OMERTA

Real Name: Paulie Provenzano

Identity/Class: Human mutant (depowered)

Occupation: Unrevealed;
former adventurer, marine

Group Membership: None;
formerly Jean Grey's X-Men/Genoshan assault team (Dazzler/Alison Blaire, Frenzy/Joanna Cargill, Northstar/Jean-Paul Beaubier, Phoenix/Jean Grey, Sunpyre/Leyu Yoshida, Wraith/Hector Rendoza), US Marine Corps

Affiliations: Amelia Voght, Maggott (Japheth), X-Men (Cyclops/Scott Summers, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett, Professor X/Charles Xavier)

Enemies: Magneto (Max Eisenhardt), trio of unidentified Brooklyn mobsters, Order of X (Monsignor and others), Stryfe, Weapon X

Known Relatives: Wendy Sherman (Stinger, wife), unidentified child, unidentified parents, Tony (aunt, last name unrevealed)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Philadelphia;
formerly Neverland, location unknown;
formerly Xavier Institute;
formerly Brooklyn, New York City

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men I#392 (April, 2001)

Powers/Abilities: Omerta possessed an advanced degree of indestructibility. Bullets from conventional firearms couldn't penetrate his skin, projectiles from rocket launchers and bazookas proved equally ineffective. He could still be knocked out by gas or lack of oxygen. A brash, overly confident womanizer with homophobic tendencies, Provenzano was trained in basic combat techniques as a member of the US Marine Corps before getting discharged for unrevealed reasons. Paulie seemed fond of the catchphrase "woofta".

Height: 6'1"
Weight: 178 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

History:

(Uncanny X-Men I#392 (fb) - BTS) - Italian-American Paulie Provenzano grew up in Brooklyn where he learned to respect a trio of unidentified made men, mobsters who ran the neighborhood. When he joined the marines, he discovered his mutant powers. He was eventually discharged from the marines and decided to use his powers to dethrone the mafiosos and take their place.

(Uncanny X-Men I#392 (fb) - BTS) - With the Legacy virus cured, Genosha's ruler Magneto found himself in charge of millions of combat ready mutants. In preparation for an all-out war, he kidnapped his old enemy Charles Xavier. With most of the X-Men away on various missions, Wolverine and Cyclops travelled to Genosha undercover to deal with the threat while Jean Grey stayed at the Xavier Institute to rally the troops and gather backup forces. She became aware of Paulie Provenzano's mutant potential and decided to seek him out.

(Uncanny X-Men I#392) - Jean Grey arrived in Brooklyn just as Paulie had tried to usurp the trio's position of power. They had tried to shoot him, but thanks to his invulnerability only his three piece suit was ripped to shreds. Jean chided him for the pathetic use of his mutant powers and lectured him on the responsibilities she felt he had as a mutant. Eagerly accepting her offer to join the X-Men, Paulie grabbed a box of cannolis for the trip and commented on how excited he was to see Jean in her leatherwear. Driving Jean to the Xavier Institute in his red Italian sportscar, Paulie was pleased to see the team lived in the lap of luxury, he had heard urban legends about the X-Men living in squalor in the sewers. Clearly frustrated, Jean told him he was thinking of the Morlocks, before she sent him inside to meet the other recruits.

(Uncanny X-Men I#392 - BTS) - While Phoenix waited outside for X-Men ally Sunfire (and unexpectedly got his sister Sunpyre), Paulie met the other recruits and immediately started making jokes about Northstar's sexuality, calling him a limp wristed mapleleaf. The hot-headed Jean-Paul immediately retaliated, hitting Paulie straight through the door. Complaining to Jean about not wanting to work with a homosexual, Paulie was knocked out by Jean-Paul who unleashed a flurry of superfast punches Provenzano's invulnerability couldn't counter. Northstar swung the unconscious Paulie over his shoulder and brought him back inside. After he came to, Jean introduced Paulie and the other new recruits to the Acolyte Joanna Cargill who she had mind-controlled to ensure her allegiance. Just as Joanna and Jean were done filling the team in on the situation, they were surprised by the arrival of Dazzler (Alison Blaire) who had come to Xavier's looking for help.

(X-Men I#112) - Omerta, along with Dazzler, Jean Grey and the other ersatz X-Men boarded the Blackbird and headed for Genosha. While the looseknit team bickered, Sunpyre wondered why she couldn't fly there under her own power.

(Uncanny X-Men I#393) - In order to prepare her X-Men for the upcoming battle, Jean Grey accessed the minds of Paulie and the other newbies to give them a telepathic crash course in the use of their powers. She also linked them together to have a training session in a "Danger Room" she planned to create on a shared mental landscape. However, Paulie's mind was so filled with revolting, sexually blatant imagery it even gave an experienced telepath like Phoenix pause. Not getting the hint, Paulie offered to take Phoenix to the back of the plane for some quality time, which forced her to use her telepathy to "reveal" her "true" form as an obese, elderly woman. This cured Paulie of his romantic mood long enough for Jean to engage the psychic training session. However, instead of a training, the team found themselves in a version of Mojoworld, based on Dazzler's memories of the place before she left. All of a sudden, both Northstar and Omerta were blasted by tiny versions of Earth-295's Apocalypse, Sugar Man, Dark Beast and Holocaust who gleefully boasted they had already killed Longshot. Before Phoenix could return everyone to their own heads, Northstar and Paulie found themselves on top of each other which led to another snipe. Once back in the real world, Dazzler broke down in tears and revealed she'd come to the X-Men for aid in fighting these tiny tyrants. Paulie immediately promised the team would help out, to Northstar's annoyance. Mere moments after that, Magneto tore apart the Blackbird and used his powers to gently bring Omerta and the others to him at the center of Magda Square in the capital of Genosha. There, surrounded by thousands of his followers, he presented the dumbstruck team with the captured Charles Xavier. Seeing her old mentor chained up and crucified angered Dazzler, who attacked Magneto, only to be seemingly reduced to a pile of ashes when the master of magnetism retaliated.

(X-Men I#113 - BTS) - Jean Grey and Dazzler actually fooled Magneto into believing he had killed the Dazzler. In reality, Dazzler had used her light powers to create the illusion of her demise, while she took the place of Charles Xavier on the cross, who had already been freed by his former lover, the Acolyte Amelia Voght. With Xavier free to use his mental powers, it was only a matter of time before Magneto could be defeated.

(X-Men I#113) - Completely unaware of this strategy, the new X-Men attacked Magneto. When Magneto failed to rip Omerta apart by manipulating the iron in his blood, Paulie's arrogant boast about being invulnerable proved somewhat premature because Magneto simply launched him into the upper atmosphere where he would die of exposure and asphyxiation. Northstar rushed after him and managed to save his life, ironically by giving him mouth to mouth. Shocked to wake up while getting kissed by a man, Paulie later thanked Jean-Paul for his help while they flew back to Genosha to rejoin the fight. By then, Jean Grey's true plan proved successful in disabling Magneto. Later, Wolverine stabbed Magneto, thereby ending the threat more permanently (Magneto wasn't killed by this).

   In the aftermath, Paulie and the others returned with the X-Men to the Xavier Institute. Although he was asked to stay on, Provenzano opted to leave as soon as possible.

(Weapon X II#5 - BTS) - Through unrevealed circumstances, Paulie Provenzano was apprehended by the Weapon X Program. After his powers and abilities were analyzed in the Program's secret concentration camp codenamed Neverland, Paulie was categorized as superfluous and scheduled for termination.

(Weapon X II#5) - Paulie, along with Maggott and other mutants who got branded with a red M (which indicated they were terminable), was seen being herded into the Neverland gas chambers by the Boxbots guarding Neverland. The last person he talked to was Maggott, who told Paulie he was praying before the end came.

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

(Cable IV#2 - BTS) - Omerta survived Neverland by unrevealed means and lost his mutant powers. (see comments)

(Cable IV#2 - BTS) - Omerta met and fell in love with former mutant criminal, Stinger (Wendy Sherman). The duo moved to the suburbs in Philadelphia where they had a child and grew accustomed to a normal life. Learning mutantkind had established a sovereign mutant island nation on Krakoa, the couple regularly discussed whether or not to move to Krakoa. While Stinger was in favor of moving, Omerta opposed for a variety of reasons.

(Cable IV#2) - Once again arguing whether or not to move to Krakoa, Omerta feared they would renounce their citizenship upon leaving, noting he wondered why the mutants would even have him after losing his mutant gifts. The duo, however, were unaware their baby was kidnapped right from under their noses by the Order of X, who were send to kidnap ten mutant babies for the evil Stryfe. Believing their argument had awoken the baby the couple made their way upstair, discovering their baby had been kidnapped.

(Cable IV#2 - BTS) - Distraught, the duo sought out media attention which lead the Daily Bugle to publish an article title "Mutie cutie stolen!". The news also made its way to Krakoa, peaking young Cable's interest. Accompanied by Esme Cuckoo, Cable set out to locate the missing mutant baby.

(Cable IV#7 - BTS) - Cable, assisted by Rachel Summers successfully saved five babies from the Order of X, amongst them Omerta and Stinger's baby.

Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell (writer), Salvador Larroca (pencils), Scott Hanna & Tim Townsend (inks)

Scott Lobdell already created a superhero called Omerta, when he dreamed up Italy's silent national hero back when he was writing Alpha Flight. Incidentally, Paulie was never called "Omerta" in his original appearances. His codename was first revealed in his entry in X-Men: Earth's Mutant Heroes#1. Omerta in Italian means silence.

Paulie Provenzano returned to the land of the living in Cable IV#2 (July, 2020) after being herded into Neverland's gas chambers in Weapon X II#5 (March, 2003). Seeing deceased mutants return in 2020/2021 isn't that strange following the Krakoan resurrection protocols, however, Provenzano doesn't possess his mutant powers anymore, so he couldn't have been resurrected by the Five as any mutant resurrected returns with their mutant powers intact. As such it seems likely Provenzano somehow escaped death at Neverland only to lose his mutant powers when the Scarlet Witch cast a reality altering spell reducing the number of gene active mutants worldwide.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Omerta should not be confused with

• Omerta, Italy's silent martial artist turned superhero @ Alpha Flight I#108
• Or any other "Omerta" or "Provenzano" characters 

images: (without ads)
X-Men: Earth's Mutant Heroes#1, Omerta entry (main image)
Uncanny X-Men I#393, p8, pan2 (creeps out Phoenix)
Uncanny X-Men I#393, p9, pan5 (and Northstar)
Weapon X II#5, p16, pan5 (dies)

Appearances:
Uncanny X-Men I#392 (April, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Salvador Larroca (pencils), Scott Hanna & Tim Townsend (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
X-Men II#112 (May, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Leinil Francis Yu (pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#393 (June, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Tom Raney (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
X-Men II#113 (June, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Leinil Francis Yu (pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Weapon X II#5 (March, 2003) - Frank Tieri (writer), Georges Jeanty (pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
X-Men: Earth's Mutant Heroes#1 (July, 2011) - Jeff Christiansen et al (writers), Gus Vasquez (pencils), Tom Chu (inks), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
Cable IV#2 (July, 2020) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Phil Noto (pencils, inks), Jordan D. White, Annalise Bissa (editors)