Yes, this story should sound familiar because, yes, this is a direct riff on the concept of the Sentry (with the themes of Red, White and Black thrown in for good measure).  The most powerful superhero in the Marvel universe is forced to go away and is thereafter forgotten by the rest of the world.  With the Sentry, he was forced to go away because he was bat-s**t crazy, and using his powers could have destroyed the world.  And everyone forgot him because of a mystical/scientific global mindwipe.

Wth the Blue Marvel, the hero must go away because, well, he’s black and the Kennedy administration is concerned that a black hero of that magnitude would cause race riots.  And everone forgets him because, well, I suppose he was just forgettable.

Paul Jenkins did a much better job delivering an immersive reading experience populated by relatable characters right from the start.  And Jae Lee delivered powerful images to support Jenkins’ story.  Kevin Grevioux delivers rough dialogue and ciphers for characters, accompanied by servicable Broom art that never really impressed me.  If I’d never read the Sentry, or Red White and Black, I would have still found this story drab and lifeless.  But when compared to the two aforementioned and similar stories, I found this comic to be without any real merit.  For anyone interested in the racial tones of this comic I can’t recommend picking up a trade of Red, White and Black highly enough.  And for those interested in the lost hero aspect, I suggest reading the Sentry.  I think you’ll find them to be much better stories.

With that said, this is only the first part of a 6-part story, so perhaps now that the setup is out of the way we can move on to more interesting ground.  I’m still going to give issue #2 a try to see where the story’s headed, but if it’s more of the same in tone or quality as #1, then that’s as far as I plan to go.