Give me just a moment to just… remember why I liked the Sentry. Because this issue is trying to convince me otherwise.
We start out with old-school Sentry, back when he was a beloved character of the Marvel Universe, saving the Fantastic Four from what appears to be a Skrull attack. Bunch of Skrulls, very suicide bomber calm, fly a little craft into the Baxter Building which the Sentry averts, flies them up into space to get some answers and BOOM. Nice explosion.
Bob wakes up in the care of Reed and Ben who explain and the Sentry seems certainly off as they chat about what all that was about. Basically, man those crazy Skrulls hate the Fantastic Four, so it was a suicide bombing run. But the Sentry stopped the flying spacecraft from crashing into the tall Baxter Building and saved New York City. The Sentry is acting weird, which is fine because apparently EVERYONE knows the Sentry is crazy at this time, as the Thing makes a crack about the Skrulls being “crazier den you”. The Sentry is… tired and we cut scene.
A few months ago, the Avengers had a shin-dig and we get Jarvis THE SKRULL getting access to the Avengers files in a warm moment between him and Tony that… seems a little forced? Ehn, I’ll put the fault for that squarely on me, the reader who knows too much. Later, in a room with only one overhead light, Jarvis THE SKRULL meets up with other THE SKRULLS to discuss how that there doesn’t really need to be a contingency plan for the Sentry, as he’s so crizazy that he’ll do himself in. Yes, we already know who THE SKRULLS in this scene are supposed to be… or that’s what I guess. It appears to be Contessa, Jessica Drew (as she’s addressed as “Empress”), Jarvis, Elektra… Dum Dum Dugan? Maybe? He’s freakin’ HUGE if that’s him. Maybe it’s Goliath. Some Hydra agents? Some SHIELD agents? It’s sketchy and on purpose.
Cut scene to Secret Invasion #1 where Vision THE SKRULL tricks the Sentry into thinking this is all his fault and the Void is behind it. The Sentry freaks out and runs away to space and to a rather confusing page.
Out in space, he sees Saturn and there’s a little spot in the rings.
The Sentry gets his OH NOES face on.
Yep, there’s a little black spot on the rings of Saturn today….
Yes, the Sentry is still freakin’ out. Maybe he’s warding it away? Maybe he’s getting pulled towards it?
Yeah, that could be going towards it. I do have to guess though as his face has remained the same stages of freak out for the whole page and the art’s not really giving me clues. Maybe this is one of those situations where, if we had the script, it’d make more sense. Oh, little yellow narration boxes, where are you when we need you?
Last bit has the Sentry surprised in darkness. I’m going to go ahead and infer that the little black spot is the Void (who we last saw dramatically thrown into the sun) and now… Oh heck. I don’t know. The next page is a full page shot of him going fetal in darkness, so… yeah.
Meanwhile, New York City is once again suffering under an onslaught of destruction. Again. No wonder the X-Men are moving to San Fransisco. A new super dooper Skrull comes to threaten Lindy, who shivvers and shakes and threatens him with her husband who does indeed show up to flatten him. Only….
IT’S VOID-SENTRY! Oh noes.
So yeah, all you need to know is Superman got into the Kryptonite that makes him evil and Lex Luthor is gonna pay! I mean, I was right, the Void is back and is going to make Dark Phoenix look like a stomach cramp.
2 Comments
The Sentry and Void are more than just good and evil sides of a person. The Void is Robert Reynolds, the poor junkie schizo who took a hit of the Professor’s serum. He was the dude that lindy cheated on. The one who walked around like a bum.
I love the mindfuck that is the sentry, and sometimes bendis gets what Jenkins was doing and sometimes he doesn’t. I’m kind of feeling this one.
Sentry is hands down one of my top five marvel characters.
I know that the art was confusing, and for any other character I’d snarl, wave a fist, and go into a NERD RAGE, but since it’s Sentry, I think the sense of confusion and disorientation is probably kind of purposeful. Maybe that’s just me being soft and naive. I do think we’re supposed to infer that the black spot is the Void, and all of the weird expressions are a sort of “oh no! it can’t be! he shouldn’t be here! no no no no no no” deal.