I've been itching to make this thread for a very, very long time. It is one of the most frustrating myths about the Sentry character that I honestly can't stand. I'm sure we all heard the, "dur...dur...witout the VOID sentry LOSEZ!", "Voidjuiced Sentry can only winz!", "DOEZ DA SENTRY HAS VOID?" or "Voidtry iz da only ways he can winz!".
*Sighs*
What most people in these battle threads or OPs who make these threads concerning the Sentry don't realize is that saying that the Sentry has the Void ironically makes the Sentry weaker. Yes weaker. The Void is a manifestation of the Sentry's schizophrenia. The side of effect of Bob's mental instability. While the Sentry is the hero persona, but I'll dwell into that deeper later.
As you may know I posted a picture of the Chinese symbol "Yin and Yang", because that in my opinion represents the Sentry/Void in a nutshell. The Void is Yin and the Sentry is Yang. Good and Evil, but the two balanceeach other out. Like I said in my Sentry/Void capability/potential thread I said that Robert Reynolds mental stability acts as a scale for both of the personas power level.
Meaning that how powerful the Void and Sentry are depends on Bob's(the host) mental state.
"When stable he has potential for limitless power....... however if his mental states wavers he becomes weaker and easier to defeat."
So in reality NEITHER the Sentry or the Void are more powerful than one another. But I want to go deeper and get to the nitty gritty, because to be quite frank I want to bust this myth a thousand folds. I want to touch base on why and how the Void comes out and gets stronger when Bob's mental state wavers. Like I said the Void is the side-effect of Bob's schizophrenia; thus he can only come out and become powerful when the Bob's mental state wavers. Some believe he is just Bob's hallucination and comes out when Bob believes he is the Void.
Anyhow if you read the Dark Avengers arc you would know that Norman Osborn gave the Sentry a super-serum, much to the Sentry's surprise.
But we find out... It wasn't a real serum, but something to destablize Bob's mind. Why? *drumroll*
To get the Void completely out!
Norman knew that the Sentry was the "hero persona", he wanted the Void, because the Void was evil, but more importantly Norman ignorantly thought he can use the Void as his own "secret weapon". Connecting the dots we already know that a mentally weak Bob means a weaker Sentry. So the Void becoming stronger due to Sentry's weaken mind means... The Sentry becomes WEAKER! Meaning that "Sentry with Void" means again a WEAK SENTRY. So NEITHER ARE REALLY MORE POWERFUL THAN THE OTHER! *pants*
The Sentry has beaten the Void more than once
It can be argued that the Sentry's creator Paul Jenkins, in a way intended the Sentry to be more powerful than the Void. Though during Jenkin's run he has equally stated that both the Sentry and Void are extremely powerful. Yet people get this idea that he Void was meant to be more powerful which is incorrect.
Again both have been stated to be extremely powerful, during Jenkins first vol of the Sentry Dr. Strange equally states that both the Sentry and Void can be the end of the universe.
The misconception of people thinking that the Void is more powerful comes from the Void being not only a villain, but a very ruthless one. The Sentry again is obviously the hero persona. The Void doesn't hold back as much as the Sentry. The Sentry has shown many times to be careful, hell he has demonstrated many times that he is afraid to use his powers and cut lose. The Void on the other hand doesn't give a crap. Other than ruthlessness and being evil, the creator Paul Jenkins has them equal on power level. But more importantly it has been shown that the Sentry is the only one capable of matching the Void and defeating him.
The Sentry has beat the Void twice. In his first vol and in his second vol where he easily defeated the Void.
Now the excuse some people use to downplay the Sentry beating the Void is that they claim the instances were "internal struggles". All I can that is a weak excuse, as Jenkins or the first to volumes do not hint to such things. Another they say is that, "the Sentry and Void are two halves of the same coin." Well... Wouldn't that prove the point that NEITHER ARE STRONGER THAN THE OTHER!?????????????????? O_o
Anyways getting back to the main point. During the first two volumes of the Sentry, Jenkins shows that the Void has manifested himself into his own separate entity. Here Bob's own therapist states that the Void manifested himself into a physical form.
"Unlike other men, Robert Reynold's imaginary creatures took on physical forms. Everything good and bad were split into two separate camps."
There was no "internal struggle", instead a physical fight where even the therapist could see what was going on.
But there's more... The Void was overpowering the Avengers, until the Sentry came and was able to stop the Void.
^^^Nowhere does the writer hint at any "internal struggle". And when we put everything into perspectives again a stable minded Sentry was written to be the only one that can take out the Void. The Void was able to break every bone in Hulk's body and overpower Thor. And also sole'd the Avengers more than once. Yet the Sentry beat him more than once.
The only "internal struggle" or mental battle they really had was during Dark Avengers #13
BUT... I'll give the people who argue against Sentry beating the Void a huge juicy bone. And as a Sentry fan I have to be fair. The times the Sentry beat the Void, the Void himself could have been weakened, because the Sentry was stable minded and thus the Void was forced to manifest himself into his own separate entity.
But are the Sentry and Void two separate entities? Yes and no. They're two personas of Bob. That's the best I can put it.
Which Persona defeated Molecule Man? And is Molecule Manipulation exclusive to the Void?
I'm about to address one of the most controversial subject matters. Whether you argue or not the Sentry beating Molecule Man was PIS, the fact is the Sentry beat Molecule Man. Addressing the context of the fight is another story, one I wish to touch base on sometime. But for now lets address which persona beat Molecule Man.
Some people have tried to argue that it was the Void who beat Molecule Man. I personally think its a desperation to take the feat away from the Sentry, but also they use this to argue that Molecule Manipulation is exclusive to the Void.
Again it was the Sentry that defeated Molecule Man. The comic nor Michael Bendis has said anywhere that it was the Void...
Again you can accept that this feat was PIS(though I plan on touching base on this sometime), but the fact is it was the Sentry and not Void who beat Molecule Man. Now one of the main arguments people who argue for the Void use is that the Sentry's eyes were black. Black eyes in no shape or form are an indicator for the Void. A comic artist will only indicate that the Void is around if there is black dialogue bubble. There is not even a single showing for the Void, where he didn't have black speech bubbles and trust me I read almost every Sentry appearance. But also I made sure to recheck some of the Sentry's appearance to be sure before I made this thread. And again my conclusions were right black dialogue bubbles=the Void.
The Sentry is supposed to be possessed by the Void, when the Void takes over and in pretty much every media we identify possession through a distorted voice: black speech bubbles. For example... Here is an instance, where the Void has regular white eyes. Does that mean that it's the Sentry now, simply because the eyes are not black?
Here is another instances, but instead the Void has glowing golden eyes which a lot associate with the Sentry!
Again in the situations the Void had black dialogue bubbles and Sentry always has white dialogue bubbles, which he also had during the Molecule Man encounter. But... But... There's more... >:)
This is something a lot of people overlook and forget about. Why the heck would the Void asks Molecule Man to return everything to normal!? O_o
The Void(even working with Osborn) is a nihilist by nature! Put everything back? For what? Meanwhile here the the Void destroying a city so badly that even Norman had to stop him. And mind you he had normal eyes and golden glowing eyes!
Now does the Void strike you as someone caring if Molecule Man was destroying a city? Would he care for putting everything back to normal? Or just killing Molecule Man and further destroying everything? [Sarcasm]This is a very tough answer[/Sarcasm].
In my personal opinion the different colors of the eyes are nothing more than emotions or anger the Sentry is feeling. Like here the Sentry eyes are black because he is angered that female Ultron killed his wife Lindy.
As for Molecule Manipulation, it is not exclusive to the Void. That was just apart of most people's imagination. They thought it was exclusive to the Void due to Void killing Loki with it and people having the false idea that it was the Void who beat Molecule Man.
It can be argued that the Sentry always had Molecule Manipulation or at least some form of it. The Sentry changes regular clothespins into his Sentry emblems, he turns a regular piece of rock into some golden orb to protect the Hulk from Void and finally he creates the Watchtower above the Avenger's tower.
But lets get to the nitty gritty and something that even surprised me... Here the Sentry's own creator Paul Jenkins states that he intended on the Sentry having reality warping powers.
So we can say the Sentry always had Molecule Manipulation and it was never exclusive to the Void, but it gets even better. During Uncanny Avengers 15 the Sentry is seen using Molecule Manipulation to create sand golems to attack Wasp.
And we know Deathseed Sentry is Sentry completely without the Void. That right there slays and buries the idea that Molecule Manipulation is exclusive to the Void.
Feats
Even when looking at feats, the Sentry has much better feats than the Void. The Void broke every bone in the Hulk's body? The Sentry in a weakened state managed to stalemate with Hulk in one of his strongest versions(besides WBH of course).
But lets look at the Voids feats:
- Killed Loki
- Ripped Ares apart
- Mind f*cked Hulk's and Spidey's mind
- Sole'd a large team during New Avengers
- Sole'd the Avengers during Siege(though there were no powerhouses)
- Overwhelmed Thor in strength
Lets look at the Sentry's:
- Erased everyone's memories on Earth and also the Inhumans
- Beat Molecule Man who sole'd the Dark Avengers
- Did better against the Collective who sole'd the Avengers and even Binary who is a planet buster
- Overloaded Absorbing Man
- Fought Photon in the Microverse and their energies were destroying worlds, while they were still holding back (and Sentry's energies kept on growing)
- Easily beat Terrax
IMO the Sentry has the much better feats.
Conclusion
Is the Void more powerful than the Sentry? No. Is the Sentry more powerful than the Void? Also no. Like I said they are Yin and Yang. Neither one are really more powerful than the other. Its a myth that either is more powerful than the other. They are linked to Bob's mental state. The more mental stable Bob is, the stronger Sentry is. The weaker his mental state? The stronger the Void is, because the Void himself is a side-effect of Bob's mental illness.
Though I will say it seems the creator Paul Jenkins intended for the Sentry to look the more powerful and not the Void. And it seems Paul Jenkins intended the Sentry to be the only one who can stop the Void. The Sentry needing the Void to win in a match would count as futile, because again it would mean the Sentry mental state would be so unstable that the Void was able to take control in the first place and thus the Sentry is weaker.
So again neither are more powerful than the other. We can put this myth to rest.
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