Secrets of the Sentry Revealed!!! (Contains Spoilers)
Okay, using the Marvel Handbook and the latest issue of New Avengers, I think I've figured out most of the mystery behind the Sentry. First off, check his history here (it plays into this):
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f95/t362068.html
First off, while SHIELD, the Inhumans, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Namor hold off the Void, Reed Richards shows the Sentry a video he received. It’s a video from the Sentry. This is what the Sentry says on the video:
“Hi Reed, it’s me. If I look familiar yet you can’t place me…join the club, I guess. But I’m making this recording for you because, believe it or not, outside of your family, I think I’m your best friend. How could that be? That you don’t remember me? I do not know. And I have no idea how and when I’ll get this to you, and I have the feeling that I may have sent you other messages just like this.
“Hopefully if you’re seeing this you’ll be curious enough to find the others and piece it together. Needless to say, something bad has happened to me. No one remembers who I am, and for the most part, I don’t remember either. I know my name is Bob. I know I’m married. I have a dog. But this other life. This costume…that’s when it starts to fall apart on me.
“I have these-these cycles I go through where the memories of who I am and who I used to be bubble up and-and churn on each other…just jumble and fall on top of each other and my powers come and go and-and—then I have this-this small moment of…clarity. Like now. Where I know exactly who I am, who I was, who the Sentry is and who my friends were before it all turned bad. And then, poof. Like that…it’s gone. And I’m just some shlub sitting in front of the TV with fuzzy dreams of a hero’s life.
“The thing is, Reed, I think I might be doing this to myself somehow. Maybe I’m punishing myself for something that I’ve done. Maybe I’m trying to stop myself from being the Sentry by attacking myself with this—this bogeyman. The Void.
“It’s me--I’m the Void. I know this. I am the Void. But why am I the Void? Why have I done this? Created something to punish myself for trying to be the Sentry. Punish myself so no one remembers all the great stuff we’ve done.
“And if it wasn’t me who did this, who was it? You? Did I ask you to do this to me and it just isn’t holding? Who has the power to do something like this to me? Do I have the power to do this? Exactly how powerful am I? Or worse yet, maybe I just don’t have the emotional and physical strength to control the powers I have. Maybe I’m cracking at the seams, and all of this is just how truly insane I am. Maybe this is all a big cry for help.
“Well, either way, I am scared out of my mind. Even as I talk, it’s actually coming apart on me. I’m not entirely sure who I’m making this for. I’m going to have to rewind it to see. That’s how quickly it starts to slip away from me. I’m scared you’ll see this and forget you saw it. Listen, I’m not joking, if you can’t fix this, please, I’m begging you…do me a favor, toss me into the Negative Zone…shoot me into space headed towards the Skrull Empire…or just put an Ultimate Nullifier to my head and pull the trigger. Because I do not want to live like this a second longer. You know—I half remember Spider-man going on about power and responsibility. Well, friend, I have tons of power and I can’t take any responsibility for it.
“And if by some miracle I’m watching this with you and I’m babbling on about the Void and all that—listen to me, Bob: Shut up and let them do whatever they have to do to stop this! You hear me, Bob? Shut up and do what he says! I want to go home!
“I really wanted to be a hero to people. I really did. I love my wife. I hope to God that I haven’t done anything I can’t live with.”
So, while the Void is kicking the living snot out of SHIELD, the Inhumans, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Namor, Sentry agrees to let Emma into his mind.
Now, when Emma Frost was in his mind digging through his mind, she saw the same repressed memories that she saw in Reed Richards mind. But then she saw the memory of how he first got his powers; it was a memory drawn in the Golden Age style of comic artwork. Emma couldn't figure out why the memory looked like an old comic book. As she dug deeper, she found a memory that was deliberately more hidden than the others. A memory that anyone scanning his mind (even the repressed memories) wasn't suppose to find.
When Emma and Sentry uncovered the memory, it was a dark, blurry vision of two people standing over Sentry with what looked like medical operating room lights behind them. Although both figures were shadowy, Emma was able to recognize one of them. Jason Wyngarde (aka Mastermind of the Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants)!
Emma couldn't make out who the other guy with him was. This is the conversation that Jason Wyngarde and the mystery man had while they were looking down on the Sentry:
Jason Wyngarde: "I think it's done."
Mystery Man: "How do you know?"
JW: "It's what you hired me for."
MM: "Just like that?"
JW: "It's done. The Sentry is no more. There is a tremendous mental force holding his powers together and that--"
MM: "But his powers are solar based."
JW: "Fine, yes, but it's his mind that holds them together. That's what made this work so well. My mutant powers--simply put, I can make him see, feel, smell whatever I want him to--and I gotta tell you, I have found that the stronger the mind, the easier my powers work on them. You’d think it would be the opposite, but it’s not.”
MM: “This is the greatest achievement of my entire life.”
JW: “I’m pretty proud of it too. Not only will he never remember the Sentry, but he’ll make it so not one remembers the Sentry. And he won’t even know he’s doing it.”
MM: “How will it work?”
JW: “He will be so scared to use his powers—he’ll think the world will be attacked by the Devil if he does.”
MM: “That’s more than I could have ever hoped for, Mr. Wyngarde.”
JW: “The catch is, though…I do have to warn you…you might not remember ever doing this. No one will know you beat him. You understand?”
MM: “It doesn’t matter. I did it. That’s all that matters. This is a complete and total defeat. The kind no hero before him has ever been handed. Mentally and physically. I don’t need people to know. This is good enough.”
From the silhouette, you can tell that the mystery man in the shadows is wearing a hat similar to those worn by military officers in dress uniform. While it’s obvious that Emma doesn’t know who it is, she can tell from Sentry’s reaction to the silhouette that he does know him, because Sentry begins to scream in rage and fear about the guy. (Of course the book was “to be continued” with the Void having taken out everyone except Doctor Strange, the Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Emma Frost, and the Sentry himself.)
So, this is where my theory comes in. In Marvel’s Handbook in the part about Sentry’s history is says:
. The Sentry even battled Dr. Doom alongside the Fantastic Four and defeated his greatest enemy, the General, with the X-Men's aid. During this period, the Sentry married the love of his life, Lindy, and took the young Scout as his sidekick; but the arrival of the Void, a shadowy monster which exploited its enemy's greatest fears, ended the Sentry's charmed life.
There are several key parts there. For one, the Sentry’s greatest enemy was a person called “The General.” I don’t know who that is or what they looked like, but the name “General” implies a military type person; thus it could be him wearing the military type hat and working with Mastermind. Next, he defeated the General with the aid of the X-Men. Since Mastermind has no love for the X-Men, that may’ve made him an ally of the General. Finally, the Void didn’t appear until after Sentry defeated the General. If the General, the person described as his greatest ememy, survived that final encounter he’d want revenge and what better way than this? Also, since the mojo was done by Mastermind, we know this had to have been done at some point in the past before he died from the Legacy Virus. Normally when looking for a culprit, you want someone with means, motive, and opportunity, and if that guy is the General, we know he has everything but opportunity. And as stated in Sentry’s history, we know that after the Void appear, he and Reed found a way to make the whole planet forget about him.
So, what do you think?