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Warning: The following contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, in theaters now from Marvel Studios.
Spider-Man: No Way Home’s release came with a surprising amount of tidbits about the mystical world of the MCU. When Peter first petitions Doctor Strange for a way to undo the massive public leak of his secret identity, the sorcerer mentions that he’s used a worldwide forgetting spell at least one time before. Its context is purely comedic in the movie. Still, comic fans might recall a controversial Marvel plotline from the Marvel Knights line, one that effectively gave the Marvel universe its very own version of Superman.
The Sentry, also known as Robert Reynolds, possesses an incredible power level. His addiction is the only check on his power, one nowhere as limiting as Kryptonite. He’s ripped Carnage in half, lifted an entire Helicarrier, and has even fought Galactus to a stalemate. No matter how good, however, each feat is matched by an evil deed from his counterpart, the malignant force known as The Void. His off-the-charts power level certainly caused unrest from fans, but the unorthodox publicity stunt that brought Sentry into comics was what really rustled feathers.
In 1999, the letters column of Marvel Knights: Daredevil #9 (by David Mack, Joe Quesada, and Richard Isanove) mentioned that a seemingly very obscure older Marvel artist, Artie Rosen, was in poor health. A series of articles in Wizard Magazine (issues 103-105) further chronicled Rosen’s story throughout the following year. First, they published an obituary for Rosen. Columns followed that revealed Artie Rosen and Stan Lee had sketched up a superhero years before the Fantastic Four. Then, the magazine announced a plan to finally publish stories with the character, The Sentry, in a Marvel Knights series by writer Paul Jenkins and penciler Jae Lee. Unbeknownst to Wizard readers, however, all of this behind-the-scenes journalism was a complete fabrication.
In reality, Paul Jenkins and Rick Veitch created Sentry. They imagined him as a Superman-type character who was so powerful that, for the sake of the universe, all of the characters in Marvel’s 616 needed to forget him. To build up anticipation for his debut, they imagined a fictional publication history that dated all the way back to the Silver Age, complete with sketches indicative of the period. Ultimately, when Jenkins pitched the title to Joe Quesada, Veitch was cut from the project and replaced with Jae Lee.
The Sentry came out in 2000 with a five-issue miniseries (by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, and Jose Villarubia), where a middle-aged Reynolds suddenly recalls he’s an omnipotent superhero. Alongside the returning memories of his power come the haunting recollection of his arch-nemesis, The Void. Concerned, he attempts to warn Earth’s heroes of the villain’s return. Each encounter with a hero brings with it some flashbacks, but as more of his past resurfaces, he realizes The Void was always part of him. The more beloved Sentry is, the more powerful The Void becomes.
Reynolds discovers that he commissioned Doctor Strange (with the help of Reed Richards and a supercomputer named C.L.O.C.) to erase the world’s memories of him years earlier. The hope was that if no one, including Reynolds himself, could recall his triple life as The Sentry and The Void, the world would be spared his dark mirror image’s wrath.
Unfortunately, the return of Reynolds’ memories does begin to similarly reawaken The Void. With seemingly no other options, Reynolds requests the spell be renewed, erasing his memory and forcing The Void back into dormancy.
In practice, this spell seems very similar to the one used in No Way Home. After all, everyone on Earth forgets Spider-Man and Peter Parker are one and the same. It differs in that Parker remembers everything, but otherwise, the spells line up. So does a similar spell suggest there’s a chance Sentry could make a live-action appearance?
The plotline could be a fascinating addition to the MCU. Seeing ‘erased memories’ with Sentry would be a very fun way to revisit prior Marvel movie locations, characters, and events. It could be like a clip show to ensure MCU newcomers grasp the film series now over ten years old and more than 25 movies strong. However, one has to wonder if it will ever actually happen.
For one, the universe of Marvel Comics has changed considerably since The Sentry’s debut. Marketed at the time as Marvel’s Superman, in the years since Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel debuted and has shown off Superman-level power. She has also already transitioned over to the MCU and occupies a similar rarified air. So while The Sentry has had a revival of sorts in the comics, executives may well consider his addition to the MCU an unnecessary complication. Why muddy the waters of an already exhaustingly expansive franchise?
Sentry might never come to the MCU, but he’s become a quintessential piece of the Marvel Comics lore since his emergence in 2000. Given his story of being erased time and again, perhaps he’s already in the MCU. A character like that might always be a part of any Marvel universe, whether we know it or not.
KEEP READING: Sentry: Marvel’s Superman Underwent an Exorcism, But Is He Still Dangerous?
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