> X-Men Masterworks Volume 2
 
 

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From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"I always felt superior to the others, because I could fly! But, now I realize how useless my wings can be at times...!”

-- the Angel, pg. 5


The X-Men get ready to challenge the unknown!

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X-Men #16
January 1966 • 20 pages

Script: Stan Lee • Letters: Artie Simek
Layouts: Jack Kirby
Pencils: Werner Roth (credited as Jay Gavin)
Inks: Dick Ayers


Title: "The Supreme Sacrifice!"

Villain: Sentinels, Master Mold

Death: Bolivar Trask, Master Mold

Gadgets & Technology: Heavy-Grav Globe


Synopsis: (continued from XM #15)

Professor Xavier realizes there is nothing he can do to gain entry into the Master Mold's fortress to help his X-Men, so he decides to head back into the city to study the first Sentinel they encountered, in hopes he can figure out why it mysteriously collapsed. He crawls out to the roadside and flags down a passing car, and they take him back to the TV studio. Inside the fortress, the X-Men are being carried inside the Sentinel's Heavy-Grav Globe, which keeps them pinned down inside the bubble prison. Even their unique powers cannot pierce the globe, so Cyclops orders them to conserve their energy for the right moment to attack. While the Sentinels move the Beast to the prison alongside his teammates, the Master Mold commands Bolivar Trask to step up production of his Sentinel army, or else he will destroy a whole city.

At the TV studio, Xavier examines the defunct Sentinel and determines his powers stopped when it's transmission beam was ruptured by interference from a giant crystal adorning the Crystal Products Building nearby. Back at the Sentinel command, the giant robots open up a hole in the Heavy-Grav Globe to insert the Beast, and that's when Cyclops makes his move, blasting the Sentinel with his optic beams. The resulting chaos causes the Sentinels to tumble all over themselves in responding to the X-Men's threat. They bust out of the cage and launch a full assault on the Sentinels, until they are fired on by the Sentinel's stun blast. While it knocks the X-Men to the ground, suddenly all the Sentinels go limp and fall to the floor like rag dolls. Police helicopters, guided by Professor Xavier, are carrying the giant crystal over the wooded area where the Sentinel fortress is hidden!

The X-Men rebound from their stun blasting and head to find Trask and the Master Mold, but soon all the lights in the facility go out. The Beast can sense that all the power is being drained by some super powerful machine. In the Master Mold's chamber, Dr. Bolivar Trask is reluctantly setting up the Sentinel robot assembly line. But in a last second change of heart, Trask decides to sacrifice his own life to destroy the machine's ionic power source, setting off a chain reaction that destroys the machine, the Master Mold, and the whole chamber. The room erupts in flames and comes down all around him, killing him.

The X-Men, too, are stuck inside the rapidly disintegrating fortress, but with their teamwork and amazing mutant skills, they make it out the fortress and onto stable land. They turn their backs and watch the whole complex explode out of the ground.

Meanwhile, back at Xavier's school, a dark shadow lurks....

--synopsis and panel images by Gormuu


Issues Reprinted
X-Men #11-21

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.

 
XMEN #11 XMEN #12 XMEN #13 XMEN #14 XMEN #15 XMEN #16
XMEN #17 XMEN #18 XMEN #19 XMEN #20 XMEN #21

 

All cover images are courtesy of the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Gallery.

Website design by Doug Roberts and John Thomas. All images on this site are copyright of Marvel Comics. This site is for reference purposes and promotion of the Masterworks line of books as well as Marvel Comics and their properties.


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