BOX SENTINELS
Membership: At least seven unidentified Box
units (likely more - see
comments);
formerly Box-1,
Box-2,
Box-3,
Box-4,
Box-5,
Box-6,
Box-7,
Box-8,
Box-9,
Box-12,
Box-14,
Box-38
Purpose: To serve Department H by locating
mutants
Aliases: None
Affiliations: Department H (Roger Bochs,
Jr., Director
Erika Doiron, others), Orchis
Enemies: Alpha Flight (Aurora/Jeanne-Marie
Beaubier, Fang/Akihiro, Guardian/James Hudson, Northstar/Jean-Paul
Beaubier, Nemesis/Heather Hudson, Puck/Eugene Judd, Shaman/Michael
Twoyoungmen, Snowbird/Narya), Argent
(Laurent Bavota), Bubs, Feedback (Albert Louis), Kyle Jinadu, Spencer,
Tasha
Base of Operations: Department H Headquarters,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
First Appearance: (Box-1 seen, Box Sentinels
mentioned as a group) Alpha Flight V#1 (October, 2023);
(Box Sentinels fully seen as a group) Alpha Flight
V#2 (November, 2023)
History:
(Alpha Flight V#1 (fb) - BTS) - After mutants were outlawed in Canada,
their Department H government organization restarted the old Box
program with the assistance of the anti-mutant Orchis organization, who
provided proprietary technology to help Department H create a squad of
robotic Box Sentinels. While building the Box Sentinels, Department H
hoped to create Sentinels that were sleeker and faster than America's
Stark models that would also reduce excess property damage.
(Alpha Flight V#1) - Following the public announcement that Alpha Flight would assistance in apprehending rogue mutants, Department H director Erika Doiron informed Alpha Flight about the restarting of the Box program and how Orchis had helped Department H create the Box Sentinels. Expressing hope that the Box Sentinels would keep Department H from having to rely on civilian reports to locate mutants, Erika further noted that while Alpha Flight would remain the public face of Department H's mutant hunting program, the Box Sentinels would be able to improve the efficacy of the program by over 570%. She then introduced Alpha Flight to Roger Bochs, Jr., the overseer of the Box program. Bochs explained how the human-sized Box Sentinels would reduce the normal property damage associated with America's Sentinels and when Puck questioned the authoritarian nature of hunting down mutants and the past dependability of using artificially intelligent robots, Erika announced that Department H would use all available resources at their disposal to save human lives and gruffly informed Alpha Flight that they would be working alongside the Box Sentinels as soon as they were ready to deploy. She then noted that the team's working with the Box Sentinels was not open for discussion before walking off. Bochs then assured Alpha Flight that he had installed fail-safe mechanisms into the Box Sentinels' programming to prevent them going rogue and showed the team a helmet that would allow him to take personal control of the Box Sentinels if needed. He then assured Alpha Flight that the Box Sentinels could only do what he allowed them to and that he could shut them immediately should anything go wrong. Bochs then proved his point by donning the helmet and controlling one of the Box Sentinels into shaking hands with Guardian. Later that night, after Alpha Flight failed to apprehend the mutant Argent or their former teammates who assisted Argent, Erika Doiron informed Alpha Flight that she would be officially rolling out the Box Sentinels the next day, revealing that a dozen Box Sentinels were already assembled and ready to go. Alpha Flight subsequently visited Krakoa North, the base of their former teammates, whom they were secretly working with to get Canadian mutants to safety, and informed them of Erika's plan to rush the Box Sentinels into operation.
(Alpha Flight V#2) - Alpha
Flight and their former teammates discussed the need to rush the
mutants of Krakoa North to the safety of space due to Erika Doiron's
plan to move forward with the Box Sentinels. Guardian suggested the Box
Sentinel program could be a blessing in disguise, as Alpha Flight could
take advantage of their public association with the program to gain
information on the location of mutants, whom their former teammates
could rescue before the Box Sentinels got to them. Northstar responded
by noting the difficulty of Alpha Flight gaining that information with
the Box Sentinels keeping an eye on the team for Erika Doiron but
Guardian replied back they could use the Box Sentinels' mutant location
abilities to prioritize mutant targets, saving the innocent ones while
leaving the villainous mutants to be apprehended by the Box Sentinels
themselves. Later, when former Alpha Flight ally Feedback was spotted
in Bend, Oregon, Alpha Flight rushed to apprehend him but Erika Doiron
communicated with Alpha Flight and opted to instead send the Box
Sentinels to Oregon in an effort to keep Alpha Flight from messing up
the situation. The Box Sentinels shortly after descended on Lenny's
restaurant in Bend, Oregon, with Roger Bochs, Jr. manually operating
the robots, and he reported back to Erika that Feedback had holed
himself up inside Lenny's and cleared the civilians of the area. Erika
ordered Bochs to have the Box Sentinels take Feedback down, preferably
alive but dead if no other option. The Box Sentinels were then sent to
place Feedback under arrest but Feedback lashed out, smashing Box
Sentinel-14 into the ground by generating a monstrous electrical form
around himself. Feedback followed up by using his electrical form to
punch Box-7 into a parked car, destroying it. Bochs responded by having
another Box Sentinel punch Feedback through his electrical form and he
then had Box-9 order Feedback to surrender. Feedback refused, claiming
that he had done nothing wrong, but Bochs, speaking through Box-9,
remarked that Feedback was a mutant that had not left Canada by law.
Before Box-9 could continue, however, the former Alpha Flight members
arrived on the scene and Fang plunged his claws in Box-9's head,
downing it.
(Alpha Flight V#3) - The former Alpha Flight members
jumped into a fierce battle against the Box Sentinels as Erika Doiron
berated Roger Bochs, Jr. for letting the former Alpha Flighters walk
all over the Box Sentinels. Bochs managed to save some face by having
the Box Sentinels down Northstar and Aurora as Doiron left her office,
meeting Alpha Flight along the way, to directly supervise Bochs. As she
walked towards Bochs, Doiron gloated to Alpha Flight about how the Box
Sentinels were making short work of their former teammates and
suggested that perhaps Alpha Flight could learn a thing or two from the
Box Sentinels. Puck sarcastically replied about how great it was to be
replaced by machines, prompting Erika to remind him that the Box
Sentinels at least delivered results, which was more than she could say
about Alpha Flight. The Box Sentinels soon surrounded the former Alpha
Flight members but they were saved by Feedback and Nemesis teleported
all of them away moments before they were hit by Box Sentinel fire.
Bochs immediately reported to Erika that Feedback and the former Alpha
Flighters were nowhere to be found by the Box Sentinels and Erika
ordered Bochs to report on how Box Sentinels they had lost in the
battle. Bochs later wrote up an official memo detailing the damage done
to Box-1, Box-2, Box-6, Box-7, Box-9 and Box-14 with suggestions for
future upgrades to prevent such damage in the future while Northstar's
husband Kyle Jinadu sent Northstar an email stressing the urgency of
getting the mutants at Krakoa North to safety now that Department H had
rolled out the Box Sentinels. The Box Sentinels later located Feedback
and the former Alpha Flight members in Turtle Mountain Provincial Park
and Roger Bochs, Jr. relayed the information to Erika Doiron, who had
Bochs route the Box Sentinels to the Park before the former Alpha
Flighters could escape again.
(Alpha Flight V#4) - The remaining Box Sentinels arrived at Turtle Mountain Provincial Park to escort Alpha Flight, who claimed to have Feedback in their custody despite their former teammates having apparently escaped. Guardian informed the Box Sentinels that they did not need an escort but Bochs apologized to Alpha Flight through the Box Sentinels, noting that he had his orders. The Box Sentinels then began their escort of Alpha Flight's Omnijet but during the escort, Erika Doiron received word of the location of Argent, who had earlier escaped Department H's apprehension with the help of the former Alpha Flight members. She quickly ordered Bochs to send the Box Sentinels to Argent's location and when the Box Sentinels redirected themselves, Alpha Flight became suspicious and Guardian sent a communication to Northstar warning them that the Box Sentinels might be on their way. Instead of going after Northstar, however, the Box Sentinels had been routed to Krakoa North to apprehend Argent and they descended on Krakoa North as Kyle Jinadu was on the phone with Northstar. Kyle immediately informed Northstar of the attack and Argent, who had fled Krakoa North into the woods, noticed the subsequent explosions at Krakoa North and realized what his actions had caused.
(Alpha Flight V#5) - The Box Sentinels surrounded
Kyle Jinadu and the mutants of Krakoa North, warning against any
resistance and placing Kyle under arrest for harboring illegal mutants.
Northstar reported the attack to Guardian, who changed course towards
Krakoa North and reported back to Erika Doiron that they had heard the
Box Sentinels had found mutants in that area. Erika refused to allow
Alpha Flight to interfere in the Box Sentinels' mission but Guardian
cut communication and continued on their way towards Krakoa North.
Argent soon returned to Krakoa North and used his powers to slice
Box-38 in half in an effort to protect the other mutants. Erika Doiron
immediately berated Bochs for losing another Box Sentinel and ordered
him to do something. Under intense pressure from Erika, Bochs had one
of the Box Sentinels fire on Argent, killing the young mutant. The
former Alpha Flight members arrived on the scene just in time to see
Argent's charred corpse fall to the ground and an angry Northstar flew
through one of the Box Sentinels, destroying it. In shock at having
killed Argent, Roger Bochs, Jr. momentarily paused but Erika got Bochs
back into the game and Bochs soon had the Box Sentinels order the
former Alpha Flight members to surrender. The rest of Alpha Flight
arrived moments later to save their former teammates, destroying two
more Box Sentinels. When one of the Box Sentinels pinned Puck to the
ground, Snowbird transformed into a sasquatch form and ripped the Box
Sentinel in half. Another Box Sentinel fired on and hit Fang but
Feedback jumped in, smashing yet another Box Sentinel, only to be hit
from behind by two Box Sentinels. Northstar and Guardian retaliated by
destroying the two Box Sentinels that had hit Feedback before
discussing concerns that the Box Sentinels might take out an incoming
spacecraft meant to take the Krakoa North mutants to the Shi'ar planet
Chandilar for their own safety. Nemesis opted to teleport the mutants
to the ship before it arrived so the Sentinels could not destroy it and
Guardian argued against Nemesis risking her life with such a large
teleport as Snowbird destroyed yet another Box Sentinel. Alpha Flight
ultimately admitted there wasn't enough time, with Guardian reluctantly
allowed Nemesis to attempt the teleport, and, noticing something was
up, Erika Doiron ordered Bochs to have the remaining Box Sentinels fire
on Nemesis. The Box Sentinels then ordered Alpha Flight to stand down
and when Feedback refused, all remaining Box Sentinels fired on
Feedback, who absorbed the fire and projected it back outwards as an
electrical burst, destroying several of the remaining Box Sentinels and
buying Nemesis time to teleport the mutants to safety. Weakened from
the strain, Nemesis collapsed and three of the remaining Box Sentinels
took Alpha Flight into custody
Comments: Created by Ed Brisson and Scott Godlewski.
The original squad of Box
Sentinels were numbered 1-9, 12 & 14, suggesting that there was
likely a #10-11 & 13 as well that were not sent out with the
initial squad, though we the readers never saw them identified as such.
When the Box Sentinels later arrived on Krakoa North, there was a small
army of Box Sentinels present, one of which was identified as Box-38,
so apparently, there were at least 38 Box Sentinels, judging by the
numbering. We only ever see a total of 20 at any one time.
Additionally, we do see a single Box Sentinel in Alpha Flight V#1 and
given that it came right off the assembly line for Roger Bochs, Jr. to
show Alpha Flight, I can only ASSume that this unit is Box-1 since the
Box Sentinels were still under construction. It's honestly equally
possible that others had already been assembled and the one being shown
was a later model that had just come off the assembly line but for the
purposes of this profile and the appearances of the individual units,
I'm treating that one as Box-1 until something says more definitively
otherwise.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Box Sentinels have no known connections to:
Box-1 was the first Box Sentinel off of the assembly line and presumably was the one that Roger Bochs, Jr. demonstrated to Alpha Flight when the team were first introduced to Bochs and his Box program Sentinels. Bochs demonstrated Box-1 by having him shake Guardian's hand and Box-1 was later sent to Bend, Oregon alongside a small squad of ten Box Sentinels to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle, former members of the Canadian Alpha Flight team arrived to rescue Feedback and the former Alpha Flighter Aurora destroyed Box-1 by hitting it from behind with one of her energy blasts. Following Box-1's destruction, Roger Bochs, Jr. drafted an official memo suggesting future Box Sentinels be equipped with thicker, reinforced outer shells for better concussive protection.
--Alpha Flight V#1 (#2, 3d,
Box-2 was one of the Box Sentinel units sent to Bend, Oregon to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle, former member of the Canadian Alpha Flight group arrived to rescue Feedback and Fang decapitated Box-2 with his claws. Following Box-2's destruction, Roger Bochs, Jr. suggested in an official memo that all the joints of the Box Sentinels should be reinforced with either Adamantium or Vibranium to improve the robots' resilience and that a sample of Fang's claws should be acquired for testing.
Box-3,
Box-4, Box-5, Box-8 and Box-12
Box-3, Box-4, Box-5, Box-8 and Box-12 were Box Sentinels that were sent to Bend, Oregon to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle, Box-3 and Box-5 sustained minimal damage while Box-4, Box-8 and Box-12 remained fully operational. These five surviving Box Sentinels were later sent to Turtle Mountain Provencial Park, where former Alpha Flight members had teleported Feedback and themselves, and they arrived in time to assist the core Alpha Flight in escorting Feedback to Department H, unaware that the core team was secretly working with their former teammates to get mutants to safety. During the subsequent escort, Department H director Erika Doiron located the mutant Argent, who had earlier escaped Alpha Flight, and she had Roger Bochs, Jr. redirect the five Box Sentinels towards Argent's location. Regrouping with at least fifteen more Box Sentinels on the way, Box-3, Box-4, Box-5, Box-8 and Box-12 participated in an attack on Krakoa North, a facility that Alpha Flight was using to house rescued mutants. During the subsequent fight with Alpha Flight, their former teammates and Feedback, all five of these Box Sentinels were apparently destroyed.
Box-6 was one of the several Box Sentinels sent to Bend, Oregon to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle in which former Alpha Flight members came to Feedback's rescue, Box-6 attempted to attack the former Alpha Flight members from behind while the other Box Sentinels surrounded the group but Feedback intervened, smashing Box-6 into the ground and destroying it.
Box-7 was one of the Box Sentinel units sent to Bend, Oregon to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle, Box-7 was smashed through a parked car by Feedback, destroying Box-7.
Box-9 was one of the Box Sentinel units sent to Bend, Oregon to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle, former member of the Canadian Alpha Flight group arrived to rescue Feedback and Box-9 was destroyed by Fang as the former Alpha Flight members arrived. Following Box-9's destruction, Roger Bochs, Jr. suggested in an official memo that all the joints of the Box Sentinels should be reinforced with either Adamantium or Vibranium to improve the robots' resilience and that a sample of Fang's claws should be acquired for testing.
Box-14 was one of the Box Sentinel units sent to Bend, Oregon to apprehend rogue mutant Feedback. During the ensuing battle, Box-14 was smashed into the ground by Feedback, destroying it.
Box-38 was one of the many Box Sentinels sent to Krakoa North to apprehend rogue mutant Argent, only to find over twenty mutants being housed there. When Box-38 threatened the mutants, the returning Argent appeared and sliced Box-38 in half, destroying it.
images: (without ads)
Alpha Flight V#4, p19, splash page (Box Sentinels, main image)
Alpha Flight V#2, p17, pan2 (Box Sentinels with Oregon police)
Alpha Flight V#2, p14, splash page (Box Sentinels
descending on Bend, Oregon)
Alpha Flight V#3, p1, pan1 (Box-1 & Box-2)
Alpha Flight V#4, p12, pan2 (Box-3, Box-4, Box-5, Box-8 & Box-12)
Alpha Flight V#3, p7, pan1 (Box-6)
Alpha Flight V#2, p18, pan4 (Box-7)
Alpha Flight V#2, p19, pan1 (Box-9)
Alpha Flight V#2, p18, pan1 (Box-14)
Alpha Flight V#5, p5, pan1 (Box-38)
Appearances:
Alpha Flight V#1 (October, 2023) - Ed Brisson
(writer), Scott Godlewski
(art), Mark Basso (editor)
Alpha Flight V#2 (November, 2023) - Ed Brisson (writer), Scott
Godlewski (art), Mark Basso (editor)
Alpha Flight V#3 (December, 2023) - Ed Brisson (writer), Scott
Godlewski (art), Mark Basso (editor)
Alpha Flight V#4 (January, 2024) - Ed Brisson (writer), Scott Godlewski
(art), Mark Basso (editor)
Alpha Flight V#5 (February, 2024) - Ed Brisson (writer), Scott
Godlewski, David Cutler (art), Mark Basso (editor)
First Posted: 08/29/2024
Last updated: 08/29/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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