How Powerful Is the Dark Sentry? The Full Power Level of Marvel’s Void Explained

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The Sentry is famously Marvel’s most powerful hero, but the Golden Guardian of Good has a dark side – the terrifying eldritch entity known as the Void, aka the Dark Sentry. As the latest trailer for Thunderbolts* seemingly shows the Void attacking New York, fans are eager to know exactly what this terrifying villain can do. What are his powers, what are his limits, and is there anyone who can defeat him?

The Sentry is Bob Reynolds – a normal man who stole and drank a new version of the Super Soldier Serum “one hundred thousand times” more powerful than the version that created Captain America. The serum empowered Sentry beyond any superhuman seen before in Marvel lore, connecting him to an endless wellspring of power. Indeed, Sentry’s mind is so powerful that he subconsciously alters reality around him – a side effect of his powers that ultimately created his darker half, the Void.

The Void is the Sentry’s dark reflection – just as powerful, but set on creating chaos and destruction in order to balance any good deed the Sentry might attempt. The Void is a result of the mutant illusionist Mastermind convincing Sentry that a dark god would appear if he ever used his powers – part of a plan to destroy the hero by turning his own powers against him. Sentry’s control over reality made this belief come true, seemingly connecting him to a cosmic parasite formed from the primordial darkness before the creation of the multiverse. In short, the Sentry can do anything, and so can the Void.

Both Sentry and the Void Can Do Anything

The Void Has the Literal Power of God

Sentry’s powers often mislead fans. On a regular day, the Sentry has similar powers to DC’s Superman. He’s functionally invulnerable, immensely fast and strong, and can emit destructive beams of energy. However, Bob Reynolds only has these powers because it’s how he imagines his heroic persona. In fact – as revealed in Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato’s Dark Avengers – Sentry has total control of the molecular structure of reality. He can grant himself any power and achieve any feat, from traveling multiple times the speed of light to resurrecting the dead.

The Void has the same core powers as the Stnry, but focuses them on undoing any of the Sentry’s good work. The Sentry varies in form from a traditional gangster to an apocalyptic monster, and has killed millions in various attacks over the years. Dark Avengers strongly implies that the Void taps into the energy of the Christian concept of God, with his energy connected to the Plagues of Egypt. It’s possible that Sentry and the Void actually tap into the power of the One-Above-All – Marvel’s supreme being – who like Sentry has his own dark reflection, the One-Below-All.

Whatever the source of his power, the Void can kill and resurrect others at will, can tear holes in reality to travel from one dimension to the next, and can live effortlessly without a body. The Sentry has even overpowered the Molecule Man – another reality warper who even Galactus fears, with the Devourer of Worlds admitting the Molecule Man could destroy him with a gesture. It’s solely the mind and personality of Bob Reynolds that keep the Void from being fully unleashed.

What Is the Void – Sentry’s Dark Half or a Cosmic Parasite?

Sentry Limits the Void, But Also Allows Him to Manifest

Various Sentry stories have combined two specific origins of the Void. In one, the Void is essentially imaginary – the representation of Bob Reynold’s subconscious darkness, given its own body and personality by the unfathomable power he possesses. In the other, the Void is a pre-existing entity connected to primordial darkness – having existed for eons, it possessed Bob when Mastermind messed with his mind, and took on a specific form shaped by his subconscious. These origins don’t exist in conflict, as Marvel lore has established that the primordial darkness has links to many villains who – as individuals – give it a specific shape and powers.

In this way, Bob Reynolds actually limits the Void’s power, since the entity strictly exists to balance his heroism as the Sentry (an idea implanted by Mastermind, which Bob’s control over reality enforces.) This means that if the Sentry keeps his activities to a low level, the Void can manifest as a traditional supervillain or even a gun-toting gangster.

However, when Sentry goes all-out to make the world a better place, the Void arrives in a form powerful enough to crush Earth’s entire superhuman population. For years, Sentry was trapped in a cycle of remembering his heroic past, only to have to erase it again when the Void returned. Staggeringly given the Void’s power, there are those who have defeated the eldritch entity, though they’re incredibly few and far between.

Only Knull Has Truly Beaten the Void

And That’s Because the Two Are Connected by Primordial Darkness

The Void’s most notable defeat came at the hands of Knull, the God of Symbiotes, in Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman’s King in Black event. In that series, the Avengers unleashed Sentry on Knull, hoping he could take down the seemingly unbeatable god. However (in an echo of the Void killing the Greek God of War Ares in Siege), Knull simply tore the Sentry in two. It was revealed that as the literal embodiment of primordial darkness, Knull has total control over the Void, with the suggestion that Void may even be a splinter of Knull disconnected from the whole. Indeed, with the implication that the Void is a cosmic parasite shaped by Bob’s subconscious, it’s theoretically accurate to call the Void a symbiote.

The Void was also defeated in Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel’s Siege. In that story, the Avengers were enhanced using the mystic Norn Stones, with Thor fighting Sentry one-on-one and Iron Man dropping a helicarrier full of experimental weaponry onto the villain. Despite this, the Void couldn’t be brought down until Bob Reynolds asserted momentary control, giving Thor the opening to destroy him with a bolt of lightning then throw his body into the sun.

In the past, Bob has been able to ‘defeat’ the Void in various ways. Most drastically, he used his powers to remove all memory of the Sentry from everyone in the world, including himself, meaning the Void had no good deeds to balance. Doctor Strange was also able to extract and trap the Void for a short amount of time with Sentry’s help, and Bob temporarily merged the Sentry and Void into a single form at one point, creating a more balanced persona.

Sentry Has Been Replaced by New Hero Solarus

Despite their incredible power, both Sentry and the Void are currently dead in Marvel lore. After being slaughtered by Knull, Sentry chose to move on to the afterlife, however his immense power couldn’t be extinguished that easily. In 2024’s Sentry miniseries – from Jason Loo and Luigi Zagaria – the Sentry’s powers began manifesting in random people across the world. While it initially seemed that the villainous Ryan Topper would inherit all Bob’s abilities by tracking down and killing Sentry’s other inheritors, the power ultimately ended up in the hands of Mallory Gibbs.

Mallory has since taken the name Solarus, training with Misty Knight to harness her full powers. So far, Solarus appears to have all the Sentry’s powers with none of the Void’s drawbacks. It’s possible that Knull tearing the Void from Sentry’s body detached his power from the primordial darkness, but it’s far more likely that Solarus’ future appearances will see her tangle with the Void in a new form – potentially that of Ryan, who would be the perfect opposite to Mallory’s new hero.

The Void Is a Dark God With No True Equal

The MCU’s Thunderbolts* Aren’t Ready for a Dark Sentry

As the above account should communicate, the Void is a near omnipotent threat and far more powerful than the characters of Thunderbolts* should logically be able to deal with – after all, even the Hulk couldn’t hold a candle to the villain. It’s possible the movie will downgrade the Dark Sentry’s powers, however the character’s comic history also suggests another way he could be defeated. Bob Reynolds has been able to temporarily banish the Void on multiple occasions, helping Doctor Strange entrap the cosmic predator and giving Thor a window to destroy him. If the Thunderbolts can strike up enough of a rapport with Bob, he may be able to help them win the day.

The Void is one of Marvel’s most powerful villains of all time – an eldritch abomination whose powers and aims are only limited by the subconscious of a deeply flawed man. Thankfully, the Void is currently absent following the Sentry‘s death at the hands of Knull, but when the villain inevitably returns, he will once again pose an all-but-impossible challenge to Marvel’s greatest heroes.

“}]] The Sentry is a godlike superhuman, but his dark half the Void is an ancient force so terrifying, it makes the good guy looks like an afterthought.  Read More