That new "Thunderbolts*" teaser looks promising, but MCU fans can't help but wonder: What about Bob? Here's what you need to know about the movie's potential villain.
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00:00That new Thunderbolts teaser looks promising, but MCU fans can't help but wonder, what about
00:06Bob?
00:07Here's what you need to know about the movie's potential villain.
00:10In February 2023, Invincible star Steven Yeun was said to be joining the Marvel Cinematic
00:15Universe with a significant role in the upcoming Thunderbolts.
00:18He was later replaced by Lewis Pullman, but before this change, Invincible creator Robert
00:22Kirkman revealed that Yeun was set to play Robert Bob Reynolds, a.k.a. the Sentry.
00:27The Sentry is a relatively recent creation, debuting in the year 2000.
00:31He's one of the countless Superman clones across comics, with the same power set and
00:35flowing cape.
00:36He gets his powers from the sun, hence his golden costume and nickname, the Golden Guardian
00:40of Good.
00:41However, Mr. Reynolds is not all good.
00:44Afflicted with a personality disorder since he got his powers, his arch-enemy, the soul-devouring
00:49Shadow of the Void, is Reynolds' own alternate personality.
00:52Now that Bruce is the Hulk full-time and Wanda was seemingly crushed beneath Mount Wendigore,
00:57the Sentry easily slots in as the MCU's new Jekyll and Hyde antihero.
01:01Who sent you, Bob?
01:03Nobody!
01:04Were you all sent?
01:05Reports indicate the Sentry will be the antagonist of Thunderbolts, so odds are good that the
01:09Void will be coming to the silver screen with him.
01:12What should you know about the Sentry before he makes his film debut, and what can you
01:16expect from him?
01:17Let's get into it.
01:19The Sentry was a Marvel Knights miniseries by Paul Jenkins and Jay Lee about the greatest
01:24superhero no one had ever heard of.
01:26Bob Reynolds is a miserable middle-aged man with memories of being the Sentry, but no
01:30one else remembers him.
01:32The first issue leaves it ambiguous if he's delusional or not, until he starts flying
01:36in the last panel.
01:37Reynolds then visits other heroes of the Marvel Universe and speaks to them as old friends,
01:41even though they're unable to remember him.
01:44Reynolds senses the Void is returning, and they must marshal a defense.
01:47The twist that Sentry and the Void are one and the same comes in The Sentry vs. the Void.
01:53Discovering the truth of the Void, and that he and his superhero friends agreed to erase
01:56the Sentry to stop the villain, Bob accepts his normal life and everyone forgets about
02:01him again.
02:02The ending, though, suggests his memory of the Sentry is still in there somewhere.
02:06The Sentry is a riff on Alan Moore's Miracleman, also about a middle-aged mediocrity discovering
02:11long-lost memories of being a superhero.
02:13To sell the illusion of the Sentry having always been part of the Marvel Universe, the
02:17series also includes flashbacks done in different art styles.
02:20The Sentry's origin story, ingesting a modified super-soldier serum, and his teaming up with
02:25the Avengers to fight the Void in issue number one, for instance, are drawn in the style
02:29of Jack Kirby.
02:31Arguably the most important Marvel Comics writer of the 2000s was Brian Michael Bendis.
02:36After knocking it out of the park on titles like Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil, he
02:40was charged with rebooting the Avengers in 2004.
02:43This is New Avengers opened with Breakout, drawn by David Finch.
02:47Electro breaks into the supervillain prison, The Raft, and frees all the inmates.
02:51The New Avengers form out of the first responders.
02:54New Avengers issue number one ends by revealing Sentry is imprisoned in The Raft, having turned
02:59himself in for seemingly killing his wife, Lindy.
03:02After some imploring, he uses his powers to save Daredevil and Foggy Nelson from carnage,
03:07but jets off after the riot is over.
03:09The second New Avengers arc, titled The Sentry, features the team tracking down Sentry and
03:13relearning his hidden existence.
03:15As far as they know, the Sentry is only a comic book character created by Paul Jenkins.
03:20Talk about meta!
03:22It turns out Reynolds didn't kill his wife, but convinced himself he did to put another
03:25psychic block on his powers.
03:27While the Avengers fight the shapeshifting Void, the X-Men's Emma Frost enters Reynolds'
03:31mind for telepathic therapy.
03:34It's revealed that the psychic mutant Mastermind erased the world's memories of the Sentry
03:38and planted the idea of the Void in Reynolds' head to restrain him.
03:42The Sentry continued to be a supporting character in Bendis' Marvel saga, up to the storyline
03:46Dark Reign.
03:47Some quick backstory.
03:49During Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts, he made Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, the leader
03:53of the team.
03:54During Bendis' crossover event Secret Invasion, Osborn becomes a hero and is handed the keys
03:59to the U.S. intelligence apparatus over a disgraced Nick Fury and Tony Stark.
04:04He disbands S.H.I.E.L.D., creating a new agency called Hammer from its remains, and builds
04:08his own Avengers team.
04:10Several of the recruits are from Thunderbolts, but of the main Avengers, Osborn only manages
04:14to recruit Sentry to his team.
04:17This team's story is chronicled in Bendis' and Mike Diodato's series Dark Avengers, which
04:21is about a group of irritable scumbags who can barely stand working together.
04:25Which sounds familiar.
04:28Dark Avengers was a Thunderbolts series in the clothing of the Avengers, and offers the
04:31greatest clues of how the MCU may use the Sentry.
04:35Issue number three opens with a flashback of Norman helping Reynolds with his still-present
04:39mental issues.
04:40After all, the Green Goblin has experience managing a split personality.
04:44It's not out of empathy, though.
04:46Norman wants the Sentry as a human weapon he can control, and Dark Avengers shows how
04:50Norman is playing with a time bomb by doing this.
04:53This culminates in the event series Siege, when Osborn unleashes Sentry on Asgard.
04:58Bendis played around with the Sentry's origin, too, rewriting Reynolds' past so he was a
05:02drug addict who got his powers because he found the serum during a break-in.
05:06As for the Void, the story suggests that it's literally the biblical angel of death possessing
05:11Robert.
05:12This fits with the villainous turn the Sentry makes in Siege, but it also reflects how the
05:16character and his history were left too messy by endless revisions.
05:20The mission in adapting the Sentry to the big screen should be distillation.
05:23Who are you?
05:25I'm Bob.
05:27It's hard to imagine the MCU getting as meta with its depiction of Sentry as his introductory
05:31series or New Avengers did.
05:33Plus, the MCU is already dealing with problems of overcomplication.
05:37Rewriting its own history so the Sentry was there the whole time and everyone forgot?
05:41That's a whole other headache that should stay in the comics.
05:43Rather, everyone would be better served looking to Dark Avengers, perhaps with Valentina Allegra
05:48de Fontaine taking Osborn's role as the manipulator.
05:51She's been set up as the MCU's own Amanda Waller, and we know from the Suicide Squad
05:55films how Waller's attempts at playing with super-powered fire blow up in her face.
06:00For Val and the Thunderbolts, that explosion would be the Void.
06:04Whatever the direction of the character, Lewis Pullman is a great actor, and every man with
06:08a darker side is exactly the kind of role he excels at.
06:11See Bad Times at the El Royale.
06:13I can't do it.
06:14I can't do it.
06:15No more.
06:16I can't.
06:17Miles.
06:18I can't.
06:19I can't kill no more people.
06:20The Thunderbolts trailer even alludes to the character's duality, introducing Pullman
06:23as the seemingly hapless Bob before briefly showing him facing off defiantly against a
06:27massive firing squad.
06:29If Marvel wants an actor who can pull off the well-meaning but unstable Sentry and the
06:34pure evil Void, Pullman is it.
06:37Thunderbolts hits theaters on May 2nd, 2025.