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Sentinels (2024) #1-5
Sentinels: Necessary Monsters
Collects Sentinels #1-5. Who are the new Sentinels? The original Sentinel program was human supremacy and fear coded into circuitry. But now their legacy falls into the hands of mutantkind! Powered by cutting-edge nanotech, this new generation of Sentinels protects a fragile peace between mutants and humans. Their first Capture Omega Red! Enter an enemy nation, infiltrate a maximum-security prison and escape with Sebastian Shaw! Can Lockstep bring his people home safely? Will Shaw get the better of the new Sentinels? Or does a greater shadow hang over Graymalkin Prison? Then, when a routine mission goes horribly wrong, the team must finally take on the biggest and baddest of all Magneto! But when being a Sentinel is your job - your life - is it possible to stay human?
120 pages, Paperback
Published July 8, 2025
3 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 6, 2025
3.4 stars
I quite enjoyed this one. Yes, most of the characters are very hard to root for. Yes, it leaves a lot of dangling plot threads that I hope are followed up in future books. Yes, the artist needs to find his own style that moves away from his current ‘what-if-Steve-Dillon-and-Kev-Walker-had-a-baby’ pastiche…
…. BUT it was decently entertaining in a kind of ‘90s-Marvel-UK way. I hope we see these characters again.
I quite enjoyed this one. Yes, most of the characters are very hard to root for. Yes, it leaves a lot of dangling plot threads that I hope are followed up in future books. Yes, the artist needs to find his own style that moves away from his current ‘what-if-Steve-Dillon-and-Kev-Walker-had-a-baby’ pastiche…
…. BUT it was decently entertaining in a kind of ‘90s-Marvel-UK way. I hope we see these characters again.
July 9, 2025
A series about some random military personnel in the Marvel Universe doesn't really sound like a recipe for success, and yet I found Sentinels oddly compelling. It delves into the idea of losing your identity, as well as your mind, in both its protagonists and antagonists, and manages to secure itself a neat little continuity niche by drawing in events from multiple big Marvel events and even a few series that I'd never expected to be referenced again. And of course there are some appearances by Magneto (possibly?), Professor X, Omega Red, and the whole setting causes the book to have a much bigger tie-in to the wider X-Men line as well.
Justin Mason's artwork is a little less busy than the last time I saw it on the Spider-Punk series, and it works a lot better here. The body horror is nasty, but he knows when to draw back (like when the dogs get involved), and when to zoom in for some facial expression storytelling instead. Good show.
I expect not a lot of people read this one, which is a shame, because it's got a lot to offer, surprisingly.
Justin Mason's artwork is a little less busy than the last time I saw it on the Spider-Punk series, and it works a lot better here. The body horror is nasty, but he knows when to draw back (like when the dogs get involved), and when to zoom in for some facial expression storytelling instead. Good show.
I expect not a lot of people read this one, which is a shame, because it's got a lot to offer, surprisingly.
March 11, 2025
This isn’t necessarily bad I just couldn’t bring myself to really care about any of these characters. Solid idea, bringing back people affected by the various events in Marvel history but I feel like maybe it just didn’t work this go around.
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September 1, 2025I continue to pick occasionally at the new X-books, as though trying to find the edible bits of an airline meal, and I thought I recalled Paul O'Brien having vaguely complimentary things to say about this one. Besides, Alex Paknadel is, if not a writer whose stuff I'll automatically pick up, certainly one who's done some comics I've enjoyed. In so far as I could detect any trace of anything distinctly him here, though, it was similar to the experience of watching a film where the guy you were interested in contributed either the buried first draft or the cursory final polish on something that's been through so many hands it's mostly ended up as a characterless mush.
The last time the Sentinels got their own series, as I recall, was nearly 20 years ago, after the last time Marvel decided the mutants were doing too well and knocked them back down to hated and feared minority; I did read that collection, but had totally forgotten it was by a pre-Chew John Layman. Back then, they were at least intended as a protection for what was left of mutantkind, albeit a colossally insensitive one. Now, though, times are darker, and the notion of the US government sending genocidal giant robots against its own populace is no longer as funny as it used to be (even if there remains something entirely fantastical in the notion that their pet tech bros would be up to the job). But rather than jump into the chilling possibilities of that, this series tacks awkwardly towards something more moral, where yes, mutants are being interned by yet another sinister organisation, and yes, these Sentinels are working with that organisation – but they only go after the bad mutants for them, so that's alright, then. And also, they're not the classic giant robots, they're humans augmented with Sentinel tech, except that if they get too stressed out it completely overtakes them, which is obviously a bit of an issue given the work they do, so they're on drugs to damp down their emotions, and even by the standards of comic book mad science, you wonder how any of this seemed like a good idea. I think the operatives all agreed to this because they'd been crippled in various past superhero (though not necessarily mutant?) carnage, but that could have been considerably clearer, and the set-up has a clear debt to Strikeforce Morituri, not to mention a definite 2000AD vibe. However, to make that work you need to get the reader invested in these poor doomed bastards, and despite a few foibles and backstory subplots I struggled to keep them straight, not helped by art which looked like Henry Flint one panel, John Byrne the next, but amateur hour a lot of the rest. The finale reveals a connection to a sweet old series that's already suffered more than enough grimdark revisionism, then fails to actually resolve, instead using the final pages to enigmatically trail coming storylines in the rest of the range. I'm not getting across the occasional flashes which make this less bad than I'm making it sound, but it is still pretty bad.
The last time the Sentinels got their own series, as I recall, was nearly 20 years ago, after the last time Marvel decided the mutants were doing too well and knocked them back down to hated and feared minority; I did read that collection, but had totally forgotten it was by a pre-Chew John Layman. Back then, they were at least intended as a protection for what was left of mutantkind, albeit a colossally insensitive one. Now, though, times are darker, and the notion of the US government sending genocidal giant robots against its own populace is no longer as funny as it used to be (even if there remains something entirely fantastical in the notion that their pet tech bros would be up to the job). But rather than jump into the chilling possibilities of that, this series tacks awkwardly towards something more moral, where yes, mutants are being interned by yet another sinister organisation, and yes, these Sentinels are working with that organisation – but they only go after the bad mutants for them, so that's alright, then. And also, they're not the classic giant robots, they're humans augmented with Sentinel tech, except that if they get too stressed out it completely overtakes them, which is obviously a bit of an issue given the work they do, so they're on drugs to damp down their emotions, and even by the standards of comic book mad science, you wonder how any of this seemed like a good idea. I think the operatives all agreed to this because they'd been crippled in various past superhero (though not necessarily mutant?) carnage, but that could have been considerably clearer, and the set-up has a clear debt to Strikeforce Morituri, not to mention a definite 2000AD vibe. However, to make that work you need to get the reader invested in these poor doomed bastards, and despite a few foibles and backstory subplots I struggled to keep them straight, not helped by art which looked like Henry Flint one panel, John Byrne the next, but amateur hour a lot of the rest. The finale reveals a connection to a sweet old series that's already suffered more than enough grimdark revisionism, then fails to actually resolve, instead using the final pages to enigmatically trail coming storylines in the rest of the range. I'm not getting across the occasional flashes which make this less bad than I'm making it sound, but it is still pretty bad.
September 15, 2025
A very unique and rogue title in the "From the Ashes" line, and one of the last few for me to read before the first crossover "Raid on Graymalkin". I have to assume that these guys will be primarily present for the "Raid" storyline, and needed an origin story to not have them come out of nowhere. The one shining character here is Lockstep, who is able to overcome his implanted tech and stand against briefly. We are also reintroduced to Larry Trask (son of Bolivar), and his precognition powers, both being used by the head of Graymalkin, but also providing us readers with a glimpse at future X-Book storylines to come.
If you like the premise or are a completionist, check this one out.
If you like the premise or are a completionist, check this one out.
November 30, 2025
So at first, I’ll be honest, my interest in this was tepid at best. The team was fine, didn’t care terrible about any of the characters and trying to get me to be curious about Trask Jr is just…unlikely. But then this folded so well into some of the other mainline Marvel X-Men comics that I was a bit impressed. And then the stakes were set (characters gonna graft) and I actually thought the story was working. And then the ending comes around and it’s so unfulfilling that I realized I actually DID want a second volume. Despite some flaws, I thought this actually worked pretty well and the art was wild enough to keep me hooked. Definitely more a 3.5 than a flat 3.
March 6, 2025
SENTINELS is a fantastic mini-series about an objectively terrible bunch of people. The Sentinel program is working out of Graymalkin prison (formerly the X-manor) and modifying a bunch of ex-soldiers (x-soldiers) to be something akin to Prime Sentinels. Larry Trask is a self-hating mutant that believes that his visions of the future show him how to prevent the end of the world. However, since his childhood visions created the Sentinels, it's very easy to assume they're all bad ideas. It doesn't help he's working to torture and kidnap before brainwashing a bunch of otherwise decent people.
August 16, 2025
5 issues built for the last page with the 4 prophecies that may or may not happen in the others X-titles.
I guess the author was happy to work for Marvel but he had a very difficult task to do and he didn't deliver. Characters were not very interesting and the plot was inconsequent.
Art is ugly unless you are a fanatic of mid 90's style.
I guess the author was happy to work for Marvel but he had a very difficult task to do and he didn't deliver. Characters were not very interesting and the plot was inconsequent.
Art is ugly unless you are a fanatic of mid 90's style.
September 25, 2025
This was a really strong story and fairly dark, too. A bunch of no-name mercenaries agree to be implanted with Sentinel nanotech so they can hunt mutants in hiding. But the nanotech has a side effect ("grafting"), such that they eventually lose their humanity. Good stuff here and I also liked the artwork. This probably could have gone longer than five issues...
February 7, 2026
I saw Sentinels on the new release shelf at my library so I figure I’d give it a shot. It’s nearly unreadable. Just bad.
Trask Jr. has started a new batch of humanoid sentinels to take out dangerous mutants or something, I don’t know . . . I lost interest pretty quickly.
Trask Jr. has started a new batch of humanoid sentinels to take out dangerous mutants or something, I don’t know . . . I lost interest pretty quickly.
March 1, 2025
This was not for me. I wasn't into the art nor characters.
I dont see why this booked exists particularly.
What's it's purpose in the line, in the X Men plan?
I dont see why this booked exists particularly.
What's it's purpose in the line, in the X Men plan?
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews