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

[Golden_Guardian]

I've tried to be fair to Loo in all this. There are some flashes of good stuff here and there in the title ... but it's so exhaustingly predictable and shallow and 'made for order' that I can't get behind it.

It could be the greatest comic of the millennium so far, but without Rob Reynolds as the Sentry, I am just not interested at all. Bob was my guy. He represented me on the page, having been diagnosed with many of the same afflictions and struggled with many of the same addictions.

Don't get me wrong, I do not NEED to identify with every character that I enjoy (see my inexplicable love of DC's Lobo), but it sure was nice to have a guy like Bob around, representing, during my peak comic reading years.

[skyvolt2000]

A Sentry run with barely anything Sentry about it, Marvel atp just hates masculine blond white characters and noone can convince me otherwise

Sentry is in it. The mantle holder that many know of is NOT. There is a difference.

If Marvel hated blond guys-Thor nor Steve Rodgers would have been active when Jane and Sam and Bucky and US Agent and Thunderstrike all took over those roles. We still saw them active in some form.

Would you rather have this or what the last 8 years of what Black Panther fans have gotten? Writers who HATE the character getting their hands on him?

[Tendrin]

The book completely misunderstands the character that did exist, though, and that's unfortunate.

Worse, it's just poorly structured in every way, and botches a huge opportunity that did exist with this concept.

Too bad, really.

[Monari]

I've tried to be fair to Loo in all this. There are some flashes of good stuff here and there in the title ... but it's so exhaustingly predictable and shallow and 'made for order' that I can't get behind it.

I'm not going to be. I legitimately hope Loo never writes another comic again after this.

[ENTRYS]

Sentry is in it. The mantle holder that many know of is NOT. There is a difference.

After brainstorming about this very topic for the last two days I couldn't disagree more with this stance. I've been calling these new impostors "Sentrypeople" but after thinking about it more I now view them as skinwalkers.

There are certain characters where a passing of the mantle works, even though it's still a bitter pill to swallow IMHO. Captain America, Iron Man and even Spider-Man. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained radioactive powers so he created an identity around the spider concept.

Then you have a character like Thor where a passing of the mantle makes no sense whatsoever because being Thor is who he is. That's why so many people were, rightfully so, annoyed by Female Thor. Thor is more than a superhero identity.

And then there are characters in-between where their superhero identity is so specific to them that it really doesn't feel right when other characters take over. Deadpool is a great example. Can you imagine any character pretending to be Deadpool for real? I can't. Deadpools personality and quirks are super unique to him. As is his name and his costume. Those were his ideas and something tied to his life. And I view the Sentry in the same light. Robert Reynolds is the guy who came up with the Sentry persona for reasons only known to him. He could have become anything else: Libertyman, Awesomeguy or Fisticuffsdude. But he created the Sentry. Yeah, sure you can read stuff into it like Bob calling himself the Sentry because he was standing guard over humanity... and the yellow in his suit was there to symbolize the sun / a bright new day, while the blue was there to symbolize hope. But that's just us making assumptions. Maybe he just liked yellow and blue. There was no clear-cut concept based on something. And that's just his suit. Robert Reynolds as the one, true Sentry... how do you make someone more interesting than Robert Reynolds? Do you simply make them a diverse minority and then call it a day? Personally, I don't think that makes a more interesting Sentry just like nothing would make a more interesting Deadpool.

No one in this story respects the Sentry whatsoever. He is constantly being referred to as the dangerous, crazy, unhinged, unstable blond lunatic. Every time the Sentry is shown during a flashback in the story it's a moment where he is fighting or killing. And now a new character is supposed to take over. And I think we all know who that's gonna be and why. I can see why someone would want to take over Captain Americas mantle. Cap inspired them yadda, yadda. Whom did the Sentry inspire according to Jason Loo? When the skinwalker takes over it's gonna be to right Bobs wrongs. To do what the original Sentry wouldn't.

________________________


This book feels... nasty. Tendrin said it best when he very early on referred to the story as "mean-spirited". I'm stealing that for a future video.
Alone the scene where Ryan calls himself more stable than Sentry is so incredibly dumb and immersion-breaking. Ryan might as well have looked into the camera and winked so that not even the biggest mouth-breather on the planet would have missed it.

There was a way to tell a story where normal people are getting Sentrys powers. And this is not that way.
There was a way to tell the story the way it is now without being [insert one of many negative adjectives] about it. And this is not that way either.
This book didn't even manage to tell an engaging, well-structured story so far. Doesn't even matter which character is being ruined. This could have been about Wonder Man instead of the Sentry and I would have had the same complaints. Although I don't think I would have read past the first issue because of how bad the writing and editing are.

[Thor-Ul]

I think that the shallow characterization and storytelling is starting to damage the MCU, both financially and in reputation.

I also think you can have deeper themes and human drama in addition to exciting blockbuster action stuff. Honestly, many of the most successful superhero, fantasy and action movies have done that very well.

Not only the MCU. But today there is so dependance on FX than seems like producers had forget tha it is the story what it sells.

[Thor-Ul]

Sentry is in it. The mantle holder that many know of is NOT. There is a difference.

Sentry, at difference of Black Panther is more close to a person than a power set or a suit.

If Marvel hated blond guys-Thor nor Steve Rodgers would have been active when Jane and Sam and Bucky and US Agent and Thunderstrike all took over those roles. We still saw them active in some form.

It is not about blond guys but about people with mental issues.

Would you rather have this or what the last 8 years of what Black Panther fans have gotten? Writers who HATE the character getting their hands on him?

I don't think anyone here hates Shuri. And I don't think the writer here hate the character of Bob, simply he don't care.

[Tendrin]

The thing about Sentry is that everything about him is generated by Bob's psyche. It's a projected avatar of Bob stripped of his view of his mental issues and made 'better'. It's the Bob Bob wishes he could be. When I say they're missing the point here, all of these people are just aping Bob's costume and using some of his powers to duplicate his feats, where if they wanted to *really* say something interesting, having these people generate their own view of their selves, with their posititves and negatives amplified, would be a more interesting take than what we're getting. Instead, we're getting something where a bunch of random people get to play with Bob's powers without any of the nuance or characterization that illuminates why Bob struggled, or why they would.

What we've been saddled with, instead, is a 'fun' and 'breezy' take that emphasizes the single biggest error Marvel has continually made with this character: that all the fanbase cares about is his power level, so instead we get some kind of boring Highlander Battle Royale over the powers. Frustratingly, the tools to deepen both these characters *and* to provide nuance and interest to Bob's legacy were right there, and just ... not engaged with. It would've required pages not dedicated to Jason Loo wanting to write Misty Knight and Jessica Jones' investigation. Now, you CAN write an investigation where the mytery's answer is already known to the audience. Columbo, Monk, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent did that stuff all the time, but you need to be... well... better at it than Loo has been in this mini series. In this case, it was mostly 'will they catch on in time', which can also be interesting... but wasn't here, especially when the answers come down to 'they just go and talk to doctor strange', something they could have frigging done in the first issue given Sentry's known ties to Stark and Strange.

What makes Sentry interesting is that he really was just a troubled guy who struggles who struggled with intrusive thoughts, anxiety, executive dysfunction and other serious mental health issues. Unlike Moon Knight or Hulk, these issues don't really manifest as useful pretty much ever and instead serve to legitimately cripple him. In an age where anxiety is more present than ever, you'd think they'd see a through line for where they could strike gold with Sentry, but to do that they'd need to give him the space to breathe. Now, you could draw a line between the treatment of someone like Bob, and the treatment of someone like Gibbs, in talking about treatments of the disabled. Mallory being a sometimes wheelchair user with cerebal palsy and all, but again, that'd take time, page space, and nuance that Loo seemingly wasn't much interested in doing more than winking at. Hell, having Topper be specifically *ableist* bigot would have been thematically in line with Sentry.

This run not only fails to deliver on its promise of a diverse cast of fun characters but it also serves to diminish the character over whose legacy its supposed to oversee.

[ENTRYS]

Sales for Skinwalkers #1:

sentry1.jpg
Alt: https://i.imgur.com/Q29PFm1.jpeg

Sales for Skinwalkers #2:

sentry2.jpg
Alt: https://i.imgur.com/wmlnhXB.jpeg

I'm not gonna go into specific numbers because that would require a couple of disclaimers. But It's still good enough to see if there is any interest in this or not. And in this case, there is no interest. The commentary of the person presenting the sales kinda says it all, albeit in a very sharp and ruthless tone. Even I would have shown more mercy. But yeah, I do mostly blame the editor (Alanna Smith) for asking for this specific story and then casting a writer who is unfit to do the job. And that's how we arrived at this failure of a book. No one is saying that the Sentry is a household name and that he sells comics like hotcakes. He doesn't. But having the second issue almost drop out of the top 150 is insanely bad. And after reading the first issue I completely understand why people are not interested in this story whatsoever. Especially considering how much worse the second issue ended up being. I'm really curious about the placement of the third issue. Those numbers aren't out yet, unfortunately.

[JudicatorPrime]

The thing about Sentry is that everything about him is generated by Bob's psyche. It's a projected avatar of Bob stripped of his view of his mental issues and made 'better'. It's the Bob Bob wishes he could be. When I say they're missing the point here, all of these people are just aping Bob's costume and using some of his powers to duplicate his feats, where if they wanted to *really* say something interesting, having these people generate their own view of their selves, with their posititves and negatives amplified, would be a more interesting take than what we're getting. Instead, we're getting something where a bunch of random people get to play with Bob's powers without any of the nuance or characterization that illuminates why Bob struggled, or why they would.

Exactly this, well said.

[Anthony W]

After brainstorming about this very topic for the last two days I couldn't disagree more with this stance. I've been calling these new impostors "Sentrypeople" but after thinking about it more I now view them as skinwalkers.

There are certain characters where a passing of the mantle works, even though it's still a bitter pill to swallow IMHO. Captain America, Iron Man and even Spider-Man. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained radioactive powers so he created an identity around the spider concept.

Then you have a character like Thor where a passing of the mantle makes no sense whatsoever because being Thor is who he is. That's why so many people were, rightfully so, annoyed by Female Thor. Thor is more than a superhero identity.

This mantle stuff is the kind of thing that we used to make fun of DC comics for back in the day, but it makes sense because Marvel has now become DC (pre-crisis or post crises take your pick you can make an argument for either) and DC has become garbage.

It's really funny/sad that Marvel and DC both chose the same decade (2010!) To destroy themselves chasing a "modern audience" that doesn't exist.

[JudicatorPrime]

To destroy themselves chasing a "modern audience" that doesn't exist.

It's understandable. Their readership has gotten older, so they have to build for the future. The problem is that they're doing it in a way that won't keep their new audience for very long. Many of us in the "old guard" wouldn't have stuck around if Marvel had written comics and developed characters way back when like they do today.

[Tendrin]

Exactly this, well said.

Right. This book, on the other hand, seems relentlessly superficial and incurious.

[Monari]

Sales for Skinwalkers #1:

sentry1.jpg
Alt: https://i.imgur.com/Q29PFm1.jpeg

Sales for Skinwalkers #2:

sentry2.jpg
Alt: https://i.imgur.com/wmlnhXB.jpeg

I'm not gonna go into specific numbers because that would require a couple of disclaimers. But It's still good enough to see if there is any interest in this or not. And in this case, there is no interest. The commentary of the person presenting the sales kinda says it all, albeit in a very sharp and ruthless tone. Even I would have shown more mercy. But yeah, I do mostly blame the editor (Alanna Smith) for asking for this specific story and then casting a writer who is unfit to do the job. And that's how we arrived at this failure of a book. No one is saying that the Sentry is a household name and that he sells comics like hotcakes. He doesn't. But having the second issue almost drop out of the top 150 is insanely bad. And after reading the first issue I completely understand why people are not interested in this story whatsoever. Especially considering how much worse the second issue ended up being. I'm really curious about the placement of the third issue. Those numbers aren't out yet, unfortunately.

I don't enjoy rooting for failure but in this case i'm glad for the outcome.

[Anthony W]

It's understandable. Their readership has gotten older, so they have to build for the future. The problem is that they're doing it in a way that won't keep their new audience for very long. Many of us in the "old guard" wouldn't have stuck around if Marvel had written comics and developed characters way back when like they do today.

The problem is it feels like Marvel and DC are desperate to break the chain because Marvel doesn't want those kind of fans anymore, no matter how old or young they might be. They aren't trying to gain new readers so much was they are trying to create new readers and they seem to be trying to do so by becoming even more niche and pushing things they want you to like.