The X-Men have been steadily gaining in buzz since 2024, when X-Men ’97 brought back the continuity of the original X-Men: The Animated Series. It not only picked up where the old series left off, but it began to adapt later X-stories, culminating in a story arc that adapted “Operation: Zero Tolerance”. This tale came in the aftermath of “Onslaught”, with the mysterious Bastion unleashing the titular organization on the mutant race. He had been built up since the end of “Onslaught”, holding Professor X and Jubilee prisoner and working behind the scenes for an attack which would catch the team <a href="https://comicvibe.com/2026-emmy-awards-the-complete-winners-list/” title=”2026 Emmy Awards: The Complete Winners List”>completely unaware, using his Prime Sentinels and government-funded arsenal against mutantkind around the world.
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Bastion was positioned as the next big X-villain and it’s plain to see why. X-Men ’97‘s Bastion grabbed attention and the comic version was no different. His design was simple but eyecatching and while we didn’t see him beating his enemies physically, there was an aura of power to him. Fans were teased with various clues to his true identity, but after “Operation: Zero Tolerance” ended and new writers took over Uncanny X-Men and X-Men, the villain was discarded. It would take years to learn the truth about him and by the time we did, no one really cared. However, the late ’00s would see the villain return, finally meeting his potential. Bastion is an all-timer, even if Marvel almost completely botched the villain.
Bastion Was the Next Big Thing Before the Future Changed
Bastion first appeared in the days before “Onslaught”, a shadowy character getting ready for his own future attack. Onslaught’s attack on New York City would be the catalyst he needed to convince the government to begin Operation: Zero Tolerance, which had been silently building in the background. No one knew where he came from; we weren’t even sure he was human. He was one of the mutant haters that the X-Men books do so well, a soulless racist who wanted nothing more than the death of an entire race.
“Operation: Zero Tolerance” was a loss for the villain, but when you really look at it, it was something of a success. Bastion was able to cripple the X-Men with his Prime Sentinel sleeper agents and had built an army that was tailor-made to fight mutants. He was able to destroy all of the X-Men’s Shi’Ar tech, took away their access to Xavier’s wealth, and force Cyclops to leave the team. Add in the secret of his origin and most readers assumed that we’d see him at some point after “Operation: Zero Tolerance”. However, that didn’t happen, at least not in any appreciable way. He ended up fighting Cable, almost turning the Machine Man into a Sentinel and was infected with the Transmode virus for a while. None of these stories were important and he dropped off the radar.
Now, here’s the real weird thing about Bastion – I can’t actually find the comic where his origin is actually revealed. See, he’s one of the most important characters in X-Men history – he’s the original Nimrod unit that came from the future to destroy mutantkind during the height of the Claremont run on the X-Men and the Master Mold of the time, who merged and were pulled through the Siege Perilous while battling Rogue in Uncanny X-Men #246-247. He came out as Sebastion Gilberti, again discovering his hatred of mutants and becoming the Bastion we all know. However, actually finding the story where this was revealed has been almost impossible.
The character was all but dead by the mid ’00s; he couldn’t even last a decade on top and fans rarely thought about him. However, House of M would greatly reduce the mutant race, leading into the Messiah Trilogy – “Messiah Complex”, “Messiah War”, and “Second Coming”. This story saw various human racist groups come together to try and destroy the mutants, with the birth and life of Hope Summers becoming a major part of the whole thing, as they targeted the last hope of mutantkind. We got to see classic X-Men racists like Reverend Stryker, Cameron Hodge, Graydon Creed, Bolivar Trask, Steven Lang, and the Leper Queen, with the dead resurrected and under the control of Bastion.
Wolverine’s X-Force was basically created to deal with Bastion’s new threat and it led to some of the best stories of the ’00s for the mutant heroes. The Messiah Trilogy of stories showed exactly how Bastion should have been used years earlier, taking the foundation of “Operation: Zero Tolerance” and building on them. He even got to kill a major X-Man before his defeat, with Nightcrawler sacrificing himself to save Hope. Sometimes, a villain is introduced with all the potential in the world and it gets completely squandered. Bastion was one of them for years, but all of that changed.
Bastion’s Second Act Was Outstanding, Salvaging the Villain’s Potential
Bastion, for a long time, was indicative of the problems that the X-Men started to have in the ’90s and beyond. He was introduced to be a massive new villain but his first story wasn’t as successful as anyone wanted. New creators came on the book and they just didn’t want to deal with the character, leading him to get kicked down the line numerous times with low impact stories in secondary X-books. His origin – which would have been a big cool reveal when he still had some spotlight on him – wasn’t able to salvage the character and it wouldn’t be until the X-books began to change completely in the aftermath of House of M, that he would finally become the villain he was always meant to be.
Bastion’s second act was the perfect continuation of his story, using his origins as Nimrod and Master Mold to make him into the big bad he was originally meant to be. He became a bigger threat than ever, using the Transmode virus and his “natural” powers to menace his foes. He didn’t fight much, but when he did it had an impact. His story is over until someone decides for some X-Men ’97 synergy, but it goes to show that characters that everyone has written off can become a big deal again with the right stories.
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