Warning! Spoilers for X-Men #20 ahead!
One of the Sentinels that can protect humanity and eliminate the mutant threat. And they just got one step closer to making that goal a reality.
In the now-classic pair of miniseries House of X and Powers of X by Hickman, R.B. Silva, Pepe Larraz, Clayton Cowles, Marte Gracia, and Adriano Di Benedetto, it was revealed that longtime X-Men ally Moira MacTaggert is actually a mutant. She has the power to resurrect after she dies, being reborn in a new timeline with the memories of her former lives. The series detailed several of her lives, including a couple that saw the mutant-hunting Sentinel Nimrod leading an all-out assault against the mutants in the future that had devastating consequences. After dying and being reborn in the current Marvel timeline, Moira determined that mutants are destined to lose to artificial intelligence, and approached Charles Xavier to help prevent that from happening. Working together with Magneto, they established the sovereign mutant nation of Krakoa and developed the ability to bring mutants back from the dead. That briefly gave the mutants a leg-up over the Sentinels, but it appears the playing field has now been leveled.
In X-Men #20 by Hickman, sco Mobili, Sunny Gho, Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller, the Orchis scientist Dr. Alia Gregor succeeds in bringing Nimrod online, something that Xavier has been determined to prevent. The X-Men had previously launched an assault on Orchis to destroy their plans to create Nimrod, an attack that killed Gregor’s husband, Erasmus Mendel. Stricken with grief, Gregor was determined to get back at the mutants, and in creating Nimrod she also manages to bring back her husband. She reveals that before he died, Mendel underwent an experimental procedure where his memories were preserved. These memories have been implanted into Nimrod, allowing him to be reborn in the body of the superpowered Sentinel. As soon as Nimrod is activated, he recognizes his wife, making it clear that Mendel is indeed alive again in this new body. This has disturbing similarities to the way mutants resurrect their dead.
The Resurrection Protocols on Krakoa are facilitated by the Five, a group of mutants capable of growing exact duplicates of any mutant who has died. These husks are then implanted with the memories of the dead mutants, which have been backed up in Cerebro. This has basically turned mutants into immortal gods, protecting them from enemies and allowing teams like the X-Men and X-Force to take greater risks on missions knowing that they will be resurrected. But now that the humans have developed their own Resurrection Protocols, they are on the same level as mutants. But it will likely not be long before the humans pull ahead of mutants in the race for genetic supremacy.
In a the creation of Nimrod and curtailed Orchis' efforts to make humans superior to mutants, then they might stand a chance of surviving in the future. But they have failed in that mission. The X-Men may have enjoyed the superiority that Krakoa and the Resurrection Protocols allowed them, but their days are now numbered.
