|
| “ | Once the Void left me, the two angels came. Pulled me from the light, to return to this chaotic room with its malodorous flavors. But gloriously free of the entirety of my sadness and failure, I am reborn -- I AM LIFE-IN-DEATH! | „ |
| ~ The Sentry. |
| “ | You're fast, Tony. Very fast. But I'm always going to be two seconds ahead of you. You can set your clock by it. | „ |
| ~ Sentry to Iron Man. |
Robert "Bob" Reynolds, also known as The Sentry, is one of the main protagonists of the Marvel Universe. Originally a meth addict, Reynolds consumed the Golden Sentry Serum, a serum created to replicate and be better than the Super Soldier Serum, and gained superhuman powers. Sentry became a respected superhero by civilians and other heroes, and is considered one of the most powerful beings in Marvel and its universe.
However, he suffers from psychological issues, which can summon his negative aspect - the Void. He's also an ally of many superheroes, such as Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and the Fantastic Four, and later became a member of the Mighty Avengers, the New Avengers and Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.
The character Sentry was created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee and Rick Veitch, and first appeared in Sentry #1 in September of 2000.
Overview[]
A man named Robert "Bob" Reynolds drank a chemical formula made from the DNA of a cosmic entity, which give him "the power of a million suns", giving him super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability, the ability to shoot solar beams, and the ability to fly. With these powers, he quickly become of the greatest superheroes in the Marvel Universe, loved and respected by both civilians and his fellow superheroes.
However, he often has to deal with a dark entity known as the Void that often tries to take over his body and use it for evil, leading the Sentry on a constant struggle to keep the Void at bay. The Sentry used to be active in the 50s and 60s, before wiping everyone's mind of his existence and resurfacing in the present day.
Biography[]
Background[]
Robert "Bob" Reynolds is the son of unnamed parents, and later became a meth addict in his youth before becoming a superhero.
Becoming Sentry[]
One day, Robert broke into a laboratory of Professor Cornelius and consumed the Golden Sentry Serum, a recreation of the Super Soldier Serum that was made to magnify the physiology whoever drank the compound. Upon drinking it, Reynolds gained the power of a million exploding suns, which killed his partner and the lab guards.
Robert asked Professor Cornelius to make more compounds for him, and the heads of Project: Sentry persuaded Reynolds to test his powers at their facility. Despite this, Robert desired to become a hero, and after dealing with his former school bully, created a costume and named himself Sentry.
Heroic Career[]
During the early days of his career, Sentry was optimistic and was accepted by others as a hero in a time where most superheroes were disrespected for their freakish powers. Sentry became an ally of Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man (being a role model for Peter Parker), Professor X, the Fantastic Four (becoming an equal to Mr. Fantastic), and the X-Men.
During this time, Sentry was active in fighting crime before the Fantastic Four formed, and became an accepted hero by the public. Sentry became an ally to Iron Man and Professor X, a friend to Hulk, a role model to Spider-Man, an equal to Mister Fantastic, and often aided the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. He once helped the Fantastic Four battle their greatest enemy Doctor Doom, and was aided by the X-Men when fighting his own enemy, the General.
Confronting The Void[]
However, both his hero career would end on the day of the arrival of his own worst enemy, Void, as a result of drinking the serum, it also made all the darkness inside of him come to life, which made him kill his sidekick Scout, and resulted in a battle between him and Hulk that destroyed most of Manhattan.
Frightened of what he could do as a villain, Sentry teamed up with Dr. Strange & Mr. Fantastic, and together, they created a system which made the whole world -- including the three of them -- forget Sentry ever existed. This caused the Void to vanish and allowed Robert to retire from his hero work.
Continued Heroics[]
Eventually his memories returned and afraid of himself, convinced S.H.I.E.L.D. to place him in the Raft. After Electro started a jail break, Reynolds was persuaded to help Captain America, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage and Daredevil stop the villains and Carnage. Without saying a word, Sentry ripped the symbiote in half and vanished before he could be recruited into Captain America's New Avengers. Later on, Reynolds was confronted by the Avengers and learned that his wife was still alive and that the Sentry was a character from a comic book. He fled before transforming into the Sentry, which resulted in the Void resurfacing and attacking the Avengers.
With the help of Emma Frost, Bob was able to make the Void disappear and happily joined the New Avengers. However, the team agreed to recruit Sentry to keep a watch over him, fearing that he could cause another event similar to Scarlet Witch. Sentry soon gained the favor of the public, but his mental state worsened as he struggled with hiding the existence of the Void. Having enough, he met with Doctor Strange on the matter, and later battled the Void and sent him to the sun, realizing he didn't need his darker half anymore. During the Civil War storyline, Sentry assisted Iron Man in supporting the registration act and helped a S.H.I.E.L.D. unit arrest Wolverine. Following Captain America's defeat, he joined Stark's Mighty Avengers and received help from Ms. Marvel and Iron Man on his psychological issues.
Due to lack of proper training with his powers, Sentry caused great damage during battles and often apologized for it. Despite this, his great power proved fruitful in battling the female styled version Ultron to a near-stalemate.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Chemically Enhanced Physiology: The Sentry's superhuman powers and abilities derive from Golden Sentry Serum. The experimental serum creates a phase-shift in his molecules, causing the Sentry to become partially out of synch with normal reality. The serum induces a photosynthetic reaction, resulting in a hyperstate of consciousness. His powers are seeming based in reality warping. However, Sentry's powers were also stated to be derived from a different timestream, where one million stars constantly explode and are recreated in an endless cycle. Though most of his powers and their limits are still unknown, the Sentry has been said to have the power of a million exploding suns. He is so powerful that Karla Sofen theorized in front of Norman Osborn that what happened after Scarlet Witch broke down would be nothing compared to what Sentry could do. Sentry has also fought Galactus. He was stated to be an Omega-Level Threat by Mister Fantastic, and Nick Fury's intel classified him as Power Level 10+. During a meeting with Professor X, Emma Frost openly stated that the Sentry's powers are godlike, and during his time as a member of the Dark Avengers, Sentry's profile note that there is no limit to his powers and that he is nigh-omnipotent, thus making him the strongest member in the Dark Avengers Team. Following his return later on, the Sentry finally accept his dark self, the Void and merged with the entity, creating a being far more powerful than all his past incarnations, when considering all the impressive feat throughout the Sentry and the Void lifetime of struggle, the all-new merged Sentry can be said to be arguably the most powerful superhuman on Earth.
- Molecularkinesis: Following a confrontation with Molecule Man, Robert discovered he has the powers of molecular manipulation which he had used to revert himself from the liquid Molecule Man had turned him into, and its mainly used for holding his physical form together. The extent of these powers are not yet known, but he was able to defeat the Molecule Man. However it should be noted that unlike Molecule Man, Sentry has little control of his powers. Since The Void and the Sentry are essentially the same person with differing personalities, The Void's own shapeshifting might be a result of the Sentry's molecular manipulation. Additionally, Reynold's molecularkinesis ability theoretically would give him potential regenerative healing abilities as well despite his nigh invulnerability. It has been theorized that the vast majority of his powers are derived from his ability to alter matter and energy and that he could simulate almost any superpower with enough practice and control. He seems to do this unconsciously as the Void when he changes shape and power sets. It is also possible that he had survived from being disintegrated by Morgan Le Fay due to the same power. Since losing his agoraphobia, and therefore gaining full control over his powers (in Uncanny Avengers), he has been able to utilize his power to manipulate molecules to even greater degrees than ever before.
- Materialization: Sentry learned he could craft and build various constructs or even sentient effigy's by rearranging molecules by force of will. Either conjuring a miniature werewolf in the palm of his hand, erecting a force field able to deflect Terrax the Tamer's energy waves with relative ease, and when at his full potential he could even use it in psychokinetic ways such as stopping a full-speed Mjolnir throw directed at him by Thor and create massive Sand Golems capable of downing a giant-sized Wasp after he become a Horsemen of Death.
- Biokinesis: The Sentry has an unknown or rarely used ability to affect biophysical phenomena to an unknown but seemingly limitless degree. Both his Sentry and Void persona's having used this aspect of their shared ability for various purposes. Robert once using his power to cure his therapist's daughter of a vegetative state and spinal problems seemingly just by being in the same room as her, while the Void bestowed a young unwed mother with an incurable breast cancer disease from states away.
- Resurrection: The Sentry appears to be able to resurrect himself and to bring the dead back to life under extreme emotional distress. After Ultron murdered his wife, Sentry was able to resurrect her by simply touching her. It does not appear he has control over this power, as he was shocked by his ability to do such an act. This may also extend to simply healing others' injuries.
- Retroactive Immortality: Reynolds is chemically mixed with the sentry serum, thus allowing him and the void to be immune to aging and inevitably, dying. Even if he does get killed off, be it in his human or empowered state, neither Sentry nor the Void can be permanently disposed of. As they always return in some form or another. For a brief time, Sentry paid his life as a sacrificial price for Doctor Strange in exchange to allow him to perform large scale magical feats from the Yggdrasil Tree's power. Considering he could not permanently die; Sentry described the experience as nothing more than taking a short nap.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: The Sentry can heal himself from virtually all injuries. Such as when he was shot dead in the face by his's wife Lindy with an alien ray gun in the face only a minute to heal. He twice even came back from having his molecularity dispersed, during his fights with the Molecule Man and Morgan le Fay.
- Superhuman Strength: The Sentry's strength varies greatly and depends on his mental stability. The Sentry possesses vast superhuman strength, granting him the ability to lift (press) far in excess of 100 tons easily. He is one of the strongest beings in the Universe. He has demonstrated several astonishing feats of strength during his career, including easily lifting tremendous weights, ripping Carnage in two, taking Terrax the Tamer's cosmic axe and shattering it with his bare hands, moving a cruise liner effortlessly, and his unrestrained power overloaded the Absorbing Man. The Void was even able to break the Hulk's limbs with relative ease, and the Sentry himself was able to easily kill Ares by ripping him in half. He can also absorb solar radiation for additional strength. The Sentry has yet to demonstrate an upper-limit to his strength, but he has shown that it can rival the likes of the Hulk, although this depends on his mental state. The Sentry has also shown enough physical strength to be able beat the Void into submission more than once with pure force when he was relatively stable, which shows a high degree of power. During his most recent battle with the Void inside of the Sentry World, Sentry demonstrate devastating feat in shattering the entire moon to reveal the Void' whereabouts and then kill him easily by ripping him apart afterward. Following his fusion with the Void that granted him access to the combined might of both beings, Sentry has demonstrated an even greater degree of super strength, managing to easily overpower Scout, who had injected himself with the Golden Sentry Serum, to the point of effortlessly crushing his fist and breaking his neck. During an encounter with the Avengers, with Thor, Captain Marvel, and She-Hulk in their ranks, the merged Sentry manhandle them and knock them all aside with ease.
- Superhuman Speed: The Sentry possesses the ability to think, move, run, and react at superhuman speeds. He has been observed catching bullets and has also been seen moving far in excess of supersonic speeds; his speed on earth is enough to be gauged as fast enough to move at orbital velocity (5 miles a second). It should also be noted that the Sentry has numerously been depicted as able to fly to the sun in a matter of moments (where it takes light over 8 minutes). This shows that his speed during inter-stellar travels is several times in excess of the speed of light. He has recently shown the ability to travel an indistinguishable amount of light years in a very short of time in flight. Sentry's flight was described to be bending space and time through pure speed, and that the speed he was flying at was so fast that it was disorienting Thor. Sentry has even been able to occasionally match Thor's combat speed in battle. (Thor has routinely matched beings with extreme combat speed, such as Gladiator and Silver Surfer).
- Superhuman Agility: Sentry's natural balance, agility, and body coordination are enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.
- Superhuman Reflexes: The Sentry can react at superhuman speeds exceeding the equivalent of several times the speed of Sound. As such, Sentry was able to catch a sniper bullet from a highly advanced Skrull gun. Sentry has in the past saved Cornelius Worth from a point-blank gunshot wound to head from being inflicted on him by the Void. With him taunting Sentry, asking if he was "faster than a speeding bullet". Upon Sentry saving Dr. Cornelius, he says to the Void that he himself knew he could catch the bullet because the Void knew how fast the Sentry was to the nearest millisecond. Sentry has also reflected that he must exert control over himself for even a millisecond in battle, indicating that he operates in these time intervals.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: The Sentry is, for all intents and purposes, virtually indestructible, unless he wills himself to be killed, he has shown no direct weakness. He has been seen surviving extremely harsh atmospheric conditions, Survives a nuclear explosion at point blank range and including the vacuums of space. Nick Fury has stated that so far S.H.I.E.L.D. has yet to find a way to kill him, and even Iron Man's scanners found no physiological defects in the Sentry's body. Like all of his abilities, his durability depends on his mental state. He can go to completely no-selling Class 100-level characters but as soon as he wishes himself dead he could be killed in an instant, notably in Siege where he asked Thor to kill him. He has also been damaged when he requested Hulk to punch him in during the Green Goliath's takeover of Manhattan to prevent himself from destroying everyone on the Earth.
- Self-Sustenance: Sentry has admitted to Lindy that he does not need to ever use the bathroom. He also does not appear to have the need to eat either, as shown when his wife was eating a meal with him, and he only had a glass of water in comparison.
- Superhuman Stamina: Sentry's enhanced musculature is far more efficient than that of a human. As a result, his muscles produce no fatigue toxins. However, his stamina, along with the rest of his powers, greatly varies depending on his mental and emotional state.
- Superhuman Senses: The Sentry possesses vastly enhanced senses. He is able to hear almost any sound at any decibel, pitch, and frequency. The only Earth creature who can detect sounds at the frequencies he can is a blue whale (0.01-200,000 Hz). He has shown enough control to block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source/frequency (He has remarked that he was able to hear a butterfly's heartbeat in Africa). The range of his eyesight is also far greater than that of a human being. He is able to detect a single person from hundreds of miles in the air and above cloud level. The full extent of Robert's other senses superhuman capabilities is unknown.
- Flight: The Sentry possesses the ability to float by defying gravity, using his superhuman speed to fly far above hypersonic speeds (above Mach 10). He has demonstrated travelling to the Sun and back in a matter of moments which would require him to fly at speeds faster than light. And during the Skrulls secret invasion he flew to Saturn (about 746 million miles distance) almost immediately, which required him either to move at many times the speed of light (still thought to be impossible in this space-time) or to have bypassed space altogether thus giving the impression that he had moved faster than light-speed. He has also been stated to travel at many times the speed of light. One plausible explanation is that Sentry uses his absolute control of his molecular structure to mitigate and or prevent his body from obtaining additional mass as he moves/flies at speeds far greater that light-speed, although this has yet to have been proven or shown. And has also been remarked to fly at such speeds not even a god of Asgard could withstand. Sentry has also been able to fly with such force to behead and kill Attuma.
- Teleportation: On at least one occasion, Sentry has shown an ability to teleport in a blinding flash of golden light. Sentry teleported away, after meeting Nate Grey, he was also able to teleport from the Sun back to the Earth, and managed to get into an area which was protected by Reed Richard's force fields.
- Energy Absorption and Manipulation: The Sentry has been stated to be capable of drawing energy from 'anywhere and everywhere' including the Microverse and Negative Zone, But mostly his main source power was solar energy from a sun itself that make Sentry have power of a million exploding suns.
- Power Sharing: A couple of times the Sentry has utilized a unique ability to bestow portions of his own power onto others or using it to augment existing powers in those of his friends. Taking a young boy named Billy Turner and giving him similar abilities compared to his own and taking him on as a sidekick called Scout, or making a playmate for himself and the Hulk when similarly empowering a dog named Normie who took the name of Watchdog. Reynolds even gave Hulk some of his own quintessence as a means to protect him from his dark half, The Void. He can recharges Iron Man's armor by his energy.
- Photokinesis: It may be theorized that the Sentry also has the superhuman ability to generate, control, and emit light. This ability to produce hard-light constructs may be similar to those of Dazzler when it was revealed that the Void is a just an expression of his repressed persona, and thus his creation, he has also used it to block an energy blast from Terrax.
- Light Projection: Having absolute control over the light he produces, he can control its direction, frequency (color), amplitude (intensity), and duration. The Sentry can produce numerous effects with the light he manipulates. He can simply cause a bright glow all about his body. He can create a pulse of light on the order of several tens of thousands of lumens of power per second (the sun produces at most 10,000 lumens of brightness at noontime), which temporarily blinds people with its brilliance.
- Calm Inducement: Sentry's ability to project light has been proven to be able to calm down the Hulk though it also reduces him to a childlike mentality who believes the Sentry and his wife to be his mother and father.
- Invisibility: Sentry can turn invisible by deflecting light and radiant emissions.
- Energy Blasts: The Sentry can generate light, heat, kinetic force, and other forms of energy as powerful blasts and explosions of a golden color. Although these blasts are generated from the hands and eyes, he prefers them as optic blasts. The maximum power of these blasts is unknown. It has shown previously to be capable of burning Hulk's skin and levelling whole city blocks in the past. He has also shown the ability to emit omnidirectional blasts that were able to eliminate a large group of Attuma's soldiers. He killed a Cancerverse-infected Nova during the Scourge in the Negative Zone, blasted a group of Thunder Guard who had assaulted Asgard, and once destroyed Iron Man's Hulkbuster Armor, a very durable piece of technology. When merged with the Void, these blasts become crimson red in color.
- Umbrakinesis: After merging with the Void, Sentry gained the Void's darkness manipulation abilities. He could generate tentacles from his darkness that could restrain someone as well as knock them away.
- Psionic Abilities: The Sentry possesses powerful psychic and mental powers mainly used for keeping objects from crumbling under their own mass (though it is not yet known whether the Sentry can use them the way Professor X and other psychics use theirs). The few psychic abilities he has displayed so far was implanting his memories inside Paul Jenkins' mind and being able to erase himself from the memories of every being on the planet, with the help of C.L.O.C., Dr. Strange, and Reed Richards.
- Molecularkinesis: Following a confrontation with Molecule Man, Robert discovered he has the powers of molecular manipulation which he had used to revert himself from the liquid Molecule Man had turned him into, and its mainly used for holding his physical form together. The extent of these powers are not yet known, but he was able to defeat the Molecule Man. However it should be noted that unlike Molecule Man, Sentry has little control of his powers. Since The Void and the Sentry are essentially the same person with differing personalities, The Void's own shapeshifting might be a result of the Sentry's molecular manipulation. Additionally, Reynold's molecularkinesis ability theoretically would give him potential regenerative healing abilities as well despite his nigh invulnerability. It has been theorized that the vast majority of his powers are derived from his ability to alter matter and energy and that he could simulate almost any superpower with enough practice and control. He seems to do this unconsciously as the Void when he changes shape and power sets. It is also possible that he had survived from being disintegrated by Morgan Le Fay due to the same power. Since losing his agoraphobia, and therefore gaining full control over his powers (in Uncanny Avengers), he has been able to utilize his power to manipulate molecules to even greater degrees than ever before.
- Genius Intelligence: Robert is very intelligent. He is capable of using his powers to detect all substances in a single object and thence determine how much of what substances make up an object. He is adept with mechanics, architecture, machinery, tracing energy sources, cybernetics, robotics, and computer science. He used his great intelligence to construct his Watchtower as well as everything inside of it. Since he has never been very wealthy, it is likely he recovered all of the substances required for his Watchtower's construction from many different areas of the Earth or (perhaps) other planets as well. Once he collected the right amounts of the different substances he needed, he would then forge them into the materials and technology he needed. His other inventions include C.L.O.C. (with the help of Reed Richards) and the Watchtower.
Portrayals[]
Films[]
- In the MCU film Thunderbolts* (2025), he is portrayed by Lewis Pullman.
Video Games[]
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, he was voiced by Nolan North, who also voiced Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series, Desmond Miles in the Assassin's Creed series, Edward Richtofen in the Call of Duty series, and Deadpool in numerous media.
- In Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, he was voiced by Charlie Adler, who also voiced Felix the Cat in The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.
Trivia[]
- He is stated to be a Omega-Level Threat, and a Power Level 10+ in Nick Fury's classified intel.
- Sentry is said to be Marvel's equivalent to Superman due to their obvious similarities.
External Links[]
- Sentry on the Marvel Wiki
- Sentry on Wikipedia
