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Quote1 No! Never! I cannot betray the entire human race! I'd rather die! Quote2
Dr. Bolivar Trask[src]

History

Early Life[]

Dr. Bolivar Trask was scientist and robotics expert born and raised in Turner County, South Dakota. He grew concerned about the emergence of superpowered beings and hoped to find a solution to this problem.[1]

Control[]

After Reed Richards wrote a paper proving the need to defend the country and the planet, the US government and Edward Harrison followed his advice and formed Control. Harrison recruited Bolivar Trask alongside General "Thunderbolt" Ross, General Lewis Haywerth, General Cecil Slinkard, and industrialist Howard Stark. They hoped they could monitor all future scientific progress with hopes of ending threats before they began.[2]

In the 1960s, after the public revelation that the Blue Marvel was African American, Trask was called into a meeting at the Pentagon to discuss the potential threat he posed. Trask shared his ideas about the birth of mutants, and while he didn't believe Brashear to be one, he suggested to remain cautious to the potential threat.[3]

Family[]

Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)-Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 -1 002

The Trask family

When his own son Larry Trask developed mutant powers, Bolivar set out to learn everything he could about mutations. Dr. Trask hired a team of scientists to develop a medallion that would block Larry's powerful visions of the future, as well as erase any memory of them, and finally came to the conclusion that mutants would inevitably use their superhuman abilities to supplant humans.[4] Dr. Trask also had a daughter, called Tanya, who possessed mutant powers as well, albeit for time travel. These abilities caused her to vanish one day. Returning as a young woman and under the alias of Sanctity, Tanya tried to change the past so that her father's creations wouldn't destroy mutantkind. Rachel Summers tried to stop her, but their battle itself prompted Dr. Trask to push his project to completion.[5]

Project Chimera[]

Trask was recruited by Project Chimera, who intended to brainwash mutants to turn them into weapons. He was disgusted by the ideals behind the project, but lent his prototype robots to help in the endeavor. The program was stopped by a team of mutants assembled by Logan and Creed. In the aftermath, Trask's own program was approved.[6]

Project Wideawake[]

As part of Project Wideawake, Dr. Trask began working on Master Mold, a prototype Sentinel capable constructing an army of Sentinels on its own, with the purpose of controlling the mutant population, in Trask's secret lab. Another team of scientists developed and built Dr. Trask's Sentinels to his specifications. As his son Larry grew older, Bolivar enlisted his help in the creation of the first wave of Sentinels. Dr. Trask occasionally removed Larry's medallion so that he could secretly observe and record Larry's predictions about mutants in the future, and Larry accurately predicted the assassination attempt of Senator Robert Kelly.[7]

Sentinels from X-Men Vol 1 14 003

The Sentinels rebel

When Sandu was enhanced by the trickster god Loki, Trask and Thunderbolt Ross met with Reed Richards to discuss the threat. Trask wanted to classify the attack as mutant-related, refusing to believe it involved magic.[8]

Encountering the X-Men[]

Dr. Trask wrote several articles on the "mutant question", but when he made an appearance on television, Professor Charles Xavier realized that such propaganda had to be rebutted. During the resulting debate, Dr. Trask demonstrated his robots, which unexpectedly left for their lab and took Trask with them. Back at the lab, Master Mold revealed to Dr. Trask that it had come to the conclusion that Sentinels were superior to both races, thus robots could and should supplant humans and mutants. Taking orders from a mere human ran counter to this new imperative, so Dr. Trask would thenceforth serve the Sentinels and help build more of them. Meanwhile, the Sentinels had also taken Beast, an X-Man, prisoner. Master Mold ordered Dr. Trask to use a psycho-probe to read the his mind and learn the X-Men's plans.[9][10] Instead, Dr. Trask learned that the X-Men were genuinely protecting humanity, and that his theory was wrong. This revelation, coupled with Master Mold's betrayal and the threat to humanity, prompted Trask to blow up the laboratory to destroy Master Mold at the cost of his own life.[11][12]

Despite Trask's ultimate change of heart before his death, his original propaganda, as well as several new and improved Sentinels, persisted in the future. His belief in "controlling the mutant problem" was passed on and warped by succeeding members of his family.[13]

Human Council (Earth-616) from X-Men Second Coming Vol 1 1 001

Member of Human Council

Human Council[]

Years later, when the mutant-hating Bastion set out to eradicate mutantkind, he used the Techno-Organic Virus to revive many of the X-Men's enemies, including Bolivar Trask, into the Human Council.[14] The virus additionally allowed Bastion to exert his will on the minds of those he reanimated.[15] When X-Force stumbled into Bastion's plans,[15] he managed to escape alongside the Human Council.[16]

To further Bastion's agenda, Trask and Steven Lang addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations to ask for funding and support to start a new mutant-controlling global initiative called the M.R.D. (Mutant Response Division).[17] When the first mutant ever born following M-Day, Hope Summers resurfaced, and Bastion mobilized the Human Council to kill her.[18] During the hunt for Hope, Bastion forced Trask to deploy the M.R.D. to take down X-Factor, the X-Men's information-gathering arm, despite Bolivar's own reluctance.[19]

Throughout this operation, Trask attempted to fight Bastion's control, only to be further subdued.[20] During an M.R.D. assault on X-Factor, M used her telepathic powers to intrude in Trask's mind. This interfered with Bastion's grasp over Trask, granting him a small window of free will that he used to command his troops to stand down and then shoot himself in the head.[21]

Attributes

Power Grid[26]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Genius

Powers

  • Techno-Organic form: After being resurrected by Bastion he was giving a Techno-Organic form using the Techno-Organic Virus. The extent of his abilities beyond Bastions control was never revealed.[1]

Abilities

  • Genius Intellect Trask is a scientific genius in multiple fields such anthropology, cybernetics, and robotics. His inventions include the Sentinels and Master Mold.[1] His genius was recognized by the US government and he was asked to join many think tanks and panels.[22][3]

Trivia

  • Trask's "mutants killed" count, as the inventor of the Sentinels, was allegedly 16,521,618 as of X-Force (Vol. 3) #3, obviously including the victims of his creations.[23] To be noted, Purity stated the body count to be 16,743,618,[24] but that includes humans victims, such as Carmen Pryde.
  • After Krakoa became a sovereign nation state for mutants, Bolivar Trask was considered the greatest threat to mutants, having created the Sentinels, and was held responsible for the total of 16,521,618 mutant deaths caused by the Sentinels.[25]

See Also

Links and References

References

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