So who is this Sentry?

 I figure at some point before the end of the year, I want to see the Thunderbolts movie. Quite a few of my friends liked it. However, while I am familiar with a couple different versions of the Thunderbolts, I actually have read almost nothing about the Sentry.

So, I decided to correct that and read the collected edition of the original miniseries.

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I feel like I just read an homage to Alan Moore‘s version of Miracle Man. I also felt like I read a revision of Christopher Priest’s Triumph without editorial interference.

A Joe Shmoe wakes up to realize he he is the Sentry, a nigh omnipotent hero who is like the Silver Age Superman take to the next level. More than that, he helped the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men and more get started as superheroes. However, all of his history has somehow been erased.

The twist is that his arch nemesis, the Void, is actually him and that the Sentry had to be functionally erased from existence to keep the Void from, well, killing everyone.

I understand that the Sentry has gone through multiple interpretations and origins in the, by comic book standards, relatively short time he’s been around. One part that seems to have stuck is the idea that he was originally a junkie who drank the stuff that gave him his powers to try and get high. That wasn’t in the volume I read but it was hinted at enough that I wondered if it was missing an issue.

I am of two minds when it comes to the Sentry. Taken as a standalone work, it’s quite strong. I was interested and engaged the whole way through. The original series is a good story.

On the other hand, as part of the greater continuity of Marvel Comics, I’m not as keen. I’m not a big fan of works that say ‘everything you’ve read for decades is wrong.’ Twists like that are great in standalone works. You know, where they were planned from the start. On the other hand, revising hundreds of stories by dozens of different authors doesn’t work so well.

(Crisis on Infinite Earths, as a counter example, did work but it also did so by restarting everything, not by saying ‘oh, it was a lie all along’ Eh, it’s complicated)

Frankly, I think the Sentry is a really good character but interacts with the Marvel setting in a weird way. It sounds like making him work as a reoccurring character was a struggle. Like the Catcher in the Rye crossed with Spider-Man.

And, now looking at reviews of his later appearances, it sounds like writers just don’t know what to do with the character. Which, to be far, isn’t unreasonable. The Sentry is on a power scale beyond virtually any other Marvel character but, even more problematic, is in a different genre.

Still, I did enjoy this first story.