Nimrod (comics)

Nimrod is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #191 (March 1985), and was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Romita, Jr. Hailing from the "Days of Future Past" timeline, Nimrod is a powerful, virtually indestructible descendant of the robotic mutant-hunting Sentinels. His name is derived from the Nimrod described in Genesis 10:8-9 as "a mighty hunter before the Lord."

Publication history

The character appears in The Uncanny X-Men #193-194 (May–June 1985), #197 (September 1985), #208-209 (August–September 1986), #246-247 (July–August 1989), X-Force #35 (June 1994), Cable & Machine Man Annual #1 (Annual 1998), Mutant X #10 (July 1999), Weapon X: Days of Future Now #1 (September 2005), #4 (December 2005), New X-Men #22 (March 2006), #25-31 (June–December 2006), #36 (May 2007), New Warriors #3 (October 2007), X-Factor #23 (November 2007), and X-Force #1-2 (April–May 2008).

Nimrod received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #9.

Fictional character biography

Nimrod is a mutant-hunting Sentinel from an alternative future and was created by the Sentinels ruling that timeline. When Rachel Summers travels backwards in time to the present, he follows her. In the process — due to an altered timeline following Kulan Gath's occupation of New York — he saves the life of construction worker Jaime Rodriguez, who in gratitude offers him a job and a home with his family, not realizing who or what the shape-shifting Sentinel truly is.^[1]

After gathering information about the timeline in which he finds himself, Nimrod eventually changes his prime directive from the extermination of all mutants, having determined that such widespread destruction is not necessary in this era, to only the extermination of mutants who were regarded as outlaws by the Government, such as the X-Men. He fights the Juggernaut. He hunts Summers and her new teammates, the X-Men, but is defeated by Rogue when she absorbs the powers of Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Colossus. Based on a plan that Kitty conceives before she lost consciousness, Rogue uses Nightcrawler's teleportation to teleport part of Nimrod's body away, with her and Colossus' combined invulnerability protecting her from the resulting physical strain in a manner that Nightcrawler could not have handled.^[2] Some time after this, Nimrod garners a reputation with the public of New York City as a heroic vigilante, assuming he is simply a man in powered armor. He also adopts a more human personality as part of a cover alias as a construction worker named Nicholas Hunter.^[3]

Nimrod later faces the combined forces of the X-Men and the Hellfire Club and proves himself as a powerful threat, killing Black Rook Friedrich Von Roehm, causing Harry Leland's fatal heart attack, nearly killing Nightcrawler and badly injuring Rogue and Sebastian Shaw.^[4]

When Nimrod comes across a piece of the gigantic Sentinel Master Mold while working on a construction site his programming is immediately co-opted; Master Mold merges with Nimrod, using its systems to rebuild Nimrod in its own image. The X-Men are hard pressed to defeat the reborn Master Mold at first, but Nimrod comes to their aid, claiming he has evolved as well, and no longer views them or mutants as a threat. Nimrod asserts enough control over Master Mold to render it immobile, and even convinces it that it has become a mutant as well; thus, to fulfill its prime directive to exterminate mutants, it must self-destruct. The remains of both robots are pushed through the Siege Perilous, a mystical gateway that causes all who passed through it to be reborn with new bodies.^[5] Nimrod and Master Mold are merged into one being: Bastion.

In X-Force #35, a modern-day version of Nimrod appeared. This Nimrod is created by an offshoot of Project Wideawake and is based on the technology derived from the Nimrod from the future. It deactivates itself when Cable convinces it that its existence could cause a paradox and damage the timestream.

Reverend William Stryker found a damaged Nimrod as he enters the 616 Marvel timeline from an alternate one.^[6] Stryker uses Nimrod's memories to plan an attack on the X-Men and other mutants, but Nimrod alters its memories to facilitate its own escape and Stryker is defeated. During the New X-Men ^[7] story arc "Nimrod," Nimrod searches for whom it believes is its creator, Forge. Nimrod believes Forge can repair its damaged body, but Forge instead transfers Nimrod's programming into a new body which Forge can control. Believing Forge to be in danger, the New X-Men travel to his apartment to help him. This eventually leads to Nimrod gaining control over his body and attacking Forge and the New X-Men. Nimrod is defeated when Surge overloads Nimrod's temporal unit, blasting Nimrod out of the timestream. Nimrod survives and travels back in time to March 1985^[8] with its memory corrupted, resulting in its existence in the 'true' timeline — with Rachel's history erased — becoming a temporal loop paradox.

The series X-Force reveals that the Purifiers held on to most of Nimrod's body and fuse it with Bastion's head to reform Bastion.^[9] He then, using the Technarch transmode virus, revives numerous villains that have destroyed many mutants.

During the events of Second Coming, he personally confronts Hope Summers, Rogue and Nightcrawler, leading to the death of the latter. Bastion appears to be reverting more and more to fully being Nimrod. Some time later, Bastion unleashes an endless horde of Nimrods from an unknown future to destroy the X-Men. However X-Force, Cypher and Cable go to that future and destroy the Master Mold controlling them. At the end of the crossover the original Nimrod (Bastion) takes his original form but is destroyed by Hope. The chest and head of Nimrod are later shown to be exhibited in X-Force Headquarters. Deathlok identifies it as version 32.1 and the possibility for its future to come to be is 1.34%.^[10]

During a brief glimpse three months into the future seen in Uncanny Avengers, Havok, Scarlet Witch and Sunfire are shown fleeing from a new model of Sentinel. Havok refers to the machines as Nimrod units, and mentions that they were built by Tony Stark.^[11]

Powers and abilities

Nimrod is the most advanced form of Sentinel robot. Nimrod can convert his outward appearance to resemble that of an ordinary human being. Nimrod can also reconstruct himself so as to make improvements in his robotic form and internal systems that will make him a more formidable opponent. Even when smashed to pieces, Nimrod can reintegrate the portions of his body to become whole again. Apparently Nimrod's electronic consciousness can somehow exist independently of his physical body, at least temporarily. Physically Nimrod is categorized in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" as possessing "Class 100" strength because Nimrod could engage the Juggernaut in hand-to-hand combat.

Nimrod contains highly advanced computer systems as well as scanning devices that make it possible for him to determine whether a human being is a superhuman or not; if they are, he can determine the nature of their superhuman abilities. Like present day Sentinels, Nimrod can draw upon devices and systems within his robotic body in order to cope with or neutralize an opponent's superhuman power once he has determined the nature of that power.

Nimrod is capable of projecting energy blasts, magnetic energy to levitate material, create force fields, and can teleport. Nimrod has a weakness for elemental attacks such as lightning or extreme cold.

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel reality, Nimrod Model Sentinels are featured in the first issue of Ultimate Comics: X-Men of new Sentinels developed by the US government after the Ultimatum Wave caused by Magneto. One such model chases and successfully takes down Rogue, until rescued by Kitty Pryde. They are eventually infused with the dying William Stryker's brain-patterns when manifesting his powers (Technopathy) for the first time in years.^[12] The Nimrod-Models (who are quoting Stryker as well) later build a base for their operations based on Stryker, which in turn serves as their Master Mold (which is revealed to be housing Stryker's subconscious).^[13][14]

In other media

Television

• Nimrod appears in X-Men: The Animated Series.
• In the final episode of X-Men Evolution, Professor Xavier's glimpse into the future shows Nimrod briefly, leading an army of Sentinels.

Film

• In the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past a new variant of future super Sentinels appears. These Sentinels are smaller than the originals at about four meters tall, have the ability to change themselves to mimic and counter mutant abilities, based on Bolivar Trask's experiments on the self-altering ability of Mystique (they can be seen imitating the abilities of Colossus, Sunspot and Iceman). They also can alter their bodies to fit a variety of purposes. Most commonly, they are seen altering the shapes of their arms into extremely sharp blades and claws to impale their victims and can fire energy blasts from their heads. Some of the powers and overall resistance of this variant are very similar to those of the "Nimrod" model from the original comic story on which the film was based.

Video games

• Nimrod appears in the X-Men arcade game as the Stage 4 Boss. It returns in Stage 7, as the fourth boss (of five) after White Queen and before Juggernaut, on Magneto's base in Asteroid M.
• Nimrod is a boss character in "X-Men: Gamesmaster's Legacy" (1995) for the Sega Game Gear.
• Nimrod appears in Marvel: Avengers Alliance. In Chapter 2, the players fight a Nimrod Series MK IV.
• Nimrod is a boss in The Uncanny X-Men - Days Of Future Past android game based loosely on the Days of Future Past comic storyline

References

External links

• Nimrod at Marvel Universe Wiki