5 Essential Comics That Define Sentry

The world got to know Sentry when he debuted in Thunderbolts* for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2025. The hero is one with a complicated storyline in Marvel Comics, as he has been part of the world storyline-wise since the brand began, an original ally for the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and more from the early days of heroes. However, his first appearance came in his solo series in 2000, where it was shown that Mastermind had manipu;lated him to erase his existence from the minds of everyone in the world, including all the heroes and the readers of the comics, which explains why no one knew who he was before his first appearance.

Since his first appearance, Sentry has been one of Marvel’s most powerful characters, and here are five Sentry stories to get to know the character better.

5) The New Avengers Vol. 1

After making his return to the Marvel Universe and letting his old friends and allies know he was back, Sentry ended up joining the New Avengers, a new version of the team that was free from the government’s control and one that would only work together to deal with problems that were too big for any single hero to handle. That made Sentry a perfect member since he could even the odds in almost any fight.

What made this so impressive was that Sentry was imprisoned at the Raft before this, by his own request to protect the world from the Void. When a breakout happened in the Raft, and almost 90 villains attacked the heroes, Sentry finally decided to help. He blasted through the ceiling to get out, proving he could have escaped at any time, and ripped Carnage in half after flying him into space. It was easily one of Sentry’s strongest feats of strength.

4) The Sentry vs. The Void

Sentry vs. The Void was a one-shot series in 2001 that came out between Sentry Vol. 1 and Sentry Vol. 2, which didn’t come out until four years later. In this story, Sentry was horrified when the Void began to rampage across Europe, killing countless people. Sentry then went to people for help, but no one remembered him, except the Hulk.

Eventually, he convinced Reed Richards to help him and his former allies set up to both defend him and protect Manhattan when the Void showed back up. Thanks to Reed, he was able to help reactivate Sentry’s Watchtower, which dispelled the Void, and also caused everyone to forget about Sentry again. This was a great story, with some impressive artwork by Jae Lee, and it really showed how important Sentry once was to the world before everyone forgot him.

3) The Sentry/Hulk

There was a series of one-shot stories with Sentry’s past exploits with different heroes during his original heyday, and one of Earth’s greatest heroes. The best of these was his story with Hulk because they became the best of friends, and Sentry was the one person who trusted Hulk and earned Hulk’s trust back. This is a big reason Hulk still remembered Sentry when the rest of the world had forgotten him.

This story had Hulk preparing to battle the Void with the other heroes, and this story flashed back to a memory from Hulk’s past. This was an amazing tale because Sentry had the powers to help calm Hulk and allow Bruce Banner to control the beast without fear. However, when Sentry disappeared, Hulk slowly reverted and only wanted to be left alone, which led to his initial Marvel appearances. This was a tale about lost hope, and it shows how great Sentry can be.

2) Sentry: Man of Two Worlds

Sentry: Man of Two Worlds was the second volume of Sentry comics. The Sentry vs. The Void one-shot comic had the world forget about Sentry once again, but this series had him return, and he became a hero once again. What makes this series so great is that it really dealt with the mental health issues and instability in his life, and this also revealed his origin story

Robert Reynolds was a drug addict as a teenager and was consuming the Golden Sentry Serum, thinking it would get him high, but it instead gave him powers. He then lost control of the Void and created the Watchtower to keep his evil side locked away. This series had Sentry finally lose it and battle the Void, finally winning over his evil side, although it would never prove permanent.

1) Sentry Vol. 1

The best Sentry series was easily his first and the debut of the character in Marvel Comics. Sentry Vol. 1 was released in 2000 and claimed that he was once the most important and powerful superhero in the Marvel Universe, but no one remembered him. He was supposed to have been around in the classic stories, but had never been seen in a comic before, making this one of the best mysteries Marvel had presented in years.

The story then had Robert Reynolds, this mysterious hero that no one remembers, to realize that he had to come back and protect the world once again. The first issue told his origin story in comic book form (but was not his real origin, but a more sanitized version of it), and then it kicked into the teal story where Sentry tried to get people to remember him. Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee created one of the best new superhero origin stories in history with Sentry Vol. 1.

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