For
almost
as
long
as
they
have
been
in
the
comics,
the
X-Men
and
mutantkind
at
large
have
been
stalked
by
a
world
that
hates
and
fears
them—a
world
that
manifested
that
hate
in
the
metallic,
unflinching
face
of
the
Sentinel
Program.
Just
as
the
X-Men
have
grown
and
changed
wildly
since
those
early
days,
so
too
have
their
most
hateful
foes,
embracing
the
series’
mantra
of
adapting
to
survive
as
much
as
its
heroes
have.
This
week’s
episode
of
X-Men
‘97
weaponized
that
idea
even
further
by
tapping
into
another
classic
‘90s
comic
element,
with
the
revelation
that
the
real
villain
pulling
the
strings
behind
everything
the
show’s
thrown
at
us
so
far—from
Mr.
Sinister’s
machinations,
to
the
Genoshan
genocide,
and
beyond—is
none
other
than
Bastion,
the
Human-Sentinel
hybrid
that
led
the
Prime
Sentinels
during
Operation
Zero
Tolerance.
But
the
primes
are
just
one
evolution
among
many
the
Sentinel
threat
has
taken
in
60
years
of
comic
books,
so
let’s
take
a
walk
back
through
Marvel’s
history
to
see
where
the
Sentinels
began—and
how
far
they’ve
come
in
their
unyielding
command
to
exterminate
mutantkind.
Introduced
in
1965's
X-Men
#14,
the
early
Sentinels
still
held
design
ideas
and
philosophies
that
have
continued
to
persist
throughout
legions
of
iterations
since.
Their
trademark
purple-hued
color
scheme
hadn’t
kicked
in
quite
yet—nor
had
their
giant
scale,
appearing
just
a
little
larger
than
your
average
person.
Developed
by
Bolivar
Trask
as
a
way
to
safeguard
humanity
from
his
bigoted
perception
of
the
mutant
“threat,”
the
first
Sentinels
were
actually
just
as
deadly
to
humans
as
they
were
mutants.
The
Sentinels
were
controlled
not
by
their
human
“masters,”
but
an
artificial
intelligence—one
that
deemed
that
ultimately
the
best
way
for
humanity
to
be
protected
was
for
them
to
directly
control
its
existence.
Along
with
the
first
Sentinels
came
their
“face”—the
Master
Mold.
It
was
here
that
the
Sentinels
would
eventually
take
their
giant-sized
from,
as
the
Master
Mold
was
designed
by
Trask
as
a
Sentinel
Overlord
that
could
mass-produce
its
own
army
of
replicants.
Although
believed
destroyed
by
the
X-Men
at
the
climax
of
the
Sentinel’s
debut
arc
in
1965—and
with
a
regretful
Bolivar
Trask
sacrificing
himself
to
try
and
make
up
for
his
error
in
designing
the
Sentinels
in
the
first
place—the
Master
Mold
was
actually
recovered
by
the
U.S.
government,
passing
it
on
in
secret,
alongside
Trask’s
design
notes,
to
Stephen
Lang,
a
scientist
with
even
fewer
scruples
than
Trask
when
it
came
to
his
hatred
of
mutants.
Over
the
years,
the
Master
Mold
evolved
into
a
character
in
its
own
rights—even
at
one
point
absorbing
Lang’s
memories,
giving
it
is
own
perceived
personality—as
the
leader
and
de
facto
producer
of
Sentinels.
It’s
also
become
its
own
class
of
Sentinel,
with
several
in
existence
as
walking
factories.
The
second
generation
of
Sentinels,
however,
came
more
directly
from
the
Trask
lineage:
Bolivar’s
son,
Larry.
Unaware
of
his
father’s
sacrifice
and
blaming
the
X-Men
for
his
death,
Larry
developed
a
new
generation
of
Sentinels,
and
in
doing
so,
solidified
both
a
lot
of
their
iconic
design
hallmarks
even
further
(including
the
purple
color
scheme)
and
also
a
lot
of
their
abilities.
It
was
with
the
MK
II—led
not
by
a
Master
Mold,
but
Sentinel
Number
Two,
a
more
personified
command
figure—that
Sentinels
developed
their
ability
to
physically
learn
from
and
adapt
to
mutant
abilities
used
against
them.
Larry
and
the
MK
II
lineage
stuck
around
for
a
little
longer
than
their
predecessors—the
MK
IIs
turned
on
the
younger
Trask
when
they
discovered
he
was
in
fact
a
mutant
himself,
and
that
Trask
the
elder
had
actually
masked
his
powers
with
a
special
medallion.
Temporarily
defeated
by
being
tricked
into
a
futile
mission
to
destroy
the
sun
as
the
source
of
all
mutant
radiation,
the
MK
IIs
and
Number
Two
were
actually
destroyed
by
the
Avengers
upon
their
return,
with
Larry
killed
in
the
crossfire.
The
first
generation
of
Sentinel
not
built
by
a
Trask,
these
Sentinels
came
about
from
Stephen
Lang’s
work
on
the
Sentinel
designs
of
both
Bolivar
and
Larry,
using
a
mixing
of
funding
from
the
U.S.
government—who
were
unaware
of
Lang’s
mutant
bigotry,
instead
tasking
him
with
exploring
how
the
X-Gene
manifested
superpowers—and
also
Sebastian
Shaw’s
Hellfire
Club,
who
were
led
to
be
believed
they
would
be
spared
from
the
Sentinels’
slaughter.
Lang’s
first
Sentinels
were
not
as
advanced
as
their
predecessors,
due
to
him
working
off
incomplete
notes
from
the
Trask
models
that
came
before
him—and
Lang
deliberately
made
them
less
rudimentary
to
avoid
the
independence
of
the
prior
generations
too,
but
he
also
developed
one
of
the
first
infiltration
Sentinels
that
would
kick-start
a
theme
later
down
the
line:
the
X-Sentinels,
lifelike
Sentinel
replicas
of
the
original
X-Men
that
could
even
duplicate
their
mutant
powers,
used
to
waylay
the
second
generation
of
the
team.
Despite
the
Sentinels’
legacy
as
a
threat
to
all
mutants,
they
actually
have
quite
a
tangled
history
with
the
Hellfire
Club,
and
in
particular
Sebastian
Shaw,
in
the
perpetual
hope
the
horror
of
the
Sentinel
Program
could
be
used
to
crush
his
foes
in
the
X-Men,
but
spare
him
and
his
cohorts
in
the
process.
After
Lang’s
failures
the
vastly
wealthy
Shaw
manipulated
Senator
Robert
Kelley—who,
after
nearly
being
assassinated
by
the
Brotherhood
of
Evil
Mutants
for
his
campaigning
on
anti-mutant
policies,
became
a
special
liason
to
the
U.S.
government’s
“Project
Wideawake,”
the
Federal
response
to
the
emergence
of
mutants—into
recommissioning
the
Sentinel
program.
Unaware
that
Shaw
himself
was
a
mutant
(they
do
that
a
lot),
the
U.S.
government
funded
Shaw
Industries
in
the
development
of
three
generations
of
Sentinel—the
MK
IV,
V,
and
VI.
The
major
differentiators
here
were
mostly
in
their
weapon
loadouts,
as
Shaw
largely
used
these
generations
of
Sentinel
for
his
own
revenge,
rather
than
on
behalf
of
Project
Wideawake—and
like
Lang’s
work
before
him,
none
of
these
Sentinels
were
as
advanced
as
the
generations
made
by
the
Trask
family.
The
biggest
difference
came
in
the
MK
V,
which
traded
out
the
now-iconic
Sentinel
color
scheme
for
a
cool
blue
and
grey
scheme,
as
well
as
an
updated
body
frame,
but
by
the
MK
VI
this
had
reverted.
Although
he
was
introduced
in
the
mid
‘80s,
Nimrod
doesn’t
represent
the
next
step
in
the
evolution
of
the
Sentinels
of
the
time—he
is,
ultimately,
the
apex
of
the
Sentinel
Program
in
its
most
horrifying
of
forms.
Originally
from
Earth-811,
the
alternate
reality
originally
presented
as
the
dark
timeline
of
“Days
of
Future
Past,”
Nimrod
was
endlessly
adaptable,
copying
technology,
weaponry,
and
abilities
at
a
whim—and
was
seemingly
the
harbinger
of
extinction
for
mutantkind
in
multiple
realities.
There
were
multiple
versions
of
Nimrod
over
the
years,
beyond
the
iteration
made
famous
by
of
“Days
of
Future
Past”—like
the
one
that
worked
with
the
human
supremacist
organization
Orchis
in
the
Krakoan
Age—but
the
Nimrod
most
people
know
would
eventually
merge
with
the
remnants
of
the
Master
Mold,
after
interacting
with
and
inadvertently
re-activating
it.
Although
now
fused
with
Master
Mold,
Nimrod
had
changed
during
his
time
on
Earth,
and
actually
fought
alongside
the
X-Men
to
try
and
stop
Master
Mold,
exerting
enough
control
that
their
damaged,
fused
form
could
be
put
through
the
Siege
Perilous,
the
magical,
life-altering
mystical
gateway.
We’ll
pick
up
on
that
a
little
later,
but
first...
Although
still
an
anti-mutant
machine,
the
Tri-Sentinel
was
actually
more
of
a
Spider-Man
villain
than
an
X-Men
one.
Crafted
by
Loki
by
fusing
together
the
remnants
of
the
Shaw
Industries
Sentinels—the
MK
IV
through
VI—the
Tri-Sentinel
is
exactly
that:
the
three
loadouts
of
those
generations
of
Sentinel,
and
even
their
arms
and
heads,
fused
into
one
body.
After
being
destroyed
by
Spider-Man
with
the
help
of
his
Captain
Universe
powers,
the
Life
Foundation
recovered
the
Tri-Sentinel’s
parts,
hoping
to
control
it
as
a
security
measure,
only
for—you
guessed
it—that
not
to
work.
Spider-Man
stopped
it
again
with
the
help
of
Nova,
and
then
again
years
later
when
it
had
eventually
regenerated
after
Spider-Man
had
been
“split”
from
Peter
Parker
during
an
accident.
Comic
books!
And
we’re
back
to
the
X-Men!
Remember
when
Master
Mold
and
the
fused
Nimrod
went
through
the
Siege
Perilous?
That
process
gave
us
Bastion,
the
herald
of
the
Prime
Sentinels—which
is
right
where
X-Men
‘97
is
playing
with
things.
Master
Mold
and
Nimrod’s
fusion
gave
birth
to
a
cybernetic
hybrid
that,
with
no
recollection
of
his
past
as
two
of
the
most
powerful
anti-mutant
weapons
to
ever
exist
thanks
to
the
Siege
Perilous,
adopted
the
human
persona
Sebastion
Gilberti—but
his
legacy
led
to
him
brushing
up
against
the
fringes
of
several
other
anti-mutant
groups.
When
his
Sentinel
prime
directors
reawakend,
Sebastion
became
Bastion,
and
put
into
plan
Operation
Zero
Tolerance,
a
new
Strike
Force
intended
to
bring
mutantkind
to
heel.
While
Zero
Tolerance
did
attempt
to
revive
the
past
Sentinel
programs,
Bastion
opted
for
a
different
track:
nano-technology
that
could
turn
unwitting
human
sleeper
agents
into
an
army
of
Prime
Sentinels.
Erasing
their
former
identities
in
an
instant
to
transform
into
cyborg
beings
with
advanced
nanotechnology
and
adaptive
super
abilities:
what
we
see
happen
to
Bolivar
Trask
in
X-Men
‘97's
“Bright
Eyes”
is
a
version
of
this
process.
Bastion
and
the
Prime
Sentinels
were
ultimately
defeated
after
the
X-Men
allied
with
SHIELD,
as
Operation
Zero
Tolerance
was
the
rare
Sentinel
force
not
actually
mandated
by
the
U.S.
government,
allowing
them
to
aid
in
intervening.
Some
Prime
Sentinels
did
manage
to
hold
on
to
elements
of
their
human
lives
after
transformation—like
the
Omega
Sentinel
Karima
Shapandar,
who
even
briefly
joined
the
X-Men
before
in
more
recent
stories,
having
her
body
taken
over
by
an
alternate-reality
counterpart
to
become
an
agent
of
Orchis.
After
a
brief
trip
into
some
truly
different
Sentinels,
we’re
back
to
a
more
humdrum
effort.
Like
the
past
few
generations,
the
MK
VII
was
designed
by
Sebastian
Shaw,
but
this
time
there
was
one
interesting
difference,
an
idea
that
will
come
up
again
eventually:
the
MK
VII
wasn’t
an
autonomous
robot,
but
remote
controlled
by
human
operators.
These
were
the
product
of
a
Master
Mold
that
had
been
buried
deep
in
Ecuador
by
a
U.S.
government
plan
to
create
a
new
generation
of
self-replicating
Sentinel
forces.
Instead
of
just
being
built
directly
from
the
template
of
a
Master
Mold,
Wild
Sentinels
could
be
created
by
scavenging
technology
from
their
environment
to
adapt
and
evolve,
giving
them
a
more
unique,
rugged
appearance
compared
to
most
Sentinels.
After
manipulating
the
nephew
of
Bolivar
Trask,
Donald,
and
gaining
access
to
his
DNA,
Cassandra
Nova
activated
the
Wild
Master
Mold
to
create
two
massive
Wild
Sentinels
that
she
sent
to
Genosha—where
they
committed
an
act
of
genocide,
killing
over
16
million
mutants
on
the
island
nation
in
just
a
handful
of
hours.
Cassandra
wasn’t
done
there
though.
As
part
of
her
plan
to
get
revenge
on
her
“brother”
Charles
Xavier,
after
she
infiltrated
the
X-Mansion
and
transferred
her
consciousness
into
Charles’
body,
Cassandra
unwittingly
infected
the
X-Men
and
their
students
there
with
legions
of
replicating
Nano-Sentinels,
giving
them
a
flu-like
illness
as
their
bodies
were
slowly
broken
down
from
within.
The
Nano-Sentinels
would
return
alongside
Cassandra
during
the
events
of
X-Men
Red,
where
it
was
revealed
that—after
using
her
vast
psionic
power
to
manipulate
the
mutant
engineer
Forge
into
developing
them
for
her—the
Nano-Sentinels
had
been
upgraded
into
Sentinite.
No
longer
just
intended
to
target
mutants,
but
humans
as
well,
Sentinite
allowed
an
infected
host
to
be
able
to
detect
the
presence
of
an
X-Gene,
at
which
point
they
would
be
driven
into
a
horrifying
rage
in
an
attempt
to
extinguish
the
source.
Working
together
with
the
Technopath
Trinary,
Jean
Grey’s
X-Men
team
managed
to
successfully
stop
Nova
from
unleashing
Sentinite
throughout
major
cities
all
over
the
world
in
her
quest
to
finish
off
what
she’d
started
on
Genosha.
After
Scarlet
Witch
caused
the
reality-warping
event
known
as
the
Decimation—which
depowered
all
but
a
few
hundred
mutants—Sentinel
Squad
ONE
was
developed
by
the
U.S.
government’s
Office
of
National
Emergency,
at
the
behest
of
the
X-Men’s
long
time
frenemy/liason
to
the
world
of
politics,
Valerie
Cooper.
Similar
to
the
MK
VII
Sentinel,
these
Sentinels
were
not
autonomous
robots,
but
piloted
suits
of
armor
that
leveraged
technology
from
Stark
Industries
and
designs
from
Stark
himself
to
act
as
a
government-mandated
alternative
to
superheroes,
and
each
mech
in
the
squad
having
different
abilities
and
expertise,
like
cloaking,
reconnaissance,
or
close
and
long-ranged
combat
specialization.
Ultimately
however,
Sentinel
Squad
ONE
was
largely
resigned
to
guard
duty
at
the
X-Mansion,
protecting
the
remaining
survivors
of
the
Decimation.
The
highly
advanced
10th
generation
of
Sentinels,
introduced
in
the
“End
of
Days”
timeline
of
Earth-90411,
were
developed
by
an
alternate
Donald
Pierce
and
almost
exterminated
all
mutantkind
in
his
reality.
They
were
created
after
the
mysterious
mutant
Ink
(who
was
actually
a
mutate,
rather
than
a
true
mutant)
managed
to
revive
Dust
from
her
seeming
death—sparking
a
dark
timeline
where
the
now
soulless-Dust
turned
on
her
kind
and
helped
Pierce
exterminate
them.
Although
not
introduced
until
2009's
Uncanny
X-Men
#512,
the
Sentinel
Prototype
is
actually
the
first
of
its
kind
chronologically.
Developed
by
the
Hellfire
Club
in
San
Francisco
during
the
early
years
of
the
20th
century
after
they
had
psionically
discovered
the
future
potential
of
mutants
awakening
on
a
societal
level,
the
club
captured
the
scientist
Nicola
Bradley
and
his
wife
Catherine,
after
Bradley
had
developed
a
powerful
new
energy
source—hoping
they
could
use
it
to
power
the
Sentinel.
However,
the
Prototype
was
destroyed
at
the
behest
of
the
time-traveling
specialist
group
X-Club
during
their
battle
with
the
Hellfire
Club,
inadvertently
causing
the
1906
San
Francisco
earthquake
in
the
process.
After
the
Hellfire
Club
was
subject
to
a
hostile
takeover
by
Kade
Kilgore
and
his
weapons
manufacturer
conglomerate,
Maximilian
Frankenstein
developed
at
least
four
different
generations
of
Sentinels
to
be
sold
to
buyers
stoked
by
renewed
anti-mutant
sentiment.
These
four
generations
were
the
MK
X,
similar
in
size
to
the
original
Sentinels
designed
by
Bolivar
Trask
and
capable
of
being
folded
into
a
compact
briefcase;
the
MK
XI,
a
treaded
all-terrain
weapon
platform;
the
MK
XII,
a
winged
variant;
and
the
MK
III,
a
variant
update
to
the
Tri-Sentinel
design.
An
evolution
of
the
Sentinel
Armors
used
by
ONE,
the
MK
VIII
were
piloted
mech
suits
during
the
events
of
“World
War
Hate,”
after
Red
Onslaught
unleashed
a
reality-altering
wave
of
hatred
across
the
world,
which
had
led
to
the
U.S.
president
trying
to
launch
the
country’s
arsenal—and
a
scheme
to
recover
the
nuclear
football
stolen
by
X-Factor
in
an
attempt
to
stop
him.
Speaking
of
Red
Onslaught—an
even
more
powerful
and
evil
version
of
the
Red
Skull—the
first
generation
of
Stark
Sentinels
were
developed
after
he
managed
to
control
Tony
Stark
into
creating
a
more
broad,
anti-superhero
take
on
the
Sentinels
(and
utilizing
Iron
Man
technology,
although
not
powered
armors
like
the
ONE
Sentinels)
before
wiping
Tony’s
memory
of
the
task.
The
first
generation
was
deployed
by
Red
Onslaught
in
the
ruins
of
Genosha
after
his
ascension,
to
put
a
stop
to
the
Avengers’
attempts
to
bring
him
in.
During
the
events
of
Inhumans
vs.
X-Men,
when
the
Terrigen
mists
that
awakened
Inhumans
to
their
powers
and
true
forms
began
covering
the
whole
of
Earth
and
poisoning
mutants,
a
vengeful
Emma
Frost—grief
stricken
by
the
death
of
Cyclops—forced
Forge
to
develop
a
squad
of
Sentinels
designed
to
target
Inhumans
instead,
launching
them
even
after
the
Inhuman
Queen
Medusa
had
managed
to
abate
the
Terrigen
mists.
If
a
Master
Mold
makes
Sentinels,
what
makes
Master
Molds?
Introduced
as
an
Orchis
space
station/manufacturing
platform
during
House
of
X
in
2019,
the
Mother
Mold
was
meant
to
be
the
human
supremacists’
way
of
producing
Nimrod
Sentinels
in
an
attempt
to
exterminate
mutantkind
as
they
sought
statehood
recognition
for
a
new
home
on
the
living
island,
Krakoa.
A
team
of
X-Men,
including
Jean
Grey,
Cyclops,
Wolverine,
Nightcrawler,
Husk,
Archangel,
and
Monet
St.
Croix
were
dispatched
to
destroy
Mother
Mold
in
orbit
around
the
sun,
and
succeeded—with
all
hands
lost
in
the
process,
paving
the
way
for
the
revelation
to
the
audience
of
mutantkind’s
latest
evolution:
the
Krakoan
Resurrection
Protocols.
While
the
X-Men
and
the
Fantastic
Four
fought
over
Franklin
Richards’
mutant
status
and
his
place
as
a
member
of
Krakoan
society,
Doctor
Doom
revealed
that
he
had
developed
his
own
line
of
Sentinels—in
the
Doom
fashion,
of
course,
essentially
merging
Doombot
technology
with
the
size
and
scope
of
the
Sentinels.
After
Orchis
leader
Fei
Long
managed
to
take
Stark
Industries
out
from
under
Tony,
the
company
was
used
by
the
group
to
develop
the
second
generation
of
Stark
Sentinel,
leveraging
Tony’s
latest
designs
and
technological
developments
to
forge
a
new
legion
of
Sentinels—now
once
again
explicitly
an
anti-mutant
weapon—after
the
destruction
of
the
Mother
Mold.
The
MK
II
Star
Sentinels
played
a
devastating
role
at
the
third
Hellfire
Gala,
which
saw
many
Krakoan
mutants
massacred
and
cast
out
from
their
island
home.
Another
Orchis
development,
the
Sentinel
Zero
program
leveraged
the
Resurrection
Protocols
and
one
mutant
in
particular:
Wolverine.
When
Wolverine
left
behind
his
adamantium
skeleton
whenever
he
died
and
was
reborn
on
Krakoa,
Orchis
swept
up
the
parts
and
fused
them
with
traditional
Sentinel
Technology
to
create
the
Sentinel
Zero
soldiers,
autonomous
robot
warriors
with
Wolverine’s
claws
and
enhanced
durability
from
the
pilfered
adamantium.
For
once,
a
government
that’s
not
the
American
one
developing
Sentinels!
This
time,
it’s
Canada.
Convinced
by
Orchis
to
develop
its
own
version
of
the
Sentinel
program,
the
Canadian
government
tapped
Roger
Bochs
Jr.,
the
son
of
technological
genius
and
former
Alpha
Flight
liaison
Roger
Bochs,
to
combine
his
father’s
Box
cybernetic
suit
with
Orchis
technology,
creating
Sentinels
that,
in
comparison
to
the
Stark
MK
IIs
deployed
in
the
U.S.,
were
meant
to
be
sleeker
and
faster,
with
the
intention
of
causing
less
damage
while
apprehending
mutants.
Comments