The Sentry: Man of Two Worlds

Sentry (2018) #1-5

by Jeff Lemire (Writer), George Pérez (Illustrator)

Fresh from the pages of DOCTOR STRANGE, the Golden Guardian of Good is back! But is that really such a good thing? He's the greatest hero that the Marvel Universe ever forgot: the shining sentinel with the power of a thousand exploding suns. By day, he trudges through a mundane life as Bob Reynolds; at night, he soars across a gleaming, perfect skyline as the Sentry! But how much of his dual existence is real? And what of his dark other self, the Void? As one of the Sentry's oldest villains, Cranio, returns, the Golden Guardian must go head-to-head with Iron Man! Meanwhile, Bob faces a race against the clock to save everything he has worked so hard to build. If he fails, the Void will be set free...and the Marvel Universe will be torn apart!
COLLECTING: SENTRY 1-5

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book

112 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2018

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spinning out of Doctor Strange of all titles is this limited series of Marvel’s garbage Superman knockoff, The Sentry! But it’s not really fair in describing him as Superman – if Clark Kent hated being Superman and frequently turned into Zod then Sentry would be like Superman! Yeah, he’s a bit of an odd duck is old Sentry boy.

Bob Reynolds has both The Sentry, a golden god-like superhero, and The Void, a dark force of unstoppable evil, contained within him. With the help of Tony Stark’s not-at-all-silly-named Confluctor device, he is able to keep them both inside, neutral and safe, in some pocket dimension, so long as he uses it (his “therapy”) every 24 hours. Because if he lets out The Sentry, he risks letting out The Void as well – and imminent destruction follows. Except someone’s stolen the Confluctor and the clock is ticking before both beings are unleashed!

… erm, yeah - not bad? Which is surprising given that Jeff Lemire’s put out quite a lot of rubbish work-for-hire these past few years and I’ve never liked Marvel’s emo/depressed Superman. Man of Two Worlds reminded me of Lemire’s darker, more subversive superhero comics like Plutona and Black Hammer so maybe that’s why I liked it – it doesn’t really read like generic, predictable Marvel at all.

Lemire’s able to cram together a fairly entertaining story within five issues and keep it coherent too despite the complexity of the character and the information he has to include to ensure most readers, who likely won’t know anything about the character, know a bit about Sentry’s background and rogues.

It does mean cutting a few corners though so one character just happens to have the formula for the Golden Sentry serum in a perfect example of bad storytelling – telling not showing the reader how it happened – and the ending is really rushed too with Lemire trying to accomplish too much in that final issue. I can understand why though given the space he’s got. The villains’ motivations are a bit clichéd but it works well enough here.

I don’t get why the bad guy Cranio would be working as a parking attendant if he’s a genius – why does he have to be part of some supervillain group to do supervillain-y things? Why did he keep his supervillain equipment stashed away when they clearly still work and he could use them, and his supposed genius, to improve his situation? Tres contrived!

I didn’t think much of Kim Jacinto’s art though I really liked Joshua Cassara’s. I also liked the twist at the end. I can’t say he made me like Sentry any more than I already did but Lemire actually left me wanting to read more of this character – a rarity from Marvel books these days!

Warped versions of Superman have been done many times before so this isn’t the most original story, and it’s certainly flawed, but if you enjoy Jeff Lemire’s off-piste superhero work, The Sentry: Man of Two Worlds is definitely worth a look.

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge bias here as a big Sentry fan... him just being brought back is golden for me. Dr Strange and Iron-man have worked out a way that Bob can exist in the real world without becoming the Sentry or The Void... which works really well until someone from his past messes things up big-time.

Stark's arrogance is used as the rationale why they would even let Sentry live under this probation - nonetheless a good read with some real development of the Sentry brand :). A pretty cool Jeff Lemire jam :) 8.5 out of 12.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a little help from Stephen Strange and Tony Stark, Bob Reynolds (aka The Sentry aka The Void aka Definitely-Not-Superman-Honest-Guv) finally seems to have his life back on track. He's working as a chef in a diner by day and superheroing by night in a virtual reality world set up for him by Stark and Strange. No sign of his evil alter ego, The Void, so all is well and good.

Yeah, like that's going to last.

Needless to say, the poop hits the propeller in short order and chaos ensues.

This wasn't bad but, despite all the carnage and plot twists, it felt a bit lightweight to me. The whole series felt like a prologue to a larger story, to be honest. I put it down thinking 'OK, but where's the rest of it?'

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sentry is back! He's a pretty intriguing hero/villain for me despite a lot of people hating him. Here, we have the famous Jeff Lemire at the helm to try and make it worth reading. Jeff Lemire is a hit with creator own stuff, but big 2? Questionable. So let's see...

Sentry, or I should say Bob, is trying to live a normal life. Being a line cook, going into his own mind to be Sentry for a bit and keep the void at bay, and just trying to be normal. That is until his machine that was built by Tony and Doctor Strange is taken from him and he can't go into his mind to calm himself. This leaves him breaking apart, and after a new foe emerges, the Sentry finally awakens in a way we've never seen before.

Good: The art is fantastic. Very stylish and the fights look AWESOME. There's big epic moments that truly showcase the art in the best ways. The struggle for poor Bob to try to be a decent person is both enticing to watch and sad. However, by the end you are more scared of him than anything. The betrayal cuts deep for long time Sentry readers and leads up to a interesting twist on the character.

Bad: The ending is a big "what comes next!?" type ending in which case we don't know and it can be frustrating when nothing else is announced.

Overall, a great little mini-series. I think with some love, a writer can make a super cool tale of Sentry. He's basically a broken mess of a guy trying to be Superman with a super evil side. I love it. A 4 out of 5 for this one.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but where is the next issue?

[A Fan of Comics · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know too much about the Marvel universe, but I'll read anything by Lemire.

I don't know anything about Sentry or the Void or anything! But I really like Jeff Lemire and I haven't found a comic hes done that I didn't enjoy so I figured I give it a shot. Was not disappointed. As someone who didn't have any background info, I thought it was a real good read. There was no left over questions, you don't get a full back story but there is enough to just pick up and run with it. The art was really sweet! It reminded me of black science (which is also a great read). And the end was pretty good. Overall, solid read.
However, if you expect this to be one of Lemires masterpieces don't get your hopes up. The writing is there but the heart is not. Lemire usually has the best moments, whether they're sad or heartfelt, there's always just these little things that take my breath away. Not this time. I'm not sure if its because the series was so short or because he has his own super hero world to work on but I still enjoyed it, even if its not full Lemire.

[Jamie Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first sentry comic. It was an awesome original idea. Thus wasn't as good as that but still worth the read if you've read the first one by Paul Jenkins. 4 stars. I bet a lot of the people who read this without reading the first one didn't like it much and it brought the rating down.

[Dakota · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy did this need to be longer. Should have been 12 issues minimum. Everything felt rushed.

[Beelzefuzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lemire definitely made this feel like a Lemire book, but Sentry is so all over the place in Marvel continuity and born from a convoluted place to start with that it is hard to tell where this fits in if it does at all with what has come before and if it will become anything else before the character is put back into cameo storage for several more years.

As a Lemire book about a dark and light half of a mentally unstable Superman and his amazing knock off friends, it is intriguing, but not compelling and loses its message quickly.

As a Sentry book, I am afraid to invest too much mental energy into it because none of it will probably amount to anything.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent superhero comic from Lemire with kinetic art. Cliche heavy, but ultimately satisfying.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this miniseries was clearly meant as a stopgap to reintroduce an old Marvel character that they probably have future plans for, I couldn't help but enjoy these five issues. Even with a throwaway thing, Jeff Lemire puts everything he has into his work, and the art is really good as well. I'm curious to see where this character goes next.

[Derek Newman-Stille · Rating 1 out of 5]

Superhero narratives tend to have clear boundaries between heroes and villains. They tend to play with the duality between civilian identity and hero identity, but tend to privilege the hero identity. Like most of his comics, in The Sentry: Man of Two Worlds, Jeff Lemire disrupts these easy binaries, creating a super powered person who lives in moral greyness while trying to push himself to live in a world of good and bad, to conform to the ideas of the superhero. Sentry has given up his superhero identity because every time he becomes a hero, The Void (a dark entity within him) becomes active and conducts evil deeds that far outweigh Sentry’s good ones. Instead of being a superhero primarily and wearing his civilian identity, “Bob” is a civilian who has to enter into a world inside of himself to become Sentry to fight The Void in order for that internal evil not to spill out into the world. He is trapped in his civilian identity with the constant desire to become his superhero self and relives his golden days only in a world in his own mind. Lemire calls into question the tropes of the superhero narrative, inviting his audience to ask critical questions about the way their superheroes are generally presented while also giving readers a powerful narrative of internal struggle and suffering.

Bob works at a greasy spoon restaurant with his former sidekick Billy, who also no longer has powers. The two of them share old stories constantly, pining after the life they lived as superheroes. Yet, Misty Knight and Tony Stark view Bob as an embodiment of danger, as a threat contained within a human body and Bob feels the prison walls around him even though he is technically free. He has to go into his inner world to fight The Void at specific times, not given time to live his life and the constant threat of permanent incarceration surrounds him even though Bob and those around him think of him as a superhero. His danger outweighs the benefit he can bring to society, so he is contained. There is no simple morality in Lemire’s tale of Sentry and heroism doesn’t always mean social acceptance or freedom. Bob has to challenge the simple morality of his Sentry persona in order to find a way to exist in the world completely and without constant suppression of parts of himself.

Although Lemire challenges tropes around superhero narratives and opens up those narratives, he unfortunately (like many authors) perpetuates problematic tropes of disability. Like many authors, Lemire presents a disabled character (Billy, who had his arm ripped off by The Void) as a threat and a villain. This is a common portrayal of disability, often predicated on the belief that disabled people are “self loathing cripples” and hate the world because we are disabled. It is a far too common portrayal that has unfortunately meant that disabled people like myself have frustratingly again and again seen ourselves only conceived of as self hating and villainous. Of course there are real-world implications of this such as the general public seeing disability as a problem and therefore disabled people as a problem.

Lemire further brings in an additional trope of disability – the disabled person who is “powerless” and therefore craves power. This trope tends to be related to the first one as these “powerless” disabled people frequently become villains in stories because they seek out the power they are believed not to have as disabled people. Billy in Lemire’s story craves superhero powers since he views himself as broken and powerless as a disabled man. The real world issue with this trope, of course, is that it portrays disabled people as powerless and this imagery often gets internalized by people in the disabled community and shapes our perceptions of ourselves.

An additional, and perhaps more damaging trope that Lemire incorporates into his narrative is the trope of disabled men using their disability to manipulate care-giving women. This trope dangerously suggests that disabled people abuse their care-givers and use their disability as a way of getting “sympathy” that manipulates others. The problem with this, of course, is that because this narrative is so prevalent, society picks up on it and it is common for people to view relationships with disabled people as being one-sided, only benefitting the disabled person and not the care-giver. Like most of these tropes, I have witnessed this in my own life where people frequently ask my partner how much work he has to do to care for me while looking sympathetically at him, or tell him that he is too kind for looking after a disabled person. In addition to this problem in the trope, this trope also portrays disability as inherently manipulative, which has repercussions around the way that people view disability and assume disabled people are constantly out to gather sympathy (rather than the fact that we generally find sympathy frustrating and wish people would treat us like anybody else while also respecting our accommodation needs). Lemire presents this trope in The Sentry: Man of Two Worlds when he has Billy date a girl only to steal from her, saying to another villain “turns out said grandniece is a real bleeding heart for wounded young men. especially blue-eyed blonds with one arm”.

Lemire also repeats the “better dead than disabled trope” that is so frequently seen in disabled narratives. I have spoken about this narrative repeatedly before and the danger that it poses for disabled people – including society not viewing disabled lives as worth the lives of others or thinking that euthanasia and dangerous surgeries that can kill patients are better than letting us live while disabled. Lemire not only kills off the disabled character as so many people do, but also has him internalize this idea of being better off dead. Billy is told that the serum that is made for him could kill him or give him power and billy responds “it could. But living another day like this is death anyway”. These statements are dangerous, especially since many disabled people are repeatedly told that our lives have no worth. It presents the idea that we are better off risking death than living while disabled.

It’s important to note that, like most people in our society, Jeff Lemire isn’t intentionally seeking out to harm disabled people. Instead, he is replicating the images of disability that he (and the rest of us) have seen repeatedly in popular culture – which is why they are tropes. He is not portraying his character in this way to do harm to disabled people, but, unfortunately, these tropes and these portrayals DO harm disabled people. I would encourage him and others to get to know people in the disabled people who look critically at popular culture and the impact that it has on social perception of disability and political decisions around disabled people. I hope that in the future, Lemire brings his critical, creative perspective to disability and pushes the boundaries of the way disability is portrayed beyond simplistic, problematic tropes

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like it was clearly a placeholder story to keep the IP for this character "refreshed".

I was disappointed years back when Paul Jenkins was not allowed to finish his Sentry trilogy, and they used the character within Siege where he was unceremoniously killed off. It was a genuine face-palm moment for me.

The Sentry is one of the more inspired Marvel creations, even if the character seems like a bland Superman amalgam.

The through-line for this story seems extremely decompressed--Donny Cates brought the character back (never revealing what those notes where from Fallen Sun) as a foil to Loki: Sorcerer Supreme. This was Lemire's Marvel work since Moon Knight AND I WAS EXCITED. However, Lemire seems to slum it for this brief interlude (moving the ball from Point A to Point B). It does make use of the "Age of the Sentry" stuff, but it's a bit too short of a run to amount to much except a new direction for the character (The Sentry, no longer denying his shadow self--finally at whole with the Void, to meet his "full potential" no longer tethered to the Avengers and hiding his true self).

And now....we wait for the next character development.

[Lucas Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another hero with "issues" that are trying to deal with them, with a story that probably will not be importante in the future. Aaand it was a really nice one!

Besides what a lot of people say, i believe Jeff Lemire have his ways with super heroes. I just love his Green Arrow run and his Moon Knight's (talking about issues?) run is a very decent one. Here we plays with a normal people, trying to control another world inside his head, something he already did in his already mentioned Moon Knight, but, over here, it's an all straight battle for it. Which bring us to the art, that is great. Gritty, violent, brutal, making we understand the measure of Bob Reynolds's power. It was a really cool miniseries.

i believe the only setback here, is that The Sentry is not big tier Marvel hero. You'll probably gonna be asking yourself about some characters and his envoirement, but i think you're gonna enjoy it, anyway. Gonna try to get my hands on the Paul Jenkins's one now, to understando more about the character.

[Sebastian Song · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not Jeff's best works. A prologue of sinister things to come.

[Glen McNamee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Jeff Lemire and like the Sentry, but I found this underwhelming.

[Vladimír · Rating 3 out of 5]

"But with great power comes great darkness."

Bob Reynolds má problém. Vždy keď sa premení na Sentryho, tak sa na scéne objavuje aj Void. A to je priveľké riziko. Vznikne preto zariadenie, ktoré obe tieto alter egá uzamkne v akejsi mini-dimenzii. Bob je tak v našom svete obyčajný človek. Je zlomený, unavený, ale zmierený so svojou situáciu.

Úvod do mysle rozpolteného a unaveného hrdinu sa Lemirovi podaril skvele a jeho vnútorný boj je doslova cítiť. Bežný život ho síce ničí, ale všetko to robí pre dobro ľudstva, ktoré by mohol v momente zničiť. Príbeh má napriek dobrému štartu, veľmi predvídateľné dianie. Neobjavuje sa žiadny prekvapujúci zvrat a aj záver, ktorý je viac-menej otvorený, bol tak trochu meh. Celkovo sa to čítalo dobre, avšak čakal som trochu viac psychológie, s ktorou to Lemirovi išlo na začiatku a menej prostoduchého mlátenia. Ak vás táto postava láka, touto 5-dielnou minisériou nič nepokazíte.

[ValeryVal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Antes de empezar creo que debería aclarar mi situación con el personaje de Marvel: No tenía ni idea de su existencia. Y no, esto no es una broma sobre el personaje siendo olvidado por todo el universo. De verdad que no conocía ni siquiera su nombre. Mi pareja tuvo que darme una mini presentación porque insistía en que leyese el cómic para salir de mi bloqueo lector.

Dicho esto, el cómic ha estado bien, pero sin más. No tenía ningún tipo de conexión con el personaje así que supongo que por eso no lo disfruté lo suficiente. ¡Eso sí, cumplió su objetivo de mantenerme entretenida para superar el bloqueo lector! En general, es una obra entretenida capaz de contar bastante en pocas páginas y mantenerte enganchada hasta el último tomo.

Rating: 3/5, no me arrepiento de haberlo leído, pero seguramente me terminaré olvidando de su existencia dentro de unos años.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never really got Sentry. I didn't hop on the Avengers bandwagon after the MCU took off. I liked Hulk and I tracked the new Avengers because of Wolverine, but I avoided Tony and Cap. I don't know why. Sentry seems like a Superman clone, with a Captain America origin. The mental health aspect of the character seemed "cheap." BUT, I love Jeff Lemire, so I picked up this volume. It was okay.

[Robert Mudas · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'aime bien ce perso et j'étais enthousiasmé par son retour dans la série Doctor Strange, mais ce tome est assez faible. Persos peu intéressants, confrontations sans grands enjeux, et jeu sur la folie mentale trop faible à mon goût. Au final, une lecture très moyenne, même si le statut final du personnage est intéressant.

[René Venegas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but I thought the conclusion was a bit unsatisfying, maybe even rushed for just a volume?

Still liked it overall, seems like another nice deconstruction of the classic superhero or at least the "superman" type superhero and also a continuation of the Sentry from his overall character arc.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the symbolic potential of Sentry feels like a semi-derivative blend of Miracleman, the original Captain Marvel, and Adam Strange, even if the character makes for a compelling figure independent of his influences, the story posed by Jeff Lemire in Sentry: A Man of Two Worlds does a great job meditating on the impact of legacy and memory on the kinds of future that become open up to us.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big fan of Jeff Lemire. This one is good but not one of his best.

The Sentry story has been told, and told, and probably told again. The conclusion of this story ends with the Sentry as something different and allows for the prospect of other stories to be told.

[Travis Webber · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was...fine? Jeff Lemire's superhero work has the same great characterization as the rest of his books, but I find the plots and concepts he comes up with in this genre weirdly straightforward and uninteresting.

[Murdocksfilms · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Sentry comic I’ve read and I was very impressed, did a fantastic job of showing us Bob’s struggles as a human being and also his struggles as The Sentry. Man of Two Words did a good job as well of showing us some impressive feats of strength, great read.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huh...I found myself surprised by this as it showed me there was more depth to Sentry than I have experienced in the past. There was a real Miracleman feel to this which I did not expect.

[Maximillian Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good writer, artists, and concept, but the overall series fell a bit flat to me.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was pretty confusing in the first half, but the payout was worth it. The art is fantastic, too. 4/5.

[Ellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this as an allegory for addiction, I loved it.

[jeremi · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE CLIFFHANGER?