O

Real Name: Oliver Orwell

Identity/Class: Human;
    British citizen 

Occupation: Scientific advisor, quartermaster

Group Membership: MI-13 (Black Knight/Dane Whitman, Blade/Eric Brooks, Captain Britain/Brian Braddock, Captain John Colton, Captain Midlands/Sid Ridley, Dark Angel/Shevaun Haldane, Digitek/Jonathan Bryant, Excalibur/Faiza Hussain, Glorianna/Meggan Puceanu Braddock, Tinkabelinos Hardleg, John the Skrull, Killpower/Julius Mullarkey, Motormouth/Harley Davis, Maureen Raven, Spitfire/Jacqueline Falsworth-Crichton, Alistaire Stuart, Tangerine, Union Jack/Joe Chapman, Pete Wisdom, others)

Affiliations: Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett)

Enemies: Baron Blood (Kenneth Crichton), Captain Fate, Vlad Dracula, Lilith Kiskilla, "Martians" (Reality-691), James Ransom

Known Relatives: None 

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: MI-13 headquarters, Whitehall, London 

First Appearance: Wisdom#1 (November 2006) 

Powers/Abilities: O is a scientific genius with expertise in numerous but mostly unspecified sciences; those that have been revealed include physics, both mainstream and occult, molecular biology and biotechnology. He is an incredibly adept inventor, able to come up with gadgets for most situations, even combining regular technology with magic.

    As evidenced by his saying goodbye to the readers in Captain Britain and MI13#15, he may share She-Hulk (Jessica Walters), Deadpool and Blonde Phantom's ability to be aware of extradimensional observers watching him.

Height: 5'8" (see comments) 
Weight: 130 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

History:
(Wisdom#1) - The quartermaster for Britain's MI-13, O issued new equipment designed for use against magical foes to Pete Wisdom's team before they headed out to confront Otherworld fairies who had conducted a string of attacks within the U.K.

(Wisdom#4 (fb) - BTS) - Conducting original occult physics research in his spare time, O detected that the barriers between their universe and another one were weakening, a prognosis his I Ching agreed with. Though his instruments could not identify which other universe, they detected a link in the form of an energy trace that completed a circuit of Whitechapel in London six times a week and twice on Sundays.

(Wisdom#4) - O called in Pete Wisdom's team to inform them of his discovery, and they investigated, soon arresting Ripperologist James Ransom. After analyzing the prisoner, O confirmed that Ransom had unconscious powers that were following his hobby across universe, dragging in Jack the Rippers from other realities to theirs (Reality-616). O also confirmed the powers were beyond Ransom's control now, and that even while in their custody he was unintentionally summoning dozens of Rippers who were now appearing across London.

(Wisdom#6 (fb) - BTS) -  When London was invaded by Martians from Earth-691, O did a Kabbalistic/Higgs field analysis of the Martians' dimensional gateway and determined that it had a human element, captured MI13 telepath Maureen Raven, using Ransom's power to open a channel and hers to guide them down that channel to Earth-616.

(Wisdom#6) - O flew out with MI6's Clive Reston to where Pete Wisdom was co-ordinating the resistance against the invaders out in the field, and informed Pete of his findings. With Captain Britain's help, Pete rescued Maureen, but the attack continued, and O's analysis of Maureen soon revealed that Maureen's cell structure had been changed, an irreversible process that made her the gateway for as long as she remained alive. 

(Captain Britain and MI13#5) - Following Captain Britain's death and resurrection during the Skrull invasion, O monitored the reborn Captain during a combat test in MI-13 headquarters, Whitehall, then delivered the results to the hero, Pete Wisdom, and Alistaire Stuart once the test concluded.

(Captain Britain and MI13 Annual#1) - During the summer, Captain Britain hosted a cricket match between members of MI13's core team. Not the sporting type, O made weak lemon drinks for refreshments.  

(Captain Britain and MI13#13 - BTS/Captain Britain and MI13#15 (fb) - BTS) -  Pete Wisdom used one of O's devices to covertly contact the witch Diana Hetherington in her dreams, allowing him to contact her without being overheard and request that she could prepare a decoy copy of a magical skull that his foe Dracula wanted to destroy.

(Captain Britain and MI13#14) - As Dracula and his forces flew from the Moon to attack Britain, MI13's superpowered agents launched a counterattack on Dracula's Serpent's Crown flagship. Locking on to a signal transmitted from the Dutchman by Spitfire, the Black Knight and Excalibur boarded the ship via a teleportation portal opened from O's tech lab. O continued to monitor the portal until the team's return minutes later with Spitfire, Killpower and Sheriff John Daltry, the newly rescued former host body of the Crown's ghost captain, Jebediah Fate.

(Captain Britain and MI13#15) - In a meta-moment, O wished the readers of Captain Britain and MI13 goodbye on the final page of the final issue.

(Deadpool Team-Up II#893) - O informed Captain Britain (and Pete Wisdom, but he already knew) that his old foe Slaymaster's secret base which held the now-slain assassin's lethal arsenal of high-tech weapons had recently been unearthed (literally), hidden below London's Greenwich Park, and was now the focus of criminals wanting to steal the weapons for themselves.

(Wolverine VI#6 (fb) - BTS) - A unique alien radiation signature was detected coming down in Madripoor, but further attempts to identify it were blocked. O concluded there was an intelligence attached to the energy, and one that seemed interested in devastation based on the chaos and dead bodies left in its wake. He designed a sensory enhancement biochip to enable an individual to track its energies.

(Wolverine VI#6) - To find the alien radiation, Pete Wisdom arranged the help of Wolverine. Since Wolverine was then undercover on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. within the organization of the crime lord "the Offer," Pete and the Black Knight posed as Hand agents to publicly capture him. Once in private, Pete had O brief Wolverine about the radiation, and implant the biochip in Wolverine's chest so he could track the energies. O then wished Pete, Wolverine and Black Knight luck in the next phase of their mission, and slipped out just before the Offer's agents arrived to "rescue" Wolverine.     

Comments: Created by Paul Cornell, Terry Hairsine and Paul Neary.

   O's real name was provided by Paul Cornell for the MI13 handbook entry.

   O also appeared in the illusion that Plokta trapped Dracula in during Captain Britain and MI13#13, where he answers a teleconference call from Norman Osborn; since it wasn't really him (or Norman for that matter), it's not included in the history above.

   O's appearance and habitual introduction ("Oh, hello!") are based on the screen persona of British actor Charles Hawtrey, most famous for multiple appearances in the Carry On series of comedy movies. Like most of the others in the ensemble cast, across the movies he played many different characters (per their differing names) but largely identical personalities. Since he's based on Hawtrey, I've used Hawtrey's height (as listed in the actor's directory, Spotlight) for O's height; Hawtrey's weight isn't on record (afaik), but he was pretty skinny, so I've estimated O to be underweight for his height.

   O's codename is, of course, a homage to James Bond's quartermaster Q. Clearly a scientist and gadget builder versed in various sciences and even some magics, he's described as "MI:13's techhead" in Deadpool Team-Up, where he also looks a lot different (presumably because that issue's artist didn't know of or have visual references for Hawtrey), to the extent that it might even be feasible for it to be a different individual with the same codename - in both Bond stories and the real world, codenames such as Q and M do get passed down to successors in a given post. However, the different-looking O does still use the original O's catchphrase, plus the next time we see O it definitely is the original, so presumably it is meant to be the same guy in Deadpool Team-Up. By Wolverine VI#6, he's introduced by Pete Wisdom as MI-13's scientific advisor, a title that originally belonged to Alistaire Stuart; either O has been promoted, Wisdom misspoke, or Wisdom was "bigging" O up to Wolverine. 

   The farewell sequence on the final page of Captain Britain and MI13#15 where each cast member is shown and identified by their civilian identity is a homage to the ending montage used by many U.K. sitcoms of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, whose end credits began with "You have been watching" followed by footage identifying each member of the cast of a given episode.    

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
O has no known connections to:

• any other "O" characters (there's no WAY I am listing everyone who has a name beginning with O!)

images: (without ads)
Captain Britain and MI13#5, p3, pan 1(main image)
Wisdom#1. p7, pan 1 (headshot, with Captain Midlands' shield)
Captain Britain and MI13 Annual#1/2, p5, pan 3 (providing the cricket match's refreshments)
Captain Britain and MI13#15, p22, pan 4 (saying goodbye)
Still from Carry On Spying (Charles Hawtrey)
Deadpool Team-Up II#893, p5, pan 2 (maybe a different O?)

Appearances:
Wisdom#1 (November 2006) - Paul Cornell (writer), Trevor Hairsine (pencils), Paul Neary & Trevor Hairsine (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Wisdom#4 (March 2007) - Paul Cornell (writer), Manuel Garcia (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Wisdom#6 (May 2007) - Paul Cornell (writer), Manuel Garcia (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Captain Britain and MI13#5 (September 2008) - Paul Cornell (writer), Patrick Oliffe (pencils), Paul Neary (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Captain Britain and MI13 Annual#1 (June 2009) - Paul Cornell (writer), Adrian Alphona (pencils and inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Captain Britain and MI13#13 (May 2009) - Paul Cornell (writer), Ardian Syaf and Leonard Kirk (pencils), Craig Yeung and Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Captain Britain and MI13#15 (July 2009) - Paul Cornell (writer), Leonard Kirk (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Deadpool Team-Up II#893 (May 2010) - Rob Williams (writer), Matteo Scalera (pencils and inks), Sebastian Girner (editor)
Wolverine VI#6 (May 2014) - Paul Cornell (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (pencils and inks), Mike Marts (editor)

First Posted: 01/23/2019
Last updated: 01/23/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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