Sentry

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Powers and Abilities

The Sentry’s powers derive from a serum that moves his molecules an instant ahead of the current timeline. He also absorbs solar radiation for strength. Though most of his powers and their limits are unknown, he displays several abilities including super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability, flight and enhanced senses.

The Sentry has yet to demonstrate the limits of his vast strength, but he easily rivals the likes of Hercules, Thor, and the Hulk. Whenever he is up against very powerful opponents his heavy punches will create loud boom-sounds, which causes the surroundings to shake. He can move fast enough to catch bullets and far exceed the speed of sound.

As for the Sentry’s invulnerability, Nick Fury has stated that so far they haven’t found a way to kill the Sentry. Iron Man’s scanners found no physiological weaknesses in the Sentry’s body.

According to the Sentry, he can “hear a butterfly’s heartbeat in Africa” from New York City, though this could be hyperbole or a reference to the sensor technology utilized by Cloc.

It was often stated by Sentry that he has the “power of a million exploding suns”.

However, it has been confirmed that in the Negative Zone, he is at his weakest. He can withstand small blasts of N-Zone energy, but his powers and health gradually deteriorate in the zone itself. Even worse, the Void rules over the Zone.

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The Sentry can also project energy fields, controls light, and has vast mental powers used primarily for holding his physical form together.

He was once able to implant his memories inside another person’s mind. He also emits a radiation that pacifies the Hulk. His intellect is also keen and he is a superb scientist, architect and engineer, and has created real artificial intelligence and other amazing feats of technology to aid in his fight against evil.

The Void

The Sentry’s nemesis, the Void, is at his strongest during the night. The Void personality shares all of these powers and more, while Bob Roberts opts to behave like an average man.

As the Void, Robert possesses the ability to shapeshift, has massive control over the weather and darkness, and can create destructive storms and deadly “infini-tendrils”. Those impaled on these tendrils experience traumatic visions of the past, present, and future.

Oh, the schizophrenia

Bob Roberts is a paranoid schizophrenic whose axis two diagnosis suggests a premorbid schizotypal personality disorder. He also suffers from agoraphobia and generalized anxiety disorder. This means that he dresses in costumes and talks to himself in front of a mirror while his homicidal secondary personality roams free.

He constantly searches for ways to reconcile his fractured psyche, often with the help of his psychiatrist Dr. Cornelius Worth. Dr. Worth and his family are privately under observation by one of the Sentry’s drones for the sake of protection.

Roberts has three distinct persona; Bob Roberts, the Sentry and the Void.

Bob Roberts is a nerdy, insecure man. The Sentry is a world-revered, morally strong and decisive hero and the Void is the personification of the ultimate evil as Roberts sees it. He can switch between the Roberts and Sentry persona at will, and since they are mostly in harmony and understanding with each other, Roberts is naturally his civilian identity.

Roberts believes that the Void is a separate physical entity, and that he is safely locked down in the cellar. But the Sentry does not delude himself this way and knows that he is the Void. What Roberts doesn’t know, but that the Sentry suspects, is that the more heroic deeds the Sentry does, the stronger the Void becomes to balance it out.

Roberts and the Sentry use the same set of memories. The Void has his own set of memories, and also seems to have access to most of Roberts/Sentry’s memories.

The Void is an ever-present threat to the world. This means that Roberts and the Sentry will sometimes have large gaps in their memory, gaps that the Void will remember and taunt with. Roberts often tries to fill in the gaps with fantasies, rumors and stuff he has read in Golden Age  comic books.

The Negative Zone has a peculiar, negative effect on the Sentry. While in the zone, his dark alias takes over in time, and he becomes the Void. There appears to be no stopping this. The GM should make periodic rolls in the zone with increasing severity number as long as the Sentry is in the zone. And should the Void be killed, he will return again at a later time.

All along the Watchtower

The Watchtower is a huge building of unusual architecture in the middle of Manhattan Island. It serves as the home of the Sentry and houses all of his equipment, computers and gadgets, as well as living quarters.

A true artificial intelligence named ’the C.L.O.C.‘ (for Centrally Located Organic Computer) keeps track of events around the world, and mentally sends all relevant information to the Sentry.

The C.L.O.C. is programmed to obtain data from around the world using the most sophisticated scanning equipment, to calculate probabilities and to weight the importance of one emergency against another.

In DC Heroes terms, the C.L.O.C. has very high Mental Stats, low Mystical Stats, Scientist, Gadgetry, Radio Communications and telepathic contact with the Sentry for transmission of information on a world-wide range.

Although it will always obey its programming and the Sentry’s commands, The C.L.O.C. knows logical tricks that will allow it to override its programming to some extent.

Examples include asking blatantly leading questions or selectively closing audio channels when illegal data is being voiced by someone. It will attempt this if there is a clear calculated risk of a large threat to mankind and nobody but C.L.O.C. can act on it.

The Watchtower, and C.L.O.C., also has hundreds of small drones flying at particular locations gathering data, by use of Remote Sensing, continously. Drones can be detailed to people or areas under specific protection, as ordered by C.L.O.C. or the Sentry, and can be used for remote vocal communication with people. The Watchtower is probably also equipped with defensive security systems.

When the Sentry is active the Watchtower will stand as a beacon of hope and light, high above New York City.

The world’s greatest unknown hero

The Sentry is one of the world’s greatest heroes. Possessive of the power of a million exploding suns, the Sentry has, by himself, power equal to a major group of heroes.

Problem is, the Sentry also has powerful mental abilities, and he affects his surroundings involuntarily. Whenever Roberts forgets that he is the Sentry, he will start to broadcast to the world that the Sentry does not exist and has never existed (supposedly by use of Hypnotism or similar with world-wide range).

And so, if the Sentry is stuck in his Roberts persona for too long, the world, including the moon, with forget one of its greatest heroes completely.

The in-game effect is that all evidence about his existence will cease to exist. All memories and relationships people have with him will be lost over time. The long-term effect, if suffering from severe schizophrenia, is that he loses all of his Connections, and his Hero Points  will diminish as per his Guilt Drawback.

Once he has overcome his psychological problems, which might require the help from other people, people world-wide will slowly begin to remember him again. It will take time. All the while the Sentry has to remind the world by doing heroic deeds all over.

It can be assumed that this cycle has occurred a number of times since the Sentry, if the hype is to be believed, debuted in 1947 and is thus Marvel’s first major hero.

He has his own gallery of rogues as well. These folks include the Crazed General (who has hired the Mastermind on occasion), Hammerhead, the Void, Tommy Vermillion aka the Vendor and Danny Boy. When the Sentry is active and people do remember him, the Sentry has the full Popularity Advantage.

History

In the Sentry’s first appearance, Bob Reynolds remembers that he is the Sentry, a superhero whose “power of one million exploding suns” derives from a special serum. Realizing that his arch-nemesis the Void is returning, Reynolds seeks out several prominent Marvel characters to warn them and to discover why no one remembers the Sentry.

The characters’ memories of the Sentry and the Void resurface when Reynolds talks with them. The Sentry had taught Angel how to conquer his fear of falling. Peter Parker’s photograph of the Sentry earned him a Pulitzer Prize and fame.

The Hulk had never forgotten the Sentry, whom he called “Golden Man”. Under the Sentry’s influence, the Hulk had been a force for good who had redeemed his violent actions and won the adoration of the public.

During the course of his investigation, Reynolds, as well as his best friend Reed Richards, discover what had happened. As the Void had threatened the Earth, the heroes learned that the Sentry and the Void were two halves of the same person. In order to save the world, Robert Reynolds erased his memory from the mind of nearly every person on Earth.

As the heroes stand along the United States’ East Coast, united against the coming Void, Reynolds realizes that he must make the sacrifice again. With the help of his mechanical servant C.L.O.C., Richards, and Dr. Strange, Reynolds erases the Sentry from the world’s memories once more.

Recently, Reynolds re-appears inside the supervillain prison the Raft, voluntarily imprisoned for murdering his wife Lindy. During a massive jail break in which several Marvel superheroes are caught, the Sentry defends several other characters from Carnage, whom he flies into space and rips in half.

Later, the Avengers learn that Mastermind, under the direction of Sentry villain the Crazed General, implanted a virus in Reynolds’ mind. The virus created delusions and the existence of the Void, which is actually Reynolds’ repressed persona.

The mental virus impaired Reynolds’ ability to remember life, and, as a cry for help, he subconsciously implanted his memories into the mind of comic book writer Paul Jenkins, who then transferred those memories to comic books.

Emma Frost releases Reynolds from the virus, and the Sentry joins the Avengers (though the world no longer remembers him or the Void) and discovers that he had never killed his wife. Additionally, the Sentry’s Watchtower appears atop the Stark Tower, where it had been all along.

More recently, the Sentry has captured the hearts of the public, newspapers refer to him as “the Golden Guardian”. He saves hundreds of lives on a daily basis. Reynolds’ psychological problems, however, have worsened.

Unable to reconcile that Robert Reynolds, the Sentry and the Void are the same being, the Sentry contained the Void in a vault in the Watchtower. At C.L.O.C.’s urging, Reynolds’ psychiatrist Dr. Cornelius Worth enters the vault and finds only a chair and a mirror. When Cornelius confronts Reynolds with this, a confused Reynolds runs to the fairgrounds where he first gained his powers.

Cornelius follows Reynolds to the fairgrounds where the Sentry and the Void have been fighting. The Void claims that Reynolds transforms into the Void rather than the Sentry, and that the Sentry is merely a guilt-borne by-product of that transformation.

With only half of Robert Reynolds’ memories (the Void possessing the other half), the Sentry isn’t sure the Void is wrong. The Sentry chases the Void away and then explains to Cornelius why Reynolds had hired him in the first place.

Reynolds subconciously wanted someone to reveal the Void’s existence to the world so he would no longer have to hide that aspect of himself. The Sentry then tells Cornelius how Reynolds really gained his powers as a teenager: by stealing the Professor’s serum and ingesting it to get high.

He also tells Cornelius that he knew all along that the Void was never in the Watchtower’s vault. He knew that if Reynolds believed he believed the Void to be in the Watchtower, the Void would be. This kept the world safe from the Void for as long as the Sentry could keep up the charade.

The Sentry then visits Dr. Strange to determine if he is real or not. Strange tricks the Sentry into traveling to his old Professor’s research facility. There the two men confine the Sentry in an illusionary realm where he is a mental patient and superheroes do not exist. Their goal is to prevent any further destruction.

The Sentry breaks free of the illusion and after confronting the Professor, who made the original serum, he travels to Antarctica to confront the Void and discover what memories of Reynolds the Void has in his mind.

The Void claims that Reynolds had actually ingested a super-saturated, exponentially more potent version of the Super-Soldier formula that created Captain America. This was considered dangerous by the government because the Sentry’s blood could be used to create more of the serum, enough for the entire world. Several failed attempts were made to kill him.

Enraged by this revelation, the Sentry throws the Void into the Sun, telling his enemy that he no longer needs him to balance his own actions of good. The Void promises to return.

More recently, Yelena Belova attacks the Avengers and absorbs the Sentry’s powers. After Belova defeats each of the Avengers, she is defeated by the manifestation of the Void, which envelops and incapacitates her. The Sentry tells Belova that absorbing his powers has exposed her to the Void, but if she answers his questions, he can send the Void away.

The Sentry continues to be troubled by his psychological issues, including his fear of the Void. Captain America has to give the Sentry a pep talk before he could work up the nerve to join a fight. Later, the Sentry fights Iron Man.

During the course of the battle, Iron Man yells “C.L.O.C.” – the name of the Sentry’s robot prioritizing system – which then feeds all kinds of emergencies into the the Sentry’s head, leaving him incapacitated and unable to finish Iron Man.

Very recently, the Sentry sides with Iron Man’s Pro-Registration program. He has been seen in a promotional poster again on Iron Man’s side. He chooses to to accompany a S.H.I.E.L.D. squad to battle Wolverine and tells him that he doesn’t want to get involved but sees no choice – he claims he has to stop the ugly business even if that means becoming part of it for a while.

He then knocks Wolverine unconscious and hands him over to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Trying to escape from a recent battle along the Avengers, believing that every path he could choose would ultimately lead to the death of people he knew, the Sentry was confronted by the Inhumans. Believed a threat, he was ordered to follow them to Black Bolt’s presence.

Then, after a discussion of the Civil War events with the (still unaware) Inhumans, he rekindled his friendship with them and almost resumed his past relationship with Crystal. He was then confronted by Iron Man himself, who finally convinced a still reluctant Sentry to join him. The Sentry continues to be one of the major heroes of the Marvel Universe.

Description

The Sentry is a hero’s hero; very muscular, powerful and even radiating visible energy. He wears a full body costume in yellow, covering everything except his hands and head.

The costume has intermingled blue along the lower arms, the chest and is completed by a pair of blue boots, a blue mantle, a blue girdle with a yellow-glowing S-mark formed like a stylized lightning bolt (the colors are off, but it could be a variation of the Superman costume) and sometimes a pair of blue shorts.

His face is either bearded or clean shaven, and he has a large yellow hair. His classic look appears to have included a yellow cowl to cover his real identity.

The appearance of the Void changes, varying from a shadowy, trenchcoat-wearing villain to a massive hurricane of darkness. He sometimes has black tendrils stretch out from him, tendrils that induces great pain and fear in anyone touching them. His face is featureless except for a pair of glowing eyes and a glowing monster mouth. Curiously he uses revolvers as extensions of his powers.

Personality

The schizophrenic personality of Bob Roberts has three distinct personas. These personas are quite different in thinking, behavior and morals. There have been hints that the Roberts persona takes on characteristics from either of the other personas at different times.

The Sentry represents the ultimate good, the Void represents the ultimate bad and Bob Roberts is the average man. To the Sentry the world is a simple place of black and white morals and actions. He acts without hesitation knowing what is right to do.

However, to protect the world is a lot of work, and the Sentry does feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. He remains in near-constant contact with the Cloc, who scans for emergencies around the world, and prioritizes them according to statistics. The Cloc is thus the one that decides who lives and who dies, so that the Sentry doesn’t have to.

The Void is an utterly evil and destructive persona of Roberts. He is regularly kept in check by the Sentry persona, who thus has a dialogue with himself. The Void, however, can break free at any time, at which point Roberts becomes the most dangerous man in the world.

The Roberts persona is meek, and although he has the physical and mental abilities, powers and skills of the Sentry he rarely uses them fully. It is not easy being Roberts, and the worst case scenario is him waking up in an asylym and everyone in the world having forgotten about him.

He does, in fact, really fear the Void, and will panic or act irrational at the mere mention of his name (in DC Heroes terms this can be represented as a SIF of the Void).

Roberts is very susceptible to psychological warfare and manipulation. If things get out of hand, he will have a break-down, wreak havoc, and then repress his memories, starting a new, confused cycle. It has been said that Roberts has chosen to be the Void until the end of time; a decision that was made the same moment he received his powers.

As should be clear from all this, the psyche of Bob Roberts is severely fractured. However Roberts is portrayed it should be clear that he is not a stable person. For more information about his personalities, see the ’Oh, the Schizophrenia‘ and ’The world’s greatest, unknown hero’ sections above.

He loves the Hulk like a child, and his best friend is Reed Richards. He is also a close friend of Professor Charles Xavier and Spider-Man. Naturally he loves his wife Lindy, but has a somewhat problematic relationship with her due to his mental problems. On his good days he will participate on adventures with the New Avengers.

He has a hate-fear-based relationship to his alter ego, the Void.

Quotes

“I was given these powers of a thousand exploding suns for a reason. I will stand for something more than myself. I will stand for humanity’s hope.”

“Cloc… I’m getting some kind of interference on our comm-unit. Might be the Void up to his old tricks. See if you can put a trace on it for me.”

“I can’t imagine the pressure you’re under, doctor, trying to keep me sane before I go off like so many nuclear bombs. Like a million exploding suns.”

DC Universe History

The Sentry is like a Superman with amnesia and schizophrenia. He’d be used in many a setting, for example, in a Superman Returns storyline.

By Dr. Peter S Piispanen.

Source of Character: Avengers & The Sentry books, Marvel Comics .

Helper(s): wikipedia.org, KalEl el Vigilante, Woodrow Hill – and Pawsplay, who also wrote the DCA stat.