Master Mold - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Master Mold was created by Dr. Bolivar Trask during the original run of X-Men comics. In the 1960s, out of fear of a race of superhuman mutants that could dominate the whole world and enslave normal human beings, Trask makes Master Mold, a super-computer, in the shape of a giant Sentinel robot, that will control and facilitate the construction of the Sentinels (mechanical warriors that are programmed to hunt and capture all superhuman mutants). Unbeknownst to all, the original Master Mold is also programmed by the time-traveling Tanya Trask (aka Madame Sanctity), part of the Askani Sisterhood, with the mission to find and destroy The Twelve: a group of mutants that are linked to the rise of Apocalypse, which the ruthless Sanctity considered an event that must be stopped at all costs. For unknown reasons, some of the mutants that are catalogued as the Twelve are not part of the group. The Master Mold has Trask captured, and decides to take over humanity to keep it safe.

The original Master Mold is eventually destroyed when Trask sacrifices himself by causing an explosion to prevent the Sentinels taking over humanity, but several others are later built by other people who want to manufacture Sentinels. In the late 1980s, the remains of Master Mold merges with the advanced Sentinel from the future, Nimrod, thanks to the Siege Perilous to form the being called Bastion, which acts like an almost-human Master Mold during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Another Master Mold appeared in Incredible Hulk Annual #7. It claimed to be Steven Lang, who was thought to be dead after Project Armageddon. It said that he (as Steven Lang) did not die immediately from the crash of his flying gunship; he managed to pull himself out of the wreckage and crawl to his greatest weapon, Master Mold, which merged with Lang when he tried to activate it. It was nearly destroyed by Hulk, who was with Angel and Iceman in Master Mold's meteor space base. Then it was completely destroyed when the asteroid exploded, right after Hulk, Angel, and Iceman managed to escape.

Master Mold also claimed the name and identity of Stephen Lang during a story arc running from issues 17 through 24 of Marvel Comics Presents. In this story, later reprinted in the graphic novel, Cyclops: Retribution, Master Mold creates a virus designed to wipe out mutantkind called the Retribution Virus. During this arc, it is revealed that he blames Cyclops entirely for his death as Stephen Lang. He hypnotizes Moira MacTaggart and uses her to unleash the virus, infecting Cyclops, Callisto, and Banshee, who is completely incapacitated. However, MacTaggart breaks free of his grasp. While she attempts to cure the virus, Cyclops and Callisto team up with Conscience, another artificial construct developed from Stephen Lang's brain engrams, to stop Master Mold and save not only mutantkind, but also humanity, which had become threatened by the virus. Cyclops, though weakened from the effects of the disease, nearly single-handedly destroys the Master Mold before finally succumbing to his illness and falling unconscious. As Master Mold prepares to kill Cyclops and finish unleashing the virus, he is suddenly attacked by a cured Banshee, who uses his sonic scream to "finish the job that Cyclops started" and destroys Master Mold. The virus is then cured before it has a chance to spread.

Another Master Mold is built in secret in the jungles of Ecuador. This particular Master Mold builds a new breed of Sentinels, known as Wild Sentinels, which are capable of assimilating non-organic materials to assume different shapes, most of them insectoid, as well as a breed of Nano-Sentinels. This Master Mold is taken over by Cassandra Nova, who uses the Wild Sentinels to destroy Genosha and in her subsequent plan to destroy the X-Men. Following their defeat at the hands of Rogue's X-Men team, the Children of the Vault escaped and regrouped in the Ecuadorian Master Mold.