(Comics) So tell me of this Sentry fellow

[Semah]

All that I know about the guy is that he was introduced as some elaborate prank as an old character that Stan Lee had supposedly created before the FF. Since he's in New Avengers and all, I suppose I should learn more. So educate me.



( I also posted this on the Comic Book Resources forums. So it's a race!)

[Rhino]

The Sentry is, more or less, a Mary Sue character. He's the most powerful hero in the early Marvel Universe, is a genius, is beloved by the public, is best friends with Reed Richards, befriends and to a limited degree cured the Hulk, mentors Angel of the X-Men, and solves all of Peter Parker's financial problems in one fell swoop. He is just plane better than anyone else.

And then one day he just disapeared from history.

The story takes place in the modern day, with Bob Reynolds living a boring and mundane life. But gradually he starts to remember flashes of another life, and starts to suspect that he might have been a superhero once. Bob's trying to dig up his past leads to encounters with various Marvel heroes, and threatens to bring about something terrible.

(spoilers)

Bob really was The Sentry, but the more he remembers this, the closer his archenemy, The Void, comes to returning. Every time the Void has come back, he's been more and more powerful. And this time he's too powerful for anyone, even The Sentry, to stop. It turns out that The Void and The Sentry are two halves of the same person. After all, the world's greatest hero has to have the world's greatest enemy. Several years ago, the only way for Bob to stop The Void was to give up being The Sentry, to forget about it completely. And for the entire world to forget about him to. With the help of Reed Richards and Dr. Strange, he did it. But now that plan is coming updone, and The Void is going to destroy the world. The story ends with Bob once again choosing to give up being the world's greatest and most powerful hero - to instead be a normal joe without even the memories of faded glory - in order to save the world. And the reason I'm not really thrilled by the idea of The Sentry being part of the New Avengers line up is that bringing him back in any way completely undermines the heroism of Bob's choice at the end of the book.

[soylent]

You porbably already have you answer, then. But seeing as I re-read the trade last night, here's a spoileriffic answer:

The Sentry is Robert (Rob or Bob to his friends) Reynolds. As a freshman (I'm assuming college) he apparrently worked for a Professor (of SCIENCE!) who developed a secret formula. By injecting himself with the formula, (and this is from memory) it caused every atom of Rob's body to step one second ahead in the timestream, causing a phase-shift that gave him the "power of 1,000 exploding suns!" It is implied that Rob developed a Hourman-like addiction to the serum, but also that the reaction itself was self-sustaining, drawing power fom the sun. He developed a glowing golden aura (more on this later), super strength, flight, and invulnerability, and the ability to project blasts of "golden energy," as well as other merely hinted-at powers (frex, he was able to bypass all of Reed Richards' security at the under-reconstruction Baxter Building site without apparent effort).

Besides his superpowers, Rob was also a Mr. Fantastic-level intellect, he and Reed having been peers and close friends. He had his own base, The Watchtower, designed and built by him and Reed which rose above all other skyscapers of the Manhattan skyline. Everything inside the tower was powered by "the formula," including the base's artificial intelligence "Clok." He had also had a kid sidekick named Billy, and a pomeranian named Watchdog that fought crime with him, both injected with more of the serum.

Basically, he's a Marvel take on Golden Age Superman.

Now, according to 616 continuity, he was all these things BEFORE the Fantastic Four took their fateful rocket trip, Peter Parker was bitten by a spider, or Bruce Banner worked with the gamma bomb. He was the one who inspired all these characters to be heroes. He was the pinnacle of good that they all looked up to as an example. He made very literal impact on all the major players of the DCU - for example, his "golden aura" had a calming effect on the then-mindless Hulk. The Hulk was for a time the Sentry's partner, living with him in the Watchtower, and the continued exposure to the Sentry's presence was said to be causing the Hulk to slowly "evolve."

But there is also a dark side to the Sentry, and that dark side is The Void. The Void appears as the silhouette of a man, often clad in a cloak and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. He can send out tendrils of his shadow form, and when they touch you you experience every fear, every nightmare, every horrible truth you ever experienced or will experience. He is said to lurk at the edge of the universe, and pops up to bedevil the Sentry from time to time. The Sentry always defeats him, but the Void always returns, ever stronger.

The problem is that the Sentry is the Void, ad the Void is the Sentry. He is the Yang to the Sentry's Yin - it's never explained if the Void is merely a split personality given form, or if the Void exists in the universe as a balance to the Sentry. What is known is that, as of his last appearance, the Void's power-level had become so great that he threatened the existence of all life on earth. And Void would always return, as long as the Sentry continued to exist.

And so, a decision was made.

First, the world was told the Sentry had died. But that wasn't enough - the Sentry ouldn't just be dead, the world had toforget he ever existed. So first, he was discredited and made to look the villain. Then, with the help of Reed Richards, Rob developed a device that turned the world's anger into apathy and finally, forgetfullness. Everyone forgot the Sentry, even Rob himself.

So now he lives, a agoraphobic closet alchaholic, on a farm in the middle of nowehere. At least, that's where the TPB begins. It appears that as of the New Avengers, he's voluntarily committed himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody on The Raft. Apparrently, he confessed to guilt in the unsolved death of his wife, and Reed Richards pulled some strings to get him put there.

[Brian888]

Originally Posted by soylent

You porbably already have you answer, then. But seeing as I re-read the trade last night, here's a spoileriffic answer:

The Sentry is Robert (Rob or Bob to his friends) Reynolds. As a freshman (I'm assuming college) he apparrently worked for a Professor (of SCIENCE!) who developed a secret formula. By injecting himself with the formula, (and this is from memory) it caused every atom of Rob's body to step one second ahead in the timestream, causing a phase-shift that gave him the "power of 1,000 exploding suns!" It is implied that Rob developed a Hourman-like addiction to the serum, but also that the reaction itself was self-sustaining, drawing power fom the sun. He developed a glowing golden aura (more on this later), super strength, flight, and invulnerability, and the ability to project blasts of "golden energy," as well as other merely hinted-at powers (frex, he was able to bypass all of Reed Richards' security at the under-reconstruction Baxter Building site without apparent effort).

Besides his superpowers, Rob was also a Mr. Fantastic-level intellect, he and Reed having been peers and close friends. He had his own base, The Watchtower, designed and built by him and Reed which rose above all other skyscapers of the Manhattan skyline. Everything inside the tower was powered by "the formula," including the base's artificial intelligence "Clok." He had also had a kid sidekick named Billy, and a pomeranian named Watchdog that fought crime with him, both injected with more of the serum.

Basically, he's a Marvel take on Golden Age Superman.

Now, according to 616 continuity, he was all these things BEFORE the Fantastic Four took their fateful rocket trip, Peter Parker was bitten by a spider, or Bruce Banner worked with the gamma bomb. He was the one who inspired all these characters to be heroes. He wasthe pinnacle of good that they all looked up to as an example. He made very literal impact on all the major players of the DCU - for example, his "golden aura" had a calming effect on the then-mindless Hulk. The Hulk was for a time the Sentry's partner, living with him in the Watchtower, and the continued exposure to the Sentry's presence was said t be causing the Hulk to slowly "evolve."

But there is also a dark side to the Sentry, and that dark side is The Void. The Void appears as the silhouette of a man, often clad in a cloak and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. He can send out tendrils of his shadow form, and when they touch you you experience every fear, every nightmare, every horrible truth you ever experienced or will experience. He is said to lurk at the edge of the universe, and pops up to bedevil the Sentry from time to time. The Sentry always defeats him, but the Void always returns, ever stronger.

The problem is that the Sentry is the Void, ad the Void is the Sentry. He is the Wangto the Sentry's Yin - it's never explained if the Void is merely a split personality given form, or if the Void exists in the universe as a balance to the Sentry. What is known is that, as of his last appearance, the Void's power-level had become so great that he threatened the existence of all life on earth. And Void would always return, as long as the Sentry continued to exist.

And so, a decision was made.

First, the world was told the Sentry had died. But that wasn't enough - the Sentry ouldn't just be dead, the world had toforget he ever existed. So first, he was discredited and made to look the villain. Then, with the help of Reed Richards, Rob developed a device that turned the world's anger into apathy and finally, forgetfullness. Everyone forgot the Sentry, even Rob himself.

So now he lives, a agoraphobic closet alchaholic, on a farm in the middle of nowehere. At least, that's where the TPB begins. It appears that as of the New Avengers, he's voluntarily committed himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody on The Raft. Apparrently, he confessed to guilt in the unsolved death of his wife, and Reed Richards pulled some strings to get him put there.

The Void threatened a good deal more than the Earth; he was going to destroy the entire Marvel Universe. He'd already done the "destroying planets a la Dark Phoenix" shtick.

[Semah]

Thanks guys.


Should be interesting to see how in the sam hell he manages to exist in The Avengers.

[Semah]

I picked up The Sentry TPB this weekend and really enjoyed it. I got really drawn into the story quickly and couldn't believe how easilly I was sympathising with this poor hero that I had never met before. The parts with the Hulk were particularilly depressing. (Hulk's always been my favorite character) Seeing him laughing and saying "Golden Man!" gave me a little lump. All that said, I still wonder how the hell Bob got from the end scene to the end of New Avengers 1 and what happened in the mean time.