Despite the fact that my core talent clearly lies in making “humorous” lists of super-heroes, I’m occasionally called on by my job at ComicsAlliance to write an actual review, and that’s exactly what I did this week with a look at what’s wrong with The Sentry: Fallen Sun.
Ragnell has another take on the same issue that goes into way more detail about the Rogue stuff, but I was personally just utterly mystified by the Wrecker and the kids. Just… why, you know? In any case, the only thing further I have to say on the matter is that it was all I could do to not put this in the CA Article…
…because I am basically twelve.
Wait. Is that cover supposed to be one those scenes where all the heroes reach out to carry the Sentry’s body kinda things? Because if so, why is Spider-Man feeling up the Sentry’s chest?
Oh and the Sentry is such a blatant Mary-Sue, I’m surprised he wasn’t bigger.
Well put, Chris. I hated that one-shot, and that’s from someone who actually liked the Sentry- not as a character, because he’s about as one-dimensional as they come, but as a plot device, a magguffin used to explore the personalities of other characters. I even like the Sentry’s story arc under Bendis- from forgotten demigod to essential Dark Knight’s Superman to unwilling angel of death. Again, it’s not the Sentry himself that was interesting, but how his presence affected characters like Iron Man and Norman Osborn. I also kind of dig the fact that it took an evil Superman to reunite the heroes of the Marvel Universe, and bring things into a new age- there’s something almost poetic to that, especially since the Sentry would fit right in with the current DC Universe stories, mired in the ultraviolence of the last decade. Marvel really does seem to be moving forward to me, and it took the death of the Sentry to do that.
“-“Wolverine, take the sentinels! Storm, Magneto’s vulnerable to a lightning strike! Rogue, do you remember that time you banged the Sentry? What was that about?””
Genius.
However, I feel compelled to point out that She-Hulk banging the Juggernaut became a plot point, so anything is possible….
…can we therefore assume that Rogue is now carrying the Sentry’s Katra, Dr. McCoy style?
Don’t make me hurt you Billy….
When are we going to get around to flushing Jenkins out of comics, once and for all?
So there’s no question this comic is terrible (wish I knew why my comic guy pulled it for me), but I did enjoy one moment.
When everyone gives their little eulogy moment, Cyclops gets up and offers condolences for the X-men and just totally gives the impression that he can’t believe he’s here for this, and really feels like he’s got half a dozen other places where he could be doing something useful.
Now I’m sure the writer didn’t intend for that to be the point (I’m pretty sure he was going for the cold, emotionless characterization of Cyclops instead), but it’s totally what I read.
Of course maybe I’m just projecting.
Seangreyson, I read it exactly the same way. Especially in that his comments are classic “don’t speak ill of the dead” eulogizing. It’s basically “I imagine that people who aren’t me may be saddened by his death, and that’s too bad. I bear his immortal soul no specific animus.”
The thing that strikes me so odd about the reaction to this book is seeing how manny internet commenters were apparently under the impression that Rogue was a virgin, like, up until reading this issue. She’s lost her powers many times – at least twice for months on end, and during one of those stretches she actually moved in with Gambit. There was an infamous storyline where she was with Gambit in Antarctica under the effect of the power-negation technology that’s ubiquitous in the Marvel Universe when it’s convenient to the plot that pretty much everyone assumed ended with them having sex off panel. In her very first appearance she met two people who were immune to her powers (and come on, it’s just naive to think there was ever going to be a “Rogue looses her virginity” comic – I literally can’t think of ANY Marvel superhero whose first time can be narrowed down to a specific issue).
And, not to get crude, but even when Rogue’s powers were at their most uncontrollable: a condom and a sheet with a hole cut in it and you’re fine.
ZZZ: Agreed, the reaction in relation to Rogue’s virginity seems a bit much. It seems more that enough to call Marvel out on putting out cheap stunts to force relationships between the Sentry and the rest of the Marvel heroes. Unless they’re going to try and make the Sentry into a Tiger Woods metaphor.
For me, the whole Rogue/Sentry thing is less about “Oh, no, her virginity!” and more “Did those characters even know each other?” It’s like when, in Cry for Justice, it was decided that Hal Jordan had a threeway with Lady Blackhawk and Huntress. I don’t know if they’ve ever been in the same room together, let alone the same bed.
For me, the whole Rogue/Sentry thing is less about “Oh, no, her virginity!†and more “Did those characters even know each other?â€
That’s my feeling; it might not have been made too clear in the article. Regardless of virginity, physical relationships are a Big Deal for rogue, and ought to not be thrown out as throwaway scenes in someone else’s story.
ZZZ — Dude, check out the dialogue there. She says that for a long time, he was the only person who could hug her. That’s very much a “It was my only shot back then” thing. Basically, they retconned in her losing her virginity to someone we never saw her date. They’re saying, basically, that he beat Gambit to her.
@ ZZZ: Colossus in Uncanny gets it on off-panel with a Savage Land native in a circle of life kind of thing. I’ve only read a summary of the issue (and I can’t tell you want number it is), but he was so freaked out by the idea of dipping his wick, he had to be a virgin.
I am gonna say this and no one’s gonna believe me but I really liked the Sentry. At least for the original series he was in I really liked him as a character (even considering that he was basically Miracle Man in the Marvel universe). I sort of feel like he is a character they reintroduced into the regular Marvel universe just to basically destroy and humiliate for simple plot device elements and agree he should have just never been brought back after the original series, if only because what they decided to make out of him. I always did and do feel like there isn’t a character or story that just “doesn’t belong” in any said universe as long as they are written well and will always feel sad because now Sentry is one of about a dozen or so random all-powerful characters that will probably pop back up now and again to go crazy and “turn evil” and kill people like Phoenix or Scarlet Witch because a writer needs a plot device. I legitimately think he could have worked as something more but that will never happen now so whatever.
Oh yeah, sorry for double post but I do agree with the original point. There is no reason Rogue should be fodder for this kind of bullshit. I have always felt that she was one of the best female characters Marvel had and really, if they were going to try to make a “marketable” female character like they’ve been trying to do, my candidate would have been her. This comic just sort of seems like an exclamation point of stupidity on what has been about how many years of supposedly building to what became ultimately, sadly, pointless.
Would it make any difference to anyone if Jenkins had wanted to write the story of Rogue and Sentry back in 2000 but just didn’t have the pages available? I mean, I get the problematic sexual politics here: Jenkins could have written a throwaway scene about Sentry using the power of a million exploding suns to turn The Thing human again for a little while and no one would have thought it detracted from ‘This Man, This Monster,’ or gotten upset about using Benjy’s tragedy as a prop in someone else’s story (at least, I don’t think they would), but instead, for whatever reason, he chose to do Rogue in bed with Sentry and he didn’t do the groundwork for that. But it doesn’t seem like something he put ZERO thought into, so I just wonder if this is a story he wanted to write and realized this was his last chance. And, if he had, whether people would have been as upset back then.
And, as far as The Wrecker goes, I agree completely. Stan Lee wrote that the best villains were flawed heroes. When you make the character someone who goes around killing kids indiscriminately, you’ve automatically slammed the door on any other kind of story you can ever do with the guy, which is short-sighted when you’ve got a character you can’t get rid of, like The Wrecker.
First Gwen sleeps with Norman and has kids and now this? WTF is the matter with Quesada and MArvel? Do they have to retcon history to make everyone sleep with each other now?
I would love to know how Sentry was able to bang her and when given the fact that he was supposedly married to Lindy for most of his run. Did he cheat on his wife to do Rogue?
This book was the crappiest crap to ever be crapped out of Craptown.
Seriously, Ben Grimm trying to murder the Wrecker? He’s been up against dudes who have tried to blot out the sun *and* had to live with Johnny Storm. I think he’s had better reasons to kill someone than a bus full of kids wetting their pants.
This was just a bunch of self-wanking fan fiction disguised as a comic book. No thanks.
“even considering that he was basically Miracle Man in the Marvel universe”
Now I have this horrible thought that they only Killed him to bring Mirarcle Man insted (shivers).
I know I’m a month or so behind on posting this, but I felt like commenting.
My first exposure to Sentry was in an email role playing game. I hated the character almost immediately.
Absolutely nothing I have seen him in since has led to any changing of that opinion. He is, quite literally, the worst character I have seen in any comic book series from any company. Again, that’s an opinion of mine, your mileage may vary.
He has single handedly…… no, he clearly had help from his writers and editors (( looking at you here Quesada)) who allowed this travesty to happen…. destroyed years of characterization and story building that has come before.
Marvel couldn’t pay me to take this crap off their hands.
Hello!
I love The Sentry -the character himself- and I did like this epilogue. I felt a return to the mood of a real Sentry story, after much mischaracterization in the Mighty and Dark Avengers. We can even pinpoint exactly where the character was taken astray: in MA#1, when Stark and Ms. Danvers (clearly NOT a former “Sentress”, LOL) are arguing about whether or not to recruit him, and arrogant “Director Stark” compares The Sentry to “a hero in training, a Young Avenger.”
Uh… no.
Right there, Bendis (usually a favorite of mine) dropped the Paul Jenkins character, replacing the real Sentry with his own.
The original Sentry was The Man Himself, as (eventually) remembered and described by the trustworthy testimony of Spider-Man, Reed Richards, Angel, even a younger Tony Stark! Spidey refers to Sentry’s “aura of sheer invincibility … the untouchable hero-god … Cool, confident … like some flying super hero rock star”, etc. [Posting via cell phone. Hit arbitrary character limit. WILL CONTINUE]
[CONTINUING] …The Sentry himself rages “I taught most of them how to BE heroes, for crissakes!” That’s the character as introduced in 2000. Even after his first retirement.
nobody knows better than me how emotional trauma and chronic psychosis can shake your confidence and alter your surface personality – but erase training? Hell no!
Bendis made him a dizzy blonde, a quivering pussy w puppy-dog eyes and a vacuous smile, eager for the approval of anyone, even the Green Goddam Goblin. And in the end, Lindy’s telling us how Bob was NEVER a hero? (How would she know, sleeping 14 hours a day, anyway?) It’s the murderous wife’s word against the memories of all the super heroes? Gee, I call bullshit!
Um, and I don’t think the Wrecker is ever gonna be redeemed. They’re not ALL fallen heroes. This guy is a murderous stain on humanity. When he’s drawn & written well, the PAGE STINKS. Exactly the kind of loud, obnoxious, overpowered ass that WOULD get under an angry Thing’s skin. Perfect!