Karima Shapandar

Omega Sentinel (Karima Shapandar) is a fictional character associated with the X-Men and its spinoff Excalibur.

Karima Shapandar first appeared in X-Men Unlimited, vol. 1 #27 (June 2000) and was created by Chris Claremont and Brett Booth.

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).

"I am an Omega Prime. Within moments I will have reached my full combat mode–with my core programming to destroy creatures like you. It is becoming increasingly difficult to even think of you as human. Your only chance is to disappear. Get as far away from India – and from me – as you can. Assume a new identity... a new life."

Neal refused, saying he loved Karima. Karima begged him to leave, saying she couldn't hold on much longer. Neal was forced to flee.

Powers And Abilities

Karima is fitted with Omega-Prime Sentinel nanite technology which gives her superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and endurance. She also has flight capacity, regeneration to repair any physical injury/damage she receives, and several projectile weapons, including high energy power blasts, as well as electrostatic poles built into her forearms that generate massive amounts of electrical energy and microwave radiation emitters. Her strength and durability were enhanced after she was rebuilt by the Beast. She appears to show limited technopathy and machine control, due to being able to "find" information from machines, and having the ability to control nanites in others' blood. She also has life-support technology built into her systems as evidenced in X-Men: Legacy #208 (Apr. 2008). When possessed by the biocybernetic enzyme Known as Arkea, Karima showcased a number of abilities she'd never readily accessed before such as greater machine and cybernetics control than previously displayed coupled with long range Teleportation capabilities.

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