Customer Reviews

The Sentry (New Avengers)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the book that introduced the Sentry to the world...or is it? At the time of its release, Marvel and WIZARD Magazine collaborated for an elaborate hoax involving the "discovery" of Stan Lee's "longlost creation" the Sentry (reprinted in this trade paperback). I have to admit, I was a casual comics reader at the time and bought into it! It was one of Joe Quesada's wacky promotional ideas, and earns him a spot in my book as the most entertaining huckster this side of WWE's Vince McMahon.

The story, by Paul Jenkins, ranks up there with his "Inhumans" collaboration with Jae Lee (maybe a little below that...). Issues 1-5 of the mini-series plus the "Sentry vs. the Void" finale (billed as "part 6" here) are the real meat of the story. There are 4 other tie-ins collected here, but they aren't essential reading and generally tread the same ground to death.

If you like the story, it's continued in New Avengers Vol. 2: Sentry. The "New Avengers" trade paperback adds some interesting twists to the Sentry mythos and firmly entrenches the Sentry into the Marvel Universe.

One of my friends let me borrow this, I didn't really know what to expect or know much about The Sentry, but after I read this I came to like him a lot. Sentry is definitely a character you love or hate, (Look on any forums, theirs a lot of hate.) I really enjoyed it, although the team up flash back issues with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Angel of the X-Men, and the Hulk I found rather "meh." Although I enjoyed the Spiderman one and Hulk one a bit more. But the actual mini-series was great, leading up to The Sentry vs The Void. The action throughout the book is light, I don't really recall that much until the last issue. The art is epic.The story was good enough where it didn't really need it. I really like Bob Reynolds/The Sentry as a character. I've only read him in this mini, and New Avengers Volume 1. I've heard they really messed up him character-wise in newer issues, so I haven't bothered to read them.

But if you're looking to get into this character start here. (Most people say to stop after here... So you've been warned!)

This is a really interesting take on the Marvel Universe. The art was beautiful and the story was compelling.

I have to say that I was really intrigued by this character. Maybe I swallowed the bait on it hook line and sinker but to be honest I don't really care. I like the idea behind this character a lot, the problem with this comic is that the execution of the writing is poor. I agree with other reviewers that the framework for telling the story is clunky and that as a result the story lacks a quick enough pacing. The problem is that as we move through the different histories between the various Marvel characters and the Sentry, the style of retelling each encounter gets old and slow. I do however feel that the slower pace in the story telling is appropriate (unlike others) but it just gets a little too slow for me at times. There is simply way too much build up to the storm.

It's a powerful mythology at work in this story though, and so it's definitely worth reading. A hero who is powered from an inner source of light with a glorious past but who has forgotten his true and formidable self, I mean come on it doesn't get much better than that. That is REAL mythology breaking through into the comic book domain. We are not talking about overly indulgent fantasy and action based melodrama here. There is real psychology and mythology informing this tale which makes it worth owning despite its shortcomings on the writing front. The art work really saves the piece as well.

Definitely worth reading and definitely worth contemplating the parallels between Rob Reynolds / The Sentry and yourself!

I only hope the Sentry overcomes his shadow eventually! Lots of room for growth of this character's mythos.

I picked this up (used) along with several other graphic novels, and for some reason it kept drifting to the bottom of the pile, even though I started reading it several times. Actually reading the book though was a lot like that, as well: it was a bit of a chore. The whole "the-memory-of-a-superhero-has-mysteriously-been-erased-from-the-whole-world" thing has been done before, and better... The supposed back-story of the Sentry (long-lost Stan Lee creation that came before Fantastic Four) is a silly gimmick -- who would really believe it, and why not just pick someone real, like Marvel Boy, or whatever, and use them? Plus, unless you make your Superman lampoons really, really dark ("Miracleman," "Watchmen," etc.) what's the point? The first episode, in which we meet Bob Reynolds (Sentry's alter-ego) is the most interesting thing in the book, because it's there that he seems to be a delusional drunk -- once that ontological dilemma gets resolved, the story becomes sluggish and predictable. Sentry is too much of a goodie-twoshoes to be interesting, and his efforts to gather together a Scooby Gang take for-evvvv-urrrr, with an apocalyptic battle that is spectacularly uneventful, and a "twist ending" that was readiliy apparent a hundred pages earlier. I mean, this was okay, I guess, but not amazing. Lots of better books out there.

I'd give it a 2.5, if I could.

This is a dull comic. Nothwitstanding the rather nice drawings, the sheer stupidity and pointless plot of a comic book hero as either /neither a hoax or a parody is tiresome. The all-powerful demi-god Sentry with a drink problem and permanent hallucinations is not helped by the very ugly costume design. Unless the reader is a fanatical comics fan, there are too many in-house jokes about the writer and his creation, a comic book within a comic book etc to interest the casual comics reader to make this a worthwhile read.