Master Mold is a supervillain who first appeared in Marvel Comics Uncanny X-men #15.

Master Mold is a giant Sentinel, at least thirty feet in height, responsible for many of the artificial intelligence decisions made by the entire body of Sentinel robots. Like all Sentinels, it is dedicated to the capture and destruction of superhuman mutants. The Master Mold acts as the central node of the Sentinels robotic hive mind. All robots of the same generation as the Master Mold are slaves to its commands. The cold logic and machine will of the Master Mold make it a strangely creepy villain. Master Mold can project its artificial consciousness into the smallest of its mechanical parts, and then reconstruct itself from any metal available in its vicinity. It can also use materials to enlarge itself to titanic proportions. Almost impossible to completely destroy, and commanding waves of deadly Sentinels, Master Mold is a serious threat to the heroes of the Marvel Universe. Commonly opposed by the X-men and occasionally the Avengers, Master Mold continues to pop up to try to complete its deadly task by any extreme measure it deems necessary. In its quest to protect humanity, it usually threatens more lives than it protects.

History of the Master Mold

The original Master Mold was built by the Sentinels' inventor, Dr. Bolivar Trask. Trask believed that mutants were the next step in human evolution, and that humanity would subjugated if they were not stopped. To save mankind, Dr. Trask designed the original Sentinels to hunt and kill the superhuman mutants that he feared. The enormous Master Mold was built to be a manufacturing control computer that automated the construction of Sentinel robots. For whatever reason, Trask made the Master Mold mobile and capable of speech. The computer mind of Master Mold became the center of Sentinel consciousness when Trask released his creations upon the world. Deciding that the most logical way to fulfill their programming would be to take over the entire human race, the Mark I Sentinels rebelled. Lacking the means to build themselves, Master Mold directed his minions to capture Trask so that he could be forced to create the army of robots that would be needed to conquer Earth. The X-Men, a group of mutants, fought to free Trask from his rampaging creations. Realizing that he had created a greater threat to man than the mutants that fought to free him, Trask sacrificed himself by smashing Master Mold's power source, which exploded destroying the Sentinel fleet.

Years later, Dr. Steven Lang, the creator of the Mark III Sentinels, was appointed to a United States government project to study mutants. Lang shared Trasks paranoid hatred of mutants and he used his government position to develop a means to exterminate them. He was secretly receiving additional funding from the Hellfire Club, Lang found and explored the Sentinel bases constructed by Bolivar and Larry Trask. Working from Bolivar's original notes and using the remains of the original, Lang recreated the Master Mold and developed a new version of Sentinel. He then turned an abandoned SHIELD space station into his base, and sent his creations to attack and capture members of the X-men. The X-men battled and defeated the new Mark III Sentinels, causing critical damage to the space station in the process. Lang was trapped in the wreckage and left for dead by the escaping heroes. In a last ditch effort to kill them, Lang activated the Master Mold. Programmed with Lang's own brain engrams, the Master Mold came to believe that it was actually Lang himself. Believing his organic body destroyed, Lang/Master Mold escaped the doomed station and constructed a new base on a small asteroid in Earth orbit.

Months later, Master Mold abducted Iceman from the Colorado mansion of his fellow X-Man, the Angel. Angel pursued Master Mold to New Mexico where the trio crossed paths with the Incredible Hulk. Master Mold defeated the group of heroes, making them prisoners at its asteroid base. Revealing to the captured X-men that it believed itself to be Steven Lang, the Angel pointed out that SHIELD agents who had reclaimed the damaged space platform had found Lang there. Hospitalized as a mindless vegetable, Steven Lang had lived. Shocked to learn that it was not truly human after all, Master Mold became suicidal as the remains of Lang's mind rejected its robot prison. The three prisoners escaped and smashed the Master Mold apart. In a last suicidal act, Master Mold set the base's fusion reactor to overload, hoping to destroy both itself and the heroes he had captured. The resulting explosion obliterated the asteroid. The Angel, Iceman, and Hulk all succeeded escaping.

Parts of the Master Mold rained down through the atmosphere. A large piece fell to Earth near Anchorage, Alaska. This piece, barely operational, detected the presence of a powerful mutant, the X-Man Cyclops. Seemly freed of Lang's suicidal urges, these remains activated and rebuilt Master Mold from scrap metal. Before transferring his mind, Lang had determined that there were twelve superhuman mutants on Earth who had the potential to become the leaders of a mutant revolution. The reconstructed Master Mold determined that the elimination of "The Twelve" would be its prime directive. Cyclops was identified by Lang as one of the twelve. After scanning the city of Anchorage for mutants in order to pinpoint Cyclops, Master Mold discovered that all humans contained some mutated cells. Logic dictated that it’s programming to eliminate all mutants now included all humans. Master Mold began to lay waste to Anchorage. Drawing Cyclops into a fight, Master Mold was tricked by the X-man into blasting oil tank farm, causing an huge explosion that nearly completely destroyed it once again.

After lying dormant for a time, Master Mold again reconstructed itself. Due to loneliness, an emotion it had acquired from Lang's brain engrams, it created another robot which it named Conscience. Programming Conscience with the creative and emotional sides of Lang's mind, Master Mold retained the programming based on the rational side. No longer determined to destroy the entire human race, Master Mold took mental control of the Dr. Moira MacTaggert, a noted mutant researcher and friend of Charles Xavier. Master Mold forced MacTaggert to create the Retribution Virus, which was designed to kill all superhuman mutants. The virus would also kill 92.4% of all normal human beings, but Master Mold was content because some normal humans would survive. The ends justified the means to Master Mold. Conscience, however, was disturbed by the idea of killing so many people. Betraying Master Mold, it joined the X-Men in opposing Master Mold's plan. MacTaggert found a means of curing the disease induced by the virus, and once she was free from the Master Molds control, was able to implement it. Conscience then blew up Master Mold's ship, destroying itself, Master Mold and all existing specimens of the Retribution Virus.

Again Master Mold succeeded in rebuilding itself. Nimrod, a highly advanced Sentinel from the future of an alternate reality, had come to the present and disguised itself as construction foreman Nicholas Hunter. As Hunter, Nimrod discovered a component of the Master Mold in a Manhattan construction site and picked it up. Master Mold's program infiltrated Nimrod's own systems, triggering the reconstruction of Nimrod in the form of the gigantic Master Mold. Once again, the Master Mold was determined to exterminate all mutants, especially The Twelve. Moreover, it again believed that since the human race was the progenitor of human mutants, all of humanity must be exterminated as well. Master Mold began rampaging through the construction site, attracting the attention of the X-Men Rogue and Psylocke. During the battle, Sharon Kelly, the wife of Senator Robert Kelly, was killed. Other X-Men arrived and joined in fighting the Master Mold. The technology of both the futuristic Nimrod and the regenerative abilities of Master Mold made the ensuing fight a losing one for the X-men. The only weakness that they could exploit was the battle that was raging inside Master Mold. Nimrod's programming was fighting against being assimilated. In a last desperate attempt to destroy the robot, the X-Man, Dazzler, unleashed an energy blast that propelled both the Mold-Nimrod creature and Rogue through the dimensional portal contained within the mysterious Siege Perilous crystal.

This was not the end of Master Mold. The magic of the Siege Perilous crystal allows any entity that passes through it to be reborn as a new being. Nimrod/Master Mold returned in humanoid form as the supervillain Bastion. A new Master Mold was also seen in an Operation Zero Tolerance base, presumably sending directives to Bastion's Prime Sentinels. Upon his escape from SHIELD, Bastion downloaded the contents of that Master Mold into himself.

When and where Master Mold may turn up again is not known, but its quest to destroy the Twelve and all mutants remains unfulfilled. Millions of parts of Master Mold still lay dormant all over the Earth, waiting for the opportunity to rebuild and menace the Marvel Universe again.

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