Origins and Evolutions Sentinels
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"Back in the Day..."
The Sentinels were created way back in 1965 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in The X-Men (Vol. 1) #14 and the mechanical mutant killers have often returned to plague all mutants, both good and evil. -
"A Giant and Deadly Threat"
Three stories tall, these giant robots were created by Dr. Bolivar Trask, programmed to locate, capture and even kill mutants, something they did with great tenacity using their flight abilities and energy blasts. -
"Master Mold, Creator of the Sentinels"
Master Mold was an even larger "Sentinel-generating factory" also built by Bolivar Trask but destroyed during the first three-issue Sentinels story, only to return many times later. -
"Sentinels... Evolve!"
As mutants began to figure out how to get around the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask's son Larry created the Mark II version of the 'bots (The X-Men (Vol. 1) #57) that were able to adapt to mutants' powers and counter-act them. -
"The Roots for Days of Future Past"
Years later, things got more serious in the pivotal "Days of Future Past" storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, which showed an alternate future where mutants being hunted by Sentinels were the norm, having been outlawed after the murder of Senator Robert Kelly by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. -
"Night of the Sentinels"
The Sentinels have also appeared quite often in various X-Men cartoons, including the multi-part pilot for the '90s "X-Men: The Animated Series," "Night of the Sentinels," which combined a number of the anti-mutant stories that had run in the comics previously. It wasn't ready to air and still had animation problems that were fixed before a later broadcast. -
"Sentinels Vs. Anime Video Game Characters"
In the video game world, the Sentinels appeared in a number of incarnations of Capcom's popular fighting game "Marvel vs. Capcom"--they don't differentiate between humans and mutants when blasting rockets and energy beams at Capcom's adorable martial arts characters. -
"She's a Sentinel? Homina, Homina..."
In the comics, the Sentinels started to get bigger and more dangerous with sleeper agent Prime Sentinels. They even started to look more humanoid, most noticeably super-sexy Omega Sentinel Karima Shapandar, created by Chris Claremont on his return to the X-Men. -
"And Now, the Super Sentinel... Nimrod!"
The "Days of Future Past" storyline also introduced Nimrod, a Super Sentinel prototype that was far more deadly than its larger programmed brothers. Nimrod also had far more sentience, later making him able to differentiate between good and bad mutants. -
"Bigger is Definitely Better "
To prove the immense size of the Sentinels, Hasbro decided to make a super-hot San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Sentinel figure (and variant) that towered over their normal 6" line of action figures. -
"But Even Fake Sentinels Can Be Dangerous"
Meanwhile, in the comics, the Danger Room itself gained sentience and sent a large band of Sentinels after the X-Men in an opening scene from the Joss Whedon-penned Astonishing X-Men--a classic double-page spread drawn by John Cassaday. -
"Are You Kidding Me?"
The Sentinels were teased in Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand, which opened with the X-Men fighting what seemed like a Sentinel, but it actually was only a Danger Room exercise. It was pretty lame. -
"There's a Guy Piloting That Thing?"
During the events following Civil War, Tony Stark created a military group called Sentinel Squad O*N*E to keep mutants in check, but these giant robots required a human pilot. Thankfully, this idea and the resulting comic didn't last very long. -
"Ultimate Sentinels May be a Misnomer"
As might be expected, the Ultimate Marvel Universe also has its own version of the Sentinels, but there really aren't that many differences between them and their counterparts on Marvel's Earth-616. -
"LEGO Sentinel Shows Up at the Worst Times"
There's even a rather pesky Sentinel that shows up at the worst possible times during the new LEGO Marvel Super Heroes game, but he's pretty easily taken out if you're playing with Iron Man, and there are some cool rewards for doing so. -
"Sentinels Invade the Multiplexes"
Supposedly, the Sentinels will play a pivotal part in Bryan Singer's upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past and we've seen a couple of images, both of a Sentinel head that was brought to Comic-Con as a tease and a full-scale Sentinel that Singer posed with himself.
