These days, he’s treated as Marvel’s very own Superman, but the beginning of The Sentry’s journey is much weirder than that. Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of The Sentry #1 awaits!
THE SENTRY #1
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Penciler: Jae Lee
Inker: Jae Lee
Colorist: José Villarrubia
Letterer: Richard Starkings/Comicraft/Wes Abbott
Editor: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $110.00
Release Date: July 19, 2000
Previously in The Sentry: There was a time when Wizard magazine was the prime authority in the comic book world, with in-depth creator interviews, wildly and obviously inflated numbers in its monthly price guide, and a bottomless well of ’90s dude-bro humor from which to draw new fart and boner jokes. My own prejudices aside, Wizard was also the source of some actual comics journalism, including a series of interviews in which Marvel staffers talked about the discovery of a lost Stan Lee character from the earliest days of the House of Ideas. Conceptualized by Stan and artist Artie Rosen, The Sentry never made it past the preparatory stage, with Rosen’s sketches turning up three decades later in a forgotten folder in the Marvel offices. When Paul Jenkins found out about the sketches, he decided to bring the long-lost, ultra-powerful hero to the pages of Marvel Comics at least.
It’s a cool story, except for the fact that it’s all a lie.
Meet Bob Reynolds, a middle-aged married man who lives a life of quiet desperation with his wife Lindy. Bob’s life has long felt like there’s something missing, but as he wakes up this particular morning, he realizes that everything has changed. “He” is back. And everything that Bob knows is in danger. The sound of strange laughter sends him into the basement, where he finds a bottle that he’s kept hidden for years, perhaps even for decades. As he drinks the serum within, Bob feels his powers return, remembering adventures that had been forgotten, stories of a time when he was a peer of Earth’s mightiest heroes. And those lost memories include the terrible memory of the worst supervillain in the history of the world… The Void!
The premise of “lost memories” is built in not just to the story being told, but the story that Jenkins and Wizard constructed about The Sentry’s past as a Silver Age Marvel hero. Stan Lee forgot about the powerful hero (while “Artie Rosen” never existed, his name a construction based on early Marvel letterers Sam Rosen and Artie Simek), just as the Marvel Universe forgot about him, for what would eventually be revealed as important story reasons. As for Bob Reynolds, the return of his superpowers also brought the memories flooding back… unless they’re not actually memories at all?
Twenty-five years down the line, The Sentry has become just another Marvel hero, with an upcoming on-screen appearance in Thunderbolts* that will likely cement him in the public’s mind as whatever Kevin Feige and company have created. But back in the year 2000, it wasn’t clear what Jenkins, Lee, and company had in mind. Was Reynolds really the hero with the power of a million exploding suns? Was he just a man going through a midlife crisis and a psychotic break at the same time? The story doesn’t really take a side, instead showing us Bob in terror as The Void attacks, followed by Lindy arriving to see that he has actually attacked the family dog. When Reynolds finally breaks out his super-suit, it’s nothing more than a jacket with a blue towel clothes-pinned to the back.
Of course, we find that the super-artifact that he has assembled out of junk around the house actually WORKS. And when he steps out to take to the skies once more, after years of inaction?
Though I’m not a fan of Jae Lee’s work, it’s a gorgeous visual moment, and one that sets the rest of the series off on a back-and-forth of uncertainty about Bob, The Sentry, The Void, and the truth. I remember disliking this book viscerally when it came out, but a quarter-century later, The Sentry #1 stands as an impressive first issue, and a nice reading experience from a time when Marvel Comics didn’t always live up to the hype, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. This initial Sentry story will probably always be the best Sentry story, since everything that comes after treats him as just another superhero or as a Superman stand-in in a setting where Superman-level powers feel entirely out of place.
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THE SENTRY #1
The manufactured story is fascinating stuff, and the psychological aspects of the story are fun in a very "circa the year 2000" way, especially if you enjoy Jae Lee's murky, angular art of the era.
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Writing7
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Art5
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Coloring7
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.