| Bolivar Trask | |
|---|---|
.png) Bolivar Trask inProfessor Xavier and the X-Men #16 (February 1997). Art by Nick Gnazzo. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The X-Men #14 (November 1965) |
| Created by | Stan Lee (writer) Jack Kirby (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Bolivar Trask |
| Species | Human |
| Place of origin | New York City |
| Team affiliations | Sentinels Purifiers Control |
| Abilities | Genius-level intellect |
Bolivar Trask is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. He is a military scientist whose company Trask Industries is well known as the creator of theSentinels. He is also the father ofLarry Trask andMadame Sanctity.
Bolivar Trask appears in the 2014 filmX-Men: Days of Future Past, portrayed byPeter Dinklage.
Bolivar Trask was created by writerStan Lee and artist/co-writerJack Kirby, and first appeared inThe X-Men #14 (November 1965).
Bolivar Trask was an anthropologist who saw the rise ofmutants as a threat to humanity. Bolivar was the father ofLarry Trask, ironically revealed to be aprecognitive mutant. Bolivar had realized this, and gave his son a medallion which suppresses his power.[1] Bolivar is also the father of Tanya, a mutant who vanishes after her abilities cause her to travel through time. She is rescued byRachel Summers in the far future and joins the Askani asMadame Sanctity.[volume & issue needed]
Bolivar decides that humanity has to fight back against the mutants and develops robotic guardians for humanity, known as the Sentinels.[2] Larry was shielded from the Sentinels' ability to detect mutants due to the medallion Bolivar had given his son. Bolivar publishes 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 laterQuentin Quire and hisOmega 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,Master Mold, who orders him to construct more Sentinels.[3]
To stop the Sentinels, Xavier summons theX-Men. The X-Men fight the Sentinels, butBeast 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]
InX-Force,Bastion resurrects Bolivar Trask using a Technarch to be part of a team of mutant killers. He was apparently given credit for the deaths of all mutants and, being the inventor of the Sentinels, had the highest record of mutant kills: 16 million.[5] However, Trask kills himself after escaping Bastion's control.[6]
An alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask from Earth-295 appears inAge of Apocalypse. This version is married toMoira Kinross and worked with her to create the Sentinels and combat Apocalypse.[7]
An alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask from Earth-58163 appears inCivil War: House of M. This version is the Vice President of the United States and created the Sentinels to combatMagneto, who later kills him.[8][9]
An alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask from Earth-90214 appears inX-Men Noir. This version is a scientist and science fiction writer.[10]
An alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask appears inUltimate X-Men. This version created the Sentinels to combat Magneto.[11] Following the failure of the Sentinels, Trask is employed by theFenris twins to continue building Sentinels and attacking mutants. Horrified by his own actions, Trask allows himself to be killed in an explosion.[12]
Bolivar Trask appears inX-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), portrayed byPeter Dinklage.[15][16] This version was primarily active in the 1970s, learned of mutants' existence fromCharles Xavier's dissertation fromOxford 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 mutants and humanity to the verge of extinction by 2023. The surviving X-Men sendLogan's mind back in time to 1973 in the hopes of convincing Xavier andErik 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 is arrested for selling military secrets to foreign nations.
Bolivar Trask's hatred of mutants is discussed in the non-fiction bookFrom Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books.[17]
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