ComicsMarvel ComicsThunderboltsThe superhero Stan Lee forgot: The comic book history of The Sentry, Lewis Pullman’s potential MCU role in ThunderboltsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
ComicsMarvel ComicsThunderboltsThe superhero Stan Lee forgot: The comic book history of The Sentry, Lewis Pullman’s potential MCU role in ThunderboltsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)
So… Who exactly is Bob? That’s the question that may be on some fans' minds about Lewis Pullman’s mystery character after the official release of thefirst trailer for Thunderbolts*. Those who have been following the development of the film know that “Bob” is likely Robert Reynolds, the real name of the embattled superhero known as The Sentry.
The story goes that way back in the ’60s, Lee and a relatively unknown artist named Artie Rosen created a Superman-like hero of near limitless power named The Sentry - though Lee and Rosen lost track of the character before ever using the idea.
After Rosen’s death in 1999, contemporary writer Paul Jenkins uncovered Rosen’s original sketches and brought them to Lee, thus a long lost original Marvel Comics character that had gone unseen since the early ’60s was rediscovered, birthing the legend of the Sentry, the character that Stan Lee - and the entire Marvel Universe - forgot.
Except that’s all bull$#!%.
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)
But rather than simply selling the conceit that all the characters in the Marvel Universe had forgotten about the Sentry, Marvel pulled out all the stops, enlisting Stan Lee himself, then Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and even the most popular comic news publication of the time, Wizard Magazine, to sell the story that Lee had actually forgotten about the Sentry in real life as well.
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Nonetheless, while fans had mixed reactions (and levels of awareness) about the so-called Sentry hoax, the character became a very real, and often controversial part of the Marvel Universe.
So who is the Sentry,really? And what does his comic history say about what may be coming in Thunderbolts*?
Who is the Sentry?
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)
In Marvel Universe terms, he’s Robert Reynolds, a young man who gains the incredible “power of a thousand exploding suns” after ingesting an experimental serum, which basically amounts to near limitless, Superman-like power.
However, there’s a dark side to the Sentry’s powers. Lurking inside Reynolds is a being known as The Void, an evil reflection of the Sentry whose powers of destruction are just as immense as Reynolds' own abilities, and who manifests when Reynolds' mental illness goes unchecked.
The original ’00s Sentry limited series establishes that the Sentry was actually a Silver Age contemporary of heroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. He disappeared from the Marvel Universe when his mind was wiped, along with the memories of everyone on Earth, to make everyone forget the Sentry had ever existed (kind of like how in the MCU Doctor Strange made everyone forget who Peter Parker is and that he is Spider-Man in No Way Home) - the only way to subdue the Void.
Once Sentry is reawakened in the Marvel Universe, he becomes a recurring fixture of the Avengers franchise, first as a surprise member of the New Avengers team, and eventually as a member of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers.
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)
Under Osborn’s manipulation, Sentry is warped into something of Osborn’s personal enforcer, in touch with his destructive Void persona and willing to carry out his most destructive ends.
Ares, the Greek god of war who was part of the Dark Avengers, attacks Sentry, but is completely ripped in half, showcasing Sentry’s incredible strength. Sentry then also kills Loki himself, leading to Loki’s eventual rebirth asKid Loki.
(Not for nothing, ‘The Void’ was the name given to the place where Kid Loki and the other Loki Variants were trapped in the MCU Loki streaming series, which recently played a big role in Deadpool and Wolverine).
After Sentry/Void is defeated at the end of Siege, he’s locked away again, though he’s since resurfaced a time or two in the Marvel Universe, both as a hero and as a villain.
The Sentry in the MCU
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)
It looks like the rumors are true, and Lewis Pullman’s mystery Thunderbolts* character will indeed be The Sentry, unlessMarvel Studioshas a really big bait-and-switch in mind (which isn’t entirely impossible).
This would fulfill long standing rumors dating back to an early casting notice for an “evil Superman type,” which eventually seemingly landed on actor Steven Yuen, who then had to back out of the film due to production delays.
And if Pullman is indeed playing the Sentry, this leads to the next logical question - what about The Sentry’s villainous dark side, The Void?
Could the movie Sentry have a connection to The Void as it appears in the MCU? Would Thunderbolts* use the term “The Void” in a totally different way? Or will there be some other twist in how The Sentry is brought into the MCU?
If The Sentry does become a villain, whether it’s as The Void or some other concept, that would put another villain capable of challenging the entire Avengers on the board - something the MCU may be in need of in years (and films) to come.
We’ll likely find out more as the days tick away till the film’s 2025 release, but for now, Thunderbolts* is still keeping its share of secrets.
Check out thebest Thunderbolts membersof all time.
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