Marvel Officially Crowns a New Fastest Hero Alive, Replacing the Sentry

Marvel has a new fastest hero, as a hugely powerful superhuman claims the crown previously owned by Sentry, becoming faster than Captain Marvel and Quicksilver. From the Eternals’ Makkari to Ghost Rider’s ultra-powerful Hellcycle, Marvel has plenty of superhumans who can move at incredible speeds. However, no matter how fast they can fly, run or ride, they’re all now fighting for second place.

In The Sentry #4, Marvel fans are introduced to a new hero – Mallory Gibbs’ Solarus. In the miniseries, the power of Robert ‘Bob’ Reynolds, aka the Sentry, has been dispersed to six potential successors. These new heroes came under attack by Ryan Sentry – a potential successor who believed he could claim Sentry’s full power by slaughtering the competition. Thankfully, this issue sees Mallory defeat the pretender, claiming the full measure of Sentry’s power for herself.

As the series has shown, even the partial portion of Sentry’s power wielded by Ryan made him Marvel’s fastest hero, allowing him to leave galactic traveler Captain Marvel in the dust when she tried to chase him down. Now, Mallory has the full portion, and has begun training to use her powers under the new codename Solarus.

Solarus Is Marvel’s New Fastest Hero

Mallory Gibbs Claims the Powers of the Sentry

A New York journalist, Mallory was shocked when her portion of Sentry’s powers were first unlocked, and quickly came to see them as a curse. Mallory has cerebral palsy – a condition which affects movement and coordination, causing Mallory to fear the damage she could accidentally do with essentially unlimited strength and energy projection. Thankfully, after Ryan Sentry takes on Jessica Jones and Misty Knight, Mallory gets involved, and is contacted by the other successors who Ryan killed in his quest for power.

The issue sees Mallory recreate the other successors as ghostly heroes, with this new team of Sentries beating down Ryan and siphoning away his immense power, leaving him to be arrested. Sadly, the ghosts can’t stick around, and they quickly fade away, leaving Mallory with the full complement of godlike powers. Given Sentry’s spotty track record as a hero and Ryan’s own villainy, Mallory opts for a new name, and Solarus is born.

Sentry’s Powers Outpace Everyone from Quicksilver to Captain Marvel

Solarus Is Already a World-Class Speedster, And She’s Only Beginning to Understand Her Powers

While Quicksilver is often referred to as Marvel’s fastest hero, Captain Marvel has been able to catch him before over a short distance. This makes sense, as Carol’s adventures involve literally flying through space and to distant galaxies. However, even Captain Marvel couldn’t catch Ryan in The Sentry #3, when the young hero assisted the Avengers against the U-Foes, taking the powerful team down in seconds. Now, Mallory has even greater powers than Ryan Sentry, and crucially, she’s begun training to use them as effectively as possible.

Mallory’s speed was already incredible before she took Ryan’s share of Sentry’s power, as shown in The Sentry #1 when she rescued a building full of people as the structure collapsed around them. Now, she’s even more powerful, and is being trained by the expert Mist Knight and her Aberrant Crimes Division organization. But what makes Sentry’s speed different isn’t that he moves fast enough to test the boundaries of physics – it’s that he’s so powerful, he can totally rewrite them.

Solarus’ New Powers Don’t Stop At Speed

Solarus Just Became Marvel’s Most Powerful Hero – But She Has a Lot to Learn

While fans often think of the Sentry as Marvel’s Superman, that’s only part of the truth. When Bob Reynolds unlocked the power of the Sentry, he was unable to confront the responsibility of his new powers, and so he subconsciously divided them between two personas – the Sentry and the Void. Sentry has all the stereotypical powers of a Superman-esque hero – invulnerability, superstrength, flight – but that’s just because these are the powers he wants. In fact, Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr.’s Dark Avengers revealed that Sentry is actually a reality-warper. He has total control over reality on a molecular level, and can turn that into any power he wants.

In the past, Sentry has shown the ability to tear holes in reality, resurrect the dead, teleport, survive having his head torn to pieces, and telepathically alter the memory of everyone on the planet. Meanwhile, the Void – who is just another aspect of Bob – has been shown to shapeshift, wield darkness as a weapon, and control the weather. The Sentry’s power level redefines what ‘speed’ can mean in Marvel’s reality. In Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña’s Uncanny Avengers #9, Sentry faces off against Thor. As part of the fight, he grabs the God of Thunder by the throat and flies him across space, with the narrative confirming that “the Sentry’s velocity bends space and time.” The issues clarifies that even fighting against Thor, Sentry’s speed is “many times the speed of light.”

The power that Solarus just inherited doesn’t simply make her Marvel’s fastest or even most powerful hero. Instead, it’s the power to rewrite natural laws however she chooses – indeed, that’s shown when she resurrects the ghosts of her fellow successors and even outfits them in new costumes. As Mallory receives the Sentry’s powers, she exclaims, “I didn’t know he could do so much.” The truth is, the full extent of Sentry’s powers aren’t even known to fans, but we do know that his abilities can effectively break any rule of Marvel’s reality. Now, that power rests with Solarus.

Marvel Has a New Most Powerful Hero – But Will It Use Her?

Solarus’ Debut Is Dangerously Similar to the All-But-Forgotten Quasar

However, Solarus’ immense new power will only prove relevant if future creative teams actually choose to use Mallory Gibbs in their stories. A similar storyline – part of Marvel’s Secret Empire event – saw S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Avril Kincaid become the new Quasar. Taking possession of the Quantum Bands, Quasar became so powerful that she could instantly destroy an energy shield that had held the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Hyperion at bay for weeks. However, despite arguably becoming Marvel’s most powerful hero, she’s hardly been seen or mentioned since, outside a shortlived appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy. Given Secret Empire was published seven years ago, Avril Kincaid makes it clear that in the ever-changing world of comics, being granted immense power is no guarantee a character will remain prominent.

Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Solarus’ journey in Marvel Comics, as she begins training to wield abilities that make her Marvel’s fastest and most powerful hero. With the powers of the Sentry now being wielded by an inexperienced but dedicated hero, Marvel just got a fascinating new crime-fighter – however the true test of Mallory’s potential will be time, and how closely Marvel ultimately decides to follow her journey.

Sentry #4 is available from Marvel Comics March 6.