Hmm... I'm taking a little longer over this week's reviews than I'd planned to.  Let's see if we can pick up the pace with a nice, middle-of-the-story-arc issue of Sentinel.

This issue, the Sentinel stands up.  Yes, three issues for the title character to stand up might seem a bit on the slow side at first glance.  But that misses the point; Juston is the real title character here, and the plots are really about his relationships with the rest of the cast at school.

While the Sentinel does have its own little subplot - is it just playing along with Juston and does it have a questionable agenda of its own - for the moment it's primarily a metaphor for Juston's withdrawal from a school society he's not greatly enjoying, and his desire for an utterly reliable companion he can control.  Except, presumably, he won't be able to control it quite so reliably after all.  Alternatively, if you're not into metaphors, you can just enjoy the great big robot which fires energy beams, I guess.

We've got the school bullies providing the obligatory villains, and it's probably the plot thread I'm least interested in.  Sean McKeever does make an effort to flesh them out and give them at least one and a half dimensions, but let's be honest, we've all seen stories about geeks being bullied by jocks a thousand times before and it's rather old ground.  I don't mind greatly as long as they're kept away from the centre, mind you, but I suspect they're going to be taking a more important role in the story as it builds to the climax of the first arc.  They're the antagonists, after all.

Udon get to show off their design for the Sentinel this time round.  It has to be said that a considerable degree of artistic licence is involved if they want us to accept that this is really an improvised body constructed by a Sentinel head from available parts; there's an awful lot of huge great plates of metal in the upper body which seem a little bit too convenient and symmetrical.  I'd have preferred to see it given a more haphazard look, particularly given that they've gone to the trouble of prominently placing a snowmobile motor in its stomach.  Otherwise, the machine doesn't look home-grown.

All that said, the characters are strong and the story is building nicely enough.  Qualms about the Sentinel design aside, the art tells the story perfectly well.  One of Marvel's better recent launches, and worth picking up.

Rating: B+

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