Credits

• Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
• Pencils: Steve McNiven
• Inks: Danny Miki and Mark Morales
• Colors: Frank D'Armata
• Letters: Comicraft
• Editor: Axel Alonso

Quick Summary

The issue begins with several pages from an ‘imaginary’ Sentry Marvel comic book, in which the Sentry faces the Void, who is working for the Kingpin, as well as a Skrull armada. Cut to the cave in the ‘real’ Marvel Universe, where the Sentry, in despair, is being addressed by Iron Man, Captain America, his wife, writer Paul Jenkins, and several SHIELD agents.

In a flashback, Iron Man and Wolverine discuss Logan’s potential New Avengers membership. In the present, the balance of the team are confronting the Wrecker on Long Island. Using her pheromone powers, Spider Woman tricks the Wrecker into a conversation until the others are able to take him down. Back in the cave, the Sentry’s wife tries to convince him that ‘he’ never killed her. The Sentry refuses to believe her and slips into a rage. There is an explosion of sorts, and he disappears. The Sentry, as Robert Reynolds, awakes in his home. Emma Frost, the mutant White Queen, is speaking to him from his television set. She tells him “It’s time to go outside now,” and opening the front door, he finds himself confronted with an assemblage of heroes, including the New Avengers, the Astonishing X-men team, the Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, Namor, the Inhuman Royal Family (sans Crystal), and members of SHIELD. Reynolds tells the group that the Void is “here,” as black tendrils appear to rise up behind the heroes.

Commentary

This is a smoothly readable issue, one that carries the arc along without delivering anything that is very significant. McNiven’s are is fun and functional, and thankfully lacks the sense of terrible gravity with which David Finch, who is leaving the title shortly, overburdens almost every panel.

There’s very little to dislike or quibble with throughout. The focus on the Sentry directly ties to his past within the Marvel Universe, and the conversation between Iron Man and Wolverine addresses Logan’s recent misadventures as a mind-controlled HYDRA agent as well as the events of ‘Chaos.’

However, during this conversation, Iron Man states that he is a “very rich man,” which directly conflicts with his speech to the historical Avengers in the recent Avengers: Finale. This is a fairly big discrepancy, especially since Bendis used Stark’s stated lack of funds as the major reason that the historical Avengers had to be disbanded. Does Bendis have a trick up his sleeve where all of this is involved? Perhaps he does. Perhaps we’ll see why the historical team had to be disbanded and a new team formed.

Another minor disappointment is seeing the Wrecker, one of the most overused criminals in the Marvel Universe, taken out again with comparative ease. Though the portrayal of the Wrecker is one of the best in recent memory, how refreshing it would have been to see him defeat Spider Woman and escape to raise hell again another day. Nonetheless, the longish scene between Spider Woman and the Wrecker is quite good, especially since Jessica’s concerned attention for his welfare is nothing but a sham and a delaying tactic, and no apologies are provided by her or to the reader.

Interestingly but perhaps coincidentally, the strands of Jessica’s blowing hair look quite a bit like the tendrils of the Void on the last page, though whether the Void is actually present or merely a figment of Reynold’s mind remains to be seen.

McNiven’s art is very detailed (note the beard stubble on the Wrecker’s face in one panel) and carries the story along nicely. Less beautiful on a panel by panel basis than Finch’s, it is also less static, less ‘heavy,’ and less ‘high art.’ In may ways, this arc has a considerably lighter touch that ‘Breakout,’ largely due to the comfortable meshing of the tone of Bendis’s writing with McNiven’s fairly light-hearted art.