McKeever touches upon the notion only lightly, but it's such a powerful element that I find myself dwelling upon it. Remember Columbine High School? McKeever explores bullying and the harshness of high-school society and its effect on those perceived to be among the weak. Violence begets violence, and this is not the fashion in which I expected the writer to tackle the subject matter. He surprised me, but what wasn't a surprise was the high quality of this issue. Sentinel continues to stand out as my favorite title in Marvel's Tsunami line, and one of the publisher's best titles overall.
Juston Seyfert learns than his best friend was beaten up by a couple of football-team bullies who wanted to send Juston a message: he's next. Even that isn't enough to break the kid's spirit, though. But when his new friend, Jessie, hears a rumor that Juston's been spreading a salacious account of their relationship and lashes out at Juston... that's when he gets really pissed. Note to bullies: be careful of who you pick on; you never know if your target might have a giant, mutant-killing robot hidden back home.
What makes the artwork on Sentinel really grab the reader's eye is the dichotomy between simplicity and detail. The character designs and linework is a bit cartoony in tone, and that's important, as it captures the characters' innocence and makes for expressive work. But behind those wide-eyed figures is the texture and convincing detail of the backgrounds and the title "character" (who's really not the main character, not by a longshot). The lockers and ceiling tiles of Juston and Jessie's school look like those from my high school, from any high school. The reader is able to enter into this world not only by relating to the characters, but by recognizing familiar sights in the artwork.
An interesting public-service announcement saw some airtime in Canada beginning a few months back (don't know if it's made its way to the States). It depicts an unpopular office worker being picked on by his colleagues in a manner consistent with schoolyard bullying. The tagline: "Most adults couldn't handle what many kids face every day," or something to that effect. It struck me as a particularly effective message against violent behavior that is deemed acceptable. I find it befuddling, given the problems with teens that have been spotlighted in headlines in recent years. McKeever offers an equally effective message in this story as well.
The final two-page spread is incredibly powerful. It's not the larger-than-life carnage that's terrifying; it's the realization of how far Juston's been pushed. McKeever puts just the right level of fear into the reader's mind. Perhaps he'll go for a typical, tidier ending, but given the blank slate he's playing with here, his options are open.
