I DIDN'T WRITE THIS. But I seen it posted by an anonymous user on Tom Brevoort' s blog and I thought it was so good I would repost it here.
Imagine you had the power of a million exploding suns. How would you deal with it? Would you use it for the greater good or would you use it to cause chaos and destruction? What would such unfathomable power do to you?
A wise man once came up with the statement that with great power comes great responsibility. That is true. Being able to swing through the city, lift cars and web bad guys is most likely amazing and you can do a lot of good things with it, but what if you can fly, move faster than the speed of light, have enough strength to lift islands and can erase the memories of more than 7 billion people? Having great responsibility gets a whole new meaning.
Would you be able to handle it? Sentry is ultimately all about the you. In his first and second volume the narration concentrated a lot on the you, which ultimately connected the reader more with the Sentry.
Just like you Sentry is just a regular guy with desires, problems, hopes and fears. He is not Captain America. He is not that kind of a special man. He is just an ordinary man, who fell ass backwards into ultimately power and his wish to do good led him to becoming a superhero.
He became a superhero and in process the started carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. How could an ordinary man handle so much pressure? How could an ordinary man not fall apart? Could you handle it? Could you keep it together?
Sentry is capable of hearing a butterfly sneeze in Africa, while he himself is in the middle of New York. Someone, who hears a butterfly sneeze, can also hear a person sneeze, speak, yell, scream and cry for help. One person, two, three, thousands and millions.
Imagine you focus and listen and hear millions of people screaming for help and looking for a savior. Would you take off and help them? Who would youhelp? Would you save 20 children from a burning bus in Germany, or wouldyou protect a hospital in China from an earthquake? Would you protect 50 people from a tsunami, or rather save 40 people from a tornado and prevent 5 million dollars of property damage. How could you possibly make such a decision?
Sentry has to deal with phobias. Just like many other people. Some are afraid of spiders, some of height and some of needles and injections. Sentry suffers from agoraphobia, the fear of wide open or crowded spaces, which might potentially lead to uncomfortable situations and panic attacks in such environments.
Sometimes he prefers to simply stay at home and take a break from everything to put it lightly. Imagine you hear all those people screaming your name day in-day out: “Where are you? Why did you let me child die? Please, you have to help me!”. Wouldn’t that be overwhelming for an ordinary man? Wouldn’t it be easier to simply stay at home and deny help? Would you do it better? Wouldyou be a superior man and fly in the sky, bring hope with your symbol and shoot laser beams from your eyes in order to stop the bad guys, or would yousometimes simply wait and hope that everything turns to the better on its own?
What if you choose to wait and deny everyone your help? Imagine you had the power to heal people and to even resurrect them, just the way Sentry can. Would you do it? He chooses not to, because then everyone would want him to do the same for them. He is not god, he says. Or is he? Would you view yourself as god? Would you choose to heal and resurrect the damaged and the fallen?
What if you did the same Sentry did and sometimes simply stopped? What would that do to you? Would you be able to shut off your emotions? Would yoube able to handle the Void you created? Would you be able to fight the Void off that dragged your friends and loved ones into the abyss?
Imagine you had all these thoughts and problems in your head an the weight of the world on your shoulders. How long would it take you to snap and lose it all? Would it lead you to blindly trust anyone in hope for help and support? Would it lead you to blindly trust even a madman like Norman Osborn, who talks to youand makes it sound like he understands you - like he understands the Void that surrounds you. Someone, who makes it sound like he can help you and promises that he will help you. Would you accept help from someone, who offers you a hand - someone, who offers you a way to fill the Void?
We’ve seen the Sentry appearing out of nowhere and dragging the lives of old friends into the abyss, simply through his mere presence. Being the most powerful superhero and the most powerful supervillain on the planet does that. Other superheroes were helpless in fights against the Void, a loose persona of the Sentry. Supervillains joined the ranks in order to stop the world from going under, but ultimately it was always the Sentry as the last line of defense. It was always the Sentry, who saved the day by sacrificing himself. By sacrificing his power. Would you be able to make the same sacrifice? Would you be able to give the power of a god away for humanity?
We’ve seen the Sentry appearing out of nowhere and doing great things. We’ve seen him doing horrible things. We’ve seen the Sentry standing tall and saving the day, but we’ve also seen him struggeling and failing. We’ve witnessed a man falling apart under too much power and too much responsibility. We’ve witnessed a human falling apart.
We had hopes the Sentry would snap out of it. We had hopes Sentry would realize what he was truly capable off and reaching his full potential. We had hopes he would finally end the madness and turn the world into a better place.
But he never did. Sentry was from the very first day just an ordinary man until the very end. He struggeled and he lost the battle. He has proven that there truly are no big blue boy scouts. He has proven that a human would fail. He has proven that we would fail.
Sentry represents everything that is human: a good side and a bad side, determination and fears, helpfulness and struggle. Sentry is the most human character in comic books and it is still not enough.
It hurts knowing that Sentry wasn’t able to save everyone, even though he had the power of a god. It hurts knowing that everyone was terrified of him, even though he was trying to do the right thing. It hurts that he never got a second chance to redeem himself. To break free and defy the odds. To live up to his hype, reach his full potential and do great things.
It hurts seeing the Sentry back again and once again as a lackey, who is being manipulated into doing bad things. It hurts knowing that he will die in the upcoming issues of UNCANNY AVENGERS and disappear again for years, only to be revived and victimized by a writer without a clear vision for the character later on.
Sentry is my favorite comic book character and I’m at a point, where I would prefer Marvel to simply get rid of him for good. I idolize that character and I don’t want to see him suffer anymore.
They say that the reason why you like your favorite characters the most is because you see a lot of yourself in them and I completely agree with that. I want the best for him, because I know that I’m not the only one, who loves the Sentry - for everything that he is and more so for everything that he might have been, if he only had the chance.
Thank you very much for reading.
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