While the X-Men have battled human prejudice, alien threats, and each other, one enemy has always struck fear into the hearts of even Omega-level mutants: the Sentinels. During the recent conclusion of the Krakoan era, evolved Sentinels almost wiped out all life on Earth, mutants and humans alike. Now the Sentinel program has been restarted, and one of their first assignments is...to rescue a mutant.

Marvel released a preview for its new Sentinels series in June, a "From the Ashes" story centered on four new characters who voluntarily sign up for Lawrence Trask's rebooted project. Like his father, the creator of the original Sentinels, Trask is using them for nefarious purposes, in this case, to round up mutants for Graymalkin Prison. However, he's more focused on dangerous mutants out to cause harm, not all mutants everywhere.

In a first look at issue #2, from writer Alex Paknadel and artist Justin Mason, the Sentinels are sent on a jailbreak to rescue Sebastian Shaw. It remains to be seen if this is just so Trask can drop Shaw into his own prison instead.

These New Sentinels Are the Next Step in Their Evolution

First appearing in X-Men #14 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Sentinels were an immediate threat to mutantkind. When Bolivar Trask and Charles Xavier held a televised debate about "The Mutant Question," Trask introduced his invention: a group of giant robots, powerful enough to take on the X-Men. As he bragged about his control of them, on the very same page, the Sentinels rebelled. When they dragged Trask before their leader, his other creation Master Mold, they threatened to destroy the world if he didn't follow their orders. Suddenly, Trask was very interested in the X-Men showing him to save him.

The Sentinels have continued to evolve over the years, remaining powerful threats to the growing cast of X-Men. During an adventure to an alternate future with the Avengers, a desperate Storm merged with Sentinel tech she had befriended. When Doctor Strange time-traveled everyone back to the present, the tech also came back independently, turning into a powerful, self-aware Sentinel called Nimrod. Later on, Nimrod merged with Master Mold, and both lost their memories, traveling back in time again as the mysterious Bastion. This past year, the Sentinels had a huge jump forward in tech when Orchis bought Stark Industries, creating the unstoppable Stark Sentinels.

Marvel's New Sentinels Are Still Mysterious

The Fall of Krakoa was engineered by two Sentinels - Nimrod and Omega Sentinel. As they ultimately revealed they wanted to destroy all life on the planet, humans and mutants have temporarily formed a shaky truce. Lawrence Trask is a mutant himself, but is also plagued by visions of all-out war between the two, hence his reboot of his father's Sentinel program. He claims these visions show him which mutants are truly "dangerous," and those will be who his Sentinels round up. Also, this time, his soldiers have all volunteered for the nanotech that transforms them, unlike Bastion's cyborgs of the past.

While these new Sentinels are all original characters, Marvel's first look at them suggested they're tied to massive events of the past: World War Hulk, Secret Empire, and others. Writer Alex Paknadel said that his characters will be fully fleshed out, so there may be a reveal that they themselves were criminals, and their "volunteering" was not fully consensual; or they're a souped-up version of DC's Suicide Squad. Whatever their background, breaking a mutant out of jail is a strange mission for a group of next generation Sentinels, and this series looks to be full of similar surprises for the X-Men.

Sentinels #2 will be released on November 20 from Marvel Comics.