Breathe something into the Sentry, please

If you’re not an Avengers reader, you may not be familiar with the Sentry. The idea came as a gag from Marvel with some help from Wizard introducing him as a long-lost Stan Lee creation. With the hoax revealed, a mini-series was launched and the Sentry was brought into the mainstream Marvel Universe (I hate the term 616) at the beginning of New Avengers.

The basic gist is that he’s basically Marvel’s Superman, except he’s bat-shit crazy.

At first it was interesting, but since his defining story in which it was revealed why no one remembered him, he’s become quite stale. His craziness keeps him out of action for most of a story and then he shows up at the end to handle things. If you’ll forgive the reference, it’s kind of like watching a storyline in Dragonball Z – you just wait around until Goku eventually shows up and wins.

Until, that is, I read this week’s Mighty Avengers #14. I had thought that the Skrulls had simply pulled the obligatory ‘get Sentry out of the fight so he doesn’t win in four seconds’ move in Secret Invasion #2, but it’s becoming an interesting story to further the full aspect of the character. I’m not going to spoil what happened, but if you’re familiar with the Sentry and his nemesis the Void, you might just be fascinated with these occurrences.

The Weekly Pile

Top of the Pile: Mighty Avengers #5

It’s a shame this book has been so delayed. With the extended periods between issues it’s hard to keep up any kind of storytelling pace. The most you can hope for, aside from the creators getting their asses in gear and putting the book out on time, is that the issue is good when it does come out. Mighty Avengers comes through in that department.

Bendis’ decent drama and snappy dialog always make his books an entertaining read. His use of random thought bubbles is a great way to give an extra dimension to the characters without having to delve into a lot of expository writing. Frank Cho’s art continues to look fantastic and it’s sad to know he’s the reason the book’s so delayed.

The Rest of the Pile

Captain America #31 – This book was very close to being the Top this week. Ed Brubaker continues to craft a compelling story even though the title character’s been dead for more than six months.

Captain America: The Chosen #3 – Continuing the story of an aging Cap searching for his replacement.

Countdown #28 – See this week’s Countdown Countdown

JLA #14 – The Injustice League, a large gathering of villains who seem to have gotten together just to get together. This may sound weird, but it reads more like a cartoon than a comic book.

Marvel Zombies 2 #1 – Nothing special here, just the same gory fun as the first series. Robert Kirkman continues to be one of my favorite writers.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #47 – I’m torn about this book. It hasn’t been bad, it just hasn’t been interesting.

Wolverine: Origins #18 – Wolverine fights Nazis with Captain America, Bucky, and a young Nick Fury.

Top and Bottom of the Pile: 7-25-2007

TOP: Mighty Avengers #4
It’s been a while since we last saw Mighty Avengers, and I can’t really say that it’s been worth the wait, but there’s a few things that this issue does to make its way to the top of the pile. For one, this marks the first time since issue 1 that the team does something besides stare at Ultron. Seriously, you could skip from the end of the first issue to this point and you’d only be scratching your head about one, maybe two things. Also, the surprise ending leaves the next issue quite appealing, as well as wondering where World War Hulk fits into all this. Finally, Ares using the bottom half of Iron Man armor to replace his destroyed gun is priceless. Fun read.

BOTTOM: Immortal Iron Fist #7
EDIT: After going back and reading the story, I somehow completely missed out on the context of the story. This was completely fitting with a character introduced in the first story, but still remains in this section because it breaks the momentum of the story. Damn.

Rest of the Pile: Cable & Deadpool #43, Supergirl & the Legion of Super-Heroes #32, Teen Titans #49, Walking Dead #39, X-Men #201, X-Men: First Class #2