Sentry Appreciation 2024 - The Man with the Power of a Million Exploding Suns

[Wildling]

Also, puts all the bets on the movie is kinda risky in this moment. Even if Deadpool 3is a hughe success, wouldn't mean than Marvel is correcting the route. I still am guessing than Marvel wants its own family friendly version of the Boys for the MCU with Thunderbolts. But again, I am guessing.

I really don't expect the likely success of Deadpool 3 to make a difference about a number of things. It's one of the safest blockbuster movie releases out this year and Disney picked it well. A family friendly version of The Boys sounds about right. A faithful adaptation of the Sentry against this Thunderbolts lineup is not even live Black Adam fighting the Justice Society unbalanced, it should be Black Adam against Intergang unbalanced. So I'd hope they'll really adapt his mental state conditioning how the story ends and keeping him around because they'll simply won't be able to kill him.

[JudicatorPrime]

I'm suggesting that aside from the lack of a solo, which is not the be all end all of how a character is viewed, the Blue Marvel has received much more consistent treatment than Sentry has. I'd prefer no solo and consistent appearances over whatever you'd call what we've gotten in the last decade for Bob. Blue Marvel hasn't had half-decades of absence or been dead for, what is it, 12 of the last 20 years?

The argument can be made that Blue Marvel's "consistent characterization" has been far more underwhelming. In some of those appearances you could have easily substituted a generic Captain Universe or random Nova Corps officer for Blue Marvel and no one would know the difference. In most of those appearance Blue Marvel is redundant. You have Stark and Reed around, do you really need Adam? When you're giving a power push to Carol and Monica is on the scene, is there really room for Adam to showcase? Doctor Doom or Magneto are the main characters, what purpose could Adam possibly serve? He doesn't even rate as a half decent foil. What's the point?

I tend to read Sentry comics because I know one way or the other his presence will be impactful. Even when he dies, the aftershocks and ripples cascade into other stories. Kill Blue Marvel today and no one but his fans would notice -- or care. And I can assure you that not one writer would pitch a story where someone else takes on the mantle of BM, even if it's a blatant race/gender swap. They'll just let him fade from memory like Mosaic and countless others.

Imho, Marvel's fanbase by and large doesn't yearn for Blue Marvel stories nearly as much as it does Bob/Sentry. It's how I know he'll inevitably be back. As a fan of BM, I can accept that, even if it's a bitter truth. I only wish that Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema had the collective will, visionary forethought and cajones to use a Black man as the pastiche for Superman when they created Hyperion back in 1969. Or maybe if only Stallone had somehow came out with Rocky and the epic character of Apollo Creed years earlier, maybe that would have shown them the way. But whatevs.

Right now we are in the winter of Sentry discontent. Let's just weather it as best we can. It will pass.

[Tendrin]

I'm sure Bob will be back eventually, too. The only way he wouldn't be is if Solarus' first appearance and Loo's mini had generated a lot more buzz and sales attention. Instead, it's done neither.

[Tendrin]

I wanted to come back to this. A steady presence and characterization for BM is, I think, at least in part a result of how people responded to Sentry. Where I do agree is that I think Adam does suffer in comparison to Sentry in that he's not allowed to be as exciting a presence or as dynamic. As a character, he's also pretty well settled into who he is, seems unlikely to change, and that's before we talk about the elements his race introduces into what authors feel they can do with him. Sentry getting lawn darted by She-Hulk is funny. Blue Marvel getting treated similarly would launch understandable discourse over how black men are treated at Marvel Comics, particularly powerful ones.