Somebody explain this Sentry business to me

Bought the 1st 3 issues of this the other day, cuz it looked cool. Love the stylized, retro 60s artwork; story seemed funny, clever & intriguingly metafictional. But the more I read it, the less it seems like, say, Seaguy, and the more it seems like that annoying "Willworld" Green Lantern story. I get the sense that when the other shoe drops, everything is going to be explained very simply (a mental breakdown, a dream-trap of some kind, "it was all a dream").

So, does anyone know the backstory here? If this character isn't new to the title, where does he come from? Is there some connection to the larger Marvel universe that I should know about?

Yeah. Marvel advertised and Wizard Magazine helped them perpetuate this hoax by which they had found an "original, unexploited" type Silver Age hero. So they started this Sentry mini about this guy - the Sentry - who wakes up in the contemporary Marvel Universe and everyone has forgotten him. He has woken up because The Void, his arch-nemesis, is coming back. It turns out that...

Spoilers...

The Sentry is the Void. He is paranoid, consumed by neurosis, and has split personalities. The last time he fought the Void, Reed Richards - his former best friend - realized this. And they decided together that it was best to make the world, and the Sentry, forget about the Sentry. To protect everyone from The Void. So they do that.

And that's basically it.

I read the original series plus the later miniseries drawn by John Romita Jr. some time ago. The original had some nice moments, but the general idea was more interesting than the actual story, which was waaay too text-heavy and ponderous. The JR Jr. penned mini is a quasi-psychoanalytic look inside the Sentry's mind, it starts out nicely but lasts much too long, and is full of pretentious psychological mumbo jumbo. Nice art though.

I think the first miniseries was also the first appearance of the Sentry in the Marvel universe. If you read the whole series you'll understand why we haven't heard about the Sentry before. After the first series Sentry joins the New Avengers, and the second miniseries takes place after that.

(x-post)

He's appeared in a couple of earlier miniseries, and has been a regular cast member of the Avengers for the past few years, generally serving as the deus ex machina character who can fix everything. The joke is that he was a Thor-level star who'd appeared in a successful '60s Marvel series called "Startling Stories," but the same handwaving that caused everyone in the Marvel Universe to forget that the Sentry had ever existed caused everyone in our universe to forget that his comics appearances had ever existed.

It's a pity, I though the main idea was kinda cool, but they should've gotten a better writer to do those series.

Hokay, looks like I have some digging to do. On the other hand, it sounds like there isn't all that much previous stuff out there, and the explanation you guys have given squares with what I'd assumed from the current "Age of the Sentry" series (miniseries?). So, I could just take all that for granted and skip the research. Is a lot of contemporary Marvel stuff this directly meta? I mean, is the irregularity of narrative continuity actually something the characters are aware of and contend with?

I don't think so - I think mostly it was that The Sentry miniseries/one-shots by Jenkins should have been a one and done deal, at least that's how I remember the ending of it. The exact specifics are a little hazy to me since it's been a while, but I think when Bendis brought him back into the real Marvel Universe in New Avengers, it even MORE meta, they took the scope of that idea even further.

Agree with the folks who have said the idea is great, if the execution is sometimes lacking in these stories.

Agree with the folks who have said the idea is great, if the execution is sometimes lacking in these stories.

― Nhex,

Maybe yes, maybe no. Really liking the "Age of" thing. For one thing, the art is both spot-on as homage and satisfying in its own right, but the writing is clever, too. Truman Capote in #2 was especially funny (is a little wince-inducing, yeah). Still dreading the inevitable slide into "real reality" storm & stress, though I suppose the story has to go somewhere.

"...is IF a little wince-inducing..."

hey wait, when did issue 3 come out???

Also, is WatchDog in issue 3? He is a good dog.

I read #2 first, thought it was total genius, both the unironic stuff and the bit at the end where reality seemed to be breaking down. #1 I found enjoyable enough, but not total genius.

#3 is, I think, just out. Agree on the geniusness of #2 relative to #1. #3 not so much, but still fun. No WatchDog, sadly.

Do not buy any Sentry books that aren't Age of the Sentry.