Nimrod (comics)

Nimrodis a fictional character appearing inAmerican comic bookspublished byMarvel Comics.The character first appeared inTheUncanny X-Men#191 (March 1985), and was created by writerChris Claremontand artistJohn Romita Jr.

Nimrod
Nimrod Art by Paco Medina and Juan Vlasco
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	TheUncanny X-Men#191 (March 1985)
Created by	Chris Claremont(writer) John Romita Jr.(artist)
In-story information
Team affiliations	Purifiers Sentinels Project: Nimrod Orchis
Notable aliases	Nicholas Hunter, Oracle, Rod Walker
Abilities	Superhuman strength, durability and regeneration Energy projection Computer interfacing Shapeshifting Teleportation

Hailing from the "Days of Future Past"timeline, Nimrod is a powerful, virtually indestructible descendant of theroboticmutant-huntingSentinels.His name is derived from thebiblical figuredescribed inGenesisas a "mighty hunter".

Publication history

The character was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Romita Jr., and first appeared inX-Men#191 (March 1985). Nimrod made subsequent appearances inThe 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 ManAnnual #1 (Annual 1998),Mutant X#10 (July 1999),Weapon X: Days of Future Now#1 (September 2005), #4 (December 2005),New X-Menvol. 2 #22 (March 2006), #25-31 (June–December 2006), #36 (May 2007),New Warriorsvol. 4 #3 (October 2007),X-Factorvol. 3 #23 (November 2007),X-Forcevol. 3 #1-2 (April–May 2008), andPowers of X#1-3 (July–August 2019).

Originally, Claremont intended to useCaptain Britainvillain Fury, butAlan Moorehad ownership of the Marvel UK character and the possibility of litigation caused Claremont to create the similar character of Nimrod instead.

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

Fictional character biography

Nimrod is amutant-hunting Sentinel from analternative futureand was created by theSentinelsruling that timeline.Rachel Summerstravels backwards in time to the present, but Nimrod follows. Although not capable of time travel by himself, he was transported back in time byDoctor StrangeandMagikusing their powers to change time to preventKulan Gath's occupation of New York. Nimrod saves the life of construction worker Jaime Rodriguez by slaying a mugger (Kulan Gath's destined host) who would have otherwise killed Rodriguez. In gratitude Rodriguez offers Nimrod a job and a home with his family, not realizing who or what the shape-shifting Sentinel truly is.

Nimrod inUncanny X-Men#194 (June 1985); art by John Romita Jr.

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 theX-Men.He fights theJuggernaut.He hunts Summers and the X-Men, but is defeated byRoguewhen Rogue absorbs the mutant powers ofNightcrawler,Kitty Pryde,andColossus.Based on a plan that Kitty conceives before losing consciousness, Rogue uses Nightcrawler's teleportation to teleport part of Nimrod's body away, with Rogue's and Colossus's combined invulnerability protecting Rogue from the resulting physical strain in a manner that Nightcrawler could not have handled.

Some time after this, Nimrod garners a reputation with the public of New York City as a heroicvigilante,assuming he is simply a man in powered armor. He also adopts the cover aliasNicholas Hunter,a more human personality as a construction worker.

Nimrod later faces the combined forces of the X-Men and theHellfire Cluband proves himself as a powerful threat, killing Black RookFriedrich Von Roehm,causingHarry Leland's fatal heart attack, nearly killing Nightcrawler and badly injuring Rogue andSebastian Shaw.

Nimrod comes across a piece of the gigantic SentinelMaster Moldwhile 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 initially hard pressed to defeat the reborn Master Mold, but Nimrod comes to the aid, claiming he has evolved as well and no longer views the X-Men or mutants as a threat. Nimrod asserts enough control over Master Mold to render immobile, and even convinces it that it has become a mutant as well. To fulfill its prime directive to exterminate mutants, it must self-destruct. The remains of both robots are pushed through theSiege Perilous,a mystical gateway that causes all who passed through it to be reborn with new bodies.Nimrod and Master Mold are merged into the beingBastion,a man who had absolutely no memory of his former existence.

InX-Force,a modern-day version of Nimrod appears. Created by an offshoot ofProject Wideawake,this version is based on the technology derived from the version from the future.In truth, between the time of Nimrod's first arrival and its apparent destruction when it merged with Master Mold and had traveled through the Siege Perilous, it had taken precautionary measures to ensure its survival. By downloading a self-awareness program into the base's military computer cybernet, the program served as a sleeper virus that awaited the opportunity to access a Sentinel development program so it could use it to re-create Nimrod itself. Nimrod's detection of the invading X-Force had caused it to act before it had originally intended to fulfill its imperative. It deactivates itself whenCableconvinces Nimrod that its earlier creation in the timeline would cause aparadoxand incalculable damage to the timestream.

ReverendWilliam Strykerlater found Nimrod's damaged remains after entering theMarvel timelinefrom an alternate one.Immobilized, Stryker secretly uses Nimrod's memories of future events to give him the appearance ofprecognitionto his followers and to help 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 theNew X-Menstory arc "Nimrod", it searches forForge,whom it believes is its creator. Nimrod believes Forge can repair its damaged body, but Forge instead transfers Nimrod's programming into a new chassis which Forge can control. Believing Forge to be in danger, the New X-Men travel to his workshop to help him. This eventually leads to Nimrod gaining control over his body and attacking Forge and the New X-Men. Nimrod is defeated whenSurgeoverloads Nimrod's temporal unit, blasting Nimrod out of the timestream. Nimrodsurvivesand travels back in time to March 1985, where the events involving Jaime Rodriguez and Kulan Gath's amulet play out exactly as they had originally with its memory corrupted, resulting in its existence in the 'true' timeline — with Rachel's history erased — becoming atemporal paradox.

The seriesX-Forcereveals that thePurifiersheld on to most of Nimrod's original body and fuse with Bastion's head to reform Bastion.He then, using theTechnarchtransmode virus,revives numerous villains that have destroyed many mutants.

During the events ofSecond Coming,Bastion personally confrontsHope 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 controlling Master Mold behind them. Ultimately, the original Nimrod (Bastion) takes his original form, but is destroyed by Hope. Nimrod's chest and head 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%.

During a brief glimpse three months into the future seen inUncanny Avengers,Havok,Scarlet WitchandSunfireare shown fleeing from a new model of Sentinel. Havok refers to the machines as Nimrod units.

Dawn of X

In this new X-Men timeline ofDawn of X,"Nimrod the Lesser" is seen 90 years in the future, along with "Nimrod the Greater" seen 990 years in the future.It was soon revealed that a human coalition of scientists and espionage agents from various secret agencies have joined forces to formOrchis,the ultimate mutant-fighting organization. Along with the former X-ManOmega Sentinelandbuilton the remains of Sol's Hammer, they have created the Orchis Forge solar orbitingspace stationwhich serves as a construction platform for Mother Mold, a Master Mold capable of creating other Master Mold Sentinels. Afterintelprovided byMoira MacTaggartsuggests that this event is the probableoriginof the Nimrod Sentinels, a team of X-Men invade the Orchis Forge and successfully decouple the giant Sentinel before it fullyawakens,sending it plummeting into the sun.

Later on the Orchis Forge, it is discovered byMystiqueduring aninfiltration missionthat Director Killian Devo has completed work on an unknown component that Dr. Alia Gregor installs inside the torso of a Nimrod unit that is in the initial stages of construction.

At the behest of Xavier and Magneto, Mystique returns for a final desperate mission in the Orchis Forge to detonate a mini-black holebomb designed by Forge capable of annihilating the entire station. Her mission coincides with Dr. Gregor preparing to resurrect her husband, Captain Erasmus Mendel, who was killed in the original Orchis raid, into the chassis of her newly constructed Sentinelprototype.The activation succeeds and the crystalline memory transfer is successful, but the Erasmus persona prototype immediately detects the disguised Mystique as a Mutant and sacrifices itself to save the Orchis base by teleporting into space with the bomb she has triggered, leaving two emotionless duplicates without Erasmus' memory core yetuploadedto subdue Mystique before she can escape the station, and to protect Dr. Gregor. Executing Mystique through the entrance of her Krakoa escape portal, the fearsome Sentinel announces his existence as "Nimrod, The Hunter"to the X-Men, who have failed once again in their attempt to destroy Orchis, vowing to hunt down and kill all Mutants.

Aware of Nimrod's creation by Orchis,Bishop,who refers to the prototype as "Nimrod 2.0", advises the X-Men, the Hellfire Club and X-Force about the formation of a highly specialized strike team that has experience fighting Nimrod Sentinels in the past and to create unorthodox weapons and strategies to deal with Orchis' new threat.

Having failed on all sixteen attempts to destroy the Orchis Forge, at the cost of numerous deaths and resurrections of nearly every X-Man involved in the attacks, Nimrod, who Dr. Alia Gregor laments is no longer carrying the Erasmus persona, has proven to be unstoppable. Moira MacTaggart warns Xavier and Magneto that it will only be a few years before Nimrod evolves beyond Orchis' control.

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 electronicconsciousnesscan 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 theJuggernautin 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 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, createforce fields,and can teleport. Nimrod has a weakness for elemental attacks such as lightning or extreme cold.

Other versions

TheUltimate Marvelreality featured Nimrod-esque Sentinels as a new type of Sentinels developed by the US government after theUltimatum Wave.One such model chases and successfully takes downRogueuntil rescued byKitty Pryde.They are eventually infused with the brain-patterns ofWilliam Stryker, Jr.when manifesting mutantpowersfor the first time in years.The Nimrod Sentinels later build a base for their operations based for Master Mold.

In other media

Television

• Nimrod appears inX-Men: The Animated Series.This version is an enforcer from Sentinel-dominated futures led byMaster Mold.Nimrod time-travels to the present in "Days of Future Past" and the past in "One Man's Worth", both times fighting against theX-Menbefore being defeated byBishop.
  • Nimrod makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in theX-Men '97episode "Tolerance is Extinction" Pt. 1. His remains infect an unnamed man, leading to his sonBastionbeing born a Sentinel hybrid.
• Nimrod makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in theX-Men: Evolutionseries finale "Ascension".

Film

Nimrod serves as inspiration for theMark-X SentinelsofX-Men: Days of Future Past.Similar to Nimrod, the Sentinels originate from a dystopian future and can alter their bodies to mimic and counter mutant abilities.

Video games

• Nimrod appears as a recurring Boss inX-Men(1992).
• Nimrod appears as a Boss inX-Men: Gamesmaster's Legacy.
• Nimrod and a Nimrod Series MK IV Sentinel appear inMarvel: Avengers Alliance.
• Nimrod appears as a playable character inMarvel Contest of Champions.
• Nimrod appears as a Boss inThe Uncanny X-Men - Days Of Future Past.
• Nimrod appears as an alternate skin for aSentinelinMarvel: Future Fight.
• Nimrod appears inMarvel Snap.

External links

• Nimrodat Marvel Universe Wiki