"Sentinels"
Published April 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Bob McLeod
Inker: Mike Gustovich
What's Going On?
Stevie Hunter takes Rahne, Roberto, Sam, and Xi'an to the mall to see "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" in the theater. They are secretly monitored by agents of Project Wideawake, under the orders of Henry Peter Gyrich. The idea is for the agents to detain the students because they are mutants (that makes sense, right?). While the agents are making their move, Stevie receives a surprise encounter from Michael Rossi, from Air Force Intelligence. Rossi alerts Stevie to the abduction of the students, and they (and the kids) manage to fight off the Project Wideawake agents. That's when the gigantic, mutant-hunting robot Sentinels arrive. The New Mutants manage to defeat the three Sentinels that were trying to capture them, but they also wrecked the mall in the process. All's well that ends well, though, as the Project Wideawake agents get arrested and the kids return back to Xavier's school.
Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Remember how last issue ended, with Dani in a very dangerous Danger Room module? Yeah, that doesn't really go very far in this issue. Dani avoids some danger, is confronted by a gigantic Brood, and she gets knocked unconscious. This somehow saves her from the Danger Room program and the Brood. When the rest of the team finds and wakes her, Dani doesn't think anyone believes her tale. However, Stevie knows that only three people can activate the most dangerous Danger Room sequences; Stevie was in town with the other students, Moira was in Europe, and Professor Xavier was at home, without an alibi. Hmm...
- Sebastian Shaw is the man ultimately responsible for sending the Sentinels to attack the New Mutants (I guess? More on that later...). Shaw's plan is to make the kids ultra-paranoid, "suspicious of everyone, save their own kind;" once Xavier is "eliminated," Shaw plans to swoop in and have the kids willingly join the Hellfire Club.
- After Roberto made a vaguely sexual comment about Rahne at the end of last issue, it is implied here that she has a crush on him. I don't recall that ever being a major sub-plot in this series, so I'm curious as to when this is abandoned.
- Sebastian Shaw realizes that Roberto's father is a member of the Hellfire Club. Not the evil, power-hungry Inner Circle, but the fancy high society club. Shaw plans to use the older DaCosta to bring his son to the Hellfire Club.
Writing!
Woof. This is a poor issue.
Pushing the cliffhanger ending of last issue to the background of this issue feels unnatural, from a pacing perspective. Having the situation resolve itself by having Dani get knocked unconscious and then not coming to more serious harm when she was utterly defenseless makes absolutely no sense and undermines the danger she was originally in.
As for the main plot, the Sentinels show up because...um...okay, fine, there is no clear cause-and-effect. Bringing back Michael Rossi seems absolutely random. On the bright side, it is fun seeing the kids' powers in action against the Sentinels, but they should be out of their league against Sentinels. The small character moments in the story came across decently well, but Claremont's attempts at teenager dialogue don't feel very natural.
And then there are the thematic problems. Just last issue, it was stressed that the New Mutants would not become a team of superheroes. The very next issue, they are fighting giant robots in public. Even worse, they do this without masks! For some unknown reason, the team uniforms that they seem to wear under their street clothes --- because they're not a super-team that would need to switch into their disguises en route to hero-ing --- do not include even the most basic masks. These costumes are based on the classic original X-Men uniforms (which all had masks) and the modified original Kitty Pryde uniform (which also had a mask). And what about their lack of training? None of the New Mutants who defeated these supposedly deadly Sentinels passed even the most basic Danger Room training sequence, and yet they easily defeat one of the X-Men's major enemies? I'm not saying that I want the kids to die, but don't you think that maybe this win should have been a little less dominant? Already, it feels like the focus of this title is being pulled in different directions, and the end product is suffering for it.
Art!
I like Bob McLeod's action sequences in this issue; I think he portrays the awkward bulk of the Sentinels very well.
...But there are some serious storyboarding problems. There are slightly goofy, but annoying problems, like having the kids wearing their New Mutants uniforms under their street clothes --- including the long gloves and boots that they clearly were not wearing under their clothes. That's a little silly, but not a big problem. I'm more annoyed by the kids changing their clothes between panels, as they fight for their lives; that just seems like a misuse of time in an emergency.
My biggest problem is sloppy storytelling. Take this scene:
Roberto is inside a parking garage, when Sentinel hands block his way. His only way out is to desperately break through a wall to the outside. And yet, the last panel shows Roberto breaking through a wall one story
beneath the Sentinel's attack.
Or how about this?
What happened to the Sentinel that was holding onto Sam? It clearly was not shown crashing into Sentinel #3. Did it just let go, and quit?
Retrospectively Amusing:
- The kids watch "E.T." in the theater and
of course have to discuss whether or not E.T. is a mutant.
- Local teens go out of their way to introduce themselves to the New Mutants, because the locals haven't seen them around before. That's pretty nice, I suppose, but it's not like Westchester is a small, remote village where everyone knows your name; the county has almost a million people in it in 2014, with dozens of schools.
- Sebastian Shaw's student recruitment plan is a bit overcomplicated, especially when you consider that the Hellfire Club eventually decides to recruit its own students at the Massachusetts Academy. "Wait...you mean we can get kids to be on our side
without creating a conspiracy?"
- Michael Rossi has been pretending to be dead for the past several years as part of Air Force Intelligence? The Air Force?!? Not the FBI or CIA? Not SHIELD?!? Unless I missed out on a rich history of Marvel using the Air Force as ultimate spy badasses in the 80s, this is a bizarre choice.
- You've got to love Project Wideawake's camera and microphone network. It's not like they would have set up their own gear at the ice cream shop that the New Mutants visited on a whim, so that means they have the ability to hack the security cameras at the mall (which apparently also transmit audio?). I would *LOVE* to hear a technical explanation for that, especially one that uses 1983 technology.
- Project Wideawake has its motives spelled out in this issue, and they
essentially boil down to this: since mutants are not a nation-specific
resource, it is possible that other countries are creating their own
elite offensive unit of mutant soldiers and specialists. That is a
legitimate and sympathetic motivation. So what is Project Wideawake
supposed to do? Um. Well. Be bigoted bad guys, I guess? It's not very clear.
- According to Henry Peter Gyrich, he is under direct orders from the President to keep Project Wideawake a secret for as long as possible. And now the Sentinels have publicly battled children and wrecked a shopping mall. Oops. Don't worry, though; I'm pretty sure this debacle is not mentioned again and has no lasting repercussions to the program.
- The Sentinels get called in as the "contingency plan" when the Project Wideawake agents encounter resistance. Henry Peter Gyrich, head of Project Wideawake, said that he would never use Sentinels to apprehend children, only the most dangerous adults. Which is right? Did the agents have the okay to call in the Sentinels, or are we to believe that Sebastian Shaw has several Project Wideawake agents on his payroll? And if that's the case, wouldn't they be found out and punished pretty damn quickly?
- The New Mutants and the Sentinels wrecked the local mall. You would think that would be a big deal, but the kids get to go back to school at the end of the issue, scot-free.
- The "Professor Xavier has a Brood egg in him" sub-plot continues, even though the story got a resolution last month in
Uncanny #167. Looks like somebody is still getting the hang of publishing multiple related titles per month, eh Marvel?
Worth Noting:
- Michael Rossi was believed to have been dead before his return in this issue. I believe his death was in
Uncanny X-Men #96 at the hands of Sentinel master Stephen Lang, but I'm not 100% sure, since he did pop up in a few issues of
Ms. Marvel (Vol. 1) afterward; it looks like those appearances were only in flashbacks, but I can't be certain.
- The computer screen in Project Wideawake headquarters shows the ages of the New Mutants. Roberto is 13, Rahne 14, Sam 16, and Xi'an 19. I'm pretty sure that Roberto is not portrayed as the youngest in the group in any other issues, so this may be retconned quickly.
- Sunspot falls three stories and lands on a car, but does not seem to be hurt. A Sentinel observes "evident by-product of enhanced strength is increased physical resilience." So a three-story fall barely hurts him, but Wolverine can knock him out without any trouble in
Uncanny #167. Good to know.
Everything 80s:
- There are a few house advertisements for "Blip" magazine, Marvel's attempt to capture the attention of video gamers. The attractions are things like video game-themed comic strips, "video games of the stars," and "visual appeal." It lasted seven issues.
- As someone who went through a major First Wave Punk phase, this just made me groan:
