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.
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Sentinels are designed to hunt mutants.[6] 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.[6] 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.[7] Entities obtain them—often in poor condition—for their own purposes (not necessarily mutant-related).[6][8]
There are different types of Sentinels that appear in the comics:
Mark I and Master Mold - Created by Bolivar Trask. First appeared in X-Men #14. Trask sacrificed himself to destroy the Master Mold.
Mark II - Created by Larry Trask. This model was capable of adapting to and counteracting superpowers almost instantly. First appeared in X-Men #57.
No.2, the robotic leader of Larry's Sentinels, later "mutated" with the capability of creating space warps.[10]
Composite - Created by merging the remaining portions of five Sentinels destroyed by the X-Men and came under control of Ashley Martin. It rebelled against her and was subsequently destroyed.
Mark III - Created by Stephen Lang and Project: Armageddon, secretly funded by Edward Buckman and the Council of the Chosen. Based on incomplete notes of Trask and inferior to Mark II. First appeared in X-Men #98.
X-Sentinels - Created by Stephen Lang. They are androids who were duplicates of the original X-Men. First appeared in X-Men #99.
Mark IV - Created by Sebastian Shaw. First appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #151.
Mark V - Created by Shaw for U.S. government's Project Wideawake. First appeared in The New Mutants #2.
Mark VI - Created by Shaw Industries for Project Wideawake and used by Onslaught. Also incorporated parts of Project Nimrod.
Mark VII - Created by Shaw Industries. They were experimental and remote controlled.
Project Nimrod - Created by an offshoot of Project Wideawake and was in the experimental stage, Project Nimrod was actually a self-awareness program that Nimrod implanted before its demise into the base's military computer cybernet, the program served as a sleeper virus that awaited the opportunity to access a Sentinel development program so it could use it to re-create Nimrod itself. Cancelled after X-Force interfered.
Sentinels in Marvels #2 (February 1994). Art by Alex Ross.
Prime Sentinels - Created by Bastion and Operation: Zero Tolerance. They were at first disabled humans infected with Nano-Sentinel technology at Prospero Clinic under the believe that they were being equipped with cybernetic nanotech implants to replace their lost limbs. Unbeknownst to many of them, they became sleeper agents for Operation: Zero Tolerance, as they would, upon activation by a mutant attack or near the presence of one, transformed into armored cyborg beings with powerful weapons systems.
Omega Prime Sentinels - The second generation of Prime Sentinels. Often simply called Omega Sentinels, their nanotechnology is far afield's in advancement to their brethren. Omega's have an 8 step cycle of transformation they undergo before transmuting from full organic to complete machine entities; which are Infection, Nesting, Replication, Dormancy, Activation, Union, Adaptation and finally Omega.[11]Karima Shapandar is one of them.
Wild Sentinels - Built in secret by Master Mold in Ecuador, activated by Donald Trask III and used by Cassandra Nova. New units are produced based on the currently available resources – salvaged parts, weapons and sometimes even entire vehicles – which give this particular type of Sentinel a very diverse, rag-tag appearance. Due to both this and their design flexibility, a wide variety of different shapes and forms have been observed. The Mega-Sentinels used to destroy Genosha and Nanosentinels both belong to this kind of Sentinel. The technology used in Nano-Sentinels is also employed by Weapon Plus for their artificial evolution experiments and the creation of their Super-Sentinels.
Mark VIII - Sentinel Squad O*N*E, designed by Stark Enterprises. Unlike other Sentinels, the Mark VIII requires a human pilot.
T.O. Sentinels - An intended upgrade to the Squad O*N*E sentinels conceived of by director Robert Callahan, who sought to use techno-organic substance to increase the effectiveness of his Sentinel program.[12] Failing in his first attempt he would get a second chance after obtaining the Warlock infected New Mutants to use as experimental fodder for further technoforming augmentation to his Sentinel Squad Armor unit.[13][14]
Bio-Sentinels - Human mutant corpse infected by a technological virus created by Kaga.[15] They come with the innate capacity of weaponizing bio-technological apparati such as Brood designed missiles as a means of offense.[16]
Stark Sentinels MK I - The Stark Sentinels debuted during the AXIS storyline. Under the influence of the Red Skull (who also had erased from him any memory of their construction), Tony Stark created a model of Adamantium constructed Sentinels outfitted with Pym Particle technology with databases withholding knowledge of different super heroes he acquired after the 1st Civil War storyline.[17] When Red Skull became the Red Onslaught, and the Avengers arrived to Genosha to stop him, he deployed the Stark Sentinels.[18]
Mother Mold - A self-aware and capable of adaptation Master Mold variant head designed to create "Master Molds" which in turn create Sentinels. Built in secrecy near the Sun by a human group called Project ORCHIS which is made up of various members of human organizations such as A.I.M., S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, Alpha Flight and others, once coming online, Mother Mold will lead directly to the creation of Nimrod, the ultimate nanotechnological Sentinel form.[19]
Nimrod the Hunter - Created in the modern era solely from contemporary technology and independent of its time-travelling counterparts by Dr. Alia Gregor on Orchis's Mother Mold
X-Sentinels - Orchis' new era of Sentinel, which is a modern Sentinel created by Mister Sinister's clone Doctor Stasis. He pulled this off by building over his gene-spliced animal/human Chimeras and used the many corpses of Wolverine to perfect a process and converting them into Sentinel units, combining Wolverine's Adamantium skeleton and claws with the latest Sentinel casing and systems prove to be a lethal combination.[20]
Sentinel Zero - The first X-Sentinel to come online and built over the frame of Wolverine's Adamantium Skeleton. In the end, Firestar incinerated Sentinel Zero's Sentinel parts, leaving a smoking Wolverine skeleton.
Stark Sentinel MK II - A new version of Stark Sentinel created by the anti-mutant industrialist Feilong afer he embedded himself in the Stark Unlimited company and secretly funneled its resources in the construction of Sentinels based on the technology of the Iron Man Armor. Once Feilong publicly took control of the company, Iron Man investigated his movements and found out the first Stark Sentinel in the final process of assembly. Feilong had the robot come online to chase off Stark and herald his plans for mutantkind.[21]
The X-Men battle Sentinels in X-Men: Schism #1 (July 2011). Art by Carlos Pacheco and Cam Smith.
Tri-Sentinel - A giant-sized, six-armed, three-faced combination of three Sentinels created by Loki as retribution for losing the Acts of Vengeance ploy, and defeated by Spider-ManasCaptain Universe. Later revived by the Life Foundation, only to be destroyed again by Spider-Man and Nova. Mendel Stromm later obtained another one from the bunker of the bankrupt Life Foundation and was later approached by a mysterious benefactor who prepared to give him a Master Mold that specializes in creating Tri-Sentinels.
Soviet Sentinels - Created by the Soviet Union and later purchased by Cuban government officials.[22][full citation needed]
Super-Sentinels - Using Nano-Sentinel technology, Weapon Plus created artificially evolved superhumans at The World. Three of the creations were chosen to form the mutant-hunting Super-Sentinels: Huntsman, Fantomex and Ultimaton, who were intended to be presented to the public as superheroes to make the extermination of mutantkind look "like a Saturday morning cartoon".
Colcord's Sentinels - Some of the Boxbots created by Madison Jeffries (aka Box) to serve the Weapon X Program, run by Malcolm Colcord. In one variation of the Days of Future Past timeline seen in the Weapon X: Days of Future Now limited series, one of the Boxbots evolves into a new Master Mold and a new breed of Sentinels.
Hardaway - A cyborg created at Camp Hayden, killed by the Mutant Liberation Front, who called himself a Bio-Sentinel.
X-51 (Machine Man) - Captured by Bastion and "infected" with Prime Sentinel nano-bots which reconfigured and reconstructed his systems thereby giving him similar capabilities to Nimrod,[23][24] such as adapting to almost any situation and programming that at times forced him to attack mutants.[25]
Juston Seyfert's Sentinel: First appearing in Sentinel #1, this is a rebuilt Sentinel (likely a Mark V or Mark VI), reprogrammed to obey Juston Seyfert. Initially, Seyfert controlled the Sentinel by riding on its shoulder; he now has built a cockpit into it. Seyfert and his Sentinel are former members of Avengers Academy and featured in Avengers Arena.
Sentinaughts - One of the types of sentient robots who live in the free robot city of The Core,[26][full citation needed] Sentinaughts are apparently based on the Sentinel design. They vary in size from roughly human to the large stature of traditional Sentinels.
Nano-Sentinel - Microscopic sentinel type of tech created by Cassandra Nova and implemented in various ways by other users.[27] Moving within the body and attaching themselves to the brains of humans and mutants alike, turning them into mutant-hating assault drones with no self control. Ready to take down any mutant who so much as looks at them.[28]
An unknown form of human made sentinels created by Simon Trask using a nanite based Sentinel Tech virus. The victims become anti-mutant activists who later, at Trask's command, are fully transformed into lifeless robotic Sentinels mindlessly following Trask's orders.[29]
Adamantium Cyborgs - Near-fully mechanical mutant hunter killers refitted by Weapon X with the titular metal as an endoskeleton using sentinel based nanotech. Coming in numerous alphabetical categorical batches, these bionic weapons can shed their skin revealing a murderous automaton with the abilities of various X-Men heroes & villains integrated into them.[30]
Core/Central Command - A biotech Master Mold variant behind the design parameters of the new Prime Sentinel's.[31]
Box Sentinels - Smaller and faster Sentinels based on the Box technology created by a joint venture between Department H and Orchis to track down and capture mutants in Canada.[32]
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.[citation needed] They are capable of cooperating with mutants to further this mission.[33][full citation needed] Later, the Sentinels are adapted by Weapon Omega to serve a reverse purpose, and now aid in the hunting of the human race.[34][full citation needed]
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.[volume & issue needed]
In the Here Comes Tomorrow future timeline, a Sentinel named RoverisTom Skylark's companion and protector. After more than 150 years of being active, Rover has become self-aware and, possibly, capable of emotion.[volume & issue needed]
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.[volume & issue needed]
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][full citation needed]
InWhat If... Starring Cannonball's little brother Josh—and his pet Sentinel", shows Josh (who would, in normal continuity, later become Icarus) finding and adopting a Sentinel.[36][full citation needed]
In "What if... Starring Secret Wars: 25 Years Later", the children of Marvel heroes are teleported back to Earth where, sometime in the last 25 years, a variation of "Days of Future Past" is shown when the group is attacked by Sentinels.[37][full citation needed]
In "What if... Starring Juggernaut: The Kingdom of Cain", Juggernaut has killed the X-Men, and as a result there is no one to oppose the Sentinels, so the world is ravaged by them until they are destroyed by Juggernaut.[38]
The Sentinels appear in X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by David Fox. Introduced in the first season, the Sentinel program was controlled by Bolivar Trask and Henry Peter Gyrich and was cancelled before being transferred to Genosha, with Master Mold constructed as the Sentinels' leader/mass-production unit. While the Sentinels are seemingly destroyed by Storm, a possible future depicts them as having taken over the world and successfully putting mutants on the verge of extinction. In the first season finale, Master Mold takes over the Sentinels from Trask and Gyrich's secret U.S. facility in an attempt to kidnap world leaders and replace the captives' brains with computers to bring under its control, resulting in Professor X and Magneto joining forces to seemingly destroy Master Mold. Afterwards, the Sentinels and Master Mold make sporadic minor appearances in the fourth season.
The Sentinels appear in the Spider-Man episode "The Mutant Agenda" as a simulation of the Danger Room.
The Sentinels appear in X-Men: Evolution.[citation needed] These versions are much more powerful and heavily armed than their comic book counterparts. In "Day of Reckoning" Pt.1, a prototype was manipulated by Magneto to attack the X-Men and reveal mutant existence to the media. In "Uprising", three upgraded models were used by S.H.I.E.L.D. against Apocalypse. Additionally, the series finale "Ascension" Pt. 2 features a vision of the future which includes Nimrod and a fleet of Sentinels.
A Sentinel appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Sausage Fest".
Parodies of the Sentinels appear in the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation S.A.F.E.T.Y." Senator Safely builds giant Safety-bots to prevent children from playing harmful games. However, the lead robot captures adults as well because of their potential for harming children and attempts to take over the world, only to be forced to self-destruct by Numbah 4, who believed the robot had injured his little brother despite its protocols and called it out on it.
The Sentinels appear in Wolverine and the X-Men, voiced by Jim Ward. This version of the Sentinel program consists of Mark I Sentinels, Sentinel Prowlers, an unnamed futuristic variation in the Sentinel-dominated future, and Sentinel Hounds, all controlled by Master Mold. Additionally, a reprogrammed Sentinel loosely based on the "Here Comes Tomorrow" incarnation nicknamed "Rover" appears in a self-titled episode as an associate of a future incarnation of the X-Men.
Alternate timeline variants of the Sentinels appear in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Days, Nights, and Weekends of Future Past! (Six Against Infinity Part 2)", voiced by Tom Kenny.[39] 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.
The Sentinels appear in The Gifted.[40] 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 as they appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014); the Mark I model in 1973 (left) and the Mark X model in 2023 (right)
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.[42] Following several rewrites and new scripts, the Sentinels were eventually dropped from the film.[43]
A Sentinel appears in X-Men: The Last Stand (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 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).[44][45][46][47] 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,[48][49] 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 X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) as Danger Room simulations.
The Sentinels appear in X-Men: Next Dimension, with a male and female Prime Sentinel available as playable characters.
The Sentinels appear in X-Men Legends, voiced by Scott MacDonald.[39] This version of the Sentinel program includes regular Sentinels, Sentinel Alpha, a Sentinel Controller, a Sentinel Weapons Platform, and a Sentinel Advanced.
A non-standard 10' tall Sentinel appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds 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.
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 Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, 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.
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.
^DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 318. ISBN978-1-4654-7890-0.
^Brevoort, Tom; DeFalco, Tom; Manning, Matthew K.; Sanderson, Peter; Wiacek, Win (2017). Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. DK Publishing. p. 110. ISBN978-1465455505.
^Wells, John (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 45. ISBN978-1605490557.
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