SENTINELS versus CYCLOPS & JEAN GREY
Merry Christmas, X-Men... (Marvel)
Where: X-Men #98 When: April 1976
Why: Chris Claremont How: Dave Cockrum
The Story So Far...
A white Christmas in Midtown Manhattan is a time for love and joy for the merry mutants of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The X-Men gather on Fifth Avenue as civilians, parting ways to enjoy their yuletide exploits.
For Scott Summers & Jean Grey it's a chance to rekindle the flickering flame of romance with a romantic date at Rockefeller Center. The rare opportunity to let their hair down comes to a harrowing end when the top floor Rainbow Room is torn open confirming the worst: The Sentinels have returned!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Sentinels 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Draw 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Cyclops 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Sentinels 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Cyclops 2 (Average)
Fighting: Cyclops 4 (Trained)
Energy: Jean Grey 5 (Lasers)
Total: Cyclops 24 (Champion)
Sentinels represent the extreme in anti-mutant hysteria. Originally designed and conceived by Dr. Bolivar Trask; first generation Sentinels were destroyed by their creator when he realized his fears for a "mutant menace" were unfounded, and his Master Mold artificial intelligence sought to enslave all of humanity.
Working from the Trask family's incomplete files: Dr. Stephen Lang created a third iteration of Sentinels as part of the government funded program: Project Armageddon. These are the robots in pursuit of Cyclops and Jean Grey!
This generation of Sentinel is outfitted with powerful concussive energy blasts, knock-out gas, projectable atmos-sphere suspension bubbles, and a durable body that's shown to be water resistant while submerged in the ocean.
Although very strong, Sentinel bodies house sensitive computer and electrical systems that can be fatally damaged with enough blunt or penetrating force. At approximately 30 feet tall, they make very large targets for the likes of Cyclops, whose optic plasma is perfect for blasting them to smithereens!
At full power Cyclops can rattle even mighty Thanos [Infinity Gauntlet #4] and Juggernaut [Unlimited Access #3]. Jean Grey is no slouch either, developing her telekinetic powers exponentially over the years. We've seen her mangle metal in her early days against Executioner [Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1], and unleash the Phoenix force against Xorn [New X-Men #150].
We know specialists like Nimrod and the Tri-Sentinel can pose a serious threat, but the iconic Sentinels are kind of famous for being destructible cannon fodder. Is that a fair reputation? Let's dive in and find out!
The Tape: Cyclops & Jean Grey Ranking: Cyclops (#83)
What Went Down...
Scott Summers takes his date's coat as he and Jean Grey saunter toward their table for a night's fine dining. Their romantic evening is soon ruined as the very building begins to shake and the high rise restaurant is peeled open like a cheap tin of sardines: The Sentinels have returned!
Two titanic Sentinel robots climb through the gaping hole they've made in the building. Terrified patrons run for their lives, but not the out-of-uniform X-Men the machines have come for! They rush bravely towards the danger!
Where: X-Men #98 When: April 1976
Why: Chris Claremont How: Dave Cockrum
The Story So Far...
A white Christmas in Midtown Manhattan is a time for love and joy for the merry mutants of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The X-Men gather on Fifth Avenue as civilians, parting ways to enjoy their yuletide exploits.
For Scott Summers & Jean Grey it's a chance to rekindle the flickering flame of romance with a romantic date at Rockefeller Center. The rare opportunity to let their hair down comes to a harrowing end when the top floor Rainbow Room is torn open confirming the worst: The Sentinels have returned!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Sentinels 5 (Super-Human)Intelligence: Draw 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Cyclops 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Sentinels 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Cyclops 2 (Average)
Fighting: Cyclops 4 (Trained)
Energy: Jean Grey 5 (Lasers)
Total: Cyclops 24 (Champion)
Sentinels represent the extreme in anti-mutant hysteria. Originally designed and conceived by Dr. Bolivar Trask; first generation Sentinels were destroyed by their creator when he realized his fears for a "mutant menace" were unfounded, and his Master Mold artificial intelligence sought to enslave all of humanity.
Working from the Trask family's incomplete files: Dr. Stephen Lang created a third iteration of Sentinels as part of the government funded program: Project Armageddon. These are the robots in pursuit of Cyclops and Jean Grey!
This generation of Sentinel is outfitted with powerful concussive energy blasts, knock-out gas, projectable atmos-sphere suspension bubbles, and a durable body that's shown to be water resistant while submerged in the ocean.
Although very strong, Sentinel bodies house sensitive computer and electrical systems that can be fatally damaged with enough blunt or penetrating force. At approximately 30 feet tall, they make very large targets for the likes of Cyclops, whose optic plasma is perfect for blasting them to smithereens!
At full power Cyclops can rattle even mighty Thanos [Infinity Gauntlet #4] and Juggernaut [Unlimited Access #3]. Jean Grey is no slouch either, developing her telekinetic powers exponentially over the years. We've seen her mangle metal in her early days against Executioner [Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1], and unleash the Phoenix force against Xorn [New X-Men #150].
We know specialists like Nimrod and the Tri-Sentinel can pose a serious threat, but the iconic Sentinels are kind of famous for being destructible cannon fodder. Is that a fair reputation? Let's dive in and find out!
The Tape: Cyclops & Jean Grey Ranking: Cyclops (#83)
What Went Down...
Scott Summers takes his date's coat as he and Jean Grey saunter toward their table for a night's fine dining. Their romantic evening is soon ruined as the very building begins to shake and the high rise restaurant is peeled open like a cheap tin of sardines: The Sentinels have returned!
Two titanic Sentinel robots climb through the gaping hole they've made in the building. Terrified patrons run for their lives, but not the out-of-uniform X-Men the machines have come for! They rush bravely towards the danger!
Cyclops makes the first move, firing an optic blast that barely scratches the mechanical menace. It coldly claims resistance is futile for the erstwhile Cyclops and Marvel Girl, having been designed to negate all the X-Men's abilities.
Not having gone by "Marvel Girl" for quite some time, Jean speculates the Sentinel may have outdated data unaware of her greatly improved telekinetic powers. She thrusts her hands forward to test the theory.
Sentinel A7 is knocked off balance by the intangible push of Jean's powerful mutant mind! Her mental shove takes out an ankle and shunts its chest, setting up Cyclops to unleash the fullest extent of his eye blast!
The powerful plasma beam explodes into the night through the Sentinel's torso!
Even as it does, the accompanying Sentinel takes "extreme action", plucking Jean Grey from the restaurant floor with one of its giant metal hands. With the other it fires a concussive blast that destroys the ground beneath Cyclops' feet!
Fearing for her lover's life: Jean prepares to attack -- but before she can act the Sentinel floods her lungs with knockout gas!
Spraying the chemical agent from its free fingertips, the machine confirms the death of Cyclops as Jean slips into nightmarish unconsciousness.
Sentinel A7 rockets into the New York City sky via "ultra-linear leap" as it carries its helpless captive toward her fate at Project Armageddon.
Despite the robot's assessment, Jean's fellow X-Man has survived -- but for how long? The blast of the Sentinel's rocket powered boots inadvertently blows wreckage and Scott Summers away from the exposed Rainbow Room floor!
Cyclops manages to catch a bent radio tower, dangling precariously more than sixty stories above the street! With none of his X-Men comrades present, he can only wonder how long his grip will hold before the inevitable plunge.
The Hammer...
This wasn't the end of Cyclops, so you won't be surprised to find Storm came to his rescue. She rides an updraft at the vital moment, carrying him safely to the ground.Banshee and Wolverine also noticed the commotion caused by the giant-sized Sentinels, but apparently met a grim fate on their way to attempt assistance. This was elaborated upon in an inserted page for the Classic X-Men #6 reprint, but doesn't appear in the original issue. Instead, they show up later as captives of Dr. Stephen Lang, with Jean Grey.
Another Sentinel shows up to attack Cyclops and Storm on the street, which is a skirmish I'm sure we'll take a closer look at some time in the future.
For rankings purposes we're treating the Sentinels as a mutually programmed gestalt entity, but keep an eye on Sentinel A7. That particular unit has been given special consideration because, despite being blasted through the chest by Cyclops, this won't be the last time we see it.
A7 will return at a later date to cause malfunctioning trouble for another hero in a very memorable appearance.
It's a continuation that very much reminds me of the way the eviscerated Hellfire Club goons from X-Men #133 were brought back as the cyborg Reavers for Uncanny X-Men #205, and other future appointments. Wonderful examples of the way comics can take an incidental moment or detail, and create something real and lived out of it!
Of course, the reintroduction of the Sentinels is itself another, more common brand, of lived experience. It revived a threat that hadn't been seen in new stories for around seven years. Quite a long time for such a classic adversary, but due in part to the X-Men lapsing into reprints for 26 issues in five years.
Sentinels have been redesigned many times in the years since, to accommodate new technology and ideas, but the central appeal of monolithic mutant hunting robots always seems to come back around.
I think they just have the right combination of over-the-top visual appeal and philosophical dread.
Giant robots are cool! Just look at the endless appeal of an early example like Gort in 1951's The Day The Earth Stood Still, all the way to current iterations of Japan's extensive and storied giant mech tradition. Sentinels seem to owe their creation to the former, sharing in its existential dread, .
They are usually emotionless, yet they reflect the very worst of us. They are an inexhaustible army of agents servicing human spite, fear, and bigotry. A philosophical challenge, as much as a mechanical one. No matter how many are destroyed, they return as long as humanity has the capacity to loathe them into existence.
The metaphors behind the Sentinels echo through time, elevating them beyond your average innumerable destructible horde, but there is always that simple appeal of seeing giant purple robots get smashed up by super-powers. Just get a load of that panel of Cyclops' red optic blast ripping through A7!
If you want to get the full experience from this classic Sentinel story you can find it collected in X-Men Epic Collection: Second Genesis and as part of Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1.
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Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured more than 650 battles and ranked well over 950 characters! You can find them all by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index of battles in order of publisher, series, and issue. Or follow on Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to battles inspired by current events!
Winner: Sentinels
#340 (new) Sentinels
#591 (new) Sentinel A7 [+1 assist]
#83 (--) Cyclops
#142 (-5) Jean Grey
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