The sentry is effectively Marvel Comics’ own resident Superman, as he shares a number of the same powers with DC’s Man of Steel, with the added benefit of not having an obvious weakness. With Kryptonite, anyone can take Superman down, but there is no equivalent for Sentry. However, this is not to say Sentry’s invincible, as a being that is strong enough can absolutely defeat ‘Marvel’s Superman’ in battle. In fact, there are more than a few heroes and villains who can not only beat Sentry, but also canonically.
Robert Reynolds aka The Sentry was the product of ‘super-soldier’ ​​testing the likes of which had never been attempted before. Reynolds was born a regular person, who fell into addiction in his adulthood, only to meet a scientist who offered to make him a god. After the chemicals and serums were introduced to his body, Robert Reynolds became the Sentry, and decided to use his powers for the good of the Marvel Universe. These powers include: flight, super strength and speed, superhuman intelligence, photokinesis, energy absorption, and even teleportation – and these only scratch the surface of what the god-man is capable of. Although despite this, the Sentry has lost a number of battles to even more overpowered characters in Marvel history. Here are the 15 most powerful heroes/villains who beat Marvel’s Superman, The Sentry.
15
Absorbing person
Carl Creel aka Absorbing Man is a D-list villain who is incredibly overlooked in Marvel canon, as his power to absorb anything was given to him by Asgardian magic courtesy of Loki, which he used to his fullest extent to gain a major victory over the Guard. in Mighty Avengers #33 by Dan Slott and Khoi Pham, Absorbing Man is supercharged with the power of the Cosmic Cube, and even the Sentry’s ‘strength of a thousand exploding suns’ cannot match this raw, universal power. Absorbing Man flooded the Sentry’s mind with Cosmic Cube energy, fracturing his already damaged psyche and winning a sound victory.
14
Emma Frost
Just as Absorbing Man used the Cosmic Cube to mess with the Sentry’s mind, so too did Emma Frost in Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men: Exodus By Matt Fraction, Mike Deodato Jr., and Terry Dodson. It’s no secret that the Sentry is mentally unstable, and even inadvertently created an entire alter ego/personal supervillain called the Void as a result. So, although it doesn’t work all the time, attacking the sentry’s mind is usually a good place to start when trying to take him down. And in this issue, Emma Frost does just that.
13
X-Man
There are few beings more powerful than Nathaniel Gray aka X-Man. To call him an Omega Level telepath would be doing the description of his powers a disservice, as he is more akin to an omniscient god than a mere superhuman. Sentry may have the strength of a god, but X-Man is the master of both the physical and metaphysical planes, and is honestly too powerful to be regularly included in X-Men canon. And he shows how much in Dark X-Men #3 by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk, when he literally reshapes the Sentry’s memories in real time to make him think they were once friends, inspiring the Sentry to abandon the fight altogether.
12
Human torch
With no psychic or reality-warping powers at his disposal, the Human Torch has to handle the Sentry the old-fashioned way: sheer force. Although many would assume that the Human Torch in question is the iconic member of the Fantastic Four, the character is actually the original Human Torch who served alongside Captain America and Namor on the Invaders team during World War II. in Avengers/Invaders By Jim Krueger, Alex Ross and Steve Sadowski, the invaders are shot forward in time after the events of Civil War, and it’s up to the Avengers to take them down – including the Sentry. However, when the Sentry faces off against the Human Torch in issue #6, the old-school hero proves too strong for him, actually overloading his body with a fiery heat that seems to melt the Sentry’s eyeballs right out of his skull.
11
Thor
While Sentry always tried to use his powers for good (even when he unwittingly served in the Dark Avengers), the darkness of the evil persona often proved too much to contain, and the damage he caused as a result was too great to forgive. in siege #4 by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel, Thor has no choice but to kill the Sentry as a result of the Void’s influence on him, and he does so with the crushing strength only a true god can unleash.
10
Knull
Speaking of dying by the hand of a cosmic god, the Sentry’s battle with Knull during the King in Black Crossover event (by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman) ended with a similar finality, although with a touch more brutality. In the first issue of the crossover, the Sentry flies to challenge Knull when the King in Black invades planet Earth. However, the fight is horrifyingly short, as Knull grabs Sentry and rips him in half like he’s nothing.
9
Clea & Doctor Strange
A living sentry is a formidable opponent (even if he has faced his fair share of defeats), but an undead sentry is absolutely terrifying on a cosmic scale. in funny #10 by Jed MacKay and Marcelo Ferreira, Clea and Doctor Strange face off against Revenant Prime – the name of the undead sentry who is immune to magic and overpowered to a terrifying degree. In the end, the only way they can beat him is by combining their magic and merging to create an entity more powerful than the Sentry, channeling the very essence of life and death.
8
Conserve and Protect Robot (aka Cap)
in Fantastic practice #556 by Mark Miller and Bryan Hitch, readers see the full extent of the ‘heroic’ robot designated Conserve and Protect (or Cap). Although it was built to be the perfect protector, this issue showed that its power is shockingly god-level, proven true by the sight of almost every Marvel Comics hero laying defeated at the robot’s feet in this very issue – including the Sentry. While fans don’t get to see the actual battle, the result speaks for itself.
7
Morgan Le Fay
The defeat is easily one of the most cruel and most brutal. in Dark Avengers #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr. The Dark Avengers challenge Morgan Le Fay after she defeats Doctor Doom single-handed. In the battle, Sentry manages to get a hold of Morgan, and he actually rips her head off with his bare hands. However, right after the supposed victory, Sentry just explodes for seemingly no reason, with a fully intact Morgan Le Fay standing behind him.
6
Scout
Shocking everyone, in The Sentry #4 By Jeff Lemire, Kim Jacinto, & Joshua Cassara, Sentry’s longtime sidekick Billy Turner dons his costume one last time before deciding to put Sentry away for good. Influenced by his own greed, Scout injects himself with an untested Sentry formula, allowing the once-sidekick a chance to end both Sentry and the Void for good. Scout proved his strength, overpowering his old teacher until Sentry summoned the Void to combine and create a new being powerful enough to defeat Scout. While Scout did stop sentry, nothing could stop Robert’s combined powers.
5
Lindy Reynolds
Originally swept up in the glamor of being married to a superhero, Lindy Reynolds realized how dangerous being around her husband really was. Terrified by the void and Robert’s inability to let her leave his watch, Lindy felt that the only way out was through Sentry’s body. in Dark Avengers (2009) #2 By Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr., Lindy’s perception of Robert became one of terror. In a last-ditch effort for freedom and to save the world from the void, she used a hyper-powered alien Raygun, shooting Sentry in the head, resulting in his death.
4
Solaris
After Sentry’s death at the hands of Knull, parts of his latent power are divided and miraculously bestowed upon six people, giving them portions of Sentry’s power. One such individual, Ryan Topper, took the powers and lives of his fellow sentries to the point of almost accessing his predecessor’s full potential. While Ryan may not be Robert Reynolds, he’s still a Sentry and, in Sentry (2023) #4 By Jason Loo and Luigi Zagaria, was finally defeated by Mallory Gibbs, aka Solarus, who successfully summoned her fellow slain Sentry compatriots to defeat Ryan and fully absorb the Sentry’s full powers.
3
Bruce Banner
In the devastating wake of Planet HulkHulk and his warband traveled to Earth to destroy the world and kill all its people. The latest event, World War Hulk By Greg Pak and John Romita Sr., saw the Hulk lay waste to New York as each hero fell to the Goliath’s immeasurable strength. Sentry, a longtime friend to Hulk and Banner, was called to action and engaged one of the strongest Hulks in comic history. Although most consider the match a stalemate, Bruce Banner was the last man standing, and still with enough strength to transform into the Hulk.
2
Robert Reynolds
Sentry is both himself, the void, and Robert Reynolds. Believing it to be the only way to stop the weed, Sentry used his powers to make every person in the world forget that Sentry existed, including himself. By doing so, Robert cannot remember he has the sentry powers to call upon. in The Sentry vs. the Void #1 By Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, after his memories called back Robert once again unintentionally called both halves of himself. Inevitably, Sentry reaches the same conclusion he did earlier and wipes the world’s memories of Sentry, locking up both of his alter-egos.
1
The general/master mind
And this, the last entry on the list, is the Sentry’s greatest defeat – as explained in New Avengers #9 by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven. The General (with the enlisted help of Mastermind) effectively erased the Sentry from the minds of everyone on the planet, turning the all-powerful hero into someone who was too scared to even use his powers. No one remembered who he was, not even himself, and therefore he effectively ceased to exist. Other heroes and villains beat Sentry in battle, and even managed to kill him, but this is something far beyond what any other enemy has ever done to Sentry, since the general and mastermind actually erased him from history.
With barely a weakness to exploits, and standing up against the raw power of a man effectively turned into a god, the 15 villains/heroes were able to beat the Sentry in battle (with the addition of a random Skrull in Mighty Avengers #14, although this was due to the collective efforts of an entire species during Secret Invasion, not a squared matchup). So, while the Sentry may be considered Marvel’s Superman, he’s not that super during these particular fights, and the 15 most powerful characters that hit The guard Prove it.