Rating: 
Summary: New secrets from old favorites
Review: At first, the thought of Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee doing a "long lost" Marvel classic character makes your mouth drool with anticipation. However the cold reality of it's execution soon brings with it the crushing realazation that we are reading something that I as a comic book fan have read a million times. Nothing new here! Nice Jae Lee artwork though.
Rating: 
Summary: Promised much-delivered little.
Review: At first, the thought of Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee doing a "long lost" Marvel classic character makes your mouth drool with anticipation. However the cold reality of it's execution soon brings with it the crushing realazation that we are reading something that I as a comic book fan have read a million times. Nothing new here! Nice Jae Lee artwork though.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining at times, but ultimately pointless...
Review: Collecting The Sentry's five-issue mini-series, along with the five subsequent one-shots, Sentry: Fantastic Four, Sentry: X-Men, Sentry: Spider-Man, Sentry: Hulk and Sentry vs. The Void, this has to be one of the most overwrought, anti-climactic, and ultimately pointless marketing stunts ever. [Marvel claimed The Sentry was a long-lost Silver Age creation of Stan Lee's that pre-dated the Fantastic Four.] To reinforce that fact, it includes a series of "interviews" between Stan Lee and Marvel EIC, Joe Quesada, that plays along with the hoax; reprints of various Wizard articles that ran in support of it; and a note from Wizard Staff Writer, Chris Lawrence, vainly attempting to rationalize the whole thing: "The goal wasn't to mislead anyone or betray anyone, but to get fans to further suspend their disbelief, to lead them to better appreciate the intricacies of Paul Jenkins' plot, to help them have fun."
Gee, I remember when it was the quality of the work in question that got fans to "suspend their disbelief" and "have fun." Silly me!
The mini-series introduces Bob Reynolds, a potbellied, alcoholic schlub who wakes up one stormy night remembering he was once the greatest superhero the world had ever known, and the realization that his greatest enemy had returned. What follows is a mildly intriguing piece of Rashômon-style meta-fiction that tells the story of a superhero no one remembers and the reasons why.
The whole thing is one big fanboy circle-jerk as writer Paul Jenkins has a good time with this ridiculous - though, at times, clever and entertaining - retcon of the entire Marvel Universe that makes Straczynski's recent "Sins Past" sullying of the sainted Gwen Stacy look timid in comparison. The mini-series and the final one-shot, Sentry vs. The Void tell the meat of the story, from Reynolds' efforts to figure out why no one remembers The Sentry - including the various heroes he fought alongside, many of whom even attended his wedding, not to mention Peter Parker whose photograph of The Sentry won him a Pulizter Prize! - to the final confrontation with his arch-nemesis, The Void. The other one-shots flesh out various characters' memories of The Sentry through some achingly navel-gazing exposition that mostly serves to reinforce just how great a hero The Sentry was.
One could argue that the story's conclusion, with the Sentry once again forgotten, is a dig at Superman himself, taking the stance that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and as such, a being as powerful as Superman (or the Sentry) would necessitate an equally powerful evil that would ultimately doom the world. It's an interesting concept that Jenkins pulls off more in the subtext than on the surface. On the surface, it's similar to most time travel stories where, if you look at them too closely, the "logic" holding them together falls apart.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea marred by bad execution
Review: I like Jenkins work in general, and the art here is fine. My concern lies primarily with the pacing of the tale: it's flat-out too slow, repeats itself for next-to-no reason WAY too often (even for a book that's split across a few titles it's too repetitous) and its flat-out anti-climatic. The intriguing idea of a long-lost hero's return - beloved (albeit unbelievably so for my taste...smacks too much of "Astro City", and not pleasantly so), powerful and righteous - into current day continuity was cool. It ends up, unfortunately, coming off like a boring Miracleman book.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea marred by bad execution
Review: I like Jenkins work in general, and the art here is fine. My concern lies primarily with the pacing of the tale: it's flat-out too slow, repeats itself for next-to-no reason WAY too often (even for a book that's split across a few titles it's too repetitous) and its flat-out anti-climatic. The intriguing idea of a long-lost hero's return - beloved (albeit unbelievably so for my taste...smacks too much of "Astro City", and not pleasantly so), powerful and righteous - into current day continuity was cool. It ends up, unfortunately, coming off like a boring Miracleman book.
Rating:
Summary: Sacrifice it all!!!!
Review: Marvel generated a lot of hype about the Sentinel including fake history pieces about this long lost Marvel character who should have been up there with the big guns like the F.F. and Avengers but then disappeared.I found the story dragged at bit when I bought it on the newsstand but you know what??? When I read it in the collected edition it held together a lot better. You see a guy who could have made the silver age of Marvel shine all the brighter have to give it all up to live amongst us and it makes him all the more a hero. This book is for everyone who had to give up a dream to do the right thing (raise a family, serve their nation, take care of a disabled love one) and will really strike a cord with them. For everyone else maybe it will show you how we feel.
Rating:
Summary: Sacrifice it all!!!!
Review: Marvel generated a lot of hype about the Sentry when it came out as a mini series. This included fake history pieces about this long lost Marvel character who should have been up there with the big guns like the F.F. and Avengers but then disappeared.
He wanders around similar to the way Mike Moran walked about in Miracleman-a god in human form, suffering like all us mortals but worse as he had a dim memory of the god-like power he had given up.
As the book progresses a storm starts to brew and we discover why the world was made to forget the Sentry ever was.
I found the story dragged at bit when I bought it on the newsstand but you know what??? When I read it in the collected edition it held together a lot better.
This book is for everyone who had to give up a dream to do the right thing (raise a family, serve their nation, take care of a disabled love one) and will really strike a cord with them. For everyone else maybe it will show you how we feel.
Rating:
Summary: Marvel's "Watchmen" or False Repressed Memory Syndrome
Review: The creative team that made the outstanding "Inhumans" creates a revisionist history of the Marvel Universe by introducing the grandfather of caped heroes, (predating even the Fantastic Four) who mysteriously reappears after years in limbo. While neither the art nor the plot is as good as the "Inhumans", the story is gripping nontheless and makes for enjoyable reading. Paul Jenkins weaves in 'fictional' flashbacks that Jae Lee (and others) reflect in the drawing to neat affect. Appearances by Spidey, Doc Strange, the FF, the Hulk, and X-men add to the psuedo-nostalgia. While not on par with 'Watchmen', 'Dark Knight' or 'Inhumans', I recommned it as nearly as essential as Alex Ross' 'Marvels' to true-believing Marvel fans.
Rating:
Summary: Marvel's "Watchmen" or False Repressed Memory Syndrome
Review: The creative team that made the outstanding "Inhumans" creates a revisionist history of the Marvel Universe by introducing the grandfather of caped heroes, (predating even the Fantastic Four) who mysteriously reappears after years in limbo. While neither the art nor the plot is as good as the "Inhumans", the story is gripping nontheless and makes for enjoyable reading. Paul Jenkins weaves in 'fictional' flashbacks that Jae Lee (and others) reflect in the drawing to neat affect. Appearances by Spidey, Doc Strange, the FF, the Hulk, and X-men add to the psuedo-nostalgia. While not on par with 'Watchmen', 'Dark Knight' or 'Inhumans', I recommned it as nearly as essential as Alex Ross' 'Marvels' to true-believing Marvel fans.
Rating:
Summary: New secrets from old favorites
Review: This book is an ideal purchase for FOOM's everywhere (that would be Friends of Old Marvel, you know who you are). If you grew up reading "Fantastic Four", "Spiderman", "X-Men", or "The Incredible Hulk" this book is a must. Jenkins weaves this a new hero seamlessly into Marvel history. This is an enjoyable read that leads up to a surprise twist in the end. Jae Lee's artwork is fresh and sharp. This book is an ideal purchase for the 30-something Marvel fan. Buy it today! 'Nuff Said!
|
