In the year 2000, Marvel released The Sentry, a new miniseries that reintroduced one of their classic superhero characters to a brand new audience, along with information about the original artist, and interviews with Stan Lee about the character’s creation.

Or did they?

The miniseries was there, with the central character remembering his previous adventures with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. The paratext was there, with a Stan Lee interview, articles in Wizard Magazine, and an obituary for the original artist Artie Rosen. But it was all a big hoax, a marketing ploy, and an experiment with metafiction. The Sentry was born out of an idea that Paul Jenkins and Rick Veitch had in the late 1990s, about an everyman who woke up one morning with memories of being a superhero. As the story progressed, it would be revealed that this everyman actually played a huge part in the history of Marvel’s superheroes, working alongside all of the famous characters and teams. But at some point, his existence was removed from the entire world’s memories. It was also suggested that the character was not only removed from the Marvel Universe, but from the real world as well, to be almost forgotten both in and out of the comics. The intention was to insert The Sentry back into the Marvel continuity, allowing the creators to weave the character into old comics, copying their art and story style.

The concept is a brilliant one, if a little bit familiar, but what kind of longevity can such a gimmick have? And how would the comics stand the test of time? With The Sentry making his first film appearance in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie, I thought it might be interesting to look back at the 25-year-old comic that spawned the character. And, as luck would have it, Marvel have just released a new paperback collection of the original miniseries. Seems like fate to me.

The Comic

Act 1 of the Marvel Knights miniseries The Sentry, entitled “The Suit”, was released in July 2000, by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee. The comic starts with a storm and a quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” In the play, this line is spoken by Ferdinand as he leaps from an endangered ship into a stormy sea. It is a reflection of the fear that he feels in that moment but is also a premonition of the horrors ahead. The Tempest deals with characters confronting their past, seeking revenge, but also the redemption of these characters. This has a relevance to the story of Bob Reynolds, aka The Sentry. In this first issue, Bob is woken up by a voice within the storm that only he seems to hear. He is inexplicably drawn to a book on his shelf which contains a hidden bottle. It is at this point that Bob starts to have flashes of memories—memories that are portrayed in various different art styles, matching the styles of old Marvel comics, dating back to the publisher’s very inception.

Jae Lee’s artwork in this series is phenomenal. The modern day is rendered in heavy shadowed panels with prominent black lines, and muted, almost grey, colours by Jose Villarrubia. The artwork is precise and highly detailed, but gives the impression that it is more chaotic. Lee aims for a level of reality, making the reader understand that Bob is living in the real world, while at the same time he layers the pages with symbolism and abstraction. On page 10, when Bob walks out of his house into the garden, the second row on the page frames the character between his manufactured home and the wild, naturalistic tree that is being torn apart by the storm. Both sides are almost entirely in silhouette against the blue/grey of the sky that takes up two thirds of the panel. The image has a magical realist feel, portraying something much greater than what is visible. The panel shows a man, Bob, on the brink of something insurmountable, and the colouring and composition creates an ominous atmosphere. This panel is the visual equivalent of Ferdinand shouting “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

Returning to the moment that Bob first wakes up, he stands in the kitchen, clutching the bottle, and he experiences a quick resurgence of memories long forgotten or, as it turns out, hidden within him. Lee illustrates these memories in the style of old Marvel comics, linking the narrative of this comic with the history of the publisher. This serves two purposes: Firstly, it has a narrative purpose, as Bob’s memories awaken with the different style helping readers to place them historically. The 1960s style origin story that Bob experiences puts the readers into the early years of the Marvel Universe when the Avengers was formed and the Fantastic Four first flew into space. The changing styles help to fix the dates of Bob’s memories, showing readers how long this character has actually been a part of this world. The second purpose of the art style is to pay homage to the history of the comics themselves. Lee draws inspiration from a host of famous comic books artists, such as Jack Kirby, Alex Ross, and Frank Miller. These differing styles demonstrate the changing tastes in comic book art over the 50 plus years up to the publication of The Sentry in the year 2000. While the story appears to show the breakdown of a man, the art is in fact a celebration of the medium and the superhero genre.

As the first issue progresses, Bob learns that, as a teenager, he stole some secret formula, drank it, and gained the power of a million exploding suns. He chooses to don a homemade suit and protect his home city against evil. He fights alongside the Avengers against a villain known as The Void who keeps returning, again and again. The memories get worse, turning from the hopeful charms of the 1960s to the dark, gritty 1980s. Bob learns that he became addicted to the serum that gave him power and the more he took, the stronger he became, and the closer to immortality he got. However, he is warned that they have no idea what constant exposure to the serum will do. A dark warning that the addicted Sentry brushed off.

Back in the modern day, Bob is compelled to drink from the bottle he found, and it unleashes within him a surge of power, but also brings out a darkness: the Void. A vision appears before him, threatening him, and he lashes out. The commotion wakes Bob’s wife, who walks in on him seemingly drunk and having kicked his pet dog. This is where Paul Jenkins’ script really hits home. The confrontation between Bob and his wife pulls on the realism within this comic. The exchange between a shocked, and then disappointed, wife and a desperate, disillusioned husband is raw and powerful. The previous pages have been mere reflections of these final few pages of issue 1. The endless fight against costumed villains pales into insignificance against the breakdown of the relationship between Bob and Lindy.

The rest of the miniseries unravels the mystery of who Bob, aka The Sentry, is and why no one remembers him. This involves reawakening memories in other Marvel superheroes, most notably the Fantastic Four as Reed Richards was, at one time, Bob’s best friend, and even acted as Best Man at Bob and Lindy’s wedding. Bob encounters Spider-Man, who becomes defensive when Bob calls him Peter, and then baffled when he is given a photo of the Sentry that Peter took for the Daily Bugle. Bob’s meeting with the Hulk takes a slightly different turn as the Hulk appears to remember the Sentry, referring to him as the Golden Man, but Bruce Banner has no recognition of either the Sentry or Bob. Finally, Doctor Strange turns up for the big reveal and warns “Soon the whole world is going to awaken and wish they had remained in their dream. And there is nothing even I can do to stop it.” Powerful and ominous words from one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe.

As the series continues, Jae Lee’s artwork remains magnificent, capturing the uncertainty and fear of the central character as he wakes from his dream into a nightmare. Lee’s rendition of the other Marvel superheroes is equally brilliant, capturing the essences of the characters and bringing out emotional depth that is lacking from a lot of the standard superhero comics. This is also because of the strong writing by Paul Jenkins, who spends the five issue series digging into what it means to be a superhero, but also what it means to be a human. The emphasis throughout is on memory and our own perceived ideas about who we are. The comic basically asks, how do people see us, and what if our perception is totally wrong? The emotional drive behind the comic is Bob’s need to understand who he is, even if this leads to his own destruction.

This concept is not new, however. If you described this comic as the emergence of a superhero from an everyman who has no memories of his past and, with his emergence come dark forces that threaten the world, you could easily be describing Alan Moore and Gary Leach’s Miracleman (or Marvelman—it’s complicated) first published in Warrior #1 in March 1982. There are a lot of similarities between the two comics, except Miracleman did not tie into an existing extended universe of characters. Moore incorporated the old comic book series that was published in the 1950s, but all of his modern day action was of his own creation, relying only on what he introduced. The Sentry, on the other hand, had to fit into the Marvel Universe and his absence had to be explained in a way that made sense, in universe. Not an easy proposition, but Paul Jenkins does a wonderful job of making it work.

Despite the clear influence of Miracleman, the original Sentry miniseries is a fascinating read that still holds up as a bit of deconstructional superhero fiction. As something that stands outside the Marvel Universe, the story makes sense, and there is only a limited amount of outside knowledge required—mostly the requirement of recognising the various superheroes who pop up along the way. Any reader getting into the Marvel Universe today and wanting to read origin stories of the characters, or are just curious about the new character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will get a lot from the new paperback released by Marvel.

However, The Sentry isn’t just about the story in this miniseries,. Something much more was going on with this comic: Welcome to paratexts!

The Paratext

In issue #103 of Wizard Magazine, the passing of Artie Rosen, one of the comics worlds “elder statesman,” is announced to the world. Readers were reminded of Rosen’s comic book career working on such titles as Exciting Comics in 1941 and Mod Wheels in the 1970s, and it’s possible you may have met him at conventions near his home in Brooklyn, New York. Except, of course, you wouldn’t have. No one had. Artie Rosen was the pivotal key to the publicity stunt that ushered in The Sentry, a publicity stunt that mirrored a key aspect of the miniseries.

It all started in issue #9 of Daredevil (1998), when a small note on the letters page issued well wishes to an old artist, Artie Rosen, and his family. But actually, this isn’t where it started; the creation of Artie Rosen goes back further. On his internet blog, artist Rick Veitch explains how he, and writer Paul Jenkins, had this idea for a character which, over time, developed into the bones of Bob Reynolds and The Sentry. Veitch, who had worked with Alan Moore on 1963 and Supreme, brought what he referred to as “the retro angle” to the design and concepts, allowing the character to realistically and authentically fit into the greater Marvel Universe and the 50 plus year history since the founding of Atlas Comics. When Paul Jenkins took the idea to Marvel and pitched it to Joe Quesada for the Marvel Knights imprint, the publisher lapped it up. Unfortunately for Veitch, the artist on the project was to become Jae Lee, because he and Jenkins had recently won an Eisner with their Inhumans series. Marvel wanted, some might even say needed, another hit, so putting an award-winning team on a new book seemed like the best course of action.

With the comic green lit, the next stage of the process began. However, it turned out not to be the usual promotional journey, as a hoax was brewing in the bullpen at Marvel, one that drew inspiration from the concept of the comic: what if the character The Sentry had existed for decades and was in fact a forgotten creation of the early Marvel days? Apparently Paul Jenkins wasn’t on board with the idea at first, but once Stan Lee agreed to perpetuate the lie, who could say no?

And this is where Daredevil #9 comes in. It was in the letters page of this one comic that the seed of the hoax was planted with the first mention of Archie Rosen. Marvel doubled down on the lies, working with Wizard Magazine to first publish the obituary of Archie Rosen in issue #103, and then a series of news stories following the surprise discovery of an unknown character, supposedly created before Stan Lee released the Fantastic Four #1. They published sketches by Rosen (in reality they had been drawn by industry giant John Romita Sr) showing the character in costume, and made reference to the character’s first appearance in Startling Stories #1 from 1961, predating the first issue of the Fantastic Four. The stage was set for the miraculous comeback of Marvel’s first, and forgotten, superhero, mirroring the story portrayed in the actual comic.

When the miniseries was released, each issue contained part of an interview with Stan Lee, conducted by Joe Quesada, in which they discussed the creation and history of the character. They also used the space to expand on the characteristics of The Sentry and his alter ego Bob Reynolds. This would tie in directly with the story in the comic released in 2000, so while they maintained the hoax, the information that was contained in the interview was relevant to the comic the readers had bought. This was different to the articles in Wizard Magazine, which acted as promotional material only. When the first issue was released, Wizard Magazine printed a short announcement of the comic, with quotes from Joe Quesada about the importance of the character’s discovery, and reference to the character being Marvel’s answer to Superman. What they didn’t do was discuss the actual comic by Paul Jenkins, or what the premise of the story would be. It’s interesting to note that on the opposite page of Wizard’s announced about the discovery of the lost Marvel hero, there is a short article about Paul Jenkins and his upcoming work, which does not include The Sentry, of course.

Marvel and Wizard maintained the hoax throughout the run of the Sentry miniseries, and the first selection of tie-in one shots, keeping the lie going until after the first run had been completed. It was in the May 2001 issue of Wizard Magazine that they finally came clean, and explained how, and to a certain degree why, they had perpetrated the hoax. Joe Quesada explained that they wanted to get the readers excited and involved in the release of a new comic, and how they wanted to build up hype and discussion between the fans. Quesada said in the revealing article for Wizard Magazine, “I couldn’t think of a better way to promote a book like this, call it a publicity stunt, call it whatever you want.”

The comic was out and, after several months, the story of the hoax was out, and no one was hurt in the process. Except poor Artie Rosen, who had to die for the story to work.

The Verdict

Although Joe Quesada passed the entire incident off as harmless fun and a little marketing, the hoax actually worked in Marvel’s favour by distracting the readers from the fact that The Sentry was just an amalgamation of older comic book characters. The Sentry in one sense is just Marvel’s answer to Superman, while the story that surrounds his existence is the 1980s reboot of Miracleman. The hoax, however, gave the character prestige and a history that it had not earned, but in turn, it made it easier for the Marvel readers to accept the Sentry and the perception filter that had been put upon the Marvel Universe. Marc Singer states in Comic Studies: a Guidebook that the “most popular heroes were created between the late 1930s and the early 1970s; even the few relatively new characters [..] tend to be pastiches of older, more familiar heroes.” And this is true of the Sentry, so by creating this false legacy, the publisher was able to turn the similarities to existing characters into a strong pedigree that hailed from a golden age of comics.

Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee’s Sentry miniseries is an impressive comic that is an entertaining superhero concept, if not wholly original, but it also dissects the history of the genre in comics, referencing decades of change and styles. Douglas Wolk wrote that superhero comics fall into one of five categories. The Sentry covers three of these: it is “about slight variations on the characters from those comics, published by” Marvel and DC, it is a narrative that contains “commentaries on other comics,” and it is a “showcase” for big named creators, with the creative team having just won an Eisner award for their previous comic for Marvel.

However, the marketing ploy that surrounded the comic no longer has any bearing on the comic itself. Outside of the initial buildup to the comic’s release, the whole hoax has become superfluous, especially with the reveal less than a year after the release of the first issue. Readers today will not be affected by any of the original promotion, and it becomes nothing more than an interesting sidenote in the publication of the comic—an incident that the majority of readers will take no interest in. It does, however, demonstrate the potential for deceiving readers, which has a much broader relevance in today’s world. If a publisher, with the assistance of one magazine, can convince its loyal readers that the history of their own company is different to expected lore, including the creation of comics and even people that never existed, then what can a mass media empire do? What can an organised government or company make people believe? If the CEO of Marvel comics can pose as a Japanese writer to add authenticity to his Japanese-themed comics, doesn’t that create an element of mistrust between publisher and reader? The Sentry hoax was just a bit of marketing fun, but it exposes the possibilities of false information and the potential damage that can occur.

The Sentry miniseries is a superb comic that is definitely worth reading. It is also a reminder, through the narrative and the related paratexts from the comic’s original release, that you should never blindly trust everything that you read. This is, unfortunately, more relevant today than ever before.