With a history as strange and varied as the Sentry’s, Marvel Comic’s new limited series, “The Sentry,” shouldn’t be difficult to keep interesting or, at least, entertaining. The comic giant accomplished this, while adding another facet to a character that is already complicated.

Issue No. 1 of “The Sentry” titled “Under the Eye of the Clock” was released Wednesday after a three-issue story arc in the ” The New Avengers” series detailed the Gold Guardians history.

And what a history it is.

Marked by a hoax, the Sentry first appeared in 2000, when comic industry magazine Wizard reported Marvel had discovered sketches of a pre-Fantastic Four era super hero created by comic icon Stan Lee.

The five part mini-series that followed introduced the Marvel Universe to the Sentry in what Marvel advertised as the first appearance of a Silver Age super hero.

Marvel lied.

What came out of the 2000 series was a Supermanesque, yellow and blue costumed super hero with the “the power of a million exploding suns” and a marketing scheme that was as intelligent as it was annoying.

In interviews Lee frequently said he had a vague recollection of creating the character, while in the Marvel Universe the Sentry had been erased from everyone’s memories. Coincidence? No. As readers discovered in the series, the Sentry was one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, super hero on the plant and had fought along side supergroups such as the X-men and the Avengers. The twist was that the Sentry was the one who erased the world’s memory of himself to stop his equally powerful nemesis, the Void.

Apparently, this mind wipe also included Lee.

The series ended with the Sentry stopping the Void once more by restarting the process that would erase the world’s memory of himself.

Flash forward to 2004 and the Sentry reappears in the pages of “The New Avengers,” as a detached self-jailed recluse. Here readers learn the Void is, in fact, part of the Sentry’s conscience created by Mastermind, a villain who has the ability to make people see illusions, to scare Reynolds into not using his powers.

With a little help from the X-men, the Sentry is somewhat cured and able to return to a life of crime fighting.

“Under the Eye of the Clock,” takes place after the events in No. 10 of the “New Avengers” and sets up readers for an 8-part series, which readers, if issue 1 is anything like the rest of the series, will be more than willing to pick up a copy each month.

Issue one reintroduces readers to the Sentry, who has restarted his life with added help of a computer named Cloc that prioritizes who the Sentry is going to save.

Throughout the issue the Sentry is in constant dialogue with Cloc, prioritizing and questioning himself. As it appears in the comic, the Sentry is easily one of the most super-charged characters in the Marvel Universe, easily defeating numerous enemies without as much as a flinch. However, an immensely powerful character without flaws makes for boring reads.

Fortunately for readers the Sentry’s constant drive to save humanity is offset by the perceptual indecision of three unique personalities within the Sentry. Not only does the Sentry deal with the Void, he also has to deal with being Robert Reynolds, a decisively average male who fears his wife doesn’t love him anymore.

The story telling is poignant and will open up a variety of options for writer Paul Jenkins to explore, including how the Sentry will come to grips with what it means to be forgotten and having the ability to save anyone one he chooses, but having to choose.

On the art front, John Romita Jr.’s draws the Sentry less angular and dark than David Finch does in “The New Avengers.” Throughout the comic bright colors play off the characters bright yellow suit. Far from being poor, though, the art creates a cleaner, more virtuous look for a character that has spent most of the 10 issues of the “The New Avengers” looking as if he had just woken up from a nap.

For a first issue, and dealing with such a unique background, “Under the Eye of the Clock” is more than adequate in teasing readers into wanting to know what will happen next in the series.