John Dell and Laura Martin pitch in on inks and colors, respectively, this month, and those are some really talented pinch hitters to get. Should keep the book looking smooth despite the presumed scheduling issues that caused them to be brought in. We begin with Paul Jenkins and Lindy Reynodls on the Helicarrier for their safety. Jenkins is fascinated that someone he thought he made up for comics is a real person, which is very meta and a nice touch for the whole marketing gimmick of the original mini. He’s wondering if Bob willed him to be the conduit to get his stories out into the world over Lindy’s objections that he not talk about all this right now when she collapses.
Emma catches Lindy up on what’s happening, and we get a totally new 2-page spread of the Void yelling “You had no right!” at the heroes like he did last issue, which, if it was me, I woulda just used the same spread from last time. Emma thinks she can pull shared memories of experiences Lindy and bob shared out of Lindy’s mind and show them to Bob in an attempt to get him to come out of hiding. Lindy agrees, still maybe not totally knowing what’s going on.
Suddenly, out in the real world, the Void, which is increasingly looking like a xenomorph stops moving. Then the book is interrupted by a 4-page advertisement for the FAMOUSLY bad Spider-Man event coming soon (Block 69 for me), which also gets a half page ad 2 pages later. Really pushing this absolute debacle. I dread it, dear reader. But the sheer volume of material I have to clear has it way in my future despite being advertised is this issue.
Emma explains that Bob’s cycle of becoming and forgetting the Sentry and the Void was his mind fighting the brainwash. That the comic books were a cry for help to the world. She says she can heal him, but he has to want it. They’re not going to make the world remember the Sentry. Making them forget was an unconscious choice, but mind controlling everyone in the world on purpose wouldn’t be right. So he’ll be a new superhero coming out of this. And, Emma says, he’ll be an Avenger.
There is no planet on which Emma Frost would talk about “taking a dump.”
Using “crazy” as a noun is one of Bendis’ most distinct Bendis-isms, and the more characters who use it, the more it sticks out.
Now why would Tony keep that a secret? I don’t honestly remember. It doesn’t make sense to me. I think it’s worth noting the way this story worked vs. some of Bendis’ event comics. These last couple parts of this 4-parter didn’t have much for the Avengers to do. But unlike, say, a comic called Secret War that doesn’t actually care about the Secret War, this story was called The Sentry, was about the Sentry, and worked just fine in that way, despite the rest of the Avengers not doing much in the end. Bob now is an Avenger, so the focus on him isn’t off-topic. It’s not really delivering something you wouldn’t expect like Secret War or Ultimate Six did. It’s a much better use of the same approach.