Random Happenstance

I didn't think Comics Alliance had much effect on my purchases, then two from the same day. Weird.



First, a week or two back CA had a piece titled "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Guardians of the Galaxy; which covered a wee bit of the history of the older version of the team, which was set in the future. And the present book isn't quite set in the past, but may have a lot of flashbacks...

I know I read the Jim Valentino 90's version for a while; I still have the fancy-pants foil cover #25, where the future Silver Surfer calls himself the Keeper and has Quasar's quantum bands and what appears to be a cape or a shawl...I think I had mostly fallen off the book by that point, since I didn't recognize the cover for issue #50 used in the article.

This one's pretty far afield from where I remember the book, featuring Talon prominently: he was the future Inhuman cat-guy wizard. There's also the girl Yellowjacket from the 20th century (who would be immediately fridged upon her return) and the Beyonder and Mephisto and his daughter and a kid that I think was an offshoot of the Church of Universal Truth from old, better, Jim Starlin comics. The actual Guardians don't seem to have a ton to do, but there you go.

Then, in an interview with Batman '66 writer Jeff Parker, Chris Sims asks if he got the job because of his work on Age of the Sentry. Maybe not...

"Jeff Parker: I don't think anyone read Age of Sentry, I believe I just came up in discussion."

Aw, don't feel bad, Jeff! I read the first five issues...that I fished out of the quarter bin, but still! Never could find that last one, though; and #5 actually ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. A somewhat deranged looking Reed Richards tells his son Franklin, that he's going to tell him "the final Sentry story." Coincidentally, the classic Guardians of the Galaxy guest-star in issue #5 as well!

Even more coincidentally, I picked up Guardians of the Galaxy #50 and the Age of the Sentry trade the day after those articles, for a combined total of four bucks. The latter I had seen multiple times before, and was picking up this time because I had an upcoming strip poking a little fun at the Sentry; but he's a character I've liked on occasion. The occasions being his original limited series, and this one; everything else I've seen with him has been on a sliding scale of "kewl" to "reeks of effort." I haven't read all of the Sentry's funeral issue, but it falls squarely under the latter: let's have every hero say how great the Sentry was, and maybe it'll sweep the lame stories and mischaracterization under the rug.

The last issue is an imaginary story (although the whole series may just be stories Reed tells to Franklin) in the vein of the classic Superman ones; with the death of the Sentry. Even for an imaginary story about death, I felt it was a bit of a downer, as it implies the Sentry may not be what he thinks he is. But up to that point, the series is like the Silver Age Superman in the 60's Marvel Universe; and not too shabby. I wanted to pick it up since I was going to be making fun of the Sentry.

Age of the Sentry, written by Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin, art by Nick Dragotta, Ramon Rosanas, Michael Cho, Bill Galvan, and Colleen Coover. Guardians of the Galaxy #50, "Coldly Sublime, Intolerably Just!" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Kevin West, inks by Steve Montano.


Well, Scathan approves, anyway.