The Sentry: Who is Marvel’s Forgotten Hero?

Who Watches The Sentry?

A man flying through a ruined city spots a school bus teetering halfway off of a bridge and pushes it to safety. The kids are terrified, but they will be okay. The man hears his hated enemy laugh and flies towards the sound.

He stops dozens of disasters. He carries wounded people to hospitals, extinguishes burning buildings, and prevents thousands of deaths. But no matter where he goes, he can’t find his enemy… or escape that damned laughter. Floating next to a building, he stares at his ragged, blood-stained reflection and closes his eyes. He’s so tired.

So pathetic, AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!!

The man startles and sees his enemy: a shadowy figure with tendrils growing from his back and eyes like hellfire. The man smashes through the window. His foe is gone. All he sees in the shattered reflection is himself. The Sentry swears once more that he will stop The Void.

The Sentry is one of Marvel’s strangest superheroes. He’s a paragon of the Marvel Universe, but everything from his creation to his heroics is built on lies. So who is he? Why is he important? What is The Void? Let’s find out.

Golden Guardian of Good: The Sentry’s Backstory

The Sentry debuted in The Sentry #1 in 2000. He was created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, and Rick Veitch. They started a promotional hoax that Stan Lee had created The Sentry in the Sixties and forgot to publish him, even convincing Stan to play along in an interview.

Robert Reynolds was a middle-aged alcoholic with mental health issues. He woke up one morning and remembered being The Sentry, Earth’s greatest superhero. Robert investigated why no one remembered him, a mystery that became more pressing when he discovered that his archnemesis The Void was returning.

Flashbacks revealed that Reynolds became the Sentry by drinking a serum. He had been Hulk’s comrade, Mr. Fantastic’s best friend, and helped Peter Parker win a Pulitzer. The Sentry found allies and saved the day everywhere he went, but his actions were never enough to stop The Void.

The Sentry learned that he and Mr. Fantastic had erased everyone’s memories because he was The Void. The Sentry was Reynolds’ idealized self made superpowered flesh, and The Void was all of his darkest impulses, his Edward Hyde. They erased everyone’s memories again, but Robert remembered the truth within months. The Sentry needed a new method to handle The Void.

Call of The Void: The Sentry’s History

The Sentry coped with poor mental health and The Void’s rampages. He joined The Avengers as an unreliable big gun. The Sentry struggled to control his violent impulses, including an infamous incident where he tore Carnage in half and threw his Symbiote into the sun. Fellow heroes grew wary of him as a potentially invincible, uncontrollable menace.

Reynolds’ wife Lindy revealed that he was lying about his origin story. He was a junkie who broke into a lab and drank the serum to get high. Reynolds accidentally killed another thief and two guards, then developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. He created a story about an unseen villain to cope with his guilt. That story developed into an alter ego that became The Void.

During the Dark Reign event, Green Goblin took over America and made The Sentry his personal attack dog. Reynolds ran himself ragged doing good deeds to counteract The Void’s crimes. Goblin’s manipulations ultimately freed The Void, who then attacked Asgard and threatened to destroy that world. Reynolds temporarily broke through The Void’s control and convinced Thor to mercy kill him.

I Teach You The Superman: The Void’s Powers and Personality

The Sentry is Marvel’s premier Superman knock-off. He has standard superpowers, plus the ability to manipulate his molecules, alter time, resurrect himself, and absorb energy. His powers are fueled by the power of one million stars going supernova and reforming.

The Void has all of The Sentry’s powers and more. It is immortal, psychic, can manifest tendrils, controls darkness, and the weather. The Void’s origins change often and it can sometimes exist separately from The Sentry. The Green Goblin believes it to be The Angel of Death that plagued Egypt, while Knull, God of the Symbiotes, claimed that he was The Void.

Robert Reynolds is a flawed man. He is depressed, schizophrenic, agoraphobic, has an anxiety disorder, and lives with his DID. The Sentry is his idealized, perfect self, but Reynolds often won’t transform into him for fear of unleashing The Void. The resulting guilt makes The Sentry obsessed with doing as much good as possible before The Void brings balance through destruction.

Despite being intended as Superman with mental health issues, Marvel made The Sentry a perfect deconstruction of Shazam, an unchosen one who can transform into the world’s strongest man, but simultaneously be Earth’s greatest threat because of his own failings and poor mental health.

The Actors Who Play The Sentry

Lewis Pullman – Thunderbolts*, Avengers: Doomsday

Didya Get All That?

A deconstruction of Marvel’s greatest rival.

Image courtesy of Marvel Comics

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.