Sentinel (comics) explained

Sentinels
Publisher:Marvel Comics
Debut:The X-Men #14 (Nov. 1965)[1]
Creators:Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
Members:Sentinel Squad O*N*E
Nimrod
Master Mold
Bastion
Prime Sentinels
Base:Sentinel Headquarters, New York

The Sentinels are a group of mutant-hunting robots appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are typically depicted as antagonists to the X-Men.

The Sentinels played a large role in the 1990s X-Men animated series and have been featured in several X-Men video games. The Sentinels are featured prominently in the 2014 film while simulated versions made brief appearances in the 2006 film and the 2016 film . In 2009, The Sentinels were ranked as IGNs 38th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[2]

Publication history

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they first appeared in The X-Men #14 (Nov. 1965).[3]

Sentinels are programmed to locate mutants and capture or kill them. Though several types of Sentinels have been introduced, the typical Sentinel is three stories tall, is capable of flight, projects energy blasts, and can detect mutants.[4] Pursuing genocide as the means of dealing with a threat has made the Sentinels an analogy for racial hatred and other negative types of fanaticism in Marvel stories,[5] represent the horrific consequences of humanity's actions based on hate and ignorance, along with a caution of the risks of AI takeover.

Characteristics

Sentinels are designed to hunt mutants. While many are capable of tactical thought, only a handful are self-aware.

Sentinels are technologically advanced, and have exhibited a wide variety of abilities. They are armed (primarily with energy weapons and restraining devices), capable of flight, and can detect mutants at long range. They possess vast physical strength, and their bodies are highly resistant to damage. Some are able to alter their physical forms or re-assemble and reactivate themselves after they have been destroyed.

Some Sentinel variants have the ability to learn from their experiences, developing their defenses during an engagement. Several groups of Sentinels have been created or led by a single massive Sentinel called Master Mold. Some Sentinels are also equipped with an inconspicuous logic loop in case they should go rogue to convince them that they are mutants.

Because of their power, sophistication, and high mass production, Sentinels are sold on the black market.[6] Entities obtain them—often in poor condition—for their own purposes (not necessarily mutant-related).[7] [8]

During the "Iron Man 2020" event, a Sentinel appears as a member of the A.I. Army.[9]

Types of Sentinels

There are different types of Sentinels that appear in the comics:

Related mutant-hunting creations

Other versions

The following are alternative versions of the Sentinels, which appear outside of regular Marvel canon.

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse timeline, Bolivar Trask created the Sentinels with his wife Moira. These Sentinels are equipped with several body-mounted gun turrets, and their primary directive is to protect humans rather than to hunt mutants. They are capable of cooperating with mutants to further this mission.[33] Later, the Sentinels are adapted by Weapon Omega to serve a reverse purpose, and now aid in the hunting of the human race.[34]

Days of Future Past

In the Days of Future Past timeline, which takes place in an alternate future, the "Omega Sentinels" have advanced technologically and become the de facto rulers of the United States. The most powerful among them is Nimrod.

Hembeck

In the joke comic Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, the X-Men are killed by silent, black, man-sized "Ninja Sentinels".

Here Comes Tomorrow

In the Here Comes Tomorrow future timeline, a Sentinel named Rover is Tom Skylark's companion and protector. After more than 150 years of being active, Rover has become self-aware and, possibly, capable of emotion.

House of M

In the House of M storyline, Magneto is victorious in a mutant/human war. The Sentinels are adapted by Sebastian Shaw, now the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., to serve a reverse purpose, and now aid in the hunting of sapien rebels.

MC2

In the MC2 timeline, Wild Thing encounters a Prime Sentinel that has accidentally been activated by a faulty microwave.

Ronin

In the alternate reality of X-Men: Ronin, the story is played out in Japan. A police unit called "Sentinel Force" designs, builds and pilots the robots. These are aesthetically similar to regular Sentinels, but each is subtly different from the others.

Star Trek

In the comic crossover X-Men/Star Trek: Second Contact, the X-Men work with the crew of the Enterprise-E to battle Kang the Conqueror. An away team composed of Captain Picard, Deanna Troi, Nightcrawler and Colossus encounter an approximation of the "Days of Future Past" timeline, in which the Sentinels have merged with the Borg.

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate Marvel version of Sentinels were created by Bolivar Trask, were already in action in the Ultimate X-Men story arc, hunting down and killing mutants on the streets, in a program apparently openly and publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government. Later on, there were also the New Sentinels that were sixty of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents in Sentinel battle armor and they were described to have enough hardware to take on a fleet of the old Sentinel models. A new breed of Sentinel robots, created by Trask under the Fenris twins' orders, was later created. After the events of the Ultimatum Wave, Nimrod Sentinels was deployed to hunt, capture or kill mutants that refused to turn themselves in. William Stryker, Jr., using Sentinel tech, later displayed an ability to summon a fleet of Sentinels after being attacked by the Shroud.[35]

What If?

In other media

Television

Notes and References

  1. Book: Misiroglu . Gina Renée . Eury . Michael . The Supervillain Book: The Evil Side of Comics and Hollywood . 2006 . Visible Ink Press . 9780780809772 . en.
  2. Web site: The Top 100 Comic Book Villains. IGN. 4 November 2017. en.
  3. Book: DeFalco . Tom . Sanderson . Peter . Brevoort . Tom . Teitelbaum . Michael . Wallace . Daniel . Darling . Andrew . Forbeck . Matt . Cowsill . Alan . Bray . Adam . The Marvel Encyclopedia . 2019 . DK Publishing . 978-1-4654-7890-0 . 318.
  4. Book: Brevoort . Tom . DeFalco . Tom . Manning . Matthew K. . Sanderson . Peter . Wiacek . Win . Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History . 2017 . DK Publishing . 978-1465455505 . 110.
  5. Book: Wells . John . American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969 . 2014 . TwoMorrows Publishing . 978-1605490557 . 45.
  6. M.O.D.O.K.: Head Cases #2. Marvel Comics.
  7. X-Men (vol. 3) #19-22. Marvel Comics.
  8. Avengers: The Children's Crusade #9 (May 2012). Marvel Comics.
  9. Iron Man 2020 vol. 2 #1. Marvel Comics.
  10. The Avengers #102-104. Marvel Comics.
  11. House of X #3. Marvel Comics.
  12. Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #9-10. Marvel Comics.
  13. New Mutants: Dead Souls #6. Marvel Comics.
  14. Uncanny X-Men vol. 5 #19. Marvel Comics.
  15. Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #31. Marvel Comics.
  16. Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #32. Marvel Comics.
  17. Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #1. Marvel Comics.
  18. Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #3. Marvel Comics.
  19. Powers of X #2. Marvel Comics.
  20. X-Men (2022) #22
  21. Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 5) #5
  22. Mystique #3-6. Marvel Comics.
  23. Cable and Machine Man Annual 1998
  24. Machine Man & Bastion Annual 1998 #3
  25. X-51 #1-2 (1999). Marvel Comics.
  26. Secret Avengers #26
  27. New X-Men #123
  28. X-Men: Red #5
  29. The Uncanny X-Men #500. Marvel Comics.
  30. Weapon X vol. 3 #1. Marvel Comics.
  31. The Uncanny X-Men vol. 4 #15. Marvel Comics.
  32. Alpha Flight vol. 5 #1. Marvel Comics.
  33. Amazing X-Men #2. Marvel Comics.
  34. Uncanny X-Force #11. Marvel Comics.
  35. Ultimate Comics: X-Men #3-4
  36. What If? vol. 2 #92
  37. What If? vol. 2 #114. Marvel Comics.
  38. What If? vol. 2 #94. Marvel Comics.
  39. Web site: Schwartz. Terri. Legion: X-Men Producer on How Professor X Fits In and Future TV Plans. IGN. 5 November 2017. 16 January 2017.
  40. Web site: Romano . Nick . 'X-Men '97' exclusive look reveals legacy costumes, Theo James casting . February 15, 2024 . EW.com . en.
  41. News: Andrew Kevin . Walker . Andrew Kevin Walker . X-Men First Draft . Daily Scripts . July 13, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190726144619/http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/x-men_walker3.html . July 26, 2019 . June 7, 1994 . live.
  42. Web site: Kendall . Gene . 15 Rejected X-Men Movie Ideas That Almost Happened . . Valnet Inc. . July 26, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190726150301/https://www.cbr.com/x-men-movie-moments-that-almost-happened/ . July 26, 2019 . March 10, 2017 . live.
  43. Web site: CS. Mark Millar Talks X-Men: Days of Future Past and Kick-Ass 3. ComingSoon.net. 5 November 2017. 1 February 2013. 4 February 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130204000351/http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=99760. dead.
  44. Web site: Future threat – X-Men: Days of Future Past. Fxguide. Ian. Failes. May 27, 2014. October 16, 2014.
  45. Sentinels: For a Secure Future. X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray. 2014. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
  46. Sentinels: For a Secure Future. X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray. 2014. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Featurette.
  47. Web site: Future threat – X-Men: Days of Future Past. Fxguide. Ian. Failes. May 27, 2014. October 16, 2014.
  48. Sentinels: For a Secure Future. X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-ray. 2014. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Featurette.
  49. JoeMooreDesign. Joe Moore. 358357245752385536. 19 July 2013. Sentinels in #LEGO #Marvel Super Heroes! @arthur_parsons just said so! ^_^. 5 November 2017.
  50. https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/23/18637577/marvel-ultimate-alliance-3-xmen-trailer-nintendo-switch no info
  51. Web site: X-Men get some love in the new Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 trailer. Polygon. 2019-05-23.
  52. Web site: Sentinel Voice - X-Men franchise | Behind The Voice Actors|url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/characters/X-Men/Sentinel/|website=behindthevoiceactors.com|date=December 19, 2019|postscript=. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.}} These versions were created to defend Super Hero City in a possible future where the Scarlet Witch became a dictator.
    • A Sentinel appears in Marvel Anime: X-Men as a simulation of the Danger Room.
    • A Sentinel appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man episode "Game Over" as a part of Arcade's Madland.
    • A Sentinel appears in .
    • The Sentinels appear in The Gifted.[39] These versions are small spider-like robots created by Trask Industries to withstand various hazardous environments and forms of attack as well as adapt quickly to damage taken. Additionally, a similarly named government agency called Sentinel Services appears throughout the series.
    • The Sentinels appear in X-Men '97, voiced by Eric Bauza.[40]

    Film

    See main article: article and X-Men (film series).

    • The Sentinels were originally meant to appear in X-Men (2000). In an early draft written by Andrew Kevin Walker and turned in during June 1994, Henry Gyrich and Bolivar Trask use three 8 feet (2.4 m) tall Sentinels to attack the X-Men.[41] Following several rewrites and new scripts, the Sentinels were eventually dropped from the film.[42]
    • A Sentinel appears in (2006) as a Danger Room simulation. This version is massive, and different in coloration and structure from the Sentinels of the comics, having a vent like mouthpiece, trapezoid shaped eyes that appear as white from a distance but are orange from close up and turn red when the Sentinel shuts down.
    • Two variations of the Sentinels appear in (2014).[43] [44] [45] [46] The prototype Mark I Sentinels were designed by Legacy Effects with Digital Domain building digital models based on a full-scale practical model while the future Mark X variants, based on Nimrod Sentinels,[47] [48] were computer graphics made by Moving Picture Company. In the film, the prototypes are said to be built using space-age polymers and are equipped with chest-mounted vent-like structures that grant flight capabilities as well as arm-mounted Gatling guns while the future Sentinels have become smaller, sleeker, and built with adaptive mechanical scales, hands that can reform into blades, and emitters in their heads capable of firing energy beams. This version of the Sentinel program was originally created in the 1970s, with Bolivar Trask experimenting on mutants to accelerate his research, though he found little success in gaining support for his project. After Mystique assassinated Trask in 1973, the U.S. government approved the Sentinel program, captured Mystique, and experimented on her to give the Sentinels the ability to adapt to and utilize mutant powers. However, they subsequently target humans due to their potential for having mutant descendants, culminating in a dystopian future where most of humanity and mutant-kind are nearly extinct by 2023. Using Kitty Pryde's new ability to project the minds of others into their past selves, the surviving X-Men project Logan's mind back into his 1973 self to rally Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr's younger selves and avert Trask's assassination. Mystique defeats Lehnsherr, but Xavier and Hank McCoy convince her not to kill Trask, causing the U.S. government to realize that not all mutants are a threat to humanity and abandon the Sentinel program.
    • The X-Men: Days of Future Past incarnation of the Mark I Sentinels make a cameo appearance in (2016) as Danger Room simulations.

    Video games

    • The Sentinels appear in X-Men (1992).
    • The Sentinels appear in Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge.
    • The Sentinels appear as bosses in via the Genosha stage.
    • The Sentinels appear in .
    • A non-standard 10' tall Sentinel appears as a playable character in X-Men: Children of the Atom.
    • A non-standard 10' tall Sentinel appears as a secret assist character in .
    • A non-standard 10' tall Sentinel appears as a playable character in .
    • The Sentinels appear in .
    • The Sentinels appear as background characters in .
    • The Sentinels appear in , with a male and female Prime Sentinel available as playable characters.
    • The Sentinels appear in X-Men Legends, voiced by Scott MacDonald. This version of the Sentinel program includes regular Sentinels, Sentinel Alpha, a Sentinel Controller, a Sentinel Weapons Platform, and a Sentinel Advanced.
    • The Sentinels appear in .
    • The Sentinels appear in , voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. This version of the Sentinel program includes a small flight-capable model and a walking behemoth.
    • The Sentinels appear in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with a Mark I model appearing as a boss.
    • A non-standard 10' tall Sentinel appears as an unlockable playable character in and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, voiced again by Jim Ward. In its arcade mode ending, it uploads Master Mold's program into Galactus's warship with the intention of killing mutants and humanity via Galactus-inspired Sentinels.
    • The Sentinels appear in X-Men Destiny.
    • The Sentinels appear in . This version of the Sentinel program includes several Sentinel models named after the Titans. Additionally, the Brotherhood of Mutants employ M-Series Sentinels while the Hellfire Club hired the Crimson Dynamo to build Sentinels loyal to them.
    • The Sentinels appear in Marvel Heroes.
    • The Sentinels appear in Deadpool.
    • The Sentinels appear in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Stephen Stanton.[49] Additionally, a Mini-Sentinel appears as an unlockable playable character.
    • A Sentinel appears as a playable character in .
    • The Sentinels appear as playable and non-playable characters in Marvel Contest of Champions.
    • The Sentinels appear in . Additionally, a Power Stone-enhanced variant known as the Infinity Sentinel appears as a boss.[50] [51] Ultron utilizes them to steal the Infinity Stones from the Avengers and the X-Men until they are destroyed by the heroes.
    • The Sentinels appear as a landmark in Fortnite Battle Royale.
    • The Sentinels appears in Marvel Snap.

    Merchandise

    • A Sentinel figure was released in Toy Biz's X-Men Classics line.
    • A Sentinel "Build-A-Figure", based on the "Here Comes Tomorrow" incarnation, was released in wave ten of the Marvel Legends line.
    • Two Sentinel figures was released in Hasbro's Marvel Universe line.
    • Two Sentinel figures and a statue were released in the Marvel Minimates line, with the first figure depicting it fighting Rachel Summers as either Phoenix or Marvel Girl and the second, which is based on its appearance in , fighting Ryu.
    • A Sentinel figure was released in Lego's "X-Men vs. the Sentinel" set.
    • A twenty-six inch Sentinel figure was announced as part of Hasbro's HasLab crowdfunding releases.

    Music

    In 2020, Brooklyn rapper Magneto Dayo unveiled "The Sentinels," a project that gained viral traction on Instagram reels in 2024, amassing over 5 million plays.

    Miscellaneous

    A Sentinel parody called the "Sentinent" appears in MAD Magazines parody of the X-Men, the "ECH!-Men".

    External links

    .