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Here's an ice-cold take: Marvel's Thunderbolts* didn't get enough love. Despite what critics thought was an emotion-driven thriller with fleshed-out characters, the movie sputtered at the box office. One thing that did land, however, was its breakout star - Lewis Pullman's Rob Reynolds AKA The Sentry. After the movie came out, Marvel's Golden Guardian and his Eternally Dark alter ego went from niche Marvel character to household name, and now, one of his creators is going on record to explain why.

That creator is Paul Jenkins, the writer who, along with Jae Lee and Rich Veitch, originated the multi-personality hero/villain combo in September of 2000. A quarter century later, Jenkins is once again writing Sentry for his home medium, the ever expanding world of Marvel Comics, and has been chronicling the experience on his Substack, Flogging a Dead Horse. It's in these missives that Jenkins cued us Sentry fans into not just what works about the character, but what made him resonate in Thunderbolts*.

And fascinatingly, it doesn't come down to either his hero or villain persona.

"So often," Jenkins writes, "I explain that the main character in my stories has always been Bob. The Sentry is what Bob wants to be, but he's not Bob. The Void is where Bob goes when he succumbs to the most damaging elements of his mental illness. But he's not Bob. So, when the movie highlighted Bob as the focal point of it all he became its breakout character. The entire conceit - one which some other writers either just forget or ignore - is that Bob, Sentry and Void are a series of checks and balances. If he becomes the Sentry, he must also become the Void. That's not a story problem; it's literally the point."

The Sentry #1 from Jenkins and artist Christian Rosado is on sale now. The Sentry #2 drops April 22 wherever comics are sold. 

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters