SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Sentry #5 by Jeff Lemire, Joshua Cassara, Rain Beredo and Travis Lanham, on sale now.
When Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee first created The Sentry, the hook was that the superhero was only part of a very complicated equation. The real twist was that Bob Reynolds -- Sentry's mild-mannered alter ego -- was simultaneously his own arch-foe, The Void. Bob struggled to keep both sides of his personality, as well as his history of substance abuse and deep-seeded anxiety, barely under control... right up until he died.
In Jeff Lemire and Joshua Cassara's just-concluded Sentry miniseries, Reynolds finally decided to embrace the nature of his other half for the first time, rather than continue to fight its warring parts. The result is a new direction for the character – one that could have a lasting impact on the balance of power in the Marvel Universe.
The Sentry vs. The Void: Who Really Won?
The Sentry has proven to be one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe since his creation in 2000. He's saved the planet from a Celestial, reportedly battled Galactus to a stalemate, and even destroyed Asgard at the behest of Norman Osborn.
The nature of his dual personality, however, turned him into a constant danger, resulting in Tony Stark and Stephen Strange devising a method to contain both halves of his dangerous persona.
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Their efforts ultimately failed, though, as shown within the context of the latest series. Unable to contain The Void, and unhappy with the life of drudgery associated with others' attempts to do the same, Reynolds made the only move he saw left available to him. Instead of fighting The Void, The Sentry merged its persona within his own.
The character now has a new direction – one he's never been taken in before.
While the split personalities might have been what made The Sentry unique, their union stands to actually make the character more interesting, and considerably more powerful.
Nearly every story starring The Sentry over the past two decades, including this one, has eventually touched upon, if not outright focused on, the possibility of The Void's escape. Now, though, that whole scenario has been taken out of play, and instead of one good and one evil character always in conflict, there is a single and disturbingly amoral one.
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This shift also adds a new dynamic to the Marvel Universe itself. One of the universe's most powerful characters now has a moral compass with its own new True North. With the outright threat of The Void now mitigated, The Sentry is potentially one of the most valuable allies to Marvel's other heavy hitters.
On the other hand, he also stands to become one of its most dire threats.
The New Sentry: Friend or Foe?
His moral abstruseness could go any number of ways. Would the character willingly act to serve heroic ends, but via less-than-heroic means? Would he undertake acts or missions considered to be evil, but ensure that no innocents come to harm in the process? Or after years of living in internal conflict, will his actions only be on behalf of his own self-interests, with whomever benefits or suffers from them having no consequence to him?
Can such a character even find internal peace? Can two such contrasting entities forever be assimilated with no conflict ever emerging? Or will the Sentry vs. Void turmoil reemerge, in the form of a powerful character who saves the universe one day, but tries to destroy it the next?
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Whichever direction the new Sentry's moral compass points, one important aspect remains: Bob Reynolds. Bob is, at least ostensibly, altruistic, his most heroic act of all arguably coming when he sacrificed himself so that The Void could be stopped. Beneath The Sentry's new look is still that man; deeply flawed and troubled though he may be, Bob still wants to be a hero.
Then again, just as the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so too is the path to becoming a villain fraught with delusions of acting the hero.