Over on the fringes of the X-universe, we have the second issue of Sentinel.

Writing the first story arc can't be easy for this sort of book.  There's an obvious problem: we all know exactly what's going to happen.  The Sentinel's going to be rebuilt and Juston's going to end up in control of it.  Further, he will probably be bullied at school.  The trick is to make the journey interesting, and set up some interesting storylines along the way.

Sean McKeever largely gets away with it.  He's strong on creating believable, rounded characters.  Even when the general shape of the plot is obvious a mile away, the details are still interesting to watch.  The issue still has to shove in some pretty obvious material - at some point, there has to be that scene where Juston discovers the robot and takes control of it - but it's nicely handled to maintain interest.

The real focus of the story remains the soap opera plot of Juston's crush on Jessie, and setting up the roadblock that she already has a boyfriend.  That's the obvious stuff; again, McKeever makes a basically stock plot work because it's really just a vehicle for the characters. 

There are bits of this which don't really work.  Why does Juston's father have to take the kids with him when he drives off to Chicago on business - doesn't he have any friends who could put them up overnight?  And Jessie's comment that her boyfriend is away at university leaves me wondering just how old these characters are supposed to be.  This American talk about seniors and juniors means nothing to me (no matter how many American TV shows I watch, I never understand American educational terminology), and they both look about 14.  I get that she's in the last year of school, but how old is he again?

Nonetheless, overall this is still solid stuff.  We're over the hump of establishing the premise now, so next issue takes us into new territory..

Rating: A-

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