The Sentry, Part 1

Iron Man (Tony Stark) is out testing his new suit of armor when he gets a call from Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) at New Avengers headquarters.[1] She is calling to say that one of the recent Raft escapees has appeared on Long Island and she is leading the team to facilitate their capture.[2] Iron Man double checks that they’ll be fine as he plans on going off the grid for a while. Jessica says that she has Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Luke Cage, and Wolverine (Logan) present and that they’ll be fine.

This is great for Stark, as he is going to the abandoned Funtime Inc. building for a secret meeting with a group that has dubbed themselves the Illuminati.[3] Present are Doctor (Stephen) Strange (via astral projection), Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four), Namor the Sub-Mariner (ruler of Atlantis), X-Men leader Professor X (Charles Xavier), and the silent leader of the Inhumans, Black Bolt. The Sub-Mariner is particularly upset that Stark hadn’t informed them that he was reforming the Avengers.[4] The others, on the other hand think this is a good idea, particularly since there are 46 villains on the loose following the breakout.[5] When pressed about who is part of this new team, Tony then tells them that he was brought them together to discuss the Sentry, as he has no idea who he is and that poses a huge problem.[6]

Meanwhile, on Long Island, Dirk Grathwaite (aka the Wrecker) has shown up at the home of supervillain memorabilia collector Ed Gross in order to recover his enchanted crowbar.[7] He only finds Ed’s daughter tanning outside. He then forces her to take him down to her father’s private collection of super-villain paraphernalia. After recovering his crowbar from the collection, he forces Ed’s daughter to make him something to eat before loading up the rest of the costumes and equipment into her car. Its then that he informs the young woman that she is going to be his hostage while he skips town. As they are backing out of the garage, the Wrecker is annoyed to learn that the girl doesn’t know who he, or his Wrecking Crew is.[8]

The are forced to stop at the edge of the driveway as an Avengers Quinjet is blocking their path. Waiting for them are Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Wolverine. The Wrecker finds them a joke, saying that he beat the real Avengers. He then goes on to make his point by easily trashing both Wolverine and Luke Cage, as well as throw Spider-Man across the neighborhood. Soon, the only one left standing is Spider-Woman, but by this point Garthwaite has been breathing in Jessica’s pheromone powers long enough to fall under their spell.

Meanwhile, Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man arrive at an undisclosed location in the Nevada Desert. There they are greeted by Director Maria Hill and a team of SHIELD soldiers. Hill is still uncertain that she wants to involve the New Avengers in this, but lets them go inside the cave where the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) has been hiding since he left the Raft. Reynolds tells them that he is hiding from something called the Void, which he is certain will return now that he has used his powers again. He tells them that the Void is an impossibly powerful entity that destroys everything that he tries to save. He also tells them that he and it killed his wife. That’s when Iron Man and Cap show him Bob that his wife — Lindy Lee — is actually alive and well and deeply worried about her husband.

He also introduces the Sentry to a writer named Paul Jenkins, who is credited as creating the character for a comic book.[9] If the Sentry is a fictional character, that raises the question: Who really is the Sentry?

Recurring Characters

New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, “Spider-Woman”, Wolverine), Sentry, Illuminati (Mister Fantastic, Sub-Mariner, Black Bolt, Professor X, Doctor Strange), Lindy Lee, SHIELD (Maria Hill), Wrecker, Paul Jenkins

Continuity Notes

1. This woman isn’t the real Spider-Woman but a Skrull spy named Vernake. She has infiltrated the New Avengers as part of a planned invasion of Earth, as will be revealed in Secret Invasion #1-8. Her Skrull identity will be revealed in issue #3 of that series. New Avengers #40 reveals that she swapped places with the real Jessica Drew circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.

2. A number of supervillains were busted out of the Raft prison in New Avengers #1-2, leading to the new team forming. This is another precursor to that Skrull invasion I mentioned above.

3. The Illuminati were first formed following the Kree/Skrull War circa Avengers #89-97. Their purpose was to secretly meet and assess global threats and, when necessarily, deal with them covertly. See New Avengers: Illuminati #1.

4. The original Avengers were disbanded after the Scarlet Witch went mad and decimated the team, as seen in Avengers #500-503/Avengers: Finale #1.

5. Per New Avengers: Most Wanted Files #1 the official list of escapees include: The Answer, Armadillo, Barbarus, Blackout, the Blood Brothers, the Brothers Grimm, Bushwacker, Carnage, Centurius, Chemistro, Constrictor, Controller, Corruptor, Count Nefaria, Crossbones, Crossfire, Crusader, Cutthroat, Deathwatch, Dr. Demonicus, Foolkiller, Graviton, Grey Gargoyle, Griffin, Hydro-Man, Jigsaw, King Cobra, Mandrill, Mentallo, Mr. Fear, Mr. Hyde, Molecule Man, Nitro, Purple Man, Rampage, Razor-Fist, Sauron, Scarecrow, Shockwave, Silver Samurai, Slug, Tiger Shark, Typhoid Mary, U-Foes, Vermin, the Wrecking Crew, and Zzzax.

6. The reason why nobody remembers the Sentry is because he has intentionally made people forget he ever existed. This was done in order to prevent his evil self, the Void, from menacing the world. See Sentry #1-5 and Sentry/The Void #1.

7. For more on Ed Gross and his obsession with super-villains (he likes to play dress-up) see Invincible Iron Man #5 and 7.

8. Here, Dirk mentions how they once stormed Avengers Mansion and beat the shit out of the team. He is referring to when his Wrecking Crew joined up with Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil and laid siege on the old Avengers headquarters. During this attack the Wrecking Crew took part in wrecking the mansion and severely beating both Hercules and Jarvis, the Avengers Butler. See Avengers #273-277.

9. Marvel Comics creators have been appearing in the Marvel Universe since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made an appearance in Fantastic Four #10. Usually, a real life person appearing in a Marvel Comic is considered a topical reference. However, this is not the case when it comes to Marvel creators who exist in Reality-616 in the relative prime of their lives, often appearing long after their real world counterparts have passed away. Paul Jenkins was the writer who originally created the Sentry and wrote the original mini-series revolving around the character.