Elixir is part of a newer generation of mutants, having entered the series during New Mutants vol.2, before the series was re-titled New X-men. When his mutation was discovered, his family and friends rejected him entirely, and he ended up at the gates of the Xavier Institute, having nowhere else to turn. Keep in mind that Elixir's mutant ability is biological manipulation, or healing- at the time of it's emergence, his skin had not yet turned golden, and he looked exactly the same as an ordinary human being (this would happen later, after he was attacked by Wolfsbane and fell unconcious, then forced awake by Prodigy in order to heal himself). Out of all the mutants listed so far, Elixir's abilities has possibly the most fascinating potential. Not only can he heal wounds, he at one point grew someone an entirely new heart (after it had been destroyed). This implies that Elixir could be, in theory, the answer to almost any organ donor's prayers. Don't have a kidney? He'll grow one for you, and apparently you won't even have to worry about your body rejecting the organ. On top of that, it's been stated that he could have the potential to alter the genetic sequence of an individual, which begs the question- can he create mutants? Can he augment mutations, make uncomfortable physical mutations like Beak's more bearable? As he gives, however, he can take; Elixir possesses the additional ability to kill or poison on touch. He's been shown giving people boils, and at one point even killed a man ( Stryker), which caused his golden skin to turn pitch black. The colour changed back with time and use of his healing abilities. Unlike an earlier healer character in the series, Anodyne, displays of his power seem somewhat permanent, as in they don't change back if he is killed or in another dimension, etc. In terms of personality, Elixir has also been changing- from pseudo frat-boy teenager to a remarkably mature young adult, he's kept himself ahead of mutants like Iceman in many ways. When he began to learn more about how powerful his abilities actually were, he began reading medical textbooks, and eventually he got the Stepford Cuckoos to transfer medical knowledge from Beast into his brain. While he likes to act somewhat carefree, Elixir has shown that in dire situations he will step up to the plate, so to speak, and do his best to help and defend the people he cares about. Truly, the creative potential of this character (and his abilities) are likely limited solely by the inventiveness of his writers.
Legion (David Haller) is an enigma of a mutant. Few people know him as an omega-level, if they know of him at all- individuals who don't read the series are likely to have never heard of him. The son of Charles Xavier, founder of the X-men, and Gabrielle Haller, an Israeli ambassador, David grew up with his mother; his father learned of his existence years later, after David had reached adolescence. He has a robust history of mental illness, his official diagnosis being a form of Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Multiple Personality Disorder, as it has been known in the past), but I seem to recall him being called autistic at one point. Somewhat similarly to Rogue, he has the ability to actually absorb a person entirely into his psyche, making them a part of his mind; he has absorbed individuals with telekinesis, telepathy, heat vision, time travel, and pyrokinesis, among others. Indeed, the scope of his power is vast, but it almost seems to necessitate mental illness in it's host. Think about it- David's power is to absorb other people and make them a part of himself. These are individuals with their own memories, values, strengths, etc., all existing within the psyche of Legion. In the past, David has been largely unable to play a significant part in X-men titles (other than in specific story arcs, which largely revolved around him) due to his illness, so he's a character that gets little attention- after all, mental illness can not only be difficult to write, but difficult for others to live with; David would be a liability in a team setting, probably. And even if his mental health issues were to be somehow resolved, he's shown himself to be somewhat overzealous- after he killed Destiny, he woke up with his mind suddenly healed, and set out to further his father's dream by killing Magneto. It's of note that this event resulted in the creation of the Age of Apocalypse timeline, in which Xavier was killed trying to defend Magneto back before the X-men were formed - which, in turn, made David cease to exist on Earth 616. He was recently found by the New Mutants, who helped his original core personality, and later aided in the fight against Bastion's Nimrod Sentinels.
Franklin Richards is stated to be the single most powerful mutant on Earth, making him a fitting end to this list of the echelon of powerful mutants. The elder child of Susan Storm and Reed Richards, he possesses telepathy, telekinesis (to a molecular level), precognition, psionic energy blasts, and formidable reality manipulation abilities. Of note is the fact that his mother has been listed as being the mutate equivalent of an alpha-level mutant, and is the strongest member of the Fantastic Four. Though he doesn't seem to have inherited his father's immense IQ (Reed Richards is the smartest man in the Marvel universe), as his sister did, he is still very bright (his mother being no slouch in the intellect department, either) and behaves largely as a normal child of his age would. Franklin's past is a fairly checkered one- he has been abducted on multiple occasions, aged to adulthood at least twice, had his full potential unleashed, dragged into hell itself and sent to a divergent timeline. In addition, the very nature of his powers scare him somewhat- having abilities 'on a cosmic scale', he can make any thought or desire come to fruition, he could create unknowable, unspeakable evils with less than a thought; how terrifying would that be for a child? To this end, Reed Richards once built state-of-the-art psychic inhibitors for his son, which Franklin found out he could bypass when he needed to (these have since been removed). In the past he has suffered from temporary depletion of his powers, due to his young age, and was thought to be powerless until a little while ago, during Dark Reign, when he shot Norman Osborn with a toy gun. This recent power depletion occurred after he was sucked into hell by a demon named Haazareth, which caused him such intense trauma that he found himself unable to believe that his family could keep him safe- The Thing was the one who would re-assure him, saying that even if his family couldn't always protect him, they would always try as hard as they could. Divergent time lines and alternate realities have seen Franklin take on a variety of roles, and show him with varying levels of power. In one alternate reality, he became the lover of Rachel Summers, another Omega-level mutant; in another reality similar to that one, they had a child that would end up attempting to enslave humanity. The Exiles saw him in an alternate dimension as having conquered the world. In Earth-X, Franklin ended up cursing Namor for the death of his family, causing half of the Atlantean's body to be constantly on fire (even underwater), and ended up becoming Galactus. In terms of his personality, Franklin is, by all accounts, a kind, considerate young boy, both bright and with remarkable inner strength. For years he was rather lonely, having few friends or playmates, until the birth of his younger sister, Valeria - the two are very close, despite their obvious differences. Not only has he displayed the empathy and compassion that would make him an ideal super hero, Franklin has also been a member of a super-team, the Power Pack, and shown that he can function well in a group setting. Franklin Richards bears all the signs of becoming the ideal member of a formidable team or a solo hero, possessing the kindness and strength to capably defend others as well as powers vast enough to ensure that he may do so.
There are several trends that exist throughout the list - of the eleven listed, almost all of them possess abilities that are stated to be psionic in nature (Mr. M, Quentin Quire, Franklin Richards, Legion, Vulcan, Nate Grey, Rachel Summers, Jean Grey), six possess telepathy (Quentin Quire, Franklin Richards, Legion, Nate Grey, Rachel Summers, Jean Grey), five belong to the Summers-Grey bloodline (Hope Summers, Rachel Summers, Jean Grey, Nate Grey, Vulcan), three have reality-warping abilities (Mr. M, Legion, Franklin Richards), and eight are male (Vulcan, Nate Grey, Legion, Elixir, Mr. M, Iceman, Quentin Quire, Franklin Richards). Though I'm unsure as to what the correlation between psionic powers and Omega status may be, I remember reading somewhere that telepathy (and, moreso, telekinesis) is a very rare mutation; perhaps it's also associated with high levels of power? The Summers/Grey bloodline has long been a topic of fixation for Sinister (indeed, you could almost say that it's potential is an obsession of his), and it's evident that he was correct in that the offspring of Cyclops and Jean Grey would be incredibly powerful (look at Nate Grey), but I'd like to note that the Summers family contains more mutants, period, than the Grey line; in fact, all Grey mutants are a direct result of Jean Grey (Hope Summers technically counts, being the adopted child of Cable, son of a clone of Jean), whereas the Summers line's heavy-hitters are children of Corsair. As for reality manipulation abilities occurring three times out of eleven, I can't think of any individuals possessing powers of this nature being anything less than Alpha-level mutants, given the very nature of the ability. The fact that eight out of eleven omega-level mutants are male can be attributed to any number of things- coincidence, sexism, etc- and seems rather inconclusive (though it's somewhat interesting to note the nature of the female individuals- two telepaths and a mimic. Telepathy has traditionally been a typically 'feminine' power, as has telekinesis to a lesser extent). As of late, Marvel seems to be cutting back on the addition of Omega-level mutants- Hope Summers was introduced around two to three years ago, Vulcan somewhere around 2006, and Elixir around 2004. Indeed, some individuals argue that the very concept of Omega-level mutants is outdated; with so many high-powered individuals in the Marvel universe, crossover events largely end up being drawn-out posing contests between two or more of them, if they're involved at all. Whether the introduction of new Omega-level mutants is crawling to a stop remains to be seen, although it's unlikely any will be introduced very soon, what with the five lights only just emerging after M-day, but for now there exist eleven confirmed Omega-level mutants in the Marvel universe.
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