Nimrod
Nimrod. Art by Paco Medina and Juan Vlasco
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Uncanny 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

Nimrod is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #191 (March 1985), and was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Romita Jr.^[1]

Hailing from the "Days of Future Past" timeline, Nimrod is a powerful, virtually indestructible descendant of the robotic mutant-hunting Sentinels. His name is derived from the biblical figure described in Genesis as a "mighty hunter".

Publication history

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

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

Fictional character biography

Nimrod is a mutant-hunting Sentinel from an alternative future and was created by the Sentinels ruling that timeline. When Rachel Summers travels backwards in time to the present, he follows Rachel. Although not capable of time travel by himself he was transported back in time by Doctor Strange and Magik using their powers to change time to prevent Kulan Gath's occupation of New York. Thus 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.^[2]

Nimrod in Uncanny 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 the X-Men. He fights the Juggernaut. He hunts Summers and the X-Men, but is defeated by Rogue when Rogue absorbs the mutant powers of Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde and Colossus. 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.^[3]

Some time after this, Nimrod garners a reputation with the public of New York City as a heroic vigilante, assuming he is simply a man in powered armor. He also adopts the more human personality Nicholas Hunter as part of a cover alias as a construction worker.^[4]

Nimrod later faces the combined forces of the X-Men and the Hellfire Club and proves himself as a powerful threat, killing Black Rook Friedrich Von Roehm, causing Harry Leland's fatal heart attack, nearly killing Nightcrawler and badly injuring Rogue and Sebastian Shaw.^[5]

When Nimrod comes across a piece of the gigantic Sentinel Master Mold while 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 their aid, claiming he has evolved as well and no longer views them or mutants as a threat. Nimrod asserts enough control over Master Mold to render it immobile, and even convinces it that it has become a mutant as well. Thus, to fulfill its prime directive to exterminate mutants, it must self-destruct. The remains of both robots are pushed through the Siege Perilous, a mystical gateway that causes all who passed through it to be reborn with new bodies.^[6] Though the exact moment is unclear, Nimrod and Master Mold are merged into the being Bastion, a man who had absolutely no memory of his former existence.^[7]

In X-Force, a modern-day version of Nimrod appears. Created by an offshoot of Project Wideawake, this version is based on the technology derived from the Nimrod from the future.^[8] In truth, between the time of Nimrod's first arrival and its apparent destruction when it merged with the 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 when Cable convinces Nimrod that its earlier creation in the timeline would cause a paradox and incalculable damage to the timestream.^[9]

Reverend William Stryker later found a damaged Nimrod as it enters the Marvel timeline from an alternate one.^[10] Immobilized, Stryker secretly uses Nimrod's memories of future events to give him the appearance of precognition to 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 the New X-Men^{[lower-alpha 1]} story arc "Nimrod", it searches for Forge, 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 when Surge overloads Nimrod's temporal unit, blasting Nimrod out of the timestream. Nimrod survives and 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 a temporal paradox.^[11][12]

The series X-Force reveals that the Purifiers held on to most of Nimrod's original body and fuse it with Bastion's head to reform Bastion.^[13] He then, using the Technarch transmode virus, revives numerous villains that have destroyed many mutants.^[14]

During the events of Second Coming, he personally confronts Hope 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 Master Mold controlling them. At the end of the crossover, the original Nimrod (Bastion) takes his original form but is destroyed by Hope. The chest and head of Nimrod 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%.^[15]

During a brief glimpse three months into the future seen in Uncanny Avengers, Havok, Scarlet Witch and Sunfire are shown fleeing from a new model of Sentinel. Havok refers to the machines as Nimrod units, and mentions that they were built by Tony Stark.^[16]

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 electronic consciousness can 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 the Juggernaut in 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, create force fields, and can teleport. Nimrod has a weakness for elemental attacks such as lightning or extreme cold.

Other versions

In other media

Notes

References

External links

• Nimrod at Marvel Universe Wiki