Sentinel #10 begins the "Awakening" arc, which will take the series through to its cancellation in two issues time.  Shame, really.  It's a perfectly good series, but Tsunami was never a good way to launch a wave of new titles.  Can't imagine what they were thinking.

Regardless, this could still work out okay.  The remaining three issues leave a reasonable amount of time to tie everything up, and as a twelve-issue series, the title could still hold up.  Depending on how much notice Sean McKeever had of the title's cancellation, it should be able to come to a natural ending.

There's always been a bit of a disconnect in this series, between the school drama plots and the Sentinel itself.  The two halves of the book haven't really interacted all that much, largely because the robot has spent most of its time either lying in a shed or saving previously unknown characters.  That remains the case here, as Juston finds both sides of the plot spiralling out of control in largely unrelated ways.

The school plot has Ashleigh, the cheerleader, still trying to pursue Juston thanks to his newfound fame.  It would be fair to say that this whole thread is a little heavy-handed.  Like the two bullies before her, Ashleigh is a caricature rather than a proper character.  She's one of those characters where it's plainly obvious that none of the creators has much time for her.  Udon happily provide her with an array of truly horrible clothing, and McKeever saddles the poor girl with dialogue like "Ooh!  Ooh!  I have to be there!  Juston needs me!"

Okay, I know it's a standard character type, but it can be done with a little more subtlety than this.  Ashleigh's fine for comic relief, but needs to be a bit more rounded to carry a plot built around her and Jessie feuding for Juston's attentions.

The Sentinel's half of the plot works more effectively, though.  The Commission are still trying to track the robot down, while Juston is finally starting to realise that it's largely out of his control.  Granted, Juston's taken an awfully long time to realise this, but somehow it does make sense for him to cling on to his pet robot long after he's come to realise that things aren't working out as advertised.  Juston isn't quite prepared to let go of his original idea and turn in the robot.

Not perfect - the teen drama falters from having a deeply one-dimensional character at the centre of the plot.  But still pretty good, and deserving of better than a twelve-issue cancellation.

Rating: B

back | continue