Lawful Evil: Sentinels

Programmed to regard all mutants as a threat to humanity, the Sentinels became persistent adversaries of the heroic X-Men. The giant robots operated largely in tandem while carrying out their objective to eliminate mutantkind. By following their own logic, the Sentinels would classify as Lawful Evil within the alignment system from Dungeons & Dragons.

Lawful Good	Neutral Good	Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral	True Neutral	Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil	Neutral Evil	Chaotic Evil

Giant-Size X-Men #2 (1975) reprinted the three-part story from X-Men #57-59, which pitted the Sentinels against "the most unusal fighting team of all time!"

Days of the Year 2013

Featuring one of the most influential stories of its day, Uncanny X-Men #141 flashed forward to the year 2013 to show the possible fate of mutantkind.

On Halloween 1980, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants intended to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly, who was leading a national inquiry to assess the threat that super-powered mutants posed to humanity. But if the Brotherhood were to succeed, anti-mutant hysteria would in fact intensify all the more … building toward a future in which government-issued Sentinel robots would eradicate almost all superhuman beings and then assume control of the United States.

In the year 2013 of that possible future, only a handful of mutants remained. To curtail this fate, a mutant named Rachel telepathically sent the mind of Kate Pryde more than three decades back in time.

Mentally in the body of her younger self, "Kitty" Pryde warned the other X-Men of the Brotherhood's plans. The mutant heroes thwarted the assassination attempt in Uncanny X-Men #142. Angel was the only original student of Professor Xavier who was a member of the "new" X-Men at this point.

Angel: Professor, we saved Senator Kelly. Kitty's mind has been returned to her body. Does that mean we changed the future?

Professor Xavier: I do not know, Warren. Cliche though it sounds, only time will tell.

History repeated itself when Senator Kelly appeared in New Defenders #142, speaking about the need for a Mutant Registration Act. This time, Iceman and Beast protected Senator Kelly by holding off an attack by Adrian Castorp, a mutant who accused the senator of instigating racial persecution against mutants.

The image here of Senator Kelly comes from X-Men #142 (February 1981).

Coming of Age

The end of Defenders #16 left five members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants transformed into infants. Yet when the evil mutant Blob next faced the Defenders (#63), he was an adult again. What happened to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the time in between?

Following his transformation into an infant, Magneto went in captivity at the mutant-research facility on Muir Island, off the coast of Scotland. When the villain Eric the Red used an energy ray to restore him to adulthood, the master of magnetism broke free (X-Men #104).

Held inside a neighboring cell, other members of the Brotherhood inadvertently returned to adulthood as well. But they did not rejoin Magneto. Instead, Blob, Lorelei, and Unus teamed up with Vanisher, who concocted a plot to keep them free (Champions #17).

Chased by a trio of mutant-hunting Sentinels (secretly controlled by Vanisher), the escaped members of the Brotherhood sought refuge in headquarters of the Champions. Since Angel and Iceman of the original X-Men were members of the Los Angeles super-team, Vanisher gambled that the Champions would sympathize with their fellow mutants and agree to harbor them.

The first part of the plan paid off beautifully, as Black Widow, Hercules, Ghost Rider, Angel, Iceman, and Darkstar trounced the Sentinel robots. But instead of taking in the evil mutants, the Champions captured the band of criminals.

Mastermind, a founding member of the Brotherhood who too became an infant in Defenders #16, did not regroup with his teammates in Champions #17. But the master of illusions must have returned to his true age with the others, as he would become the lynchpin in the Dark Phoenix saga in the pages of the X-Men.

Champions. Vol. 1. No. 17. January 1978. Bill Mantlo (writer), George Tuska (artist), John Byrne (embellisher), John Costanza (letterer), Phil Rachelson (colorist), Archie Goodwin (editor). This was the last issue of the Champions series.