Sentry vs Thanos

[Username taken]

Why does Marvel keep giving sentry power up after power up?

I was just thinking the same thing.

Like, what does it actually achieve?

[Cody]

I was just thinking the same thing.

Like, what does it actually achieve?

Well, you don't have to ever worry about him losing his mind anymore. So there is that.

[Username taken]

Well, you don't have to ever worry about him losing his mind anymore. So there is that.

But even with the last upgrade, he got separated from the void (or something) and the heroes had to stop him. Again.

The character is trapped in a horrifying never ending cycle.

[Nik Hasta]

But even with the last upgrade, he got separated from the void (or something) and the heroes had to stop him. Again.

The character is trapped in a horrifying never ending cycle.

I think they just don't know what to do with him.

He's too powerful for earth. Unless you want the stories to ultimately bend around him doing something, he shouldn't be on Earth.

Being in space was a good move because he could just mess around having cosmic space adventures and stuff but the issue then was that, separated from Earth, Bob is fundamentally a quite limited character. His whole conception is "What if Superman but also what if dark Superman?" and that's only really interesting when you put it on Earth to see how the planet reacts to it.

See like Hyperion, Irredeemable, Majestic or any of the other What-If Superman but bad stuff.

I feel like they should try having him live with Dr Strange and doing weird extra dimensional stuff. Sentry brings the big gun, Strange brings the smarts. There would also be a lot of room to ground Sentry in Earth culture but as experienced through the weird world of magic stuff. Might make his own issues seem less pronounced and also has a lot of room for weird gimmicks to offset his potency.

[Nik Hasta]

Man, now I'm just thinking of how I'd approach writing Sentry.

Hero with a villainous dark power inside of them is so common in manga and stuff. Like, there's so many examples of how to make this work.

I mean, Miracleman literally did this story with Kid Miracleman.

[Beadle]

I'm personally leaning to that wait a minute you guys, this is the Bad Place.

Is that your indictment of Sentry, puns about postal services, or both?

[Username taken]

Man, now I'm just thinking of how I'd approach writing Sentry.

Hero with a villainous dark power inside of them is so common in manga and stuff. Like, there's so many examples of how to make this work.

I mean, Miracleman literally did this story with Kid Miracleman.

Exactly.

Particularly in Shonen.

[Sharkerbob]

Happens with Superman-style characters all the time. Keep upping his feats and occasionally unlocking a new power, except eventually, the constant power scaling gets reset, especially in Superman's case. I don't think Sentry's ever had a real reset yet.

Hell, last time I saw Sentry, he was dead, and had been resurrected as a Horseman to kick the crap out of Thor, and his "power up" then was that he didn't have Void messing with his head, so he could fight at peak efficiency or something. I guess somehow he got brought back to life again.

Sentry just worked as a one-shot character, really. His original mini was fine as it was. Admittedly, his "return" mini-series I thought was a good set-up for continuing generic adventures, but they immediately borked him. He should have just been phased out entirely. If we want "super strong space man does space adventure stuff", we've already got, like, Gladiator and Hyperion and suchlike.

[Wildling]

OT, but how powerful is Darkhawk, anyways? I only read anything with him back in the 90s, and always assumed that he was more in the neighborhood of the likes of Spider-Man and Venom rather than Gladiator and Quasar.

Not familiar myself, just wanted to be descriptive. Scene was basically "let's throw every cosmic stories related names at the guy, and hope for the best".

I was just thinking the same thing.

Like, what does it actually achieve?

I didn't have an issue with it, at least on paper. Sentry was hardly in dire need of some kind of power-up or re-evaluation since he's always been treated as some kind of mega powerful, compared to let's say the idea of Darkseid being a glorified Superman rogue gallery member with at times more resources than competence.

But, it's been long enough that if they've got to keep bringing him back, might as well live a little and run with a new incarnation.

I feel like they should try having him live with Dr Strange and doing weird extra dimensional stuff. Sentry brings the big gun, Strange brings the smarts. There would also be a lot of room to ground Sentry in Earth culture but as experienced through the weird world of magic stuff. Might make his own issues seem less pronounced and also has a lot of room for weird gimmicks to offset his potency.

Sentry actually tagged along with Strange for a little bit, to prevent Loki possibly gaining too much magic power. Strange's attempt to rehabilitate him is what ultimately led him to his current form.

[Cody]

But even with the last upgrade, he got separated from the void (or something) and the heroes had to stop him. Again.

The character is trapped in a horrifying never ending cycle.

Wait what? Then surely he should be back to being normal Sentry right? The point of him being so powerful now was that him and the void truely became one. How can he still be this Super Sentry when the void separated from him?

[Cronus]

I think Marvel just doesn't know what to do with the Sentry. They should just make the guy a villain. But yeah, IIRC, the Void was separated from the Sentry in the recent Annihilation series.

[Shellhead]

Why does Marvel keep giving sentry power up after power up?

Marvel has had a really bad case of Superman Envy for decades now, which is why we keep getting bad photocopies of Superman from Marvel. Sentry, Gladiator, Count Nefaria, and several Hyperions.

[The Arbiter]

Marvel has had a really bad case of Superman Envy for decades now, which is why we keep getting bad photocopies of Superman from Marvel. Sentry, Gladiator, Count Nefaria, and several Hyperions.

Does Nefaria really fit the bill?

[Shellhead]

Does Nefaria really fit the bill?

Not at first, when Nefaria was originally just another sinister mastermind with a monocle. But after his big power-up in Avengers #164-166, he was basically Evil Superman, complete with super-speed, eye beams, invulnerability, and Class 100 strength.

[Wildling]

Wait what? Then surely he should be back to being normal Sentry right? The point of him being so powerful now was that him and the void truely became one. How can he still be this Super Sentry when the void separated from him?

It was only temporarily undone in order to justify him kickstarting the Annihilation Scourge event, because of the whole "when in doubt, make Sentry do evil" in Marvel.

So it turned out even if the Void couldn't manifest as a separate entity anymore, by nature he could still influence his actions so Sentry went into a sleepwalking reality warping rampage in Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda. So he and Mister Fantastic decided to separate the Void again, which as collateral made Sentry blast the Cancerverse back into action (possible homage to Blackbolt opening the Fault). Maybe they thought adding the Void to the list of full time Marvel villains was preferable to Sentry maybe going encore crazy Scarlet Witch mode in an uncertain new form. Which could still be in the cards, since Scourge put the toys back in the box and Sentry re-merged with the Void.

When he became "Super Sentry" again, he assured the heroes he wasn't their enemy anymore... and then briefly spoke to them with the Void's voice to clarify what happened when he unleashed the Cancerverse.