Sentinels

The Sentinels are a fiction type of robot in the , most often appearing as enemies of the X-Men. They were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in The X-Men (vol. 1) #14 (November 1965).

Invented by Dr. Bolivar Trask, the Sentinels are programmed to hunt and capture or kill mutants. Several types of Sentinels have appeared through the years, manufactured by various private and paramilitary groups, but the typical Sentinel is three-stories tall, possesses the ability to fly, project energy blasts and detect mutants.

The Sentinels have been featured in several X-Men video game and played a large role in the 1990s X-Men animated series, as well as a brief appearance in the beginning of the 2006 film, X-Men: The Last Stand, in which a simulated Sentinel was used as part of Danger Room training session, and have a pivotal role in Wolverine and the X-Men. In 2009, The Sentinels was ranked as IGN's 38th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

In the Marvel Universe, the Sentinels were first created by Dr. Bolivar Trask, who intended to use them to save humanity from what he saw as a threat to the species' existence in the form of mutants. In a televised debate between Trask and Professor Charles Xavier, Trask revealed and then activated the Sentinels, who promptly decided that the best way to protect humanity was to rule over it. The Sentinels kidnapped Xavier and brought him and Trask to the primary Sentinel, Master Mold, only for Xavier's students, the X-Men, to find them. When Trask realized the error of his ways and that not all mutants were a threat to the world at large, he aided the X-Men by sabotaging the machinery in the Sentinel base, destroying Master Mold and the Sentinels in an explosion, but he died in the process. However, numerous Sentinels and several Master Molds were built after the destruction of the original models.