Merge:Nimrod

Nimrod is a robotic supervillain, an enemy of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Romita, Jr., he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #191 (March 1985).

Hailing from the "Days of Future Past" timeline, Nimrod is a powerful, virtually indestructible descendant of the mutant-hunting Sentinels. His name is taken from the Nimrod described in Genesis 10:8-9 as "a mighty hunter before the Lord."

From the future to the present
Nimrod is a mutant-hunting android Sentinel from an alternate future who was created by the Sentinels who ruled that timeline. When Rachel Summers travelled back in time to the present, he followed her. In the process - due to an altered time-line following Kulan Garth's occupation of New York - he saved the life of construction worker Jaime Rodriquez, who in gratitude offered him a job and a home with his family, not realizing who or what the Sentinel truly was.

After gathering information about our timeline, Nimrod eventually changed his prime directive from the extermination of all mutants, having determined that such widespread destruction was not necessary in this era. He instead decided to only exterminate mutants who were regarded as outlaws by the Government, such as the X-Men. In the present, he fought and single-handedly defeated the Juggernaut. He hunted Summers and her new teammates, the X-Men, but was unsuccessful in destroying them. Sometime after this, Nimrod garnered a reputation with the public of New York as a heroic vigilante, assuming he was simply a man in powered armor and not a robot. He had also adopted a more human personality since he had established a cover alias as a human being, specifically as a construction worker named Nicholas Hunter. This was due to living with Rodriquez and his family for so long.

Nimrod later faced the combined forces of the X-Men and the Hellfire Club. Nimrod proved himself a powerful threat, killing Black Rook Friedrich Von Roehm, causing Harry Leland's fatal heart attack, nearly killing Nightcrawler, and badly injuring Rogue and Sebastian Shaw.

Siege Perilous, and transformation
However, when Nimrod came across a piece of the gigantic Sentinel Master Mold while working on a construction site, his programming was immediately co-opted and the Master Mold used Nimrod's systems to rebuild its own body. The X-Men were hard pressed to defeat the reborn Master Mold at first, but Nimrod came to their aid, claiming he had evolved as well, and no longer viewed them or mutants as a threat. Nimrod asserted enough control over the Master Mold to render it immobile, and even convinced it that - having absorbed Nimrod, who now regarded himself as a mutant - it had become a mutant as well; thus, to fulfill its prime directive to exterminate mutants, it must self-destruct. The remains of both robots were pushed through the Siege Perilous, a mystical gateway that caused all who passed through it to be reborn with new bodies. Nimrod and Master Mold were merged into one being, Bastion.

Bastion was a human-looking android that possessed great insight into the political process and initiated Operation: Zero Tolerance, a government-sponsored program to eliminate mutant terrorist groups (including the X-Men). Bastion was eventually revealed when it was discovered he was turning humans into a new breed of Sentinels. He was promptly dismantled.

In X-Force #35, a modern-day version of Nimrod appeared. This Nimrod was created by anti-mutant survivalist groups, and was based on the technology derived from the Nimrod from the future. It deactivated itself when Cable convinced it that its existence could cause a paradox and damage the timestream.

Decimation
Reverend William Stryker found a damaged Nimrod as he entered the current Marvel timeline (New X-Men #26). Stryker used Nimrod's memories to plan an attack on the X-Men and other mutants, however, Nimrod's memories were incorrect and Stryker was defeated. During the New X-Men story arc "Nimrod", Nimrod searched for whom it thought was its creator, Forge. Nimrod believed Forge could repair its damaged body, however Forge instead transferred Nimrod's programming into a new body, which Forge could control.

Believing Forge to be in danger, the New X-Men travelled to his apartment to help him. This eventually led to Nimrod gaining control over his body, and attacking Forge and the New X-Men. Nimrod was defeated when Surge overloaded Nimrod's temporal unit, blasting Nimrod out of the timestream. Nimrod survived and travelled back in time to March 1985 (Uncanny X-Men #191), with its memory corrupted.

Powers and abilities
Nimrod is the most highly advanced form of Sentinel robot possible for the technology of his native time period and reality to create. It is not known from what materials Nimrod was constructed, but his robotic form is highly resistant to damage even by superhuman beings. Nimrod can convert his outward appearance to resemble that of an ordinary human being. Nimrod can also reconstruct himself so as to make improvements in his robotic form and internal systems that will make him a more formidable opponent.

Even when smashed to pieces, Nimrod can reintegrate the portions of his body to become whole again. Apparently Nimrod's electronic consciousness can somehow exist independently of his physical body, at least temporarily. It has been speculated that Nimrod has complete control of his component parts down to the molecular level. If so, then Nimrod might have to be reduced to powder in order to be destroyed, and he might even be able to reconstitute his form from that state. Because of this, it is quite possible that some level of nanotechnology was incorporated into Nimrod at the time of his creation.

It has also been speculated that Nimrod has the potential to evolve somehow into a "techno-organic" form of life, similar to the Magus or Warlock, although presumably not having the Magus's extraordinary level of power.

Nimrod contains highly advanced computer systems as well as scanning devices that make it possible for him to determine whether a human being is a superhuman or not, and if he or she is, to determined the nature of his or her superhuman abilities. Like present-day Sentinels, Nimrod can draw upon devices and systems within his robotic body in order to cope with or neutralize an opponent's superhuman power once he has determined the nature of that power. If there is no pre-existing means within Nimrod of fighting against his opponent's superhuman power, it is possible that, if he has sufficient knowledge, Nimrod can devise such a means within himself before his next battle with this opponent.

As yet not all of Nimrod's built-in weaponry has been observed. It is known, however, that Nimrod can project extraordinarily powerful concussive blasts of energy, as well as bolts of plasma and disintegrator beams. Nimrod can also project magnetic energy that enables him to levitate enormous quantities of iron and steel. Nimrod can create force fields about himself. It seems that Nimrod has a weakness for elemental attacks; lightning, extreme cold.

Nimrod can teleport himself but the limitations on this ability are unknown.

Appearances in other media


Nimrod has appeared in the X-Men animated series in the 1990's. In the animated continuity, it came from an amalgamated version of the Days of Future Past future and the XSE future, where Bishop is its contemporary. Nimrod follows Bishop into the past to stop him from preventing the assassination that causes the future timeline. With the help of Storm's powers he was able to defeat Nimrod on numerous occasions.

An item named "Hammer of Nimrod" appears in the video game X-Men Legends; the item grants a large damage bonus against Sentinels. Nimrod himself does not appear in the game, but in the sequel, a brief appearance is made by Bastion.

Other Nimrods
An unrelated robot named Nimrod fought Marvel's original Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) in Captain Marvel #37. This robot was created by the Kree Lunatic Legion. It was destroyed in combat with Captain Mar-Vell.

Behind the scenes
Originally, Nimrod was supposed to integrate portions of the Captain Britain villain The Fury, a superhero-killing robot. However, legal problems with Alan Moore, the Fury's creator, interfered with Marvel's plans.