Marvel’s Sentry and DC’s Superman are two of the most powerful, almost-unbeatable characters in their respective universes. They are so similar in terms of powers and abilities that many fans call Sentry Marvel’s Superman rip-off. So, if the two ever collided in battle, who would win?
Sentry would probably eventually beat Superman in a fight, although it would be very close. He is so powerful that he has to willingly hold back not to display his full potential, as it could have dire consequences for the planet.
They are both invulnerable, but Sentry has no known weaknesses besides his will – you can harm him, but only if he consciously allows himself to get harmed. On the other hand, Superman has several weaknesses that could get exploited. Let’s compare some of their traits and skills to see who would eventually be victorious.
Sentry: A Brief Character History
Robert Bob Reynolds, also known as Sentry, is quite a new character in the Marvel Universe, at least by comic book standards. He appeared in The Sentry #1 in 2000 for the first time, created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee, and Rick Veitch (uncredited).
His history and backstory are somewhat odd, but we know where he got his powers from. Bob Reynolds was a regular, overweight middle-aged guy that got injected with a serum planned to create the Canadian version of Captain America.
The serum worked better than anyone could ever imagine, though., as Reynolds became the Sentry, an overpowered superhero carrying the “power of one million exploding suns.”
He usually has to refrain from using anything near his full power potential because that “one million exploding sun” doesn’t only refer to his physical strength, but the power of all his other abilities – and he has a ton.
Sentry has uncredible superhuman strength, stamina, durability, reflexes, intelligence, senses, etc. He has ocular powers like infrared, microscopic, or X-Ray vision. He can also fly, regenerate, control, and manipulate energy, create force fields, teleport, use telepathy, telekinesis, and emotion, and mind control, astral projection – and I’m just getting started.
He can do virtually anything you can imagine possible, and you cannot harm him in any way. Marvel fans aren’t used to a flawless superhero, which makes him not so popular. Plus, the blatant Superman ripoff – the overpowered superhero in a costume with a big S on it and a cape – didn’t sit well with others.
Still, he’s one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Universe and has appeared in countless significant battles so far, either alone or teaming up with the Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Hulk, Spider-Man, the New Avengers, and many others.
Superman: A Brief Character History
Superman is a much more well-known and popular character, even among casual fans who don’t read the comics but enjoy the cinematic versions of superheroes. The Man of Steel appeared in numerous movies and TV shows, while Sentry still awaits his big-screen appearance.
Superman was first created in 1938 when Action Comic #1 came out, making him one of the oldest characters in the DC Comics universe.
As for his history, Kal-El was a baby when his planet Krypton suffered destruction. To save him, his parents put him in a space capsule and sent him to Earth to survive. The Kents found his pod and adopted him, raising the baby as Clark Kent.
Ever since he was a child living in Smallville, Clark became more and more powerful. As it turns out, the more solar energy from our yellow sun he absorbed, the more powerful he got. He eventually grew up and moved to Metropolis, where he became a journalist while having a hidden superhero alter-ego, Superman.
His powers don’t come from magic or some serum injection, but rather his natural physiology. However, our sun is different from the sun that shined upon Krypton, and it charges his body cells with energy, giving him all the special abilities he has.
Those powers include superhuman strength, speed, durability, invulnerability, reflexes, healing powers, and stamina. Moreover, Kal-El has thermal, infrared, or X-ray vision, heightened senses (sight, hearing, etc.), wind breath as strong as a hurricane, and freeze breath enough to freeze over a lake.
All those powers go along with genius-level intellect, eidetic memory, flight, self-sustenance, and much more. But, the wildest part about him is that, just like we’ve never seen Sentry use his full powers, we’ve never seen Superman at his most powerful self either. The more solar energy he absorbs, the stronger he gets, and there are no limits to what he can do.
Sentry Vs. Superman: Invulnerability
The first thing that makes a superhero powerful isn’t brutal force – it’s the ability to take damage without getting hurt. And, both Sentry and Superman are the creams of the crop in that category.
You can’t harm Sentry in any way. He’s invulnerable to any kind of damage, no matter how powerful it is – physical, mental, or magical. That doesn’t mean he can’t get hurt at all, though – for instance, he got burnt when he tried to enter the Sun. However, his healing factor is so strong that he recovers almost instantly.
The only thing that can really harm him is his will – he can get damaged by a single punch if he consciously allows the punch to hurt him. Other than that, there’s no way to hurt this guy, especially if we ever see him NOT holding back his power.
Superman is pretty much the same in that category. It’s extremely hard to hurt him, as he can go toe-to-toe with the strongest enemies in the universe and come out on top. No amount of damage can take him down, and even if the enemy somehow gets through his guard, his courage and mental strength will always prevail.
Kal-El just keeps coming at you until he finds a way to defeat you. And, if he is “charged” to any extent, you better watch out because no one beats him like that. Even at his normal strength level, Superman is virtually unbeatable. However, there’s a catch. He does have some weaknesses, which Sentry doesn’t have, but we’ll get to that a bit later.
So, when it comes to invulnerability, durability, and immortality, I call it a wash, but with a slight edge on Sentry’s side. They are both immune to most diseases and almost any kind and amount of damage, with a little twist that makes Superman more vulnerable overall.
Sentry Vs. Superman: Strength and Speed
Yet again, it’s extremely hard to determine who is stronger and faster between Sentry and Superman. Still, there is an answer to both.
As mentioned a couple of times in the comics, Sentry has the “power of one million exploding suns.” When you know that, it’s not crazy when you know he holds back on his powers in battle dramatically. That kind of power is enough to wipe out a galaxy in seconds. The guy walked into Asgard and single-handedly destroyed it – and still, it was nowhere near what he could really do.
As strong as Superman is, and as strong as he can get by “supercharging” with solar energy, I don’t think he can compete with that kind of brutal power. Even if he absorbed all the solar energy of our yellow sun, it’s still not even close to the energy and power of a million such suns exploding at the same time.
We’ve never seen what Superman’s ultimate power level looks like either, but I believe we’ve seen enough to conclude that Sentry has an advantage in the strength department. However, things turn upside down in terms of speed.
While Sentry showcased his incredible speed going near light-speed, we never saw him go beyond that boundary. Not saying he couldn’t, but we’ve never seen him do it. On the other hand, Superman doesn’t have to try hard to go as fast, and we’ve seen him go beyond the speed of light both in the comics and the movies.
He rotated so fast around the Earth that he turned back time at one point. Therefore, I would give Sentry the upper hand in the strength category, but Kal-El wins if it were a speed race.
Sentry Vs. Superman: Other Powers
Apart from Sentry being incredibly strong, fast, and durable physically, he has a wide range of other superhuman powers that make him such an unbeatable force. The thing is, they all pretty much mirror what Superman can do, with some twists and add-ons.
Superman and Sentry can both fly, have immense ocular powers, and project energy in the shape of beams. But, as versatile as Superman is with his powers, Sentry just builds upon that even further.
Reynolds can not just travel very fast – he can teleport. Also, Sentry can control other people’s minds using telepathy and empathy (emotion manipulation) while also having the ability of astral projection. He can become invisible or shape-shift and manipulate matter to the point of manipulating reality itself.
And that is just the beginning. To make a long story short – if you can think of a superpower, Sentry can probably do it. As overpowered as Superman is, Sentry goes above and beyond, giving him a clear advantage in terms of their collective power and versatility.
Not to mention the dark side of Reynolds’ powers called The Void – a creature inside of him capable of molecular manipulation (making it virtually omnipotent), umbrakinesis (shutting out light and projecting darkness), and having death touch – whatever it touches, it dies.
Be that as it may, the Void is Sentry’s worst enemy, meaning his arch-nemesis is no one but himself.
Sentry Vs. Superman: Weaknesses
So, both characters are extremely powerful with quite similar powers, up to the point that you virtually can’t hurt or kill either one, right? Well, no. Both of them have some weaknesses that the other might exploit. I’ll start with Sentry.
Bob’s worst enemy – is himself – and while I’m primarily talking about the Void, I’m not talking exclusively about the Void. Remember how I told you that you could hurt Sentry only if he willingly allows you to do so? Well, he doesn’t always make the best decisions, and he sometimes becomes more of an anti-hero than a superhero.
If he doesn’t consciously fend damage off and heal, you could potentially hurt him with a bobby pin. I mean, he obviously wouldn’t allow it, but I’m saying that if he gets to appoint where, for any crazy reason, he stops defending himself from harm, he can get hurt despite all of his other powers.
But, his biggest enemy is the dark part of himself, called the Void. In the Sentry Vs. Void storyline, the Void manifests as a creature of dark energy, capable of killing anything it touches. In a way, he has to fight his inner demons – only his demons are literal, not metaphorical.
Be that as it may, he learned to use the Void to his advantage on some occasions, and although it poses as a weakness more often than not, I’m not sure how Superman could exploit it in battle without being inflicted himself.
On the other hand, Kal-El’s weaknesses are much more reasonable and easier to tap into. The first and most well-known is Kryptonite. He gets extremely weak at the mere presence of Kryptonite, and if he gets stabbed with a weapon made out of it, he can be killed. And, who’d be better at finding Kryptonite than a guy who can travel through galaxies like he’s going on a jog?
Secondly, Superman is vulnerable to magic. That can be a big problem in battle for him, as any superhero who uses magic can get him and overpower him. It’s easier said than done, of course, as he usually uses his superspeed and doesn’t let you even blink before the fight is already over, let alone cast a spell.
However, if you can get him trapped or somehow use magic before he can react, you’re in the winning column against the Man of Steel – and Sentry could definitely exploit that weakness.
Finally, Superman doesn’t have superpowers because of magic or any supernatural enhancement, but rather his Kryptonian physiology. It allows him to absorb the solar energy of a yellow sun, granting him his abilities on Earth. The longer he stays on Earth (or anywhere near the yellow sun’s radiation), the stronger he becomes.
That means if you move him away from the yellow sun, he has no superpowers anymore, which is the angle I bet Sentry would take in their potential batter. He can teleport them somewhere in space away from a yellow sun and just kill Superman there, or simply find a way to lure the Man of Steel away from his source of power.
All in all, although both have some weaknesses, Superman has way more, and you can exploit his weaknesses relatively easily. Unlike Sentry’s, who either has to allow you to harm him willingly or beat himself with his dark alter-ego, the Void.
Sentry Vs. Superman: Who Would Win and Why?
All this leads to only one possible answer – Sentry wins against Superman comfortably. I mean, he was created as a counter to DC’s overpowered superhero Superman, and Marvel made Sentry even more overpowered. He has all the abilities that the Man of Steel has, and they added a few more while also removing the weaknesses you can exploit against him.
Bob either has to allow you to hurt him or beat himself, but that still doesn’t make Superman the winner because, in that case, Sentry would’ve beaten himself, with or without the Kryptonian.
He has more powers and fewer weaknesses, making him the only logical option in this fight, regardless of how Superman fans feel about it.