The Sentry - Golden Guardian of Good Appreciation 2023

[ENTRYS]

Both of those two have held solo runs. That were not about them trying to be Logan or Bruce.

Not my point. My point is that no one will remember X-23 and Amadeus Cho as Wolverine and Hulk. No one will remember their runs.
Certain superheroes have been made appealing by the person behind the persona.

Who are Marvels big three? Captain America, Iron Man and Thor? No, not even close. It's Spider-Man, Wolverine and the Hulk. All three have something in common when it comes to their personalities.

If the new Sentry literally ends up being an Amadeus Cho type with unlimited power, I will be dreading every single second of the new Sentrys future in the Marvel universe. Not because of that character but because that character can't be like Robert Reynolds, just like Amadeus Cho can't be like Bruce Banner. Character depth and complexity are interesting.

[JudicatorPrime]

The only non-BIPOC character it's going to is the blond kid who screams "I am evil and will become the villain" in every single on-panel appearance so far.

I think that's the "Ryan" character and it wouldn't surprise me if that was, indeed, the Void persona. But for all we know, it could be Scout reborn. Dunno. Eagerly awaiting more details from Marvel and insiders on these points. There are 1 - 2 more characters that I haven't identified yet based on the variant covers.

I also believe at some point Bob manifests in whole. Just a hunch. Somehow he has to tie this all together and either give fans hope that this is temporary, or some sort of closure, if this is his final send off.

And if the Timeless Power Man series is truly linear and current editorial's masterplan as far as Bob goes -- i.e., the Sentry power will continue to move from person to person through the end of time -- then they'll need to write one hell of an epic here, or they're going to lose far more readers than they hope to gain.

I'm not the biggest Sentry fan, but I definitely don't wish this for any of the great cosmic-level powerful characters. They're too few as it is, and they're often screwed over whenever they do appear.

[Tendrin]

*ltired sounds*

[Golden Guardian of Good]

I think this is Marvel's way of killing off the Robert character for good, while keeping Sentry's concept. Sentry/Robert was one of the few things keeping me interested in comics(even that wasn't enough) but yea this shits dead.

[JudicatorPrime]

If you search "Mantle theory" and the MCU you'll likely get the reasons why there are so many duplicates running around. Long and short, the creatives at Marvel (and Disney) feel that these characters are nothing more than the sum of their powers which can be easily transferred over to others.

This brings me to my next question:

If Marvel chose to pass along the Sentry's powers to 5-6 existing Marvel heroes, who would everyone prefer to see get the power? (In this scenario Bob still exists sort of as a disembodied intelligence and Shazam the Wizard or Eon/Epoch-like advisor, but his powers have been bestowed on other individuals.)

My six:

1. Silhouette
2. Doc Samson
3. Surge (Noriko Ashida)
4. Rom (Yep, bring him back as my "Steel Sentry")
5. Sun Girl (Sela Burke)
6. Deathlok (Enter the Void!)

Ok, ok, maybe a bit outlandish, but there are no wrong answers here...all things considered.

[Tendrin]

Rom IS gonna come back, though. Way overdue. Love that guy.

[JudicatorPrime]

Rom IS gonna come back, though. Way overdue. Love that guy.

Same, although I'll admit that I wasn't initially a fan of his design at first. That aside, the noble Galadorian was an awesome addition to Marvel. Rom is the reason why I could never appreciate the whole Skrull Invasion storyline. The Dire Wraiths did it better and in many ways presented a far more engaging, suspenseful -- and in the case of Hybrid, horrifying -- scenario.

Yeah, I think if Bob did pick a hero to pass his powers on to, Rom would easily be one of his first choices. Steel Sentry, indeed.

[ENTRYS]

If Marvel chose to pass along the Sentry's powers to 5-6 existing Marvel heroes, who would everyone prefer to see get the power?

I don't want to suggest random heroes who have nothing in common with the Sentry, so I was only able to come up with 3:

Moon Knight, Punisher and Wolverine.

Sentry has interacted with all three of those. All three are anti-heroes who are willing to kill, just like the Sentry – for the greater good. So if he has trouble resurrecting himself and wants to pass on his powers in the meantime while he is figuring things out... why not give his power to street level heroes who are trying to do the right thing and don't shy away from getting their hands dirty? And in his mind his power would make them way more effective.

But that opens up new stories for these three anti-heroes. Stories which we've seen in Sentry comics before, but this time around you can narrow it down even further.

Punisher wants to punish bad guys, right? And now he can do it on a global scale and there is absolutely no one on the planet who can stop him. The only two with his power level would probably side with him. What does such a powerful Punisher do? Does he kill just to make criminals afraid to do any action whatsoever which he could then hear even if he is on the other side on the planet?
What about Moon Knight? He has multiple personalities. What is his newfound reality-bending powers birth these personalities into existence and grant those a portion of the power as well?
How about Wolverine and his anger issues where he enters the berserker rage? Wouldn't it be scary if he did that with Sentrys power? All of a sudden the world starts burning just because he lost control.

One more month, then the new series releases. 5 months ago, if you told me that there was a new Sentry series coming out at the end of the year and that I wouldn't be excited about it, I would have called you crazy. But Marvel has someone managed to put even me off. That's an incredible feat.

[JudicatorPrime]

5 months ago, if you told me that there was a new Sentry series coming out at the end of the year and that I wouldn't be excited about it, I would have called you crazy. But Marvel has someone managed to put even me off. That's an incredible feat.

I suspect Marvel will eventually reverse course on many of these developments as not sustainable for long-term revenues. That said, it took them 40+ years just to create the kind of character that I wanted to see and they still haven't gotten him quite right after almost another 15 years of his existence. At least you will always have the Sentry's past stories to fall back on while Marvel experiments.

[Thor-Ul]

Rom IS gonna come back, though. Way overdue. Love that guy.

They are republishing old material. I dunno if Marvel and Hasbro have reached an agreement to create new material. They did it with Conan but that licence already wear off and Marvel has enough non MU material to work with. Hasbro could be the most interested one in resurrect Rom, but will they accept the conditions of Marvel.

Back to Sentry...

I think this new development if not used rightly will transform Sentry into a concept similar to Captain Universe. Or even maybe something like the Shazam kids from Flashpoint.

[GAP]

The question I have is: Why do Marvel put the Sentry in the main Marvel universe to begin with? From what I heard, The Sentry was meant to be a one-off gimmick character.

[Anthony W]

I think this is Marvel's way of killing off the Robert character for good, while keeping Sentry's concept. Sentry/Robert was one of the few things keeping me interested in comics(even that wasn't enough) but yea this shits dead.

Marvel has gotten old and embraced DC's mantle focused thinking and obsession with multiverse variants.

[Golden_Guardian]

The question I have is: Why do Marvel put the Sentry in the main Marvel universe to begin with? From what I heard, The Sentry was meant to be a one-off gimmick character.

We can thank Bendis for that. Despite one or two good moments here and there, I really wish Sentry had been a one and done character.

Being a fan has had more lows than highs.

[JudicatorPrime]

The question I have is: Why do Marvel put the Sentry in the main Marvel universe to begin with? From what I heard, The Sentry was meant to be a one-off gimmick character.

It's all a gimmick until enough people like it and/or fall for it. Then it becomes an act. Or a recurring character.

[Wildling]

Also if this comic is supposed to be happening to tie in with a Thunderbolts live debut for Bob, the outlook is worsening. The Marvels movie died badly at the box office this last weekend, following a troubling pattern from The Eternals and Quantumania, and among the fallout right now Thunderbolts, which was already delayed in the first place, is not scheduled to be released next year anymore, the third Deadpool movie is the only Marvel movie still in the calendar, which speaks volumes along with how the next Avengers movie lost the Shang-Chi director (which sounds nuts to me, Shang-Chi was great and successful). Even if Thunderbolts was Spider-Verse levels of great and the mini was aiming for an Eisner (at least the art looks sub-par compared to the previous ones, they had surprisingly consistenly great artists), I question how much interest audiences could have in a Thunderbolts movie in the first place if as The Marvels it also draws on TV shows which didn't help Marvels any. I assume all of this could be memory holed within a year and if writers still want to write Bob, they'll undo everything, everywhere, all at once.