Originally posted by Rage.Of.Olympus
One might say the exact same thing about Molecule Man/Sentry if they were so inclined.Pretending it didn't happen is ridiculous and makes you seem unfairly biased if anything. Anyone arguing that it's the norm or that it retroactively applies to all his foes is in the wrong as there a lot more examples to contradict this feat, some even under the same writer but that's not what you're arguing.
No, there is a HUGE different between these two instances.
Sentry has always done weird and questionable stuff like coming back from the dead, healing people and even resurrecting the dead. He has changed his appearance over and over again, erased the memories of not only billions of humans, but even animals and so on, and so on.
And he never knew how he was able to do it. He didn't have the proper control over it, but when he faced the Molecule Man - being confronted by all of that helped him figure out that matter manipulation is how he is doing all of it.
He learned about his abilities in "Dark Avengers #12", which was really close to his death - but from that comic he has shown of having the matter manipulation aura around him during a lot of occasions, so he remained consistant with it.
After "Dark Avengers #12" Sentry had a massive power upgrade and he still has it as we've seen it in the recent "Uncanny Avengers" comics, where he used his matter manipulation to take Thor out. He used it to stop Mjolnir in motion and drop it to the ground and he used it to one-shot Thor.
Superman on the other hand? He had a UBER high end feat, which didn't establish anything.
I'm not biased towards Sentry and I'm not biased against Superman. Let me prove it by saying this:
1. I believe that pre Molecule Man encounter Sentry would have lost to Superman 6/10, due to the Sentry naturally emitting solar radiation as the main type of his energy based attacks - that would have sundipped Superman and gave him the edge.
But the post Molecule Man encounter Sentry always had the matter manipulation aura around him, so he ditched the solar energy and started doing stuff with the molecules - he wouldn't have that problem anymore in a fight against Superman.
2. I believe that pre Molecule Man encounter would lose to Blue Marvel in a well written fight, due to Blue Marvel wielding antimatter powers, which was one of Sentry's self-imposed weaknesses.
Sentry was in the Negative Zone few times and it always rendered him helpless, because he believed it would drain his powers. Self-impossed, because at the same time the antimatter in the Negative Zone empowered the Void, who ultimately is the Sentry - so the Sentry having control over his powers should in theory be able to absorb the antimatter, just like he absorbs solar radiation and all kinds of other energy types and empower himself that way.
But that was the pre Molecule Man encounter Sentry - after he realized what he truly is capable of, things changed for him.
And again ... Blue Marvel knocking the Sentry out proves nothing, because getting caught simply happens. A weakened Sentry took WW Hulk's punches to the face, had a smile on it and asked for more. That overshadows the Blue Marvel knockout.
3. I believe that every single powerful reality warper can take the Sentry out, due to the Sentry being limited to molecule manipulation, while reality warpers can do stuff even if there is nothing for them to work with.
Sentry has been affected and rendered powerless by HoM Scarlet Witch, even though she didn't really manage to take his powers away fully, since he still had to do with the Void, which would normally not be there...
... but then he also straight up got reality warped the crap out of him by Absorbing Man, who gained such powers after absorbing a Cosmic Cube...
... and then then there was also the final battle in Siege, where Loki used his Norn stones, which warp the reality / they grant the user wishes and the Norn stones were able to empower the heroes greatly and make them cut through the Void like through butter.
I just stated who can beat the Sentry easily. Do I sound like a braindead fanboy to you?
Ask all the Superman fanboys here, who Superman wouldn't stand a chance against. Ask the Thanos fanboys, who Thanos wouldn't stand a chance at. You'll get death threats via PM for sure.