We've got the start of a new story arc, the introduction of another major part of the Marvel universe, more of Reed being just the absolute worst husband and the debut of the someone nobody would have guessed would be the most influential character of all in...
The Sentry Sinister.
Which is also another cover that is a close-up on a guys butt.
Anyway, inspired by the whole ruckus with BLASTAAR last issue, we open this time on Reed and Ben finishing off some upgrades to the Negative Zone Portal; making sure that it's only a one-way only, making sure that any Negative Zone Aliens won't be able to sneak into the regular universe (or "Positive Zone", as I'm surprised they don't call it). News which comes in the form of a catty response from Sue.
Turns out she's MIGHTY SICK of her husband constantly interrupting their honeymoon in order to do some science, or because a Godlike Being of infinite destructive power showing up, or her brother being kidnapped by an exiled king of a super advanced civilization, or her husband being shot into an exploding alternate dimension, or being targeted by a suddenly omnipotent science-wizard, or because her husband friggin' sucks and has no redeeming personal qualities.
And Reed realizes, hey, she's right (well, about five of those six points, Reeds not big on introspection), and decides that *come hell or high water* they are FINALLY going to have a honeymoon. And he's going to invite Ben along too.
Also, Ben is going to pick the destination, and he's not allowed to invite Alicia...
Furthermore, Ben picks their honeymoon destination by blindfolding himself and throwing a dart at a map of the world. Fortunately, the random patch of ocean that Ben hits does just happen to have an island on it.
For the record, they DO also invite Johnny, Crystal and Triton, but they can't go because Johnny and Crystal have been barely coming up for air from their non-stop make-out sessions and Triton is busy dog-sitting while they do so.
Seriously.
ANYHOO
In what is perhaps the single least plausible coincidence in all my years if reading superhero comics (a medium that exists entirely on coincidence), we cut to that exact same island that Ben threw a dart at while blindfolded, where Some Science Nerd and his guide have just struck land; the Scientist (who is not named), as it turns out, has been searching for this particular island for years, as he's translated some ancient texts that indicated that Humans weren't always the dominant life on the Earth, and a race of beings called
The Kree, possessing vastly advanced and unknowable powers, ruled the world before man evolved; and this island was their main stronghold.
In more recent days, the Kree are one of the big players in Marvels cosmic stories; and not *quite* the worst ones, but boy do they make a good showing of it. They're an expansionist military empire whose obsession with their own eugenics program to produce Perfect Citizens wound up backfiring in a big way, and gave the entire species lasting genetic damage; losing the ability to evolve naturally. Most of their conquests were to the end of trying figure out some way to undo that damage.
What's also interesting is it's pretty clear that Jack had some different, grander plans in mind for the Kree, but Stan was the guy handling scripts and trying to keep the overall Marvel Universe as coherent as possible, and it didn't take long for them to go from msyterious and ominous figures with their hands in everything, to Bad Space Guys (blue). Other writers (including Jack himself) managed to do a good job of salvaging the wasted potential, however.
~DIGRESSION OVER~
The Scientist, as it would happen, was totally correct about everything; which he learns when he lifts up a broken arm of a Kree statue he got... somewhere (no explanation for this) and the light from it reactivates the bases technology; after millenia of disuse. And, more importantly for the sake of this issue; it also reactivates the outposts lone guardian;
SENTRY 459!
You would be forgiven for not knowing who Sentry 459 is; it's not a memorable name, and he's never been a headlining character. And he is one of the most important characters in the Marvel universe, entirely by sheer coincidence. His reactivation in this issue winds up drawing the attention of the rest of the Kree empire to Earth (as we'll see in the next few issues), and his ultimate destruction is what brings the original Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell to Earth, as well as empowering the current Captain marvel, Carol Danvers. Furthermore, Sentry 459 is also revealed to be responsible experimenting with Terrigen on primitive humans, creating the Inhumans.
He even was the title character in an episode of the Earths Mightiest Heroes cartoon, and his destruction there inspired nearly the entire second season of that show.
As for the character himself; he's a big blue cyborg with a football helmet; what you see is what you get.
I also expect he sounds like D'Arcy Carden, but that's mainly because he keeps telling everyone he's not a robot.
Anyway, 459 blasts the scientist and the guide with a laser-box, and then resumes reactivating the Kree Outpost in order to reestablish contact with the Kree Homewold in order to get updated orders about what to do with the human race.
Meanwhile, Reed, Sue and Ben attempt to make landfall on the island for their completely randomly decided upon throuple-honeymoon and run into a bit of trouble courtesy of the islands defensive systems. After an emergency landing (consisting of them nearly crashing into 459, and him crabbing their plane out of the sky and tossing it away like a tin-can) the FF react to the sight of a huge robot casually mentioning how its power is supreme the same way you might expect them to, and they start fighting it.
And I've complemented Jacks action scenes a LOT during these write-ups, my bias is showing, and my love of everything the guys ever drawn is earnest and heartfelt, and when Joe Sinnot is inking, it stands another mile above, but believe me when I say that this issue might be one of the best drawn fight scene the guys ever made.
As clunky as the Sentry looks, and the fact that most of the fight is it simply slamming its bulk into things, it's an extremely dynamic fight; it nearly beats Ben to death before opting to simply drown him, its able to detect Sue when invisible, and Reeds stretching doesn't even slow him down. The FF wind up getting whomped so badly they have to use their planes emergency radio to contact Johnny, mid-smooch, in order to have him tag in to help with the fight (he arrives quickly because of Lockjaw).
Unfortunately, 459 is as fireproof as he is everything-else proof, but for once, Johnnys tendency towards extreme collateral damage pays off, and after missing the Sentry with beams of "
multiple laser intensity" he winds up accidentally burning a hole straight through the island, badly damaging the outposts power source; the intensity of which causes the entire island to start disintegrating.
While running back to Lockjaw to evacuate the island, Ben also finds and rescues the scientist from earlier, presumably because the Comics Code wouldn't have let the book be published otherwise. And Sentry 459 stays behind; its entire reason for being is to protect the base, and it actively dissolving into a cloud of Kirby Krackle isn't any reason to abandon it.
NEXT TIME: J'ACCUSE!
