The X-Men infiltrate the Sentinels' base, and the killer robots go work on their tans.
Originally Published August 1969
As Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Beast locate the Sentinel compound where their friends and teammates are held captive, Sentinel Project Manager Larry Trask is dealing with some robotic personnel issues as the Sentinels have started identifying him as a mutant, which if you weren't aware, they are programmed to murder.
I'll let Judge Chalmers tell the tale:
Although I criticized the "Trask is a secret mutant" twist earlier, I have to admit Chalmers' account is a pretty reasonable explanation for this turn of events. It adds some shades of grey to the morality and kinda-sorta explains the elder Trask's aversion to Mutants, but it's still a little more complicated and less tidy than plain old racism would be.
After knocking Trask out with toxic "talk to the hand" gas, Sentinel No. 2 reveals that while Chalmers may stay or go as a human, they are not programmed to obey him, so he is powerless to stop the imminent executions. Chalmers is dismayed to see rogue Sentinels, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized completely within the Sentinel compound.
The Sentinels observe a montage of their successful mutant capture campaign.
The X-Men arrive, working together to take out a guard Sentinel. They switch clothes with Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Toad, who have been captured, to get the drop on their captors. I don't know if that was entirely necessary but you've got to fill 20 pages somehow.
In the main control room/Mutant Tube room, Trask joins Havok and Lorna in captivity. However, he manages to signal to Chalmers to use a nearby gun to free Havok, which I'm sure he appreciates as this is the second plexiglass tube he's been stuck in this week.
In the scuffle, a Sentinel accidentally zaps Judge Chalmers, which violates the Sentinels programming to protect humans (they attac but they also protec.) As Havok's power goes out of control, Cyclops convinces the Sentinels, via riddle logic, to destroy "the source of mutation" - i.e, the sun.
That's right, the Sentinels all fly into the sun of their own accord, intent on destroying the life-giving celestial body. Should work great.
With the Sentinels gone off on their suicide mission, the X-Men locate Havok, who has basically exploded with THE POWER, and gotten trapped under some rubble in a state of shock. Is it me or has Alex Summers proven to be somewhat of a liability thus far?
Luckily, it appears, the X-Men have a doctor they can call, who definitely seems reliable and good.
Further Thoughts:
Among Neal Adams' skills as artist are histrionically-emotive faces, bombastic explosions of mutant power, and hyper-tense depictions of characters plummeting to their likely deaths.
This issue begins with one of those now-patented Neal Adams slanty falling-to-death pages, a trick that never seems to get old. Beast plummets toward the ground while Jean can only slow herself and Cyclops, who instructs Jean to hold them just long enough so that they can stay aloft while Jean releases her hold on them to cushion Beast's landing at the last minute. A great touch.
There's a ton going on in this issue, and it is all handled at a pretty breakneck speed. At times the details get lost - there's something about an alarm at the South sector while the X-Men are at the North side that I'm not entirely sure what that was meant to be, as well as Judge Chalmers' gun that isn't a gun, that only works when fired at Havok, and just wakes him up. It's never explained that it is a Wake-Up Gun.
But for the most part it's an exciting, action-packed conclusion. And I love the final-page tease of the mysterious Dr. Lykos. The book has never before pulled the trick of hinting at next month's villain at the end of the issue and it works well, especially establishing Havok's medical condition right as they are finishing their battle with the Sentinels. Just the right amount of overlap and chaos.
As for the method of defeating the Sentinels, well, we've seen the X-Men beat tons of robots. And Defeat The Robot By Confusing Its Logic Circuits is a classic ending to any sci-fi story. I feel like
convincing an entire army of robots to go fight the Sun is probably the logical extreme of that. Where do you go after that? This trope should be defunct now. Adams and Thomas did the biggest and best version, why ever try it again? Take that, 50 ensuing years of Doctor Who and Star Trek.
Sure, the fact that these all-powerful, ready-for-anything Sentinels don't have any self-preservation circuits to prevent them from doing this bad idea comes out of left field and is a little hard to believe, but it's just the kind left-field and unbelievable that I can sink my teeth into as a reader instead of complaining, because we've got to get out of this story somehow. You don't always get a lot of substance in old comics (or new comics) so you have to settle for great spectacle.
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