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

In a SHIELD helicarrier, comic book writer Paul Jenkins and Lindy Reynolds discuss the bizarre and inexplicable circumstances presently occurring. Emma Frost forcibly pulls Lindy onto the astral plane of Bob Reynolds’s unconscious, and asks her to cooperate in the heroes’ attempts to save her husband, who, in his Void persona, has renewed his attack on the gathered heroes. Lindy agrees. Frost extracts a pleasant memory of the happy couple from Lindy’s mind, which, when presented to Reynolds, calms him and brings him back to center. Simultaneously, the Void becomes inanimate, and Captain America orders the other heroes to cease their attack.

On the astral plane, Frost and Reynolds have an extensive conversation about Reynolds’ troubled history. Frost emphasizes that Reynolds is blameless for what has occurred, and that he desperately needs to be trained in the use of his powers. She also explains that from this point forward, the Sentry will be given “a second chance” at life; he will be an entirely new person and hero in the world’s eyes, most of whose members will continue to have no memory of him. Frost fingers as the General as the party who hired Mastermind and thus was responsible for all of Reynolds’ downfall.

Snapping back to reality, Captain America and Iron Man offer Reynolds the opportunity to become an Avenger. They admit that the offer is being extended partially to “keep an eye” on him while he adjusts to his new life. Frost then “unlocks”’ him, a process which, she says, will allow his powers to manifest as well as bringing all of his repressed memories, both good and bad, into consciousness. Moments later, the Sentry rises, now in costume, apparently psychically integrated and healthy. He and Lindy embrace tearfully.

A message comes in from Jarvis at their Stark Tower headquarters, asking the team to return immediately. Approaching Stark Tower, the Avengers observe that a remarkable transformation has occurred in the tower’s architecture: the Sentry’s former citadel, the Watchtower, has merged with Stark Tower into one very elaborate structure. The Sentry leaves the team behind to enter the uppermost portion of the building, where, he says, he will find “his entire life.”

Later, the cabal consisting of Doctor Strange, Namor, Iron Man, Reed Richards, and Blackbolt meet and discuss the Sentry. Iron Man assures Doctor Strange that the Avengers will take responsibility for him. Richards asks Iron Man to clarify rumors about trouble within SHIELD, and asks what recently occurred in the Savage Land. Iron Man ominously declines to discuss either, shrugging both subjects off as “just usual stuff.”

Commentary

New Avengers 10 is a highly intelligent and entertaining issue, offering further proof that complexity of plot and characterization are Bendis’ forte, not protracted mob scenes and superfluous battles.

‘The Sentry: Conclusion’ is also an excellent example of the manner in which present-day hero comics can be ‘adult’ and ‘mature’ in the best sense of those terms. With the exception of one comment by the White Queen, there is no crudity, banal attempts at humor, or pretentious dialogue. This issue is an excellent example of the kind of ‘adult’ comic that may actually appeal to non-comic book readers who are twenty years or older. As an arc, ‘The Sentry’

Avengers fans of all stripes may decry the fact that, as in issue 9, the Avengers themselves, with the exception of the Sentry, play a fairly small role and receive little panel space. Like issue 9, Emma Frost simply dominates everything. But as in the earlier issue, Bendis’s White Queen is a wonder to behold, and may represent the best interpretation of the character thus far. Intelligent, knowledgeable, shrewd, considerate, communicative, confident, and clearly very skilled, this interpretation is an Emma Frost who could successfully carry her own title.

Bendis’ resolution to the Sentry’s convoluted and troubled history is satisfyingly, if conservatively, handled. Some readers may be disappointed that the Void is only depicted as something of a mindless brute, completely lacking the snide, sarcastic, individualistic presence of the original. In a sense, this is a completely different, and less threatening, Void altogether. Why?

The larger question the issue raises is: has the Sentry’s psychic dilemma actually been resolved?

Readers of the historical Avengers title, as well as longtime readers of the Uncanny X-Men, will sense some Scarlet Witch- and Dark Phoenix-like potentialities in the resolution to the Sentry’s problems.

Like the Scarlet Witch, the Sentry is an unstable being with severe psychic scars who has been mentally manipulated over an extensive period of time. Regardless of Frost’s apparently successful “unlocking,” it seems possible that the Sentry may eventually regress or breakdown, with catastrophic consequences. And in his present state of psychic vulnerability, he is, of course, ripe for mental possession or takeover by every evil entity from Malice and Mesmero to Nightmare and Mephisto. As a relative ‘innocent,’ Reynolds may be particularly attractive to such entities.

The use of Mastermind, of course, unavoidably invites comparisons to the Dark Phoenix Saga, regardless of the fact that the genuine Jean Grey was not initially involved.

If Bendis, and other writers who eventually take up the character, respect the integrity of the present arc, the Sentry may evolve and be allowed to move on to greener pastures; but with a back history as richly seductive as his, it seems unlikely that readers have seen the last of the Void and other manifestations of the Sentry’s troubles.

Bendis, of course, may have every intention of allowing the Sentry to mentally collapse again in the future: that door has conceivably been left wide open.

Is the red-monocled General really the villain who brought about the Sentry’s downfall? The way the dialogue is executed, Frost’s passing commentary about the General may be read as only an assumption on her part. If the General is the party that hired Mastermind in fact, the text fails to make it clear whether this is a solidly reliable memory plucked by Frost from Reynolds’ unconscious, or something else with a less solid basis. Readers may wonder why, if the shadowy figure depicted alongside Mastermind is indeed the General, Bendis has chosen to continue to cloak him in physical ambiguity.

As in earlier issues, Steve McNiven offers further abundant proof that he really knows how to tell a story. It’s easy to imagine how dull page after page of Frost and others conversing against a white background, which represents the astral plane, could become. But McNiven deftly and fluidly manages these and all other scenes like a master.

As stated in an earlier review, Finch’s art is much more beautiful on a panel-by-panel basis, but it is also consistently top-heavy with questionably brooding emotion, leaving readers with the impression that all of the characters depicted, regardless of circumstance, have only a very limited range of perception and emotional response. The result is an extremely subjective interpretation of Bendis’ text that ultimately leaves the book as a whole with very little breathing room. Readers can only wonder how much more vital and dynamic ‘Breakout’ might have read in McNiven’s hands.

The approach Bendis has taken with New Avengers # 10, as well as the earlier issues in this arc, bodes well for title, especially if Bendis manages to invest Luke Cage, Spider Woman, and Spider Man with the kind of depth and believable individuality he has provided Emma Frost, Reed Richards, and Robert Reynolds with here. Overall, ‘The Sentry’ is exactly the kind of smart, sophisticated story the title has needed for some time.