Spotlight On: The Sentinels

SPOTLIGHT ON: The Sentinels

A First Look At A Sentinel From Days of Future Past

In honor of the new X Men Days of Future Past film due out next year, I decided to publish an article to catch everyone up on the Sentinels, Since they seem to be a focal point of the plot.

First Appearance 1965

Premiering in X-Men Comics in 1965, the Sentinels typically have the ability to project energy blasts from their hands or eyes, have some manner of mutant detecting device, and are around 3 stories tall. Their height is subject to variation depending on the builder. Two notable humans to utilize Sentinels are Bolivar Trask, their creator, and Henry Peter Gyrich, an anti mutant activist, and government official.

Originally created to protect the human populace from the emerging mutant minority, Sentinels have figured heavily into X-Men comics over the years. While usually portrayed as mindless robots, some notable Sentinels have emerged, among them, Bastion, a human sized Sentinel, Nimrod, a 12-15 foot tall time traveling Sentinel from the future, Master Mold, the original Sentinel, and the Oracle, a fusion of Bastion and Nimrod employed by the Church of Reverend William Stryker*.

Notable actions of the Sentinels include killing Wolverine (in an alternate timeline along with

Modern Sentinel

Bastion

many more original X-Men) and the slaughter at Genosha, Magneto's island nation, where Sentinels under the sway of Professor X's twin sister Cassandra Nova massacred 16,000,000 innocent mutants and left the island in ruins.

I'm definitely interested to see the movie interpretation of the Sentinels. Leave any comments or questions below!

Nimrod

*Outside of the movies, William Stryker killed his mutant son at birth and began a religious crusade against mutantkind. His followers became known as the Purifiers. In comics he had no connection to Wolverine.

Master Mold

Spotlight On: The Guardians of the Galaxy

Spotlight On:

The Guardians of the Galaxy

          When I first heard that Marvel Studios was planning a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I almost didn't believe it.  At any rate, I became more exited for it than for any of the other projects Marvel had in the works, simply because it seemed like more like a long-shot than any of the other projects. That made me believe that they must have had something good planned. I've so far been keeping up with all the news about the movie, but the other day I realized that I know next to nothing about these characters. I hate going into a movie blind, so here's all my compiled research in the first ever amalgamation Nerd News/Spotlight On Crossover Article! Enjoy.

Chris Pratt as Peter Jason Quill/Star-Lord

Star-Lord is the leader of the Guardians. A Human/Spartoi hybrid, Quill joined NASA after his mother was killed in by his plotting great uncle. From his post on the Eve space station, Quill jumped at an opportunity presented by the Master of the Sun who accepted Quill as the Star-Lord, granted him a sentient ship and helped him come to terms with his need for vengeance on his mother's killers. He originally used his alien father's element gun, which was later destroyed in battle with the Fallen One, and after his service to the Kree(an alien race I'll be doing an article on soon) he receives a heat dampening espionage battle suit and helmet, and Kree submachine guns. This uniform has become the norm for the Guardians. After Star-Lord witnessed battle on a galactic scale during the Annihilation Wave, he decided to found the Guardians of the Galaxy, a group of cosmic heroes who try to foresee threats and prevent disasters.

 David Michael Bautista Jr. as Arthur Sampson Douglas/ Drax the Destroyer
When the Mad Titan Thanos beleives he has been seen by a family of Earthling, he kills them. The spirit of the father, Arthur Douglas, however, is captured by Thanos' father Mentor, and Kronos and put into a powerful new body, to be used as a weapon of vengeance against Thanos. Now known as Drax, he has increased strength, and durability and fights with knives.








 Zoe Saldana as Gamora, The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe

After her species, the Zen Whoberi were wiped out by the Badoon, Gamora was left as the last of her kind. Taken in by Thanos and trained as his assassin, Gamora became the most dangerous woman in the universe. She went on to later join the Guardians. Gamora possesses enhanced strength, speed, endurance, agility, and healing, and has at times wielded a knife that could kill almost anything.

 

Michael Rooker as Yondu UdontaA Centaurian archer, with connections to the Guardians, Yondu is highly trained and has sound sensitive arrows that he can direct by whistling. He also has a spiritual connection to nature, allowing him to locate things, or people, and replenish his energy by communing with nature. 












Groot
The Monarch of Planet X, Groot is a highly intelligent plant based life form. He is very durable, and even if destroyed, can regrow himself from a single sprout. He can also absorb other trees as sustenance or command them to attack. Although Groot only ever utters the words "I am Groot", Maximus the Mad claims that his tone and inflection varies and that he is actually saying a wide range of different things. Rocket Raccoon seems to be able to understand him. Although Groot may appear brutish, he has been educated by the best tutors of his race, and has a working understanding of quasi-dimensional super-positional engineering. He will be voiced by Mark "Vin Diesel" Sinclair.









Rocket Raccoon 
Rocket comes from an asylum planet for the mentally challenged called Halfworld, where animals were slowly evolved to bipedal form to help care for the patients. He is a gifted tactician and expert marksman. He usually wields two laser pistols, and has an affinity for heavy weaponry, he may also suffer from excessive-compulsive disorder. He has all the abilities of a normal earth raccoon, but on an                                                                                                                   enhanced level.

Spotlight On: The Mandarin

Spotlight on: The Mandarin
         After Iron Man 3's decidedly loose interpretation of the Mandarin, a lot of people are left with the wrong idea about exactly who he is. So I decided to post an article about Iron Man's long time arch villain, and hopefully clear up some confusion. 

        Mandarin is highly intelligent, charismatic, well connected, and a ruthless tactician. He has become an expert inventor, and has created devices such as a teleporter, force field generator, and mental transference headband. Through years of research, he has also become the foremost expert in Makluan technology, which is otherwise inexplicable by normal Earth science.

         The main source of Mandarin's power comes from 10 rings he obtained from an alien starship from the planet Maklu IV. The rings were the ship's power source and each of the rings has a different effect, which I'll go into later. Also, for longtime Marvel fans, the ship Mandarin scavenged the rings from is the very same one that brought Fin Fang Foom, another Makluan, to earth.

          In addition to the power he obtains from the ten rings of power, he is also a superhumanly skilled martial artist. He has control over his body's energy flow, or chi, which gives him superhuman powers, even without the rings. Through this control he has demonstrated the ability channel energy through objects, such as a chain, rip up chunks of concrete, move with extreme speed, dodge bullets, punch or kick with enough force to shatter bones and even damage Iron Man's armor, and to survive for years on end with no food, drink, or sleep in a meditative state.

With his rings however, he has even more powers. His ring's powers are as follows;

                                                        LEFT HAND:

Fin Fang Foom, A Makluan

Pinky: Ice Blast. Freezes the air in its path and can lower an object’s temperature to almost absolute zero.

Ring Finger: Mento-Intensifier. Magnifies the Mandarin’s psychic energy enabling him to mentally control a person. Only effective at short range.

Middle Finger: Electro-Blast. Emits quantities of electrical energy determined by the wearer (Mandarin). Upper limit of output is unknown.

Index Finger: Flame Blast. Emits infrared radiation and can cause air to incandesce by igniting its molecules. Maximum out is unknown.

Thumb: White Light. Emits many different types of energy from the electro-magnetic spectrum. Frequently used as intense visible light and laser beams.

RIGHT HAND:

Pinky: Black Light. Creates area of “absolute blackness” where all light is absorbed. It is believed that this ring accesses the “Darkforce” used by people such as Darkstar and the Shroud.

Ring Finger: Disintegration Beam

: Destroys bonds between atoms and molecules causing an object’s cohesion to fall apart. Needs 20 minutes recharge time between uses.

Middle Finger: Vortex Beam. Causes air to swirl about in a vortex at high speed. Can levitate objects, propel wearer (Mandarin) in flight and be used as a weapon.

Index Finger: Impact Beam. Projects concussive force of approximately 350 lbs. of TNT. Can also cause intense sonic vibrations and create magnetic waves.

Thumb: Matter Rearranger. Can rearrange atoms and/or molecules of substances or speed up/slow down their movements to result in various effects. Cannot actually transmute elements.

         If you're like me, you went into Iron Man 3 knowing Mandarin was a big Iron Man villain, but never having read anything about him. After seeing the movie's interpretation of the character, however, I became curious, and started digging. Most of my references come from Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D #0 Trade Paperback
Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D: Haunted.  Both can be purchased from Amazon for a reasonable price, and they are both well worth it. Hope you enjoy the benefits of my obsession with research, and there will be many more Spotlight On articles in the future. I will take requests.