Sentinels #1 cover One of the X-Men’s most fearsome foes get a major upgrade in Sentinels #1, but will these cyborgs survive the experience…?

Sentinels is the latest debut of “From the Ashes,” the post-Krakoa relaunch of the entire X-Men line. While all of the published books thus far have, obviously, focused on heroes, Sentinels #1 puts readers in the POV its titular squad — a team of cyborg mutant hunters operating on behalf of Graymalkin Prison, formerly known as the X-Mansion. If you thought the giant robots were bad, then these highly specialized and nigh-invulnerable human-adjacents may even be worse.

The setup of Sentinels is simple. With mutants back on the menu, the Graymalkin Prison has hired Lawrence Trask —son of Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels— to head up a new program wherein people are turned into human-Sentinel hybrids for the express purpose of locating and capturing mutants deemed as threats to the world. First on the list? Omega Red.

There’s been a lot of wank about this particular title for the reasons you may expect (making villains more “sympathetic,” it’s another slap in the face to X-Men fans after Krakoa, etc.) and it brings me no pleasure to inform you that comic book readers have once again been reactionary whiners and are jumping to conclusions based on little evidence. Sentinels #1 makes it pretty dang clear by the end of the issue that these characters are not to be liked. In one scene, for example, a character refers to mutants as “bad hombres” — a pretty notable Trumpian reference that leaves very little ambiguity as to how we’re meant to feel about them. A book about Sentinels being evil? Shocker!

As for what this book is “about,” it’s not hard to see an overarching theme of the military industrial complex and commodifying war and hatred for profit in the way writer Alex Pakandel portrays the book’s cast to varying levels of morally gray to outright evil. It’s not subtle, and yet it will still go over some people’s heads. Justin Mason’s art perfectly fits the worldview of the book, with dark, heavy lines and plenty of shadows conveying the antagonistic nature of its characters. While it may not be the most “pleasant” read and it definitely won’t deliver the amount of fanservice some may request from an X-Men title, Sentinels #1 at least presents something a little more interesting and challenging than one may expect, and sometimes that’s enough.

4.99