Random Back Issues #153 - Sentinel #4

Hey, we were just talking about you guys!

At this point, Juston's withdrawn and surly with everyone. He tried asking out Jessie, the cool upperclassman, to the dance, but she's got a boyfriend in college. Ouch. On the plus side, he kicked one of the varsity dickheads in the junk when the guy tried to stuff him in a locker.

Unfortunately, Josh is out for revenge beyond merely a beatdown, though it won't fully manifest for another issue. For now, though, one of his buddies notices Juston and Jessie talking it out and gets a troubling look on his face. Then Josh and his boys jump Alex, Juston's best friend, while he's out on a date, and give a message to pass along.

Seems like you could call the cops in at that point. Get them on hate crime charges, assault against a minor, something. This is, beyond being cruel, ill-advised. Juston is still working on getting the Sentinel up and running. He can't buy circuitry, or liquid nitrogen for the freeze ray, but he was able to make a new knee joint support in shop class! Which means the Sentinel can walk again. Which means it might leave, so Juston tells it to add a new prime directive: that it will not leave Juston, ever.

How well that's going to work, when the Sentinel is steadily restoring its memory banks while Juston's not around, is up in the air. For now, it's time for a test drive. Juston rigged a platform and some hand grips on the Sentinel's back, and they go tearing through the woods, eventually stopping at a cliff (as seen in last weekend's Saturday Splash Page!)  So it can run, and its repulsor rays, pulse blasts, whatever it's firing from its palms work, too. Let's hope some asshole jocks don't give Juston a reason to want to use those weapons on anybody. Like beating up his friend, or making the girl he likes think he's spreading stories about scoring with her. That could end badly. . .

{9th longbox, 156th comic. Sentinel (vol. 1) #4, by Sean McKeever (writer), Joe Vriens, Sacha Heilig, Scott Hepburn, Eric Vedder (artists), Andrew Hou, Kevin Yan, Simon Young (colorists), Cory Petit (letterer)}