Most of the people I’ve talked to don’t really know much about The Sentry. Aside from the fact that he’s a Superman clone who probably couldn’t keep his own title afloat. Well, in my opinion, that couldn’t be more wrong. There’s a number of things about the character of The Sentry that separate him from Superman and, as has been seen with his two mini-series’, there’s a demand for titles featuring him.

Much about Sentry’s origin is unknown for the fact that, at the time of his first appearance, he was hidden in hoax created by Marvel with the help of Stan Lee, Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee and a number of people at Wizard to name a few. Essentially, Marvel, with the help of Wizard, reported that they had discovered sketches by a completely unknown artist named Artie Rosen. These drawings were of a superhero, named The Sentry, created by Stan Lee that pre-dated the Fantastic Four’s creation which would have made The Sentry one of Marvel’s oldest creations. This was later revealed to be a hoax. It’s a clever way to not only confuse everyone but get your new hero’s name out into the public eye.

Sentry first appeared in the Marvel Knights series titled The Sentry, which was a limited series. He was then put on the shelf for a number of years before returning in the relaunch of Avengers, which was renamed The New Avengers back in 2004. Paul Jenkins, the writer and creator of the original Sentry mini-series, returned with John Romita Jr. on pencils to do another mini-series titled The Sentry. If you haven’t read this series, I suggest you give it a look. It’s a great read.

Since then, The Sentry has played a fairly big role in the Marvel Universe. He joined Iron Man’s pro-registration group during Civil War, battled an enraged Hulk during the final issues of World War Hulk to a near stalemate and even became of part of the newly assembled team of Mighty Avengers.

He may not have as big of an hold on the Marvel U as some of the other heroes but The Sentry has definitely made an impact and, hopefully, is here to stay. If you’re looking for some great material featuring The Sentry, be sure to check out The Sentry Reborn by Jenkins and Romita Jr. as well as the New Avengers: Sentry arc, available in trade paperback.