Otomo

Otomo's grandfather worked in a hidden laboratory during World War II where they were working on a super soldier serum for the Japanese. His grandfather was a man of honor and consumed the experimental serum when US forces found the lab instead of having it fall into the hands of the enemy. Years went by and his grandfather did not experience any effects so he eventually married and had a daughter. The daughter would die tragically but not before giving birth to a baby boy. The Japanese authorities would raise Otomo and his powers began to manifest as he grew older.

Otomo worked as a government operative and his specialty was the elimination of cybernetic organisms and giant robots. However, the factor that granted him his powers was also threatening his life until scientists discovered an antidote for his affliction. Shinobi Shaw would be able to synthesize the antidote into a drug and Otomo was honor bound to serve him.

When Shinobi died, Otomo would end up working for his father, Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club. Sebastian Shaw would contact Otomo in Japan because he needed a specialist to eliminate X-51 aka Machine Man. Shaw provided Otomo the location of Peter Spalding who was a close friend to Machine Man. Otomo promised not to kill Spalding and was holding him hostage until X-51 appeared. X-51 came to Spalding's rescue and would come into conflict with Otomo.

X-51 had recently undergone an erratic transformation when he fell under the influence of Master Mold and adapted some Sentinel technology before his fight with Otomo. X-51 would suffer some damage from Otomo when he severed some links and shredded parts of his body. The microcomputers which worked on X-51's molecular structure discovered the previous changes and put him back together with some improvements. X-51 was able to take down Otomo with a force field blast. Otomo realized he had met his match and was going to bow before X-51 when he experienced a surge of pain rushing into his skull. X-51 did a scan and discovered the drug capsule that Spalding held in his shirt pocket. X-51 gave the drug to Otomo and saved his life because he knew he was a man of honor and would not retaliate.

Creation

Otomo was created by Mike Higgins, Karl Bollers and Joe Bennett in 1999 and first appeared in cameo in X-51 # 5. His first full appearance was in X-51 # 6 where Bob Wiacek is also listed as an artist in that issue too.

Powers & Abilities

Otomo is a mutant with superhuman strength, durability and resistance to injury. Otomo has enhanced agility, the capability of flight and is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. Otomo specialized in the elimination of cybernetic organisms and robots.