Sentry Is the MCU’s Strongest Hero Yet, But Is He Really “Marvel’s Superman?” (What the Nickname Really Means)

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Thanks to the release of Thunderbolts*, the MCU has officially introduced the Sentry into movie lore – but what are the hero’s full powers and limits, and is he really powerful enough to have earned the nickname of ‘Marvel’s Superman?’ Here’s everything you need to know.

For new fans, Sentry can be a confusing character, and that’s because the character was introduced with a whole fake backstory. Sentry was introduced to Marvel Comics in 2000 via a marketing campaign that claimed he was an old creation of Stan Lee that was finally being brought to life (in fact, he was created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, Rick Veitch.) In-world, it was explained that Sentry had been around for all of Marvel history, but his existence has been erased from human memory by one of his villains.

Sentry’s lore has settled down since then, and the essential details are that he’s a Superman-esque hero with essentially unlimited power and one major drawback. Bob Reynolds, the civilian identity of the Sentry, can also become villainous persona known as the Void. The Void also possesses godlike power and is dedicated to answering any acts of heroism by Sentry with equal destruction and death.

The Sentry Is Marvel’s Most Powerful Hero, Hands Down

He’d Crush Superman in a Fair Fight

So is Sentry really Marvel’s Superman? Absolutely, and a lot more besides. The best way to understand Sentry is actually via his civilian identity Robert ‘Bob’ Reynolds. Bob is someone whose personality isn’t suited to godlike power. In the comics, he drank a new version of the Super-Soldier Serum while trying to get high and unlocked power thousands of times in excess of Captain America. His true, core power is the ability to psionically alter reality on the molecular level.

Using this core power, Bob created the Sentry – a version of him that is heroism personified. Sentry looks like Superman because the character is deliberately a hero archetype, complete with a cape, superstrength, flight and heat vision. However, this is only because Sentry is who Bob wants to be. In contrast, the Void is all Bob’s fears and doubts manifest, amplified by an ancient, eldritch force that bonded to him when he first achieved godlike power.

Sentry is Marvel’s Superman in the sense of looking like DC’s flagship hero and having essentially the same powers, however that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Sentry is Bob Reynolds playing at being a superhero, and when he takes his abilities seriously, he can do so much more.

Sentry’s Real Powers Are More God Than Superhero

His ‘Superman’ Aspect Is Bob Trying to Limit His Own Power

In the comics, Sentry started out with invulnerability, immense strength, energy blasts and peerless speed. However, he later manifested other powers. When pushed, Sentry has turned invisible, teleported himself and others, torn holes between dimensions and resurrected the dead. There’s essentially nothing Bob Reynolds can’t do – the only catch is that because of his own instability, his power has to be channeled through either the Sentry or Void personas. Bob is essentially playing two parts, and their powers are defined by what he decides they ‘should’ be able to do.

In many ways, Sentry is actually more comparable to Superman’s original powers than the modern day DC hero. Back when Supes was created, superhero comics had far less consistent rules, and Superman frequently manifested new abilities. The classic Superman could hypnotize people, cause amnesia with a kiss, and fire tiny versions of himself out of his hands with all his powers. Sentry plays by the same rules – he can do anything, he just has to consider it an option first.

Bob Reynolds is essentially a writer who creates the Sentry and the Void in his mind, only for them to manifest in the real world. New Avengers even made this explicit in Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven’s ‘The Sentry’ arc, which revealed that Bob had channeled the Sentry’s existence into the mind of his real-life co-creator, Paul Jenkins.

Does Sentry Introduce the ‘Superman Problem’ to the Marvel Universe?

How Does Marvel Handle a Hero Who Can Do Anything?

One of the big criticisms of Superman is that a character who can do anything is boring. While there are a lot of good arguments against that perspective (Superman isn’t exactly a failed franchise), it’s definitely not the case with Sentry. The core idea of Sentry in Marvel Comics is that Bob Reynolds is unable to cope with the power he possesses. Sentry and Void are locked in a constant, self-negating struggle because Bob can’t give himself permission to truly change the world, and even as the Sentry, he suffers from agoraphobia and an overpowering fear response to anything related to the Void.

Sentry isn’t an all-powerful hero who can always be depended on to save the day – and even when he does, that often summons the Void to make things worse again. Despite his surface-level similarity to Superman, Sentry is one of Marvel’s most unique heroes, with the veneer of a stock, generic hero covering up the roiling chaos underneath. So while the MCU may have a new most powerful hero in the Sentry, it’s hard to argue that Marvel now has its own Superman – in terms of powers, Bob Reynolds is the Man of Steel, but in terms of his place and function in Marvel’s universe, the two couldn’t be more different.

“}]] Sentry is unbelievably powerful.  Read More