Warning: This below contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 Episode 7.
X-Men ‘97 Episode 7 introduced us to a brand-new villain for the series, Bastion (Theo James). In “Bright Eyes,” we learn that Bastion has been secretly pulling the strings behind Mister Sinister (Christopher Britton) and the attack on Genosha, and now he has Magneto as his prisoner. If you aren’t familiar with this new villain’s comic history and what he could have in store for our mutants in the remainder of the series, or need a refresher, make sure to read on.
Who Is the New Villian of ‘X-Men ’97′?
Bastion was first introduced in X-Men #52, in 1996. In the comics, the Sentinel Master Mold infuses with an advanced Sentinel prototype called Nimrod. To defeat this new super Sentinel, the X-Men forced it into a pan-dimensional portal known as Siege Perilous that transports whoever passes it to the judgment of the higher powers of the universe, such as the Living Tribunal.
This new Sentinel survives the Siege Perilous and returns as a human-Sentinel hybrid with no memory of his true nature. This new hybrid takes on the name Sebastion Gilberti and later Bastion. Bastion lives an everyday life until a news report reawakens its prime directive to kill all mutants. He then begins his plans to create an international mutant task force known as Operation: Zero Tolerance, or OZT.
What Powers Does Bastion Have in Marvel Comics?
Being a cybernetic hybrid, Bastion has many powers typical of a Sentinel, such as super strength, speed, durability, agility, stamina, self-adaptation, technopathy, size manipulation, energy manipulation, and projection. However, his bonding to the Nimrod system as well as going through the Siege Perilous has given him some unique abilities that make him much more dangerous than your average robot-human.
Bastion is also infected with a modified strain of the techno-organic virus, the same virus that infects Cable. He can use this virus to turn inorganic matter into a technological material he can control. The villain can also infect others with the virus and even bring them back from the dead.
Once someone has been infected with the virus, Bastion can access their senses and create a hive mind, able to see and hear from the victim and even communicate. Along with these abilities, Bastion can also command and control all computer systems, create Prime Sentinels (humans turned into Sentinels), merge into any mechanical or techno-mechanical substance, teleport, time travel, and has immunity to telepathy.
Bastion Has Been Pulling the Strings in ‘X-Men ’97′
Bastion being introduced into X-Men ‘97 is clearly very bad news for the mutants. We now know that he was behind the brutal atrocity in Genosha, and he is just getting started. While it seems that Bastion faked Magneto’s death, it’s also possible that he brought him back using his reanimation powers. If Bastion infected Magneto with the techno-organic virus, things would get a lot worse quickly.
Operation: Zero Tolerance is devastating for the mutants in the comics and will no doubt have just as much of an effect on our mutants in X-Men ‘97. Introducing Bastion this late in the season confirms that these last couple of episodes will be bigger than anything we have seen thus far, surely setting us up for what’s to come next season.
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