The Sentry

Written by: Paul Jenkins
Art by: Jae Lee

The premise behind The Sentry unfortunately outshines the actual plot of the book. What if, the book supposes, there is a character from the Marvel universe that predates the Fantastic Four, the first superhero book put out by Marvel? What would make the Marvel universe forget such a hero? And why? And why has this plot to forget the character infiltrated the real universe?


The cover of Jenkins and Lee's The Sentry

The origin of the character is simple enough: Robert Reynolds--an average Joe--drinks a serum and accidentally becomes the most powerful being in the Marvel universe. His molecules have phase-shifted just slightly ahead of the current time and, in conjunction with a photosynthetic reaction, give him limitless powers. Think of The Sentry as Marvel Comics' Superman.

How could such a powerful character be forgotten, ask Jenkins and Lee? The Sentry TPB delves into this very question. As a marketing scheme--and a good one, I might add--Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada "interviews" Stan Lee about his recently discovered character. They go for a Blair Witch-type blur of reality and fiction. The discovery of The Sentry among some "lost files" in the Marvel offices reveals that even the references of The Sentry in our reality have mysteriously gone missing, just like the character in the story that all of the Marvel heroes have seem to have forgotten.

The premise reeks of ingenuity. The execution, alas, does not live up to the hype created around it. We don't spend nearly enough time with Robert Reynolds to understand how he suffers being merely an alter ego. The story explicitly states that the Marvel heroes need The Sentry to prevent a complete universal collapse, but the weight of such a happening simply isn't there. The story simply doesn't live up to the very hype it creates.

On the other hand, Jae Lee's art is outstanding. Lee's artwork has always been messy and dark and full of menace (check out his X-Factor work during the X-cutioner's Song era of X-comics). Lee's heroes stand with a perpetual slouch underlining the human frailties of the Marvel universe's superbunch. Looking at Lee's artwork, one can start to believe that the world is coming to an end and that the heroes standing in its way are truly scared that they won't be able to prevent it.

Unfortunately the end comes too fast and too easy. With so much build-up, we should get more bang for our buck, and we shouldn't be able to predict the ending so easily.

Despite all of this, the concept alone innovates a genre that otherwise relies on rehashing the same hero vs. villian concepts. Bringing the reader into the mystery was a brilliant marketing move by Marvel, but the book needs more than great marketing to make it a classic. If Jenkins had spent more time with The Sentry rather than with all the other heroes The Sentry had allegedly influenced, the story would have had the gravity necessary to push the book to classic status. As it stands, The Sentry resides with DC's Kingdom Come as far as concept is concerned. It simply lacks the grace and the gravity that the opposing company brought to its own end of times book.

D

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