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 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 reveal the Blue Marvel was African American, Trask was called into a meeting at the Pentagon to discuss the potential threat that 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
-Uncanny_X-Men_Vol_1_-1_002.jpg){kind=link}
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 of 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 endeavour. The program but 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 of building, in turn, an army of Sentinels on its own, with the purpose to control 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]
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 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 prisoner an X-Man, the Beast, and 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 about "controlling the mutant problem" was passed-on and warped by succeeding members of his family.[13]
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 the M-Day, Hope Summers, resurfaced, 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 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
 |
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 recognised by the US government and 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 that Purity stated the body count was of 16,743,618,[24] but that includes also humans victims, such as Carmen Pryde.
See Also
- 28 appearance(s) of Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 3 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 7 minor appearance(s) of Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 26 mention(s) of Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 11 image(s) of Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 4 quotation(s) by or about Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
- 3 item(s) used/owned by Bolivar Trask (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Wolverine: Weapon X Files #1
- ↑ Conspiracy #1–2
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #2
- ↑ X-Men #57
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men #-1
- ↑ First X-Men #2–5
- ↑ X-Men #57–58
- ↑ Thor: First Thunder #3
- ↑ X-Men #14–15
- ↑ Marvels #2
- ↑ X-Men #16
- ↑ Professor Xavier and the X-Men #16–18
- ↑ X-Men #57
- ↑ X-Force (Vol. 3) #3
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 X-Force (Vol. 3) #5
- ↑ X-Force (Vol. 3) #6
- ↑ X-Force (Vol. 3) #17
- ↑ X-Men: Second Coming #1
- ↑ X-Factor #204
- ↑ X-Factor #205
- ↑ X-Factor #206
- ↑ Conspiracy #1
- ↑ As creator of the Sentinels, Trask is responsible for the 16 millions victims killed on Genosha; New X-Men #115
- ↑ X-Treme X-Men #37
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 12