Jeff Lemire's Sentry series was bad. change my mind

[stubbleupdate]

The concept, as laid out in the first issue is that Bob Reynolds is a short order cook by day, and by night he retreats into a fantasy world using a science device where he can be the Sentry and therefore keep the Sentry and the Void out of the real world.

As the solicit text put it...

THE GOLDEN GUARDIAN IS BACK! FRESH FROM THE PAGES OF DOCTOR STRANGE...but is that really such a good thing? The greatest hero that the Marvel Universe ever forgot has returned! The Sentry – shining sentinel with the power of a thousand exploding suns – is back from the dead, but his troubled mind is far from finding peace. By day, he trudges through a mundane life as Bob Reynolds; at night, the Sentry soars across a gleaming, perfect skyline. But how much of the Sentry’s dual existence is real? And what of his dark other self, the Void? Jeff Lemire (MOON KNIGHT, Black Hammer) returns to Marvel and unites with Kim Jacinto (AVENGERS: NO SURRENDER) for this mind-bending series that will shake the Sentry, and the Marvel Universe, to its foundations.


Now, in Doctor Strange, Sentry had been at peace, Strange asked him for a favour, didn't really explain everything that the favour might involve and pissed off the Sentry, who flew off, unhappy and let down by his friends.

At the end of #1 somebody broke into Bob's flat, stole his device, appeared in Sentry World and killed Scout and Watchdog.

In #3, we find out that Bob's device was stolen by his former sidekick, Scout, and Cranio, the man with the tri-level mind,* and Scout wants Bob's power for himself. Bob, however, is stuck under ground with Iron Man because he violated the terms of his parole.

Now, my general view of this series, as a Sentry Fanboy, is that it is ugly and stupid. Apparently, I'm in the minority. From CBR
This mini-series was really, really good. It feels like someone has finally washed the bad-taste left by the previous mishandling of the character away. I'm so disappointed that this was only a limited series: Lemire seems to really "get" the character, and this new status quo is really exciting.

I really hope we get another mini or something soon. The setup is great, but the new status quo still needs to be defined a bit more. My biggest fear is some hack writer glomping on to this new Sentry again and reducing him to some sort of two dimensional villain role, or having him repeatedly rip off his face again like Remender always had him do, etc.

PLEASE MARVEL - this was such a great start, don't stop with this character now!


From the start, I haven't enjoyed the book. The art, and the faces, are ugly
Every Sentry/Bob/Void face from #1

Only one facial expression, and that is angry/smelled an eggy fart

The story didn't thrill me either. I thought it was ugly and stupid.


#4
With Sentry in the real world fighting Scout and Iron Man, Bob goes to Sentry World to pang in the three brains of Cranio, the Man with the Tri Level Mind, and then goes looking for the Void




So...Bob, Sentry and Void combine to become one man. One man with a palette swap and the same angry face


#5
The Sentry formula ends up melting the flesh from Scout's bone, so Unified Sentry Man mercy kills him
And then...

They fight! Unified Sentry Man has venomy tendrils, like the Void
Unified Sentry Man tells Tony that the fight is over. He hasn't lost control to the Void, but this is who he is now, and always will be.


Sentry flying off into space! Just like he always does! What a non-finale!
At least we get some actual variation in facial expressions here.

My issue is that I felt that Cates had given Bob a bit of stability in his Strange run, and for everything to hit the skids immediately felt a bit off. Equally, Bob makes peace with the Void very easily here. He has been terrified by the Void for his whole life, and now he invites him to join up. Not buying it.

Am I out of step with the rest of the comics world, and this was not terrible, in fact, but actually pretty good?

*Like Wu Ao-shi, the pirate queen of Pinghai Bay or Pluskommander Geheneris Hala´son Mahr Vehl of the Kree Imperial Void Navy, you have to refer to him always by his full name and title.

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

No, you're not wrong. It was bad.

The premise was decent, and other writers have done well with parts of it. As strejdaking points out, it has a lot in common with Miracleman, and the notion of a personality that's always been divided accepting everything about themselves has been done well with other Marvel characters: Hulk, Moon Knight, arguably Daredevil.

But in all those stories, we get a fairly good picture of who the unified figure is. The Sentry we get at the end of this tale is almost completely a cipher. He kills his enemies and doesn't kill the girl, he talks about how he's accepted who he is, and that's it. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? "I think we're going to find out soon enough," says Captain America, as Bob flies out toward nothing. "I mean, you'd think an entire five-issue miniseries dedicated to exploring his psychology would've answered that, but... [shrug]. Maybe it'll come up in the next Infinity-Civil War."

The Avengers' comical uselessness mostly saves the story from having to answer that question, since there are no real consequences if Thor and Carol get knocked around for a panel or two. I'm not surprised that a few other self-described "Sentry fanboys" (surely not a large demographic by now, given how the character's been handled) enjoyed those scenes, since they boil down to naked worship of his power, as does a lot of the series.

The rest is mostly the sort of stuff that Rick Veitch has been recycling since the 1980s, long after it stopped feeling edgy or interesting. Sure, super-beings can be terrifying in a world not bound by the Comics Code, where they're the only ones who decide what morality is. And they don't need to look pretty, either. Yep... [looks at watch].