Bolivar Trask

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Bolivar Trask
Bolivar Trask in Professor Xavier and the X-Men #16 (February 1997). Art by Nick Gnazzo.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceUncanny X-Men #14 (November 1965)
Created byStan Lee (writer)
Jack Kirby (artist)
In-story information
Full nameBolivar Trask
SpeciesHuman
Place of originNew York City
Team affiliationsSentinels
Purifiers
AbilitiesGenius-level intellect

Bolivar Trask is a

Madame Sanctity
.

Bolivar Trask appears in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past, portrayed by Peter Dinklage.

Publication history

Bolivar Trask was created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #14 (November 1965).

Fictional character biography

Bolivar Trask was an anthropologist who saw the rise of

Madame Sanctity.[volume & issue needed] Tanya's travels through time would result in property damage to Trask's land. This mysterious situation would only further cement his attitudes.[volume & issue needed
]

Bolivar decides that humanity has to fight back against the mutants and develops robotic guardians for humanity, known as the Sentinels.

Omega Gang would base their appearance on this picture.[volume & issue needed
]

Professor Charles Xavier invites Trask for a public debate on human/mutant relations. Xavier argues that mutants are just like humans and not evil, but that does not convince Trask revealing the Sentinels. But Trask and his scientists had apparently created a too adaptive, open-ended tactical/strategic programming, and as a result the Sentinels turn against him, claiming that they were superior to humans. The Sentinels left with Trask and brought him to his first creation, the Master Mold, who orders him to construct more Sentinels.[3]

To stop the Sentinels, Xavier summons the

Beast is captured. To reveal the X-Men's secrets, the Sentinels tell Trask to use a device to read Beast's mind. Trask discovers that the X-Men were mutants protecting humanity and realizes that he had been wrong. He helps the X-Men defeat the Sentinels by sacrificing himself to destroy the Sentinel's base.[4]

Recently in X-Force, Bastion having been reactivated by the Purifiers has apparently resurrected Bolivar Trask through use of a Technarch to be part of a team of the world's foremost mutant killers. He was apparently given credit for the deaths of all mutants, being the inventor of the Sentinels, had the highest record of mutant kills: 16,521,618.[5] Consistent with the remorse he had displayed at the time of his death, Trask killed himself after escaping Bastion's mental control.[6]

Legacy

Bolivar Trask's death would not be the end of the Sentinels:

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the 1995 storyline Age of Apocalypse, Bolivar Trask married Moira Kinross and together they designed heavily armed Sentinels to fight Apocalypse. These Sentinels were better programmed and even capable of reasoning with mutants if they protected humans (their primary objective). Bolivar participates in a plan to bomb North American Apocalypse forces, though this would mean extensive civilian deaths.[volume & issue needed] He returns in the 2012 launched Age of Apocalypse ongoing series, as one of the leaders of the remaining human resistance. His daughter Francesca is a main operative in the X-Terminators (code-named "Fiend") alongside Prophet, Good Night, Horror Show, and Zora Risman aka DeadEye though she and Bolivar have a rocky relationship.[10]

Civil War: House of M

In the 2008 miniseries

Civil War: House of M, Bolivar Trask is sworn in as the Vice-President of the US and creates Sentinels to fight against Magneto in his rise to power.[11] Magneto confronts him on board the Helicarrier. Trask summons Sentinels in self-defense, but they go into non-lethal mode as the ship is staffed with humans. Trask over-rides this, causing the death of many SHIELD agents. Magneto then throws Trask into a Sentinel beam, causing his disintegration.[12]

X-Men Noir

In the 2009-2010 miniseries

En Sabah Nur.[13]

Ultimate Marvel

The

Sentinel Initiative', a response to Magneto's terrorist attacks on Capitol Hill.[14] Initially, the Sentinels patrolled Los Angeles and then New York City, destroying any human containing mutant genes. However, these attacks ceased after the X-Men rescued the President's daughter from the Brotherhood of Mutants. He discovered the Savage Land's location, and dispatched to destroy Magneto's paradise by order from the President of the United States. This proved to be a foolish move when Magneto easily reprogrammed the chromium-built machines to destroy humankind. After a subsequent Sentinel attack on Washington, D.C., the Sentinel Initiative was shut down.[volume & issue needed] He has recently appeared in the Sentinels story arc of Ultimate X-Men, revealed as being employed by the Fenris twins to build the new Sentinels currently attacking mutants. This would suggest that the government no longer employs him, perhaps due to the failure of the Sentinel Initiative. Feeling horrified by all that he has done, he allows himself, during Angel's attempted saving, to drop into the heart of an explosion and is killed.[15]

Another iteration of the character is featured in

Beetle which allows Venom to escape.[16]

In other media

Television

Film

Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).

Bolivar Trask appears in

Oxford University, and sought to harness mutant powers to create the Sentinel program and bring about world peace by uniting humanity against a common enemy. Due to his inhumane and fatal experiments on mutants, Mystique assassinated him in 1973. However, this made him a martyr for the Anti-Mutant Movement and convinced the government to fund his Sentinel program, eventually leading to the Sentinels driving humanity and mutants to the verge of extinction by 2023. The surviving X-Men send Logan's mind back in time to 1973 in the hopes of convincing Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr
's past selves to stop Mystique from assassinating Trask and prevent the Sentinels from being created. Eventually, Xavier convinces Mystique to spare Trask, averting the dystopian future and prompting the government to shut down the Sentinel program while Trask himself is arrested for selling military secrets to foreign nations.

Video games

  • The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Bolivar Trask appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by John Billingsley.[citation needed] In an attempt to recreate the Venom suit, Trask hires Silver Sable and the Wild Pack to capture Eddie Brock and Spider-Man. However, the pair break free, Brock merges with Venom, and Sable sells out Trask once her contract with him expires. Brock and Venom seek revenge on Trask, but Spider-Man defeats them. Before he is arrested, Trask gives Spider-Man files that reveal the truth about the latter and Brock's fathers' deaths. While in prison, Trask is confronted by Brock and Venom, who kill him off-screen.
  • Bolivar Trask appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, voiced by Bumper Robinson.[20] This version is an African-American scientist who researches the mutant gene on behalf of Sebastian Shaw's Systemized Cybernetics Lab (SCL). Additionally, work logs reveal Trask initially took part in creating the Sentinel program for its scientific value until he witnessed a violent incident involving a mutant test subject, came to believe that all mutants are freaks of nature, and sought to exterminate them to protect humanity. After losing a hand to Wolverine, Trask eventually replaces it with a cybernetic prosthetic as of a flash-forward to a post-apocalyptic future.

Miscellaneous

Bolivar Trask's hatred of mutants is discussed in the non-fiction book From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books.[21]

References

  1. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #59 (1969). Marvel Comics.
  2. ISBN 978-1-60549-016-8
    .
  3. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #15 (1965). Marvel Comics.
  4. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #16 (1965). Marvel Comics.
  5. ^ X-Force vol. 3 #3 (2008). Marvel Comics.
  6. ^ X-Factor #206. Marvel Comics.
  7. ^ The Uncanny X-Men 57-59. Marvel Comics.
  8. ^ New X-Men #114-115. Marvel Comics.
  9. ^ The Uncanny X-Men Annual 1995. Marvel Comics.
  10. ^ Age of Apocalypse #1. Marvel Comics.
  11. ^ Civil War: House of M #3 (January 2009). Marvel Comics.
  12. Civil War: House of M
     #5 (March 2009). Marvel Comics.
  13. ^ X-Men Noir #3
  14. ^ Ultimate X-Men #3-4
  15. ^ Ultimate X-Men #87. Marvel Comics.
  16. ^ Ultimate Spider-Man #128 (January 2009). Marvel Comics.
  17. ^ Moreau, Jordan (July 22, 2022). "'Marvel Zombies,' 'Spider-Man: Freshman Year,' 'What If?' Season 2 Get First Looks". Variety. Archived from the original on July 22, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  18. ^ Perry, Spencer (October 1, 2013). "Peter Dinklage Talks Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past". Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  19. ^ Weintruab, Steve (February 19, 2014). "X-Men: Days of Future Past Set Visit: 90 Thing to Know About X-Men: Days of Future Past". Collider. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  20. ^ "Bolivar Trask Voice - X-Men franchise | Behind The Voice Actors". behindthevoiceactors.com. December 19, 2019. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  21. ISBN 978-0-8276-0843-6
    .

External links
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