This is a thread I've been wanting to make for a while... No its a thread I needed to make. Its something I fell that has been hurting the character whether negative or even positive. And as a fan of the character I feel i needs to be addressed. Now before I begin I am not saying that it is bad to be a Superman clone or inspired by Superman. Characters are always inspired by another character in comics. Deadpool was inspired by Deathstroke. Thanos was inspired by Darkseid. Doomsday was inspired by Hulk. So its not necessarily bad...
Thing is.. The concept of the Sentry was never inspired by Superman. And yet when people see the Sentry they automatically see a "Superman clone". I find this negative, because it hinders peoples view of the character to go beyond viewing him as just another cliche meat head powerhouse. It hinders people to explore the character more and break through the barriers of the complexity of the character. Since the Sentry is one of the more complex characters in comics. And no this is not me sounding like a butthurt fan, no... I created this thread because I am determined to give people on here a new insight of the character. I want people to look and think of the Sentry much more differently.
Also there are some suggestions that his creator Paul Jenkins wanted the character to be beyond just another flying brick powerhouse...
Back to the point the Sentry and Superman have nothing in common when it comes to powerset, origins and especially personality/character, but we'll get to that later. I do like Superman and respect the character for being the building block of what a superhero is suppose to be. But the only thing him and Sentry have in common imo is their costumes. Especially the "S" though I don't believe Superman has a trademark on the letter "S". lol
The whole cape, tights and being a power house is a common superhero cliche design. Its suppose to represent the ideal superhero. Yes I agree that Superman is commonly associated with that and I may admit he pioneered it, but anyone with that costume outline does not automatically make them a Superman clone or ripoff.
And the second thing is Sentry's Watchdog just like with Superman's Krypto. But other than that, nothing really.
But before we dwell even deeper, lets take about actual Superman clones or characters inspired by Superman, specifically from Marvel. Hyperion, Gladiator and maybe Blue Marvel are true Superman clones or characters inspired by Superman.
Out of the three Hyperion is the most inspired by Superman. Not only from looks but also powers, origins and personality/character. The root of Hyperion's and Superman's powers are exactly the same. Both come from the sun and get stronger from the sun. Their origins are exactly the same. Both their worlds were destroyed. They're character and personality are even similar in that both are heroic and noble; Hickman's Hyperion especially and he's going to be more similar with the upcoming comic Squadrom Supreme which is based off the Justice League. But more importantly it is commonly noted and admitted that Hyperion is Marvel's homage to Superman. Hell the whole Sqaudrom Supreme are suppose to be based off the Justice League, but only darker. Heck Hyperion also has heat-vision like Superman and like Superman they get weaker when the sun is not around iirc.
Gladiator was actually created iirc(correct me if I'm wrong), to be Marvel's Superman but only better. To me Gladiator is just a more anti-hero Superman. But more importantly Gladiator's name "Kallark" is actually a tribute or parody of Superman's name Kal-El. I find it interesting that both are weak against magic; Gladiator's race is weak against magic. The two are also weak against certain radiation. And both have heat vision and super breath.
Blue Marvel is the "black version" of Superman(not trying to sound immature or bigoted, I'm black myself :P ) and while the writer may not have based him off of Superman and nor are the root of their powers similar, both imo have very similar noble and heroic personalities. Not only that, but Blue Marvel also has his own fortress of solitude similar to Superman.
Now... Hyperion, Gladiator and maybe Blue Marvel are actually "Superman clones" imo. They were unlike the Sentry created from the inspiration of Superman, Superman basically being their building block, especially for Hyperion and Gladiator.
But why isn't it the same for the Sentry? Why? For one small reason in my opinion(many will disagree) Sentry unlike Superman and "Superman clones" is not known for his "strength" or being all about "strength". Yes he is a powerhouse, but so is Captain Marvel and she is not very known for her strength. When is comes to power and how Sentry fans argue, the Sentry imo is more known for his raw power, mostly involving energy manipulation, his immortality and molecule manipulation. His high end feats are not that of strength, but imo raw power.
But lets move on from shallow things such as feats and onto important matters.
Superman's character is that of being noble, a true hero, near pefect(not that this is a bad thing) and complete control of himself. Sentry's character is that of someone who has a lot of flaws, so much that you question if he's even a real hero. One of his flaws being that he is a drug junkie who doesn't really deserve his powers, to a person who is afraid of himself and to a person who has a severe case of schizophrenia and has a dark side of himself; The Void. The Sentry is perfect on the outside, but on the inside you would question if he deserves to be a hero.
Not only that, but their origins are different. We obviously know that Superman is an alien whose world was destroyed. The Sentry on the other hand again was a drug junkie who got "lucky" with his powers. When in reality he just wanted a good "fix".
Then we get to powers which like characters is also vastly different. Superman's power source is the sun and absorbing energy from it. Yes you can say Sentry also has solar power and "power of million exploding suns" yadadadadadadadada... But unlike Superman's its not the source/root of his power. Sentry's mental state is...According to Master Mind, his mental state is what holds his powers together. Its the deciding factor on how strong his gets or weak, unlike Superman's and the sun.
Also Superman's weaknesses are external things hurting/depowering him, while Sentry's weaknesses is really himself.
But is this enough? No. There's a reason why I disagreed with the concept of the Sentry being based/inspired off of Superman. The Sentry as a character is actually based off of someone else. Miracle Man...
Yes Miracle Man... The Sentry has far more in common with this character than Superman. Their story surprisingly starts off very similar.
Like the beginning of Sentry's story, Miracle man's one starts off with a man, who is having bad nightmare because his nightmare is trying to make him remember something bad.
He then starts to remember his days as Miracle man with his two sidekicks Young Miracle man and Kid Miracle man. Slowly it starts making more sense and soon he transforms into the Miracle man.
The same thing happened with the Sentry, who woke up, because he heard the Void. He knew that the Void was coming back. Sentry's memories were returning, while he was trying to make sense of them.
He also remembered his adventures with his dog, as well with his sidekick Scout...
Both were middle-aged out of shape men with blonde hair.
Coincidence? I think not.
And both have dark figures they have to deal with.
Miracle man's villain shows his true face. Their fights devastates the entire area, killing many innocent people. The grown up Kid Miracle man, who became evil also threatens Miracle man's wife.
When it comes to the Sentry the same happens, but for the Sentry it happened in the past, where one of their encounters leveled parts of a city and killed over a million people.
Both Kid Miracle Man and the Void are villains that deeply haunt the two and are closely associated with them. I can go on and on about the similarities between the Sentry and Miracle Man, but I think we get the point. Anyways I think the intentions behind the Sentry was to make a extremely powerful character(like Miracle Man) that gives people miracles, like when he cured his doctors daughter.
Anyways I think Paul Jenkins was a fan of Miracle Man and wanted to pay homage to the character. I mean it is known that Miracle Man's creator Alan Moore is a brilliant writer and so Jenkins may have been inspired by him. I mean the story of both characters correlates so well with one another. And fans have speculated that Sentry is Miracle Man.
Whether the Sentry is based off of Miracle Man or not, the Sentry shows more correlation and homage to him than he does Superman in my honest opinion. And I hope people at least open up to that when looking at the Sentry character.
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