the spaceship exploded creating a fissure in space that shattered the fragments to the far corners of the galaxy. Maybe:

1. The Alpha and the Omega Stones were on a different ship; two different times and explosions;

2. The ship was the same, but the explosion was caused by the spaceship's warp-drive implosion or the two bad-used Stones and

   1. The crewman acted in the same moment as the pirates;

   2. The crewman wasn't a thief, but was allied with the pirates or something similar;

   3. Captain Marvel's story was only a legend or a lie told from the Kree government to the people;

   4. None or a combination of the above.

The b. 2. hypothesis is more logical but I prefer the a. one (the spaceships seem very different).
I concur with option "a". In my opinion, while the Alpha and Omega Stones were what started the Lifestone Tree, I'd think that they were actually separate from the other Stones, and that they were not taken on the same ship that was hijacked by pirates. It pretty much has to be that way to keep all accounts true (which is our goal), unless the Alpha and Omega Stones were on that first ship, but the explosion of the warp-drive sent them back to Kree-Lar (or somewhere else, where they were eventually reclaimed by the Kree).
--Snood

The words of the Supreme Intelligence about the artifacts as being geological survivors of the Big Bang are not so precise to exclude the Alpha and the Omega Stones by this category, but I think he did NOT actually include the Stones in this category.
    see nothing 100% confirming one way or the other, but it would seem that the common link b/t all of the Stones was their being from the previous universe. They may have gotten their by some convoluted path, as was the case with the Bloodgem.
--Snood
For further explanations about the Hellfire Helix and the Lifestone Tree, go here.
For further explanations about the powers that the Stones granted to Basilisk go here. 

Profile by Spidermay

Clarifications:

The Alpha and the Omega Stones have no known connections to