Bolivar Trask
Bolivar Trask is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a military scientist whose company Trask Industries is well known as the creator of the Sentinels. He is also the father of Larry Trask and Madame Sanctity. Bolivar Trask appears in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past, portrayed by Peter Dinklage. Publication historyBolivar Trask was created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #14 (November 1965). Fictional character biographyBolivar Trask was an anthropologist who saw the rise of mutants as a threat to humanity. Bolivar was the father of Larry Trask, ironically revealed to be a precognitive 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 by Rachel Summers in the far future and joins the Askani as Madame 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 later Quentin Quire and his Omega 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 the X-Men. The X-Men fight the Sentinels, but Beast 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] In X-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] Other versionsAge of ApocalypseAn alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask from Earth-295 appears in Age of Apocalypse. This version is married to Moira Kinross and worked with her to create the Sentinels and combat Apocalypse.[7] Civil War: House of MAn alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask from Earth-58163 appears in Civil War: House of M. This version is the Vice President of the United States and created the Sentinels to combat Magneto, who later kills him.[8][9] X-Men NoirAn alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask from Earth-90214 appears in X-Men Noir. This version is a scientist and science fiction writer.[10] Ultimate MarvelAn alternate universe variant of Bolivar Trask appears in Ultimate X-Men. This version created the Sentinels to combat Magneto.[11][12] In other mediaTelevision
Film Bolivar Trask appears in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), portrayed by Peter Dinklage.[15][16] This version was primarily active in the 1970s, learned of mutants' existence from Charles Xavier's dissertation from Oxford 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 send Logan's mind back in time to 1973 in the hopes of convincing Xavier and Erik 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. Video games
MiscellaneousBolivar Trask's hatred of mutants is discussed in the non-fiction book From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books.[17] References
External links
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