Marvin Chow was an up-and-coming illusionist who performed under the name “Marvelous Marv”. His act included things like the impossible hoop shot; the human pretzel bicycle stand; and the “marv-o’-lantern”. He had appeared on various late-night talk shows and auditioned for America’s Best Talent, in addition to busking in Times Square. Marv was one of six random civilians who became endowed with some of the power of the deceased superhero known as The Sentry, after being exposed to that power released in the aftermath of an attempt by evil sorcerers to resurrect the Sentry as a weapon.

Marvin’s powers manifested for the first time during an incident at one of his performances in Times Square. He was about to perform a trick where he appears to catch a bullet with his teeth, when an angry man in the crowd stepped out with a real gun and shot Marv! Marv’s date Paul, whom he had connected with an hour earlier on a hook-up app, rushed forward to try and stop the bleeding, but Marv died in his arms….and then seconds later reappeared floating in the air above them, naked and glowing. His new powers had resurrected him.

The crowd initially cheered, thinking it was all part of the act, but soon turned against him when Paul demanded to know if he was a mutant. Marv flew off in pursuit of the man who shot him, and cornered him in an alley. Before Marv could do anything to the gunman he found himself confronted by Ryan Topper, another one of the people with Sentry power. Ryan wanted all of the power for himself, so he murdered Marv to absorb his power.

Marv’s consciousness survived inside Ryan, along with his other victims, and when Ryan battled the final new Sentry, Mallory Gibbs, she was able to help Marv and the others emerge and take on physical form to help her. Marv manifested a Sentry costume with a flamboyant collar and cape, in the style of a stage magician. He saved the occupants of a burning building on the verge of collapse, using his molecular powers to transmute the building into a huge pile of feathers for the civilians to land safely. Marv and the others then helped Mallory to defeat Ryan and drain all of his power away, but the effort cost them the last of the energy sustaining them, and Marv and the others faded out of existence.

Marvelous Marv first appeared in The Sentry #1 (2023) by Jason Loo, Luigi Zagaria and David Cutler.

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Marvelous Marv’s profile is by Mike McDermott