First Appearance: Alpha Flight I#108 (May, 1992)

Powers/Abilities: Omerta was skilled in unknown forms of martial arts and had athlete levels of strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility and reflexes. He, along with the rest of his religious order, was able to read and project marginal thoughts as a way of communication since they lived with a strict vow of silence. Any other powers and abilities remain unrevealed.

History:

(Alpha Flight I#108 - BTS) - The Italian hero known as Omerta, as well as his past ancestors, belonged to a mysterious religious order that dictated they observe a strict vow of silence. After years of study and training in martial arts, he became one of Italy’s national heroes using his abilities to defend his nation.

(Alpha Flight I#108) - Omerta was invited as Italy’s superhuman representative in the first Pan-European Conference on Superhuman Affairs held in Switzerland. He was introduced by the conference’s hostess Ursula, via satellite, to the visiting Alpha Flight while they were on their world tour as ambassadors of Canada. The former Nazi villain, Brain Drain, broke up the festivities and used his ability to mentally control others' thoughts. He forced Omerta to attack his nation’s political leader. While under mental domination and unable to control the impulse to kill the Italian Prime Minister, Weapon Omega arrived and, after a brief battle, he was rendered unconscious. Waking up, Omerta, whose mind had once again become his own, later in person attended the Superhuman Conference held in Switzerland alongside Alpha Flight, le Peregrine, Prodigy, Micromax and other representatives of other nations. His current activities remain unknown.

Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell (writer) and Tom Morgan (pencils & inks).

Omerta in Italian means silence. It is also the act of never revealing the nature of a crime, the names of those involved and other information to authorities as a code of honor in the Mafia. To break this code is punishable by death. Trappist Monks, famous for their contemplative silence, follow this vow so that the voice of the world might be shut out so the voice of God might be heard. This concept was not created by Catholic and Christian monks. Pythagoreans from around 530 BC took the practice of silence very seriously; breaking the vow of silence carried the death penalty. And the priestess-guardians of the sacred Roman fire, the Vestal Virgins, lived in silence for years at a time. Other religions based on this vow include the worship of Vidar, son of Odin, who was the Norse god of silence, and Muta, the Roman's minor goddess of silence (hence the word mute).

Although his actual base of operations in Italy was not mentioned in the story, he was shown in a panel near the Leaning Tower of Pisa, thus I listed that as his home city. He was most likely mobile around Italy.

Profile by AvatarWarlord72.

CLARIFICATIONS :
Omerta has no known connections to:

• Paulie Provenza, mutant mobster, briefly recruited to stop Magneto from leading Genosha to war against rest of the world @ Uncanny X-Men#392
• Silence, wife of Dust, leader of New Wave, killed in battle with Dazzler @ Dazzler#41
• Silence, Madripoor ninja, hired by Rosalie Carbone to kill Punisher (Castle), killed by Microchip @ Punisher War Zone#8
• Silence-1, Foreigner's Death Squad, assassin @ Web of Spider-Man#92
• Silence-2, Foreigner's Death Squad, successor of the one above @ Spectacular Spider-Man II#209
• or any other "Omerta" or silent characters

images: (without ads)
Alpha Flight I#108, p17, panel 4 (leaping)