“Sentinels” by Chris Claremont & Bob McLeod

Synopsis: Holy balls there’s a lot going on in this book! Deep breath…

Dani’s still in the Danger Room being chased by big monsters; eventually she falls off a cliff and gets knocked out.

Meanwhile the rest of the kids are chilling at a mall. In fact, they just got out of a movie theater after seeing “E.T.” They meet some local ruffians and kinda befriend them, unbeknownst that they’re under surveillance by shady government operation, Project Wide Awake, who- you guessed it- don’t like mutants. It’s headed by a Henry Peter Gyrich, who I’m not familiar with, but who is talking to Sebastian Shaw, head of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club and himself a mutant, unbeknownst to Gyrich. That dude I know, and he’s bad news.

So back at the mall Stevie is trying to call the mansion, but no one picks up. She gets pulled into a broom closet by Michael Rossi, who she’s heard of before from Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel!). This guy warns her the kids may be in trouble, and sure enough some agents show up to escort them away. Stevie and Rossi interrupt the plans, the New Mutants spring into action, and the bad guys call in Sentinels. Overkill much? Many pages of glorious mutant v giant robot action ensue. The Sentinels are destroyed and the cops arrest the bad guys while our heroes make a discreet exit for home.

When they get back to the mansion, they find Dani in the Danger Room and wake her up. She recounts her ordeal, leaving Stevie to assume that the person who turned the safety controls off had to be Professor Xavier. Who by the way is apparently host to some evil alien queen monster thing.

Whew.

Favorite panel: There’s a lot of good stuff to choose from, but I gotta go with this fantastic 2-page spread of Sunspot fighting a Sentinel in the mall. Pay attention to the comic shop and Spencer Gifts stores on the lower level. Awesome. Also, I think it’s written into Marvel law that every X-Team has to fight Sentinels in a mall at some point.

Poor attempt at art: #2 Sunspot v Sentinel. Blacked out one of S’s eyes, and the lines are a bit sloppy, but hey, I’ve got over 90 more to work on stuff like that.