Wednesday, July 13, 2022

"Escalate."

The Sentry! Golden Guardian of Good, with the power of a million exploding suns! Or something. Whose idea was this? I swear somebody else sparked this notion in the comments! But, has this figure ever been used around here? We saw the old, Wal-Mart exclusive giving Clark Kent the hassle with Hyperion, a hundred years ago; as well as him being disarming in Siege. And along with him, old figures for Namor and Moon Knight are there for Nova's "just-us league" pitch in "A League of Their Own,", 13 years back! I don't know if this team is more analogous with the JLA than my last try: is Red She-Hulk closer to Wonder Woman than Ms. Marvel? Quasar feels more like Green Lantern than Nova in some ways, but not in others. The Deathloks get in since Cyborg is movie JLA...

Anyway, I really liked the first Sentry series; and much later Jeff Parker's 60's pastiche Age of the Sentry. And...that's it? I think I've mentioned his appearances in or around Dark Reign, as Norman Osborn's bodyguard, against Moon Knight and the Punisher; but I can't recall if I've read either of those? The guys are outgunned and outclassed, but the Sentry isn't necessarily a gun Osborn can point at someone...more like a water balloon full of acid? It might work, it might blow up on you, it might hit someone and bounce off; you don't know.
 
No doubt more about him next time, but aside from being (more) dated, I kind of prefer the old Wal-Mart Sentry to this one, in a more David Finch style? Wait, it looked like he had short hair on the New Avengers cover he comes back in? But, I would like this Sentry about 300% more, if there were a matching Void figure!

I thought I messed up Quasar's mentor, Epoch; who was maybe slightly less creepy looking than his old boss, Eon; but I can definitely see Moon Knight preferring a bird-skulled lunatic. "Ka nama kaa lajerama" is maybe part of Namor's Atlantean heritage: Robert E. Howard created the phrase in his first Kull story. It cancelled the mystic disguises of the Serpent Men! Shout it out now, see if it reveals anyone.  

5 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

The Sentry huh? I mean it DEFINITLY makes sense now that it'd be him behind it all seeing as how memory loss is as a key element to him as Cap's shield is to Cap. Okay Wolverine fits that thing too, but he's not the one that got revealed. Interested to see where you go from here.

Not sure if we'll ever see an updated Sentry figure, but never sat never I guess. A two-pack with a Void figure would be admittedly be pretty cool & an ideal feature for collectors.
I personally like the 2013 one, but I do see where the Jesus-looking one does have his merits. Hell, I'm sure you could easily customize him into being Aquarius if you wanted since he's already got the Jesus head.

I honestly can't remember the last time either Eon or Epoch were ever mentioned in the last 5-10 years, but then again I don't read a lot of Marvel comics either these days. Still, with both the recent return of the Coati in Empyre and this new Avengers/X-Men/Eternals Judgement Day deal, you'd think they'd got at least a brief throw-away appearance or two.

H said...

Ok, this is starting to sound like Back To The Future. At this point, I'm willing to tap out and say it was all a booze-fueled dream. Where can you go from here, Uatu and a sub-branch of the Illuminati?

CalvinPitt said...

I'll take the "L" on this one. I brought Sentry up as one of two possibilities for contacting Quasar back on May 4th's "Chair" post. I'm usually pretty open to anybody being an Avenger, so long as the writer can show them being useful, but apparently Sentry and Wolverine were where I drew the line. Of course, Bendis wasn't great at the "show them being useful" part, either.

I always found it telling that the Sentry literally told Cap and Iron Man putting him on the Avengers was a bad idea, and they ignored him. Like, if a guy really doesn't want to be an Avenger, maybe don't force the issue? Especially when he's apparently strong enough to bring his wife back from the dead without even realizing it (which I think he did in that story where Frank Cho drew Ultron as a naked woman, because of course he did, he's Frank Cho.)

The last time I remember seeing either Epoch or Eon was Dwayne McDuffie's Fantastic Four run, but that was 2006-2007. Maybe one appeared in a crowd scene in Thanos Imperative?

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@H: You do know Goo has access to Uatu figures right? Thanks for giving him that frightful free idea now, haha. Actually I'd legit be down to see how Goo showcases Uatu & his Illuminati members. I'm sure aside from Reed, there'd be some interesting choices.

@CalvinPitt: Oh so you're to blame, haha. Hey, it was a solid suggestion & it clearly was him, so free cyber cookie to you for calling it.

H said...

I'm well aware of that- Goo's got figures for almost everybody, usually two or more. I doubt it's going to go there but things couldn't get any crazier even with them around anyway.