The Sentry

(Marvel, 2000-2001)
™ and ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Before the Fantastic Four…before the Avengers…there was a hero to rule all heroes and his name was Sentry. Don’t remember this Golden Age icon? Don’t worry, neither does the rest of the Marvel Universe. But writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee look to change all of that with their five issue Marvel Knights mini-series.

An interesting occurrence hit the Mighty House of Ideas. Supposedly, fan favorite writer Jenkins was snooping through the publisher’s submission pile one day and just happened to come across a proverbial pot of gold—a “lost file” of work by Stan Lee and Artie Rosen dating back to 1961. It seems the two, upon receiving the mandate to create a new line of super-hero comics, created outlines and character sketches for the Marvel Comics’ equivalent to Superman. His name was the Sentry and he had “the power of a million exploding suns.” In typical Lee fashion, the character was also an alcoholic making him that much more accessible to readers. While the concept for the character was later scrapped in favor of the Fantastic Four, Jenkins could not pass on the opportunity of working this truly classic super-hero into mainstream continuity.

The result: Sentry—a five issue Marvel Knights mini-series that poses the question: Is Sentry a hero that has inexplicably been erased from the Marvel Universe? Or, is he a mad man whose alcoholic delusions of grandeur make him more than he really is?

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