Summary
- Carol Danvers, Marvel's fastest hero, is left in the dust by Ryan Sentry's unmatched speed and cosmic abilities.
- The new Sentry's powers go beyond super speed, allowing him to warp the rules of physical reality, achieving faster-than-light movement.
- Sentry #3 is available from Marvel Comics February 21.
Marvel has a new fastest hero - one capable of leaving the cosmic powerhouse Captain Marvel in the dust. Carol Danvers is among Marvel's fastest heroes of all time, and she has to be, given her adventures involve streaking across the far reaches of space. However, despite her incredible speed in past adventures, the difference couldn't be more extreme.
In a preview of inheriting the powers of the original Sentry. In the preview, Ryan helps Earth's Mightiest Heroes take out the U-Foes, but loses his cool when the Scarlet Witch uses magic to discern his motives. When he takes off, Captain Marvel attempts to follow, only to be left far behind when Ryan utilizes his full speed to fly into space.
Of course, the Avengers are right to be suspicious. Ryan has actually been hunting down the other inheritors of the Sentry's powers and attacking them, taking their share of Reynolds’ energies for himself. That's particularly dangerous because the powers are linked to Bob's past, with each inheritor having a connection to a ground-shaking moment where Sentry pushed himself to the limit – often at the cost of his emotional stability.
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Avengers Reveals A Shocking Hero Is Faster Than DC’s Flash
Marvel has traditionally lacked a superhero who can match DC's Flash for speed, but Avengers just revealed an iconic hero has the potential.
Marvel's New Sentry Is Unbelievably Fast
'Ryan Sentry' Wants a Place on the Avengers
Debuting in 2000, Bob Reynolds' Sentry is easily Marvel's most powerful hero. After stealing a new version of the Super Soldier Serum, Bob was granted the power of "a million exploding suns," though Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr.'s Dark Avengers suggested he was actually connected to an ancient eldritch power source. Unfortunately, Bob wasn't able to handle this kind of power and became governed by three core personas – his previous human form, the Golden Guardian of Good known as the Sentry, and the vicious godlike gangster called the Void, who performed an act of evil for every act of good the Sentry achieved. As the Sentry, Bob has power analogous to DC's Superman, boasting immense strength, speed, durability, and energy projection.
It seems that as Ryan eliminates his rivals, he's reaching the same incredible upper limits of his abilities, and suring heroes like Captain Marvel and Quicksilver. While Carol Danvers' top speed hasn't been definitively settled, she does have the ability to exceed even Quicksilver's acceleration. In What If...? Avengers Disassembled from Jeff Parker and Aaron Lopresti, Quicksilver flees the Avengers, and Captain Marvel gives chase.
While Carol its she can't maintain her top speed for long, she manages to catch up to and tackle Quicksilver, despite the super-fast mutant having a head start. Given Quicksilver is attempting to save his sister Scarlet Witch at the time, it can be assumed he isn't holding anything back, making Captain Marvel's speed even more impressive. Of course, Carol and the Sentry need cosmic-level speed to operate in space, but it's clear that even at their incredible level, not all space-faring speedsters were created equal.
Wolverine Can Abuse His Healing Factor to Outrun Even Captain America
While Captain America is one of the fastest humans in the Marvel Universe, a gross quirk of Wolverine's healing factor makes him way faster.
This Isn't Even Sentry's Top Speed
Sentry's Ultimate Form Makes Even Ryan Look Slow
While Ryan Sentry outrunning Captain Marvel is a shocking feat, it's not even the limit of the Sentry's powers. When the Sentry was enhanced with the Celestial Death Seed in Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña's Uncanny Avengers #9, he was able to access his powers without any shred of restraint. When Bob tackles Thor, it's stated that "the Sentry's velocity bends space and time. Their atoms are hurled forward at many times the speed of light." Even Thor acknowledges Sentry as the fastest being he's ever met - a list that includes the vast majority of Marvel's gods.
While Ryan doesn't have the Death Seed (yet), he may well be able to access levels of Bob Reynolds' powers that the original Sentry couldn't. Bob constantly struggled against the Void's influence, and the initial point of his character was that he was someone who didn't want and couldn't handle the level of power he'd accidentally unleashed. While Ryan may be a terrible person, he's more than happy to keep growing stronger and stronger, and doesn't have the same sense of internal conflict over his attempts at heroism. That's especially dangerous because Sentry's 'Superman' powers are basically a shiny lie covering a far deeper and darker truth.
Sentry's Powers Don't Work How Fans Think
Sentry Is Only Marvel's Superman Because That's What He Wants
As various comics (especially Dark Avengers) have explored, the Sentry's powers aren't what they appear to be. In fact, Bob's real power is the total control of every molecule in his vicinity (with an unstated range which may even be global.) This means that Sentry is actually a reality-manipulator rather than a Superman-like powerhouse. Sentry possesses flight, strength, and durability essentially because these are the attributes he believes a pure-hearted hero should have. However, at other times he's been able to manifest any power he needs, including resurrecting others from the dead, telepathically influencing their minds and emotions, and tearing apart the walls of reality to move from one dimension to another. Under the influence of the Death Seed, Sentry casually tore his own head to pieces with no ill effects.
Sentry Can Stop Thor's Hammer Mjolnir (WITHOUT Being Worthy)
Marvel's most powerful hero, Sentry, was able to stop Thor's hammer Mjolnir, despite not being worthy, as his powers outmatched the God of Thunder's.
This explains why the Sentry is so fast, even compared to Marvel's other speedsters - while Quicksilver and Captain Marvel have powers that allow them to move at high speeds, Sentry's powers allow him to change the laws of physics on a whim. It's no surprise that he was able to move multiple times the speed of light using the Death Seed - Sentry is capable of rewriting what the 'speed of light' even is. His only limits are enforced by his mental state, which is rendered more unstable by the mutable nature of reality in his hands - even without deliberately using his powers, Sentry may find that his enemies are defeated and his loved ones protected in ways that don't fully correspond to natural law (for example, his partner Lindy Lee returning to life in Avengers Tower after Bullseye killed her and hid her body at sea.)
All of that means that while Ryan Sentry may be Marvel's new fastest hero, he's also unquestionably the most dangerous. Thankfully, the Avengers distrust Ryan because of Bob's prior record, but if he manages to unlock his full potential, they won't be able to stop him - even Bob was only defeated during Siege because he deliberately gave Thor an opening to kill him. The only person who can stop the new Sentry is Mallory Gibbs - another inheritor of Sentry's powers who is currently too scared to use them. Hopefully, Captain Marvel and the Avengers can help stall Ryan or give Mallory the confidence to take his powers, because otherwise the new Sentry is set to become even more dangerous than the first.
Sentry #3 is available from Marvel Comics February 21.
