Sentinel (Marvel Age): Salvage

Sentinel #1

by Sean McKeever, Udon Entertainment

Discovering the remains of a giant robot that has been programmed to destroy mutants in his father’s salvage yard causes great concern for young Juston as he is unsure what to do with his massive find and knows that he needs to be cautious with every step he makes in deciding the robot’s fate. Original.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Superheroes, Comic Book

136 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

After writing indie comics (such as the ensemble teen-drama The Waiting Place) for six years, Sean got his big break writing an issue of The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Comics in 2001. Since then, Sean has written hundreds of comics for Marvel, DC Comics and other publishers, including notable runs on Sentinel, Inhumans, Mystique, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Gravity, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans.

Best known for delivering introspective, character-driven work, Sean also wrote several weeks of the Funky Winkerbean syndicated comic strip, much of which has been reprinted in the celebrated collection, Lisa's story: the other shoe.

In 2005, Sean won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

Sean continues to write comic books; he also writes for the videogame and animation industries.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anime inspired art and a story (outcast kid with engineering skills finds a wrecked Sentinel) targeting younger audiences. Just too much filler and not enough genuine character or story building, and the anime homage is very half hearted.... a week 4 out of 12 from me, as I do want to know what happens next, now I've completed the first volume.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Continuing the undertaking that is the great x-read of 2017 and I am seemingly on a stretch of pretty good books…

While this owes a lot to The Iron Giant (which in my eyes is not a bad thing whatsoever), it manages to carve out its own place/plot.

Juston is a multidimensional character and the book does a decent job of showing the difficulty of getting through high school, of trying to fit in or just keep your head down. Most of the characters don’t have a ton of depth but there is some surprising heart to the story.

It’s certainly a story that you have read before but it is well done. I am intrigued and absolutely looking forward to see where the story of Juston and his wayward robot goes next.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how quickly I got into this- it's a little cliched, for sure. It might be because I have read some of Juston's adventures in Avengers Academy and like his character and was excited to read his origin story. I only have access to the first volume. I wonder if it gets any better. Even if the characters are a little flat, the main ones are likable.

[Marco Cian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was another one of those comics that really could have only existed in the early 2000s under Bill Jemas' insane leadership of Marvel. It was basically "Hey, da kids like dose Japanimations, right? And they have big robots in 'em, don't they? Well we've got big robots with the Sentinels, so why don't we just have a kid find one and have cool adventures with it?" I still remember this being advertised out the wazoo when I was a kid.

However, there are two really wonderful things you could do with this premise.

Firstly, if you've seen the 90s X-Men show, then you probably remember the quote from Professor X where he laments how the Sentinels are the most dangerous enemies of mutantkind, because they are the only ones whose minds he can never change. With the idea of a Sentinel breaking free of its original programming and learning to become a hero though, suddenly that is proven false. It doesn't matter what you were made to do, what you were raised to think or how you were taught to conceive of yourself and your place in the world. Absolutely anyone can learn to be a better person and break free from the mental chains imposed by those who raised you. That's a powerful message, and can give hope to so many people trying to unlearn toxic mindsets they internalized as kids.

Secondly, while giant robots like Gigantor and Giant Robo tend to have stories similar to classic Hulk plots (there's a big guy and he finds another big guy and they punch each other and then our big guy wins in the end), unlike in those shows where the robot is one-of-a-kind, Sentinels in the Marvel Universe are a dime a dozen. They're disposable mooks, and so having one break free of its mold gives the writers a chance to try a more traditional Shonen storyline, where this Sentinel grows and becomes stronger over the course of the series, evolving and maybe even taking on machinery from alien civilizations to grow in power (if the Tri-Sentinel was made through magic, surely this fellow could also get a magic power-up at some point).

Unfortunately, like I said, the series does absolutely nothing with this potential.

It's just an Iron Giant ripoff. If you've seen The Iron Giant, you've already seen a better version of this story. Go watch that instead.

It's just not good.

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)


I'm finally going through my physical tv, film etc. tie in library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.

I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)


First time read the author's work?: Yes

Will you be reading more?: Yes

Would you recommend?: Yes


------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)

All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked

Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)

[Alex Sarll]

One of those books I remember getting much praise at the time as an accessible, all-ages comic from Marvel - and then completely disappearing from the conversation. I never went out looking for it, because it sounded like an Iron Giant knock-off, and so it proves, with a lonely kid in a small town making a large friend out of a damaged Sentinel - as in, the giant mutant-killing robots the Marvel US government has which, even by US government standards, always felt a little like saying the quiet part out loud. I have encountered fleshy lead Juston* when he popped up in later team books, and he always seemed like a bit of a sap; notwithstanding occasional bursts of teenage strop, this does little to convince me otherwise, especially when he takes the really wussy approach to using the giant death robot to deal with his bullies, and then somehow still manages to feel guilty about it. But if nothing else, it now has an unsettling time capsule quality; this was a comic I remember seeing discussed online, but its almost entirely offline high school now feels like another era, as does the art style, its manga-skewed stylings a clear attempt to grab the coattails of Oni back when Oni was cool. Even stranger is reading it in an Indian reprint edition with ads for DC comics between the issues.


*Yes, it looks like a typo to me too, but given my surname I can hardly talk.

[Myrmidon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serie molto carina, pubblicata dall'etichetta Tsunami, che introduce il personaggio di Juston Seyfert (come minchia si pronuncia, tra l'altro? Iuston? Giùston? Vabbè), un ragazzino che vive con il padre e il fratello in un paesino del Wisconsin. Juston è il classico nerd un po' impacciato e tormentato dai bulli, con un talento per la meccanica e la programmazione, il cui passatempo è costruire, quasi sempre partendo da rottami, dei robottini con cui sfidarsi con suo fratello più piccolo.
Proprio nella discarica accanto alla loro abitazione, però, si trovano i resti di una Sentinella (avete presente quei robottoni costruiti dal governo, a spese dei contribuenti, per dare la caccia ai mutanti? Ecco, quelle robe lì) che, dopo essersi riattivata all'improvviso, ha cominciato ad autoripararsi.
Insomma, sembra che Juston si troverà per le mani un "giocattolo" piuttosto pericoloso... Quale saranno gli usi che ne farà, ammesso che riesca a ripararlo, riprogrammarlo e, dettaglio non secondario, a tenerlo nascosto?

[Dean Simons · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is heavily manga inspired but lacking sufficient detail and with way too much blank or empty space. The story is not bad in that it deals with issues of bullying but it struggles to really feel convincing. It’s a curious read.

[Jamaal Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very interesting how a local teenager can rebuild a whole robot.

[Isabella · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was not that interesting to me. :(

[Nicholas Fossum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aimed at kids but still fun and sweet

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reminiscent of the Ani-Manga volumes, the drawing style here fluctuated between cute and disproportionate (and not in the cute chibi/super deformed manner). The story idea itself is intriguing and I just wish that more had been done with it. Instead, it was a very cliched story about high school that read like a middle school book instead. The pacing was too rushed and Juston's changes in behavior weren't really discussed enough for even the readers to understand his mood swing. And is it bad that I really didn't sympathize with him either? It could've been simply because he felt like a cliche and not an individual character in his own right. And the choices he makes I can't always agree with, but I suppose he comes to terms with them i. The end.

But oh well, a very quick read and a fun concept. The discussion of bullying wasn't done well enough for me to recommend the book based on that, as it basically came down to big jerk older jocks beat up younger geekier kids. For no real reason. Sigh. But I did like the cliffhanger. Wish it had come up earlier though.

[A M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid story about a boy and his robot. It was originally released as part of Marvel's Marvel Age line, which they hoped would attract younger readers. Runaways and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane were also part of this line. Since the Marvel universe is so heavily focused on the east coast, it's always interesting to see what is going on in other parts of the U.S., this takes place in Wisconsin. For example, Juston does not recognize the robot he found as a Sentinel until he does some internet research. The use of the sentinel as a confidant while Juston rebuilds it is adorable, as are the modifications he makes in its programming and body. Juston's motivations are believable and his interactions with family and friends are both sweet and aggravating.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really need to get some books logged - can you tell! i keep reading graphic novels to see which are good and should be pushed to my reluctant readers and which are too mature for some of them. this is a very short series. it starts out with a great cliff hanger that will have me reading the next in the series.

[Bant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, even if it is just a more destruction-bent, robo-friendly version of the Iron Giant.

[David Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iron Giant in the Marvel universe with a shockingly sophisticated take on the high school ecosystem and teenage violence.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally seeing where this teen hero came from. It definitely owes something to Iron Giant, but it is still it's own story that is hitting its own marks.

[Marcela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first encountered Juston and his Sentinel in Avengers vs X-Men , so I'm really glad I tracked down their origin story. This is a really cute read. Vol 1 ends at an odd cliffhanger, so be prepared to jump into Volume 2 right after.