New MCU Character Is Nothing Like His Marvel Comics Version

It seems highly unlikely he will be playing the Sentry (real name: Robert Reynolds), but here’s some disappointing news for Marvel fans: this character is virtually guaranteed to be much, much weaker than his comic counterpart.

While Pullman playing the Sentry hasn’t been officially confirmed by Marvel at the time of this writing, some of his brief moments in the recent Thunderbolts trailer are all the confirmation that comics fans need.

Unfortunately, those fans will inevitably be disappointed by the character’s onscreen portrayal. In the comics, this character has godlike powers (specifically, the power of “a million exploding suns”), and he is destined to get insanely powered down for the MCU.

Obviously, the Sentry having the power of a million exploding suns is fairly abstract, but Marvel fans wondering just how powerful his comic incarnation have plenty of provocative game tape from previous appearances.

This is somebody who has singlehandedly defeated Ultron and managed to lift one of those giant celestials; he once broke the axe of Terrax, a herald of Galactus powerful enough to slice a planet in half without breaking a sweat.

Oh, and speaking of Galactus, Spider-Man casually mentions that the Sentry was able to defeat the infamous Marvel villain, one who normally can’t be stopped without the combined might of the Fantastic Four.

In addition to raw strength, he also has some other powers, including telepathy, and he has only one real weakness: a profound mental illness that manifests as “the Void,” a similarly all-powerful force for evil that is really just one of his extra personalities.

While it’s a safe bet that the character’s psychological troubles will play into Thunderbolts for added drama, we’re betting that the character will otherwise be completely nerfed onscreen.

The reason for this is that, at full power, the Sentry as portrayed in Marvel’s earlier comics would be able to one-shot Thanos and any other threat we have seen so far in the MCU. 

Speaking of Thanos, one of the only characters powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with him in Avengers: Endgame was Captain Marvel.

For that reason, the character is conveniently kept out in the depths of space most of the time because otherwise, fans would constantly wonder why she wasn’t swooping in to defeat lesser bad guys like Mysterio or Green Goblin.

And if Disney unleashed Sentry at full power, fans would constantly wonder why he refuses to just end Thunderbolts early by completely destroying whatever petty villains could be taken out by far weaker, street-level heroes like White Widow.

Now, this doesn’t mean we’re not hyped to see the Sentry onscreen…he’s been one of Marvel’s strangest and most mysterious characters for many years, and his introduction to the MCU could add a jolt of much-needed energy.

But we’re making our peace with the fact that he won’t be as faithfully adapted from page to screen as other heroes like Captain America or Iron Man. But we’re trying to be glass half full here…after all, having a powered-down version of this schizophrenic Superman is better than not having him onscreen at all.

If Thunderbolts bombs, though, let’s just hope Disney doesn’t try to blame everything on the Void.