Master Mold

Master Mold is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics most commonly appearing as an enemy of the X-Men and the leader of the Sentinel mutant-hunting robots.

Master Mold first appeared in The X-Men #15–16 (Dec. 1965–Jan. 1966), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The character subsequently appears in The Incredible Hulk Annual #7 (1978); X-Factor #13–14 (Feb.–March 1987); Power Pack #36 (April 1988); Marvel Comics Presents #18–24 (May–July 1989); The Uncanny X-Men #246–247 (July–Aug. 1989); The Sensational She-Hulk #30 (Aug. 1991); and Cyclops: Retribution #1 (Jan. 1994).

Master Mold received an entry in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #5.

The original version of Master Mold was created by Dr. Bolivar Trask during the original run of X-Men comics. Fearing superhuman mutants such as the X-Men, Trask makes a super-computer in the shape of a giant robot that will control and facilitate the construction of Sentinels (mechanical warriors programmed to hunt and capture mutants). Secretly, the original version was also programmed by the time-traveling Madame Sanctity of the Askani Sisterhood with the mission to find and destroy The Twelve, a group of mutants that are linked to Apocalypse's rise. Master Mold had Trask captured, and decided to take over humanity in order to keep it safe. Trask sacrificed himself to destroy the original Master Mold prototype and prevent the Sentinels from taking over humanity.

Another version of Master Mold had Steven Lang's brainwaves. After Project Armageddon, Lang tries to activate Master Mold which merged the former's mind with it instead. The computer suffered great damage by the Hulk who was with Angel and Iceman in Master Mold's meteor space base and was seemingly destroyed when the base exploded, after the trio manages to escape. However, Master Mold survived and creates the Retribution Virus to wipe out mutant-kind. It blames Cyclops entirely for its "death" as Lang. He hypnotizes and utilized Moira MacTaggart to unleash the virus, infecting Cyclops, Callisto, and Banshee before MacTaggart breaks free of his grasp. While she attempts to cure the virus, Cyclops and Callisto team with Conscience (another artificial construct developed from Lang's brain engrams) to stop Master Mold and save mutant-kind as well as all humanity, which had become threatened by the virus. Cyclops was weakened from the disease's effects but nearly single-handedly destroys Master Mold before finally succumbing to the illness and falling unconscious. As Master Mold prepares to kill Cyclops and finish unleashing the virus, he is suddenly attacked by the cured Banshee who uses his sonic scream to "finish the job that Cyclops started" and destroys Master Mold. The virus is cured before it has a chance to spread.

The remains of Master Mold later merge with the advanced Sentinel Nimrod from the future. Both are forced through the Siege Perilous, causing them to be reborn as the cyborg Bastion.

A Master Mold-esque factory is built in secret in the jungles of Ecuador. This particular version builds the Wild Sentinels which are capable of assimilating non-organic materials to assume different shapes, such as an insectoid, as well as a breed of Nano-Sentinels. The Wild Sentinels are taken over by Cassandra Nova to destroy Genosha and in her subsequent plan to destroy the X-Men. Following their defeat by Rogue's X-Men team, the Children of the Vault escaped and regrouped in this Ecuadorian location.^{[volume & issue needed]}