The Sentry for $18.24 currently at Amazon
The Sentry :
This is going to cover the 2000 series (5 issues), the 2005 series (8 issues), the extra parts of the 2000 series (& Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, X-Men), and The Sentry VS The Void.
I find the Sentry an interesting character. I’d never read any of his comics, all I knew was somehow he’d been written into Marvel’s past but everyone forgot him, and somehow he had the POWER OF A THOUSAND EXPLODING SUNS. Basically an overpowered weird dude with mental problems.
Reading all of the above comics over, it made me wonder. You’ve got a character that’s pretty neat, and yeah, ridiculously overpowered in a complete nonsense way, but he isn’t just a hero. He’s caused tons and tons of death and damage. All of those above comics, they make it seem like they’re leading up to a major event that revolves around the Sentry, kind of like what they did with World War Hulk. There’s so many loose strings involving the character that it seems like it’d be ridiculous to NOT have him in a major event. But then again, he doesn’t seem very popular at all. I dunno.
The Sentry Reborn available from third party sellers at Amazon
Anyways, on to all those comics. Out of all of them, I thought the 2000 series was written the best, and the art was very reflective of the character. Kind of rough, lots of contrast, it feel appropriate. I didn’t much like the issues starring the others he’s interacted with though. The 2005 series, even though it covers similar themes but it takes place well after the 2000 series…didn’t feel as well done. It wasn’t written as well, nor did I find the art fitting. For a long time, I disliked Romita Jr’s art style. I’ve come to appreciate it more of late, but it doesn’t seem appropriate for this particular series.
The best thing to say about all those issues is that they kept me interested. You’ve got a character with potential, and even when some of the art doesn’t work for it, or some of the writing isn’t the best, it’s still interesting enough to make me want to see this character develop and destroy/save/whatever Manhattan/the world. That said, he’s mostly relegated to coming along and punching things in the face right now, the Superman role, so we’ll see if they flesh him out in a decent way.
4/5. Consider it a 4.5/5 for the first series, a 3.5/5 for the second, and just an overall 4 for the character.
