Welcome to the Sentry Appreciation thread! Let’s remember the hero we were supposed to forget!
After discovering the Professor’s secret formula, meek freshman Robert Reynolds discovers that he has the power of one million exploding suns! After trouncing the school bully, Buzz, and catching the eye of the gorgeous Lindy Lee, Robert sews together a marvelous golden suit and becomes THE SENTRY! Using his amazing powers, he rights wrongs across the world, protecting humanity from the likes of the Villainous Void, the Crazed General, and Danny Boy! With the aid of his sidekick, Scout, and his super powered pup, Watchdog, the Sentry is the Golden Guardian of Good!
No, that’s not right…
College Freshman Robert Reynolds was ill. He spent half of his first year in the campus counselor’s office reading pamphlets on learning disabilities and the dangers of drug use. He was hearing voices telling him to do bad things. A graduate assistant heavily into drug abuse let him in to the research lab where a professor was working on an attempt to create a more potent version of the Super Soldier Serum. Robert stole the serum, not knowing what it was, and drank it behind the fairground stall where he worked, becoming both the heroic Sentry and the evil Void, two sides of his psyche locked in an eternal battle. The scientists tried to trick him into believing that he needed regular doses of the formula, but the truth was that he had been changed forever, and that they were looking for ways to destroy him.
Or was it…
Meth addict Robert Reynolds and another junkie broke into a secret lab where scientists were attempting to create a more potent version of the Super Soldier Serum. After drinking the serum he exploded, destroying the lab and killing his partner. He begged the professor to make more because he had become addicted to the formula, and out of fear the professor made more.
Anyway…
The Sentry eventually discovered that he and the Void were one in the same. To prevent the void from killing millions of people, his best friend Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, and himself created a device in the Watchtower, his home and headquarters, to psychically erase all memory of the Sentry from everyone. They succeeded and the Sentry, the first and greatest hero of the Silver Age, was forgotten.
Wait… that’s wrong too…?
The Sentry had been captured by the General and Mastermind… somehow. They manipulated his mind to believe that if he used his powers, the Void would kill everyone and that he had to make everyone forget. Mastermind planted a virus in his mind that caused Robert to psychically erase the Sentry from the mind of everyone, even himself. But at the same time, he was fighting it, crying out to the world to be remembered. A writer named Paul Jenkins wrote comics about his adventures as a kind of diary, thinking they were his ideas when really they were Robert’s memories.
However it happened, Emma Frost tried to heal his fractured mind. She thought she’d sent the void away. But he came back. After struggling with his dark side, the Void began to take over. After having a SHIELD Helicarrier dropped on him, he realized the Void was going out of control and begged Thor to kill him. Thor struck him down and threw him into the sun where he tried his best to stay dead in a battle against his evil persona. The Void finally became bored and went to the White Hot Room (where the Phoenix force dwells). The Sentry was eventually resurrected as the horseman of death by the Apocalypse Twins, tore his face off, said a lot of crazy things, saved the world and flew into space with a dead Celestial to take a long journey.
Sentry was later discovered by Doctor Stephen Strange roaming the stars, and the good Doctor helped to cure him of the Apocalypse Twins influence and later asked for Robert's help to regain his title as Sorcerer Supreme from Loki. Little did Bob know that part of the "cure" involved locking the Void away in a deep vault of the Sanctum Sanctorum, which Stephen unlocked in a desperate attempt to defeat the trickster god. With the Void back, Bob fell under the care of the Aberrant Crimes Division, who required that Bob maintain access to the mindscape set up by Dr. Strange to keep the Void at bay. Of course, this ultimately failed, leading to the Sentry and Void combining to achieve his Ultimate Form.
But even that didn't put poor Bob at rest, so he enlisted the help of his old friend Reed Richards to separate the two once and for all by using the unique laws of the Negative Zone. However, this left Bob powerless in his human form, with the Void assuming the guise and powers of the Sentry to wreak havoc on both the Negative Zone and the primary universe. Bob teamed up with the Silver Surfer and brought Void to justice once again.
Sadly, Sentry met his demise yet again when Knull invaded Earth and ripped him in half, as Bob had once done to Carnage, and absorbing the Void. Valkyrie then escorted Bob's soul to Valhalla where it is assumed he resides to this day.
Here’s to a great concept that suffered a few bumps and retcons along the way. I'm looking forward to when they bring him back!
Notable Series Featuring the Sentry:
The Sentry (2000)
New Avengers (2005)
The Sentry (2006)
The Mighty Avengers (2007)
Dark Avengers (2009)
Siege (2010)
Uncanny Avengers Vol 1 (9-22) (2013)
Doctor Strange Vol 1 (382-385) (2018)
The Sentry (2018)
Annihilation - Scourge (2019)
King in Black (2020)
King in Black: Return of the Valkyries (2021)
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"Hi, my name's Bob" - The Sentry