This article contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*.
A new hot favorite has landed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his name is … Bob. Lewis Pullman plays the latest hero added to the franchise, but he’s even more unlikely a hero than the rest of the team in Thunderbolts*. So, who is this klutzy, insecure and seemingly powerless fella? And what’s his origin story?
Meet Bob
Content warnings for substance abuse and domestic violence
We meet Bob early in Thunderbolts*, during the four-way skirmish in the O.X.E vault. The confrontation between Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and John Walker/US Agent (Wyatt Russell) results in a table accidentally damaging and opening a container. Said container happens to house Robert Reynolds.
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Bob appears and is, understandably, completely at sea about his surroundings and the violence taking place. He’s scared, but also cool as a cucumber. We find out soon why he carries an air of ease, despite being a hapless civilian.
Despite Bob’s assertions that he can help, none of the yet-to-be-called-Thunderbolts allow him to chip in. But Bob’s hiding a secret.
Bob was once part of a super-secret program called the Sentry program. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) was either leading it or part of it. The program was an attempt to create super-beings, but those who would be under the control of Valentina.
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The program was shady, taking place under wraps and tucked away in Malaysia, where, presumably, Valentina’s higher-ups weren’t looking. The program seemed to prey on the desperate—Valentina’s assistant, Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), often states that Bob is unstable. And Bob is known to have struggled with substance abuse, because he states he was traveling Asia hoping to score some drugs. An unnamed recruiter found him and promised he’d become better. The man was partially correct.
Valentina believed that the program had failed and all the candidates had died. Most did, but Bob survived, despite being locked in a case, believed to be dead. We find out why, when later in Thunderbolts*, Bob is neutralized by Mel in the newly renamed Watchtower, and awakens not as himself, but as the Void.
The Emptiness Inside
In Thunderbolts*, Bob grew up in a horrible family. In a sequence reminiscent of another Marvel show that dealt with mental health, Moon Knight, we learn Bob’s father was physically abusive toward him and his mother. His mother unwittingly placed a lot of blame on the boy.
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As we see in the scene in the Void, Bob tried to stop his father from hitting his mother, which angered his father even more. But worse, it led his mother to say, “You’re always making things worse.” This is a mantra Bob repeats to himself whenever he makes a mistake or receives criticism.
Not only was Bob’s early life toxic, but his father was an abusive alcoholic, while his mother suffered from an unnamed mental illness. Bob, too, has mental health issues—he shares with Yelena that he has brief periods of euphoria, followed by days of darkness. He also suffers from memory lapses, which are perhaps the result of his depressive episodes.
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A Manifestation
Bob’s sadness, insecurity and pain manifest as a literal being, the Void. Whenever a character touches Bob, they are sent to one of their most painful memories. For Yelena, it’s the memory of the first death she caused in the Black Widow program. John remembers a moment that signaled the end of his marriage. Valentina is back to being a little child, seeing her father murdered because of an innocent mistake she made.
Bob can’t control this side of himself—if he’s Sentry, he’s also the Void. The only way he’s able to conquer the emptiness inside himself is with the help of his newly found teammates and friends. The Thunderbolts make sure he’s no longer alone.
Bob in the Comics
Bob Reynolds is a known character in the comics. He was created by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee in 2000 (there is some controversy around the character’s true creation), and introduced as the Golden Guardian of Good across five issues. Bob was a recovering alcoholic with a long-suffering wife. Except he was more.
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Slowly, Bob remembered his past—that he was a hero fighting alongside the greatest in the Marvel universe, from his base called the Watchtower, which was not a refurbished version of the Avengers Tower, as it is in the film. But the world had forgotten about him. Bob became Sentry when he was given some of the super-soldier serum that created Captain America. Except Bob needed to keep consuming the serum to maintain his Sentry self. This soon turned into an addiction. And, of course, there was the Void.
In the comics, Sentry’s nemesis is the Void, and Bob’s memories of his Sentry life resurface every time Earth is in danger from the Void. Bob rallies his old friends together, including his best friend Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, and the rest of the Fantastic Four, as well as the Hulk, the X-Men, Spider-Man and sundry other heroes.
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Of course, as we know from the film, the Void is Bob. He was the one who made the world — and himself –forget about Sentry’s existence, so the Void would not return. The Void’s powers in the comics are even more devastating than in the film—the Void makes people see their past, present and future, all bleak, dark, and lonely.
Bob the PR Stunt
While the Sentry stories seemed to suggest that there was a whole chapter of Marvel comic book history missing, it was, in fact, all a ploy. Jenkins and Lee plotted an elaborate PR stunt. Each issue of the Sentry ended with an “interview” with Stan Lee, where he claimed he’d forgotten that he’d created a superhero before introducing Marvel’s first superheroes, the Fantastic Four.
It all seemed very real till the creative team pulled the rug from beneath readers in the final issue, revealing the truth that it was all made up. Sentry had never existed before, and definitely not in Stan Lee’s mind. This was an innovative PR stunt. And the film, in a way, pays tribute to Sentry’s PR stunt origins.
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Throughout Thunderbolts*, Valentina heavily relies on her crisis communications skills, presenting herself and her illegal doings in the best light to avoid being impeached. Once she discovers Bob’s powers as Sentry, she intends to center him in her own publicity stunt as Earth’s mightiest hero.
Then, when things go sideways with Bob and the Void, but the media have already arrived, Valentina pulls a last-minute public relations switcheroo by announcing she’s secretly formed the New Avengers.
A Rebranding
Less of a tribute is how we’ve all been stunned by Marvel’s extraordinarily strange marketing and PR choices for the film, aka, revealing which cast members will be in Avengers: Doomsday before the film was even released; and then rebranding Thunderbolts* to The New Avengers before the end of opening weekend. Speaking as a marketing and PR professional myself, they really should have waited.
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In other PR-related backstories, originally, Steven Yeun was cast as the character of Bob, but due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes, production of the film was pushed back. Yeun’s schedule didn’t align with the new production timeline. Pullman eventually got the role.
What’s Next for Bob?
Unlike the comics, Bob was not lost to history in the MCU. Thunderbolts* couldn’t recreate the same formula where the world forgot a hero, because they’d already done that in Spider-Man: No Way Home. This means Bob is younger, and he’s also already formed a bond with five other heroes.
We know Lewis Pullman will return in Avengers: Doomsday—he was one of the 27 actors revealed in the five-and-a-half-hour PR stunt Marvel pulled in late March. And this is verified in the post-credits scene of Thunderbolts* as well.
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During the scene, we see that Bob is still part of the New Avengers, but he is unwilling to turn on his Sentry powers because of the other guy—a certain green Avenger can relate. Now, Bob, as Sentry, is super-powerful. It can be a struggle to make an invincible character compelling. So, it’s no surprise that much of Bob’s battles in Thunderbolts* were internal and emotional.
Sentry has to appear at some point in Doomsday, but for now, Bob is just Bob. And he’s along for the ride with the New Avengers.
Thunderbolts* is currently screening across theaters.
