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Bolivar Trask is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #14 (November, 1965). He is the creator of the Sentinels.
History
Bolivar Trask was an anthropologist, who saw the rise of mutants as a threat to humanity. Bolivar was also the father of Larry Trask, who ironically was revealed to be a mutant precognitive. Bolivar had realized this, and given his son a medallion which suppressed his power. Bolivar's other child, Tanya, was also a mutant and her ability to travel through time caused her to disappear. Tanya would be rescued by Rachel Summers in a far future and become a part of the Askani under the alias Madame Sanctity.
Bolivar decided that humanity had to fight back against the mutants and developed robotic guardians for humanity, known as the Sentinels. His son Larry was protected from the Sentinels' ability to detect mutants due to the medallion Bolivar had given him. Bolivar published articles on the threat of mutants. One of these articles showed an illustration of mutant overlords keeping humans as slaves. This illustration would become a symbol for human/mutant relations and several years later Quentin Quire and his Omega Gang would base their appearance on this picture.
Professor Charles Xavier invited Trask for a public debate on human/mutant relations. Xavier's arguments that mutants were just like humans and not evil didn't convince Trask and he revealed the Sentinels. Trask and his scientists had apparently created an adaptive, open-ended tactical/strategic programming. Trask wasn't a very skilled programmer though and the Sentinels turned against him, claiming that they were superior to man. The Sentinels left with Trask and brought him to his first creation, the Master Mold, who ordered him to construct more Sentinels.
To stop the Sentinels, Xavier summoned his X-Men. The X-Men fought the Sentinels, but Beast was captured. To reveal the X-Men's secrets, the Sentinels told Trask to use a device to read the Beast's mind. Trask discovered that the X-Men were mutants protecting humanity and realised that he had been wrong. He helped the X-Men defeat the Sentinels by sacrificing himself to destroy the Sentinel's base.
Bolivar's death wouldn't be the end of the Sentinels though; Master Mold would return and Bolivar's son, Larry, still unaware of his own mutant status, would follow in his father's footsteps and create new Sentinels to avenge his father.
X-Men Evolution
In the animated television series, X-Men Evolution, Colonel Bolivar Trask is a former member of S.H.I.E.L.D., a noted anthropologist and cyberneticist studying the process of genetic mutation. Trask concluded the mutants would one day replace humans as the dominant species on Earth if left unchecked. He decided to prevent this by designing an army of robotic guardians who would police mutant kind — the Sentinels.
Trask has kidnapped Wolverine, and uses him as a test subject for his Sentinel prototype. The Sentinel was able to defeat Wolverine.
After his Sentinel prototype was destroyed and the X-Men's names were cleared, Trask was arrested and placed in jail. However, he was released early to continue his work on the sentinel projects, working under Nick Fury, so that the world would be ready for the eventual threat of Apocalypse.
Ultimate Bolivar Trask
Bolivar Trask first debuted in Ultimate X-Men, as the architect for the US Government 'Sentinel Initiative', a response to Magneto's terrorist attacks on Capitol Hill. 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. Trask discovered the location of the Savage Land, and by the order from the President of the United States, he dispatched his sentinels to destroy Magneto's paradise. This proved to be a foolish move when Magneto easily reprogrammed the chromium-built machines to destroy mankind. After a subsequent Sentinel attack on Washington, D.C., the Sentinel Intiative was shut down.
Other appearances
- In the Age of Apocalypse Bolivar Trask married Moira MacTaggert and together they designed heavily-armed Sentinels to fight Apocalypse. These Sentinels were better programmed and even capable of reasoning with mutants if it protected humans (their primary objective).
- Trask appeared in the videogame Ultimate Spider-Man, as CEO of Trask Enterprises. He, along with Adrian Toomes, attempted to re-create the Venom suit and hired Silver Sable to capture Eddie Brock. This was before discovering Peter Parker, also known as 'Spider-Man,' also carried traces of the Venom suit in his blood. In the last level, Trask gives Spider-Man the files about his father, including Brock's. Just then, Venom crashes, and Trask attempts to escape, but failed when he doesn't have a clue how to fly a helicopter. Venom has decided to kill Trask, but Spider-Man stopped him. However, as shown in the final FMV, S.H.I.E.L.D. comes to arrest Trask, and Spider-Man has the files about the death of his parents, including Brock's parents. Just then, Brock later tracked down Trask in prison and killed him, believing Trask to be the reason Brock & Parker's parents died in a plane crash.
- Bill Duke portrays Trask in X-Men 3. Here, he is the head of the Department of Homeland Security, and has no (presumed) connection to the Sentinels. However, he does appear connected with the ongoing adaptation of human weapons and tactics to mutant threats. So it can hint he did create the Sentinels in secret in The Official Movie Game.
"Bolivar Trask"