Burt Horowitz (Earth-616)

Omnibus
Name	Burt Horowitz
Current Alias	Omnibus
Aliases	The Alliance; Lieutenant Dallas
Affiliation and Relationships
Group Affiliation	Riot Squad
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	Bald
Skin	Green (reverted to original Caucausian)
Unusual Features	Enlarged head
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human mutated by gamma radiation.
Living Status	Deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Death	Arctic Circle
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Former leader of Freehold, former salesman
Base of Operations	Freehold
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Peter David, Todd McFarlane
First	Incredible Hulk #345 (March, 1988)
First	Incredible Hulk #345 (March, 1988)
Death	Incredible Hulk #442 (April, 1996)
Death	Incredible Hulk #442 (April, 1996)

History

Burt Horowitz had been a traveling salesman pitching encyclopedias. He had been going door-to-door in the town of Middletown, Arizona, when the Leader detonated a gamma bomb there. The town had later become known as "Gammatown" due to its forthcoming inhabitability and in years to come, the Leader would be charged by the Arizona Legislature for what was known to Americans as the "Middletown Massacre". Of Middletown's estimated population of 5,000, only five were known to survive. It was unknown if Horowitz resided in Middletown or had been visiting the town as part of his duties prior to the blast, but he had been one of the very few to survive the bombing. He was collected by the Leader along with the four other survivors, who were mutated from the blast. Horowitz's mutation had been strikingly similar to the Leader's own. As he had had a career tied to selling encyclopedias, his own mutation and personality change reflected that, and he was given the supervillain name of Omnibus. Horowitz took on the same elongated head shape and emerald skin as the Leader, however this process was faster than the Leader's transformation and may have been at the expense of intellect. While Horowitz's intellect certainly multiplied, it did not reach the magnitude of Samuel Sterns'. As such, Omnibus considered the Leader his intellectual superior, as did the rest of the newly-formed Riot Squad. At a later point, when captured by the Hulkbusters and put under observation, Omnibus exhibited changes. He retained his superior intelligence and enlarged cranium, however his green skin reverted to how it had been prior to the blast, which had also happened to Riot Squad teammate Soul Man.

When the Leader apparently died after trying to bring back Marlo Chandler to life, his position was taken over by Omnibus who, not content with the Freeholders' peaceful existence and apparently possessed by the Leader's surviving consciousness and mind control powers, manipulated Major Matt Talbot and others in the U.S. government in his own power-seeking plans.

Attributes

Powers

Superhuman intellect.

See Also

• 13 appearance(s) of Burt Horowitz (Earth-616)
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Burt Horowitz (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Burt Horowitz (Earth-616)
• 3 image(s) of Burt Horowitz (Earth-616)