Origin
Bolivar Trask created a servitor/controller called Master Mold, to control the perceived threat of the mutant race, who then went on to create the Mark I Sentinels (drones for the Master Mold). However, the Sentinels’ logic dictated that the most efficient way to deal with the “Mutant Menace” was to control their creators. Master Mold gave orders to its ‘soldiers’ to rebel against their ‘creator’ and capture him to put phase I of its plan into effect: the creation of a vast army of Sentinels. Trask soon realised that it was he who had created the “threat”. Concluding it was up to him to solve this problem, he sacrificed his own life to destroy the Master Mold.
Creation
Master Mold was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Master Mold made its first comic book appearance in X-Men #15.
Major Story Arcs
Return
A new Master Mold was designed and created by Stephen Lang, a anti mutant bigot that had access to Trask’s old Sentinel engineering notes and remains of Mark I Sentinels to design new Mark II Sentinels for the purpose of killing all mutants. However, Lang did not use this Mold and it was subsequently not present during the X-Men’s fight with Lang on board his space station- however, due to Lang’s memory being programmed into the robot, it now believed that it was Lang himself, trapped in the body of his creation.
Surviving the explosion and destruction of Lang’s space base, the new Lang/Mold hybrid built a new base on a asteroid. The robot was successfully able to subdue both Iceman and Angel, exploiting their weaknesses. However, it also gets into a fight with Doc Samson after passing over Gamma Base while pursuing Angel in flight. While Mold was easily able to fend off Samson, the battle in turn wakes up a sleeping Hulk , who then also tries to brawl with Mold, but is shaken off by it. However, as it tries to fly away and escape to the asteroid base, Hulk is able to jump and hold on to the leg of the robot, following it all of the way to the base itself.
While Mold tries to trap Hulk and the mutant pair in power dampening prisons, it is unsuccessful (due to Hulk not being a mutant, a mistake on Mold’s part as the robot had never encountered the brute before) and Hulk is then able to smash the robot to pieces, utterly wrecking it. While Mold tries to destroy the base to kill all of them in the process, they are able to escape in a unused escape pod before the base explodes.
Stalking Cyclops
However, the remains of Mold after the explosion were able to reach Earth, where it crashed into the sea and rebuilt itself slowly using scraps of ships and oil rigs to rebuild its body back to a suitable condition. Managing to still be capable of tracking mutants, it managed to find and attack the X-Men leader Cyclops , where it attempted to kill him while he was by himself searching for his missing wife, Madelyne Prior.
Through Mold is nearly able to achieve its goal, Cyclops is able to trick Mold into blowing up gas storage tanks, which destroy the body of Mold once more. However, the brain modules of Mold survived for another day, unknown to Scott.
Retribution Virus
The brain of Mold was somehow able to make it to Muir Island and control the mind of famous scientist Moira MacTaggert , forcing her to create the Retribution Virus, a deadly bacteria that specifically targeted mutants, stopping them from using their powers over time and then killing them in a painful and slow manner. Banshee, Moria’s lover at the time, was suspicious of the new and strange behaviour and contacted Cyclops to help investigate this issue. While there however, Banshee and a human child was infected with the virus, and were unable to help Scott with his investigation. While in the Island, Mold attempted to kill Scott twice (once with a heat seeking missile while he was asleep). Scott was able to snap MacTaggert out of the hypnosis, and horrified by the damage that the Retribution Virus had done, went immediately to researching for a cure for it. However, while in the middle of creating a cure, Mold struck again with his army and captured the pair using a army of robotic drones led by Conscience, a robot programmed with the human emotions of Stephen Lang. Even with the assistance of fellow mutant Callisto, they were all infected with the Virus as well and left helpless.
However, it had been discovered that the Retribution Virus actually had mutated to infect normal human beings as well (as the child infected earlier was found to have no mutant gene) and Conscience argued with Mold about using the virus, as while Lang was a killer, he did not wish to kill individuals who were not mutants. However, Mold pressed on with using the Retribution Virus, content that a small number of humans would statistically survive the outbreak and thus lead to less likelihood of mutant births. Conscience, horrified by the coldness of his creator and with the emotions of a normal human, refused to go along with Mold’s plan and worked with Scott and the others to destroy Master Mold’s base, destroying the robot and himself in the process.
Moria was eventually able to create a cure for the Virus, and everyone who was infected with it made a full recovery.
Identity Crisis
On one occasion, the future-Sentinel Nimrod, in its human guise of Nicholas Hunter, came into contact with a module, a remnant of the Master Mold, and was overtaken by it. The Master Mold now contained two separate entities (in conflict), that of the original Sentinel and the Omega. Suddenly, the combination of the Master Mold and Nimrod made it possible for ‘them’ to detect the presence of the X-Men, who had previously been invisible .existent detection
Nimrod’s logic contended the merging of itself and Master Mold had “mutated” them. Since the Master Mold was intent on destroying mutants, Nimrod now urged it to fulfill its Prime Directive by destroying itself. While the Mold-Nimrod synthesis was in conflict with itself, Rogue took up the fight, in the background the Omni-Dimensional portal known as the Siege Perilous opened up creating a Singularity-like field affecting All surrounding matter.
Versus the X-Men
Master Mold continued battling Nimrod for supremacy, creating multiple arms to anchor itself and resist the portal’s gravitational field. The X-Man Dazzler unleashed an energy blast that destroyed the anchorage, unfortunately Rogue, who was in close proximity was also propelled through the portal. The robotic symbiote re-emerged as the Human/Sentinel hybrid Bastion, who went on to face the X-Men twice. Bastion was destroyed during a battle with the X-Men on Utopia by Hope Summers.
Secret Avengers
Another Master Mold was seen acting as a sentry for the synthetic being known as “Father.” When Jim Hammond and Captain Britain tried to infiltrate The Parish, Master Mold burst from the ground and attacked Captain Britain. It then tried to convince Hammond or “Grandfather” as it called him, to join The Descendents, and take his rightful place as their leader and help destroy the human race once and for all.
Hammond entered the head of the Master Mold sentry and commanded it to self-destruct. It obeyed this command, and almost wiped out the city it had been created to defend.
Powers & Abilities
The Master Mold is the most advanced Sentinel of its time. It has added to itself a repair program, utilising metals and mechanical systems in its vicinity; it can interface with computer systems; and it can alter its size. The arsenal at its disposal includes various tracking and scanning systems, force fields, and energy weapons. Copies of its program are integrated into multiple modules, which allow it to survive the destruction of its body.
The Master Mold A.I. was precission-engineered to adapt to its environment, programmed to build Wild Sentinels using any and all technology within the test radius.
Characteristics
- Height: Variable, usually 30′
- Weight: Variable, depends on available materials
- Eyes: Yellow
- Skin: Depends on the materials present, but usually grey
In Other Media
Television
- X-Men: The Animated Series – Like in the original comics, Master Mold was created to eliminate all mutants. Determining that mutants are human, it decided that all humans must be eliminated. Professor X aided by Magneto managed to destroy it by crashing the Blackbird (loaded with high explosives) into it. It later resurfaced, with only its head active, but was again destroyed by the X-Men, with the help of former member Morph. Master Mold was voiced by David Fox in the first season and by Nigel Bennett for the remainder of the series.
- Wolverine and the X-Men – A prototype Master Mold was created to deal with the mutant threat, and was destroyed by the X-Men. 20 years later, in a possible future, a female Master Mold has conquered the world and enslaved mutants. She was erased from history when the present day X-Men stopped the Phoenix from wreaking havoc on New York, with Emma Frost sacrificing herself to save the city. Master Mold was voiced by Gwendoline Yeoh.
Video Games
- Master Mold appeared in Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge as the final boss for Cyclops’ stage.
- Master Mold appeared in X-Men: Children of the Atom in the background of the Sentinel processing plant combat area. He lifts off if the Sentinel wins and is destroyed if the Sentinel loses.
- In X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Master Mold’s defeat causes the Sentinel factory to self-detonate. Players must escape the explosion.
- Master Mold appears in X-Men Legends as a giant Sentinel piloted by anti-mutant extremist General William Kincaid as the game’s final boss.
- Master Mold serves as the chief antagonist in X-Men: The Official Game, which was set between X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. This version was a project developed by William Stryker in Alkali Lake’s bowels. On a trip back, Master Mold is reactivated by Jason Stryker and set out to finish the work against mutants.
- Master Mold is the final boss in the Android game The Uncanny X-Men – Days of Future Past, which is based on the Days of Future Past comic storyline.
- Master Mold appears in Marvel: Future Fight as a boss of the “Giant Boss Raid” mode.
Other
- Master Mold appears as an antagonist in the podcast audio drama Wolverine: The Lost Trail, voiced by Cadden Jones. Like in the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon, it speaks with the voice of a woman. Master Mold is the A.I. that directs Weapon X‘s Sentinel project, and seeks to stoke anti-mutant attitudes to ensure that the Sentinels are deemed necessary.
Merchandise
- Master Mold was featured in ToyBiz’s X-Men: Secret Weapon Force line. Due to size considerations, the character was depicted as a disembodied head with spider-like legs.
- ToyBiz’s X-Men: Pocket Comics line featured a Master Mold playset with Bishop and Apocalypse.
- An oversized Master Mold figure was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
- In July 2020, Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line launched a crowdfunding campaign for a 26.3-inch Sentinel figure. Due to the figure being significantly larger than previous Sentinel toys, an alternate head that could be used to transform it into Master Mold was also included.