The Sentinels Saga: The Prequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Sentinels Saga is an important one in the history of the X-Men. Basically, it's the storyline that shifted the focus from good mutants fighting bad mutants to humanity's fear and hatred of mutant kind in general - which would come to be the dominant running theme of the title.
After starting out great with X-Men #14, the story itself took a rapid nosedive into silliness in X-Men #15. X-Men #16 wraps things up, and while it's an improvement over last issue, it's still awfully contrived in parts. For example, Professor X finds a way to defeat the Sentinels in a giant crystal that happens to adorn a building near the TV studio where he had the debate with Bolivar Trask in issue 14. The crystal is the reason one of the Sentinels 'passed out' in the studio - why this conveniently located giant crystal only affected one Sentinel and not the rest is never adequately explained, nevertheless, once lifted by three helicopters and flown over the Sentinels HQ, it does the job and works on all the sentinels except Master Mold.
Nevertheless, despite the lack of attention to good storytelling, the dominant theme - pounded home with a warning against following fanatics in the final panel - makes the Sentinel Saga historically significant to the X-Men storyline.
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