9 Strongest Sentry Villains in Marvel Lore, Ranked by Power Level

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The Sentry is Marvel’s most powerful hero, and during his time in the Marvel Universe, he’s collected some equally mighty villains. With the power of “a million exploding suns,” Sentry has fought alongside the Avengers, New Avengers and Dark Avengers, acting as both hero and villain thanks to his evil alternate persona, the Void.

Here are the nine strongest villains in Sentry lore. While Sentry has fought plenty of big-name villains like Ultron and Annihilus, this list will focus on those villains who have a particular tie to the Sentry – foes who act as recurring threats, have a particular grudge against Bob, or influenced his comic lore in a major way.

9

Cranio the Tri-Level Mind, aka Doug

First Seen in Sentry Volume 3 #1 by Jeff Lemire and Kim Jacinto

Cranio is the Lex Luthor to Sentry’s Superman, with a genius intellect and a penchant for devising incredible doomsday weapons. Cranio claims to have three-times the intellect of any other human, granting him enhanced mental abilities including limited telepathy. As seen in the semi-canonical The Age of the Sentry (from Jeff Parker and Nick Dragotta), Cranio tends to combat Sentry using thralls such as the giant bear Ursus, modifying them to combat Reynolds’ hero.

After Sentry created ‘Sentry World’ – a pocket universe where he could play hero without summoning the Void – Cranio used his brilliance to torment Bob within the false reality, killing Sentry’s beloved allies. While Cranio has always disliked Sentry, that turned to loathing after the hero was erased from human memory, stripping Cranio of the fantastical elements of his life and leaving him to try and make sense of a far more ordinary existence. Once Sentry returned, Cranio struck back with a vengeance.

8

The General

First Seen in Sentry/X-Men #1 by Paul Jenkins and Mark Texeira

When Marvel introduced the Sentry in 2000, it gave the hero a dark backstory. A Marvel hero since the very beginning, Sentry had been erased from human memory by one of his enemies, only resurfacing at random intervals when Bob Reynolds accidentally stumbled across his true history. In New Avengers #9 (Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven), it was revealed that Sentry’s erasure was a plan carried out by his old nemesis the General, who hired the psychic illusionist Mastermind to convince Bob that if everyone didn’t forget him, the Void would destroy the world. From there, Bob Reynolds’ powers did the rest.

A crazed dictator, the General is a rogue US military leader who is one of Sentry’s oldest enemies. The General was only introduced in 2000 when the Sentry debuted, but the villain was given a tangled backstory in comics such as Sentry/X-Men. The General has no inherent superpowers, but does wear cybernetic goggles and possesses weapons that can even injure the Sentry. It has been hinted that the General was originally created by the Void as a mechanism to control the Sentry – something that isn’t outside the limits of Bob’s reality-warping powers.

7

Sentry’s Retcon Villains, Including The Blue Buffoon, The Hippy, Danny Boy, Xeniac and the Factious Five

Debuted in Sentry Volume 2 by Paul Jenkins and John Romita Jr.

Given his fictional backstory as a hero who has been around since the ’60s, Marvel has given Sentry an entire fictional rogues’ gallery – villains who he fought ‘before’ he was erased from human memory, and who ‘returned’ for cameo appearances in The Sentry Volume 2. These villains all had one-time appearances that were meant to establish different eras of the Sentry’s career, with the Blue Buffoon getting the honor of being Sentry’s first-ever villain, at least in terms of in-world canon.

The strongest of Sentry’s retconned villains appear to be the towering alien villain Xeniac and Leprechaun-esque foe Danny Boy, who fought both Sentry and the Hulk. While some of these villains have only appeared in a single comic panel so far, Marvel loves revisiting old lore, and it’s entirely possible that Sentry’s ‘old enemies’ will return in the future.

6

Ares

Killed by the Sentry in Siege Volume 1 #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel

The Greek God of War, Ares served on both the Mighty Avengers and then Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers alongside Sentry, considering him a brother in arms. Alongside a godly physique, Ares possesses other divine abilities, including a mastery of all weapons and the ability to shape conflict and control all forms of warrior. Disdainful of regular mortals and even superhumans, Ares considered Sentry the closest to his equal on the team, but the events of Siege turned them into enemies.

While Ares was happy to work with Norman Osborn as (at the time) a legitimate wielder of human authority, he had one hard line – the Dark Avengers couldn’t pit themselves against the gods. When Osborn unleashed his Dark Avengers on Asgard, Ares turned against him, and Osborn responded by directing Sentry to take him out. Brainwashed by Osborn, Sentry beat and eventually killed Ares, tearing him in two. This fight was the beginning of the end for Sentry, allowing the Void to fully take over his body and manifest.

5

Scout, aka William ‘Billy’ Turner

First Seen in Sentry #2 by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee

Sentry’s former sidekick, Scout’s entire life as a hero was torn away when Sentry was erased from human memory. When Sentry returned, Scout stood with him against the Void, despite having lost an arm to the villain in the past. However, after Scout lost his powers, he betrayed Sentry in order to take his place in the pocket reality known as Sentry World, allying with Cranio to kill Bob and replace him as the new Sentry.

Scout has the same powers as the Sentry, while appearing to lack Bob Reynolds’ larger ability to warp reality. Incredibly fast, strong and durable, Scout can also unleash lasers from his eyes. Billy was once part of a larger Sentry family including Sentress and Watchdog, but died after an experimental version of Sentry’s power serum overloaded his body.

4

The Void, aka Robert Reynolds

First Seen in Sentry #1 by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee

When Bob Reynolds gained the ability to warp reality, he turned himself into a superhero as the Sentry. However, Bob’s doubt and self-hatred caused him to manifest another persona in the Void – a demonic force of pure evil. Thanks to Bob’s internal conflict, the Void traditionally exists to erase any good done by the Sentry, killing numbers of people equal to those he saves. The Void has presented itself in various ways, from an ogre-like monster to a slick gangster, often finding new ways to undercut Sentry’s heroism.

The Void is as strong and powerful as the Sentry, often creating constructs out of living darkness. However, like Sentry, the Void is a creation of Bob Reynolds, and can gain new abilities based on his subconscious desires – for example, being able to resurrect Lindy Reynolds after she was assassinated by Bullseye. Sentry and the Void briefly merged into a single form, but were quickly separated again.

In creating the Void, Bob tapped into the primordial darkness that existed before the multiverse, anchoring the villain to an ageless force of evil. UItimately, this created both the Sentry and the Void’s greatest weakness…

3

The King in Black, aka Knull

First Seen in Venom Volume 4 #3 by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman

Knull is an ancient god of the primordial darkness that existed before the multiverse, having created the symbiote species out of that darkness as part of a larger war against the Celestials. Strong and durable on a godly level, Knull also boasted control over all symbiotes and could subvert space and time, allowing him to alter past events and teleport at will. Knull invaded Earth in 2020’s King in Black from Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, with the Avengers deploying Sentry as their secret weapon against the eldritch god.

However, Knull’s control over the primordial void made him an expression of the same entity as the Void, and he was able to tear Sentry’s darker half out of his body, absorbing its power. Knull then tore Sentry in two in an imitation of how Sentry killed Ares, permanently killing Bob Reynolds in Marvel lore (at least so far.)

2

The Hunger Virus

First Seen in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 by Mark Millar and Greg Land

In the Marvel Zombies franchise, Marvel introduced a virus known as the Hunger, which spreads through a planet’s superhuman population, turning them into flesh-hungry zombies. This virus originally arrived on Earth-2149 carried by an alt-reality variant of the Sentry, who used his immense strength to tear a hole between realities in search of new prey. The zombie Sentry’s attack led to the near-extinction of all life in the galaxy… but that was only the beginning.

In Marvel’s various Marvel Zombies series and spin-offs, the Hunger spread across multiple realities, causing massive loss of life before ending up on Earth-91126. There, it infected that reality’s Sentry, who became the leader of a cannibalistic version of the Avengers composed of Moon Knight, Thundra, Quasar, Namor, Quicksilver, Professor X and the Super-Skrull. Eventually, Sentry was left as the last zombie ‘alive,’ at which point the Watcher arranged for him to travel back in time to Earth-2149, turning the Hunger’s spread into a time-loop, with Sentry as the first and last carrier.

1

Molecule Man, aka Owen Reece

Debuted in Fantastic Four #20 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Molecule Man is one of the most powerful villains in Marvel lore, feared even by Galactus. Molecule Man exists simultaneously across every version of reality, intended as a ‘multiverse bomb’ for use by the Beyonders should they choose to end the multiverse. In the meantime, Molecule Man can control reality on a molecular level, allowing him to warp the timeline in any way he sees fit. In Dark Avengers #10 from Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr., Osborn’s team tried to contain Molecule Man, only for him to dispatch them in a variety of ways, including tearing Sentry apart on the molecular level.

Sadly for Molecule Man, Sentry was able to piece himself back together. This feat was consequential because it revealed to Bob Reynolds the true nature of his powers, confirming that he too could control reality on the molecular level, even to the point of overriding Molecule Man’s powers. Sentry defeated Molecule Man and resurrected the Dark Avengers, having finally figured out that his true superpower is omnipotence.

Those are Sentry’s nine most powerful villains in Marvel lore, from his ‘fake’ rogues’ gallery to several of the most powerful forces in comic lore. Let us know which other Sentry foes should be on this list, as well as anyone who should appear higher or lower in our ranking.

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