Bolivar Trask

Bolivar Trask is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Creator of the Sentinels in Uncanny X-Men v1 #-1.

Bolivar Trask

In time, he got married with his wife giving him two children named Tanya Trask and Lawrence Trask with both being Mutants. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #-1)

After the death of his wife, he gave his son a medallion that he had Larry promise never to remove. (X-Men v1 #58)

As an anthropologist, he began to study the existence of Mutants and saw them as a threat to mankind. (X-Men v1 #14) He had made repeated warnings about the threat posed by Mutants to the U.S. government with him being attached to a program in combating a potential threat. Among the people on the committee was Fred Duncan who proposed a more balanced approach as he stated that a number of Mutants were loyal American citizens who should not be targeted cause of their genetics. At the time, Dr. Trask's Project: Sentinel was authorised to develop an artificial intelligence that could adapt to threats potentially posed by super-powered Mutants. A further billion dollars was added to the project though his superiors decided to try Agent Duncan's approach in perhaps using Mutants as assets that could aid the U.S. government. (First X-Men v1 #2) As a result, Trask was responsible for creating cybernetic machines known as the Sentinels tasked with targeting Mutants. He publicly unveiled the robots during a demonstration and had invited Professor Charles Xavier to the event. Dr. Trask showcased the abilities of the robots before commanding them to stop. However, the Sentinels refused to follow his commands as they deemed themselves superior to a human. Instead, they sought to achieve their directive of defending mankind but with themselves in charge. The Sentinels kidnapped Trask and took him to their base in order to force him to build more of their number. (X-Men v1 #14)

Legacy

After his death, his son Larry sought revenge against Mutants and restarted the Sentinel program that he dispatched to hunt down their targets. (X-Men v1 #58) Another of his surviving descendants was his granddaughter Olivia Trask who hired Gambit to steal experimental nanorobotics that she wanted to apply for military sales but the technology accidently got loose and merged with Sentinel technology to create a new iteration of those machines. (X-Men: Gold v2 #4) Another descendant of Bolivar Trask was a highly intelligent boy named Atticus Trask who made use of time travel technology where he attempted to alter the past by building Sentinels to eliminate Mutants at an early point but he was stopped by Cable who pursued him through the timestream. (A + X #1)

In an effort to eliminate the Mutant threat, the restored Bastion gathered various humans that had been involved in anti-Mutant activities whether they were living or dead. This included exhuming the corpse of Bolivar Trask who was then infected with the Techno-Organic Virus that Bastion had recovered from a Technarchy offspring. This restored him to life and under Bastion's control as he became part of a council that sought to exterminate Mutants once and for all. (X-Force v3 #3)

Overview

Personality and attributes

It was noted that he had a brother by the name of Simon Trask. (Uncanny X-Men '95 #1)

At some point, he had two children named Tanya Trask and Lawrence Trask both of whom turned out to be Mutants. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #-1)

Notes

• Bolivar Trask was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in X-Men v1 #14 (November, 1965).
• In Wolverine: Weapon X Files Vol 1 1 (2009), Bolivar Trask had an entry in the character guide where it said that he was scientist and robotics expert born and raised in Turner County, South Dakota with him growing concerned about the emergence of superpowered beings and hoped to find a solution to this problem.

Alternate Versions

• In X-Men: Alpha v1 #1 (1995), an alternate version of Bolivar Trask was shown to reside in the Age of Apocalypse. This version survived the genetic culling's and joined the Human High Council where he his world's version of Moira MacTaggert with the two having a daughter named Francesa Trask. Trask was responsible for the creation of Sentinels tasked with the protection of mankind from Apocalypse's forces.
• In Civil War: House of M v1 (2009), a version of Bolivar Trask was shown in the House of M reality. He was sworn in as the Vice-President of the U.S.A. and created the Sentinels to battle against Magneto following his rise to power. Magneto later confronted Trask onboard the Helicarrier where he called in Sentinels to defend him against the Master of Magnetism. However, the Sentinels enter their non-lethal mode due to the presence of humans on the carrier. Trask overrode hat feature leading to them attacking and causing the death of many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Magneto later threw Trask into the path of a Sentinel beam thus disintegrating him.
• In X-Men Forever v2 (2009), an alternate version of Bolivar Trask and his family line was shown in a reality designated as Earth-161. In this world, the Trask family was traced to Germany where Dietrich Trask was among the scientists working for the Nazi's in World War II to study a range of technological artifacts for the war effort. Dietrich was instrumental in uncovering a means of detecting differences in the human genetic structure without using a standard blood test. A joint America/British mission including Nick Fury and the Howling Commandoes along with Captain Logan of the Canadian military was responsible for assassinating him. However, his descendant Bolivar Trask survived and was smuggled to South America by Howard Stark with the goal of developing anti-Mutant technology. Bolvar later married Dr. Amelia Trask and had a daughter named Zigfried Trask with their family being cousins of the Starks. They were part of the anti-Mutant Consortium along with the Starks and developed the Sentinels as one of their research initiatives.

In other media

Television

• In X-Men, Bolivar Trask appeared as a minor antagonist where he appeared in the 1990s animated television series second part of "Night of the Sentinels" and was voiced by actor Brett Halsey. He was shown as the creator of the Sentinels that were being deployed to counter the threat posed by Mutants. Trask was the scientist in handing production whilst his comrade Henry Peter Gyrich pushed for government support or the program. In "Final Decision", Trask dispatched the Sentinels to rescue Senator Robert Kelly who had been kidnapped by Magneto. They returned Senator Kelly to their headquarters where Bolivar ordered Robert to be returned to his home. However, the Sentinels refused this command as they intended to take over he world. Master Mold commanded Trask to remove Senator Kelly's brain and replace it with a computer that was going to be done on other world leaders. Trask attempted to reason with hi Sentinels stating that they were programmed to protect humans from Mutants. However, Master Mold stated that Mutants were human and therefore mankind had to be protected from itself. Bolivar Trask was horrified at the reaction and believed he had created something worse than Mutants as the Sentinels were truly an inhuman menace. Thus, he ignited a gas tank in an attempt to destroy Master Mold who was defeated by the X-Men along with the Sentinels.
• In X-Men Evolution, Colonel Bolivar Trask appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor John Novak. A ormer member of S.H.I.E.L.D., and a noted anthropologist and cyberneticist who studied the process of genetic mutation. Concluding that mutants will replace humans as the dominant species on Earth if left unchecked and seeking to avert this, he designed the Sentinels to apprehend mutants. In the episode "Day of Reckoning" Pt. 1, he kidnaps Wolverine as a test subject for his Sentinel prototype. However, Magneto hijacks it to fight the X-Men and publicly reveal mutants' existence before the Sentinel is destroyed by the X-Men. Following this, Trask is arrested and incarcerated. In the episode "Uprising", Nick Fury was ordered to release Trask from prison and continue his Sentinel project under the former's supervision to prepare Earth for Apocalypse's threat. Trask creates three upgraded Sentinels, which successfully bring down the force fields protecting Apocalypse's bases before they are destroyed by the Horsemen of Apocalypse.
• In Wolverine and the X-Men, Bolivar Trask featured in the series as a minor antagonist where he made his first appearance in "Thieves Gambit" and was voiced by actor Phil LaMarr. He was shown as a scientist hired by Senator Robert Kelly who was assigned to the Sentinel Program and the designer of the Sentinel Prowler. Bolivar was referred to as the gadget-man of the Mutant Response Division by Wolverine with Trask being shown to work alongside Dr. Sybil Zane.
• In The Gifted, references were made to Trask Industries in the live-action television series where it was said to had been a private military contractor that was believed to had ceased being active in 2006. Reed Strucker's father was noted to had worked for the company.

Films

• In X-Men: Days of Futures Past, the character appeared in the movie where he was portrayed by actor Peter Dinklage. 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 humanity and mutants 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 himself is arrested for selling military secrets provided by former associate William Stryker to foreign nations.

Video games

• In Ultimate Spider-Man, Bolivar Trask appeared as an antagonist in the video game where he was voiced by actor John Billingsley. He was the CEO of Trask Enterprises and hired Dr. Richard Parker along with Eddie Brock, Senior on a research project. The project created a living suit called Venom that was made to cure cancer but Trask desired it as a weapon. Trask later worked alongside Dr. Adrian Toomes to recreate the Venom suit. This saw him hiring Silver Sable and the Wild Pack to capture both Eddie Brock, Junior and Peter Parker. After Parker was freed from the Carnage Symbiote, Venom went after Trask where he arrived when Spider-Man confronted Bolivar about information on Richard Parker. He attempted to escape in a helicopter when he was confronted by Venom with Spider-Man saving Trask from the Symbiote. Trask was later arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents where he was taken to an offshore prison. Whilst in prison, Eddie Brock as Venom confronted Trask where he finally killed him off-screen.
• In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Bolivar Trask was referenced in dialogue by Bastion in the setting of the Facebook video game.

Other

• In X-Men: Days of Future's Past, a viral website was created to promote the movie with some backstory on Bolivar Trask along with his company Trask Industries. They were responsible for the Sentinel Program but had also created the Mutant Detection Device (MDD) and Inhibitor Collars that suppressed the X-Gene.

Appearances

• X-Men v1: (1965)
• First X-Men v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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