Bastion (comics)

Bastion is a Marvel Comics supervillain, a fusion of the Sentinels Master Mold and Nimrod. He is mainly an enemy of the X-Men. He first appeared in X-Men (Second series) #52 (May 1996).

Character biography

Origin

Bastion started life out as two separate beings, the Sentinel creator, Master Mold, and Nimrod, a sentinel from an alternate future. It was on one fateful day that Nimrod came across a piece of Master Mold's body. Master Mold's programming began to co-opt Nimrod. The two of them became one being after being pushed into the Siege Perilous by Rogue and Dazzler.

Now, a man of flesh and no memory of his past, Bastion was taken in by a woman named Rose Gilberti. Living with Rose, Bastion began to hear about the mutant problem, across America. At some point, Bastion fell into anti-mutant groups, like Graydon Creed's Friends of Humanity.

Operation: Zero Tolerance

In time, Bastion was working his way "up the ladder", in the U.S. Government. Unwittingly, Bastion was able to develop a new type of Sentinel, the Prime Sentinels.

Two events, the fallout of Onslaught and the death of Graydon Creed, were the ammunition needed to initiate Bastion's Operation: Zero Tolerance. Operation: Zero Tolerance attacked mutants everywhere. The operation was successful in capturing Jubilee and some members of the X-Men, taking direct control over the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, and gaining possession of the Xavier Protocols, a list of files containing information on killing the X-Men.

The President was convinced by Senator Robert Kelly and Henry Peter Gyrich to suspend Bastion's operations. Bastion was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., with help from Iceman. While in government custody, Bastion regained his memories and escaped custody. He attempted to lead another crusade against mutants, but he was stopped by Machine Man and Cable. Bastion was returned to government custody, only to be later beheaded by a brainwashed Wolverine, who served as Apocalypse's Horseman of Death.

Template

A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by the name of Mainspring was heading a project called the Gatekeepers. Their goal was to study and destroy Phalanx technology. They found the remains of Bastion and rebuilt him, but lost control of him. Bastion with the new body and new programming became known as Template and killed Mainspring.

Some time later, Carol Danvers contacted the X-Men about the current whereabouts of the remains of Bastion/Template. The X-Men sent Shadowcat, Wolverine, and Gambit to break into the government facility. Their goal was to reclaim their stolen computer files. While there, Template showed the three X-Men false holograms of events and lies about their teammates. The X-Men eventually got their files, but they were left with doubts and fears about their teammates.

Powers and abilities

He appears to have an incredible beam weapon that shoots out of his eyes and he can mentally command other sentinels. Bastion also has enhanced strength and the ability to fly with the aid of jet boots.

In other media

Bastion is the main villain in the game Next Dimension. Here, he rips information out of Forge's mind and plants devices in his Sentinels that can depower a mutant. At Asteroid M, either Magneto or Phoenix destroys him once and for all.

Bastion appears as one of the bosses in the video game X-Men Legends II. He seems to be a mere anti-mutant activist, yet his ability to control Sentinels is noted, as the mission in question where he attacks the X-Men involved the X-Men teaming up with Sentinels to save civilians. Bastion then took control of the Sentinels to turn them against the X-Men.

Trivia

In the Age of Apocalypse storyline a Bastion existed, as evidenced when the X-Men are discussing Abyss who is the one "rumoured to have replaced Bastion" as a Horseman of Apocalypse. This Bastion was never seen in the comic, though in the Age of Apocalypse there was no MasterMold or Nimrod that could have led to the existence of an AoA version of the 616 Bastion, thus AoA Bastion is not a counterpart of the 616 Bastion.

Bibliography

List of titles

X-Men (Second Series) #52, 57 & 64-69
X-Force Vol. 1 #54, 68 & 82
Uncanny X-Men #333-334, 339 & 346
X-Men Unlimited #11, 16 & 27
Generation X #20 & 23
Wolverine Vol. 2 #115-118
Wolverine Annual '96
X-Factor Vol. 1 #127, 132
X-Man #22 & 30
Cable #40, 4-47
Cable/Machine Man Annual '98
Machine Man/Cable Annual '98
Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 #1-2
Warlock Vol. 4 #6-8
X-Men: Declassified
''Onslaught Epiloge: The Path To Redemtion
Venom: On Trial Part 1

External links

Bastion on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki

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