Bastion (comics)

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caption=Panel from "X-Force" #1, vol. 3 (2008).
Art by Clayton Crain.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Bastion
real_name=
species=Android/Artificial intelligence
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="X-Men" v2, #52 (May 1996)
creators=Mark Waid
Andy Kubert
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=Purifiers Friends of Humanity Humanity's Last Stand
aliases=Sebastion Gilberti, Nicolas Hunter, Master Mold, Arnold Rodriguez, Template, The Oracle
powers= A mystical fusion of Master Mold and Nimrod;
*Immunity to telepathic probes and mutant abilities
*Ability to turn people into Prime Sentinels
*Command of other Sentinels
*Energy projection
*Superhuman strength and durability
*Flight|

Bastion is a supervillain that appears in the fictional Marvel Universe. The character was created by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert first in "X-Men" #52 (May 1996).

Fictional character biography

Origin

Bastion started life out as two separate beings, the Sentinel Master Mold, and Nimrod, a Sentinel from an alternate future. One day Nimrod came across a piece of Master Mold's body, and Master Mold's programming began to co-opt Nimrod. The two of them become one being after being pushed into the Siege Perilous by Rogue and Dazzler. Now a man of flesh and no memory of his past, Bastion was taken in by a woman named Rose Gilberti. Living with Rose, Bastion began to hear about America's mutant problem. At some point, Bastion fell in with anti-mutant groups, like Graydon Creed's Friends of Humanity.

Operation: Zero Tolerance

In time, Bastion worked his way "up the ladder" in the U.S. Government. Unwittingly, Bastion was able to develop a new type of Sentinel, the Prime Sentinels.

Two events, the fallout of Onslaught and the death of Graydon Creed, were the ammunition needed to initiate Bastion's , which attacked mutants everywhere. The operation succeeded in capturing Jubilee and some members of the X-Men, taking direct control over the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, and gaining possession of the Xavier Protocols, a list of files containing information on killing the X-Men.

The President was convinced by Senator Robert Kelly and Henry Peter Gyrich to suspend Bastion's operations. Bastion was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., with help from Iceman. While in government custody, Bastion regained his memories, and he then escaped. He attempted to lead another crusade against mutants, but he was stopped by Machine Man and Cable. He was returned to government custody, only later to be beheaded by a brainwashed Wolverine, who served as Apocalypse's Horseman of Death.

Template

A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Mainspring headed a project called the Gatekeepers, whose goal is to study and destroy Phalanx technology. They found the remains of Bastion and rebuilt him, but they then lost control of him. Bastion, with a new body and new programming, became known as Template and killed Mainspring. Bastion fought against the heroes Warlock and Wolfsbane during these incidents.

Some time later, Carol Danvers contacted the X-Men about the current whereabouts of the remains of Bastion/Template. The X-Men sent Shadowcat, Wolverine, and Gambit to break into the government facility, intending to reclaim their stolen computer files. While there, Template showed the three X-Men false holograms of events and lies about their teammates. The X-Men eventually got their files, but they were left with doubts and fears about their teammates.

X-Force

Following the events of the "" event, the fundamentalist Purifiers assaulted a heavily-defended SHIELD installation, breaching the tight security with the aid of several double agents within the organization and recovering Bastion's head. At one of their churches, the Purifiers attached the head to the body of the Nimrod unit recovered from Forge's Aerie, returning Bastion to life. Immediately after his activation, the mutant-hunting robot alerts the Purifiers to the presence of the new X-Force. After accessing Nimrod's database, Bastion concludes that the X-Men are the greatest mutant threat to the Purifiers' objectives in this timeline or any other and that there is no terrestrial force in existence that could guarantee the elimination of the X-Men. However, he reveals that he has found something that could: Magus. ["X-Force #2"]

It was later revealed that what Bastion discovered at the bottom of the ocean was not the real Magus, but one of his offspring in a mindless state. Bastion rewrote its programming and infected Donald Pierce and the Leper Queen, the recovered techno-organic remains of Cameron Hodge and Steven Lang, as well as the corpses of Bolivar Trask, Graydon Creed and Reverend William Stryker with the Technarch transmode virus, declaring them to be the future of humanity and the end of mutantkind. ["X-Force #3"]

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse storyline a Bastion existed, as evidenced when the X-Men are discussing Abyss who is the one "rumoured to have replaced Bastion". This Bastion has never been seen in the comic and there is no indication whether or not he is related to the main continuity Bastion.

Other Media

Television

* Though Bastion did not make an appearance in the 1992 "X-Men" animated series or in "", the latter does include a brief reference to him. In its final episode, Professor X had a number of visions, including that of a Sentinel army commanded by a smaller robot that closely resembled Nimrod, but wore Bastion's colors and costume pattern.

Video games

* Bastion is the main villain in the game . Here, he rips information out of Forge's mind and plants devices in his Sentinels that can depower a mutant. At Asteroid M, either Magneto or Phoenix destroys him once and for all.

* Bastion appears as one of the bosses in the video game "" voiced by Alastair Duncan. He seems to be a mere anti-mutant activist (though his true nature is mentioned in a trivia minigame), yet his ability to control Sentinels is noted, as the mission in question where he attacks the X-Men involved the X-Men teaming up with Sentinels to save civilians. Bastion then took control of the Sentinels to turn them against the X-Men.

Bibliography

List of titles

* "X-Men" vol. 2, #52, 57 & 64-69
* "X-Force" Vol. 1 #54, 68 & 82
* "Uncanny X-Men" #333-334, 339 & 346
* "X-Men Unlimited" #11, 16 & 27
* "Generation X" #20 & 23
* "Wolverine" Vol. 2 #115-118
* "Wolverine Annual" '96
* "X-Factor" Vol. 1 #127, 132
* "X-Man" #22 & 30
* "Cable" #40, 45-47
* "Cable/Machine Man Annual" '98
* "Machine Man/Bastion Annual" '98
* "Astonishing X-Men" Vol. 2 #1-2
* "Warlock" Vol. 4 #6-8
* "X-Men: Declassified"
* "Onslaught Epilogue: The Path To Redemption
* "Venom: On Trial" Part 1
* "X-Force" vol. 3, ongoing

References

External links

* [http://www.marvel.com/universe/Bastion Bastion on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki]