Surprised. Pleasantly surprised. Almost shocked, but not quite.

Frankly, I did not like the first Age of Sentry issue. It seemed like a poor parody of early Silver Age DC comics, at the age in which censors Bowdlerized comic books to the point at which they were better suited to children than adventure-minded adults. Parody sometimes works, but Age of Sentry #1 was boring. More importantly, it told us very little about Marvel's most controversial hero.

On the other hand, Age of Sentry #2 was very good. The Silver Age parody was strong (especially the art in the first of the two tales). The first story, in which The Sentry fights a giant super-powered bear, could very well have been stupid. However, the writers made a '60's pop figure the star of the tale - the great writer Truman Capote. Truman, starring as a guest correspondent of the Daily Planet, writes eviscerating article-after-article about the Sentry as he fails to stop the rampages of Ursus the bear. We learn that this is due to Capote's long-standing insecurities about bears (I don't even want to ruin the very funny joke about how a bear was the basis of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"). The jokes were both old-fashioned and au courant - it's hard to believe that the creators pulled this one off.

The second of the two tales was even better, as it taught us a bit more about The Sentry's distorted sense of reality. The story was a mundane tale about a secret birthday party for the Sentry, and it should have been mildly enjoyable. However, it became fantastic when, during the party, the Sentry's Silver Age reality dissolves, and he begins to glimpse some other (likely more real) reality. We perceive this through the art - the Lichtenstein-style '60's look literally dissolves into a painted style that we have learned to appreciate as comic book realism. Although neither style is drawn brilliantly, the combination of styles is fantastic.

Although this series was billed a set of "lost" Sentry stories from the Silver Age, it may become much more. It may teach us about the Sentry's insanity, which is really a reflection of his inability to see reality. Are these stories really locked in the Sentry's mind? Are they just fabrications of his imagination that never did occur in the Marvel Universe's long history? I hope that we learn more about this. I am shocked to say this, but I cannot wait for the next Age of Sentry book.