From Introduction:
Established in 1937 by Professor Stephen Barrington, the OMNI-Database was initially conceptualized as a research tool for those working in the burgeoning field of super-human studies. In 1943 Barrington was commissioned by the US government to expand the contents of the database as part of Project Overwatch, an early task-force devoted to curtailing the rise of criminal masterminds and super-humans who had appeared during the early days of the decade.
The database survived the decommissioning of Project Overwatch in 1957, becoming the basis of the independent super-human studies center known as OMNILabs. Since that time OMNI-Labs has maintained the Database as an independent entity, leasing its contents to the US State Department, the secret service and international law enforcement agencies such as Interpol in exchange for the opportunity to study and catalogue the powers of captured criminals.
The OMNI-Database is a comprehensive listing of every super-powered being and advanced technology that has been encountered since the 1940s. Maintained by a powerful A.I program and stored in a heavily fortified structure deep in the Nevada desert, it is the most complete listing of superhuman powers and activities known to mankind.
A less comprehensive version of OMNI is also available for private use, often accessed by independent super-heroes, corporations and super-hero fans to get the latest information about the meta-human world. An individual with access to the internet and a credit card can search the database by name or code name, key word, costume, power or any of a hundred other qualifiers, performing a rapid survey of the eight hundred thousand entries in OMNI’s databanks.