Sentry VS Superboy Prime (Marvel VS DC Comics)

 

“We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves.”

- Mike Carey & Peter Gross


The Sentry, the forgotten golden superhero of Marvel Comics. 


Superboy Prime, the sadistic Kryptonian supervillain of DC Comics. 


Marvel and DC have had a plethora of heroes and villains throughout their histories, but what about the ones that everyone had forgotten? The supermen that have such a deep darkness within that all of reality trembles at their presence… who would win?

Before We Begin 

Credit to Sentry Respect Thread, Respect Superboy-Prime, Marvel Feats Doc, VSBW’s Kryptonian Physiology page, Ghost Rider VS Spawn G1 and Simon VS Kyle G1


Special Thanks to Bang, The Cardinal King as additional help along with of course Hippo who decided to do this blog with me.

Background

Sentry 

“You hear that, Bruce? It’s time to play god.”


Robert ‘Bob’ Reynolds was once an ordinary high-schooler who one fateful day ingested a super serum formula which would instill him with the power of a million suns, donning a yellow and blue suit with a ‘S’ symbol, turning him into the superhero and becoming… The Sentry.


Over the years he would go through many different changes and meet many faces. Befriending the likes of Spider-Man, Angel, The Hulk and even his closest friend Mr Fantastic. But these friends would also make way for enemies, notably that of The Void, Sentry’s nemesis. A being of anti-matter and darkness that wants nothing more than to see Bob’s life in ruin… or so he thought. Because after a long time, Bob would realize that his greatest enemy is himself, Robert Reynolds is The Void. So with the help of Mr Fantastic, everyone would forget that one of earth’s mightiest heroes ever existed including himself so that The Void wouldn’t hurt anyone else. 


But this would never last, so instead of letting himself constantly forget, he let himself be The Sentry and fight other people’s battles when needed. From battling his antimatter form regularly, to finding out his past universe where his powers originate from, to even burning his sins with The Void by tossing him into the sun. 


He would mainly fight alongside The Avengers whether that be under the influence of Tony Stark or Norman Osborn, something that would be very helpful when his old friend Hulk went on a rampage all over the world. Bob was the only person that could stop the green giant and force him to his limits, but his old friend taught Bob that he should be himself, not under the influence of others. Something he would greatly regret when Norman Osborn almost gets Sentry killed and gets his wife murdered by Bullseye. The only thing that could break The Sentry. 


He’d be more aggressive and dangerous as The Void would take over his body more and more often. This especially became a problem once he had tore Ares in half and laid waste to Asgard. Facing The Avengers empowered by Loki and the Norn Stones, killing Thor’s brother and leaving him broken as The God of Thunder brought his broken down body to the sun so it could burn and be purged of his evil like Sentry had tried so often before. 


He would then return as a member of The Horsemen of Death, battling The Avengers and his killer, Thor, in a grand scheme that would have led to the world’s destruction at the hands of a Celestial. But Bob is not a horseman of the apocalypse, he is not a villain, he is not a monster. He would regain his consciousness and aid the heroes, taking the Celestial away from the planet and help end the fight for good. 


From there he would face himself once again, questioning himself, fighting The Void, merging with The Void, killing supervillains, anything. Just anything to not feel like himself. and while he would meet his end for now against the god of symbiotes, Knull, who would brutally tear him apart and leave his body for the Valkyries to lead into Valhalla. 


This created a new generation of The Sentry, new people gaining his power all over the world as some would fight for good and some would fight for evil, just as Bob had done before. Creating a new hero in Mallory Gibbs who had gained the past mantles of The Sentry spread over the world to defeat the evil force of his power, Ryan, and inspire a new generation of heroes. 


However this will not be the end for Robert Reynolds. He has faced tragedy after tragedy, destroying his mind and body, yet he lives. Because while there is a dark void in us all, the light shines brighter than it all, especially with the people around us. Bob Reynolds may be dead, but there will always be… The Sentry. 


Superboy Prime

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I AM NOT A BOY! I'M A MAN! I'M A MAN! I’M— I’M SUPERMAN”


You know the story, on the dying planet of Krypton a boy is sent down to earth in an attempt to persevere the child's life. He is then found by two loving parents and adopted by them until he learns of his alien heritage. And learning of his Kryptonian biology was the greatest thing that could ever happen to Clark Kent. 


During a hike, John and Naomi Kent found a baby alone in the wilderness. Seeing an opportunity they could not pass up, the couple named the baby Clark Kent, in reference to the fictional character Superman. As Clark grew up he became a huge fan of comic books and especially Superman. Unfortunately, the kids around him believed Clark to be a loser because of his hobby. However, there was one girl who did not see Clark as a total dork. That being Laurie Lemmon.


And one night under the stars with Laurie, Clark noticed something. A bird? A plane? Not quite. What Clark saw in the sky was Halley’s Comet. Except, that was impossible. Halley’s Comet wasn’t supposed to be visible until December. Yet it was so close that all Clark had to do was reach out and… begin flying off the ground.


At this moment Clark Kent learned he wasn’t just a boy, he was a Superboy. And as the only person with superpowers in his dimension, he felt a calling to become a superhero. From this moment on he would become Superboy-Prime. But this wasn’t the only shock Prime was in for. Not too much longer he would be visited by another superpowered being. The blue boy scout himself, Superman.


Together with his idol Superboy Prime was given training and guidance under Superman until they were pulled apart by a mysterious dimension rift. This wouldn’t last long though, as Prime came to help Superman and many other heroes across the multiverse in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Fighting back against the Anti-Monitor until Alexander Luthor pulled him along with Superman and Lois Lane of Earth 2 into the Paradise Dimension to escape a fatal blast. Unfortunately, Prime wasn’t able to save his home dimension and was instead trapped in one where he was forced to live out his memories for all of time.


But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t. Pounding against the walls of the Paradise Dimension, Prime began to shift the universe. He warped reality and changed continuity at random until nothing he couldn’t. And when Earth 2 Superman dealt the final blow to the dimensional barrier Alexander Luthor had enlisted Prime into his grand plan to bring the Multiverse back. Yet, Alexander’s dark plan started to mold Prime. After being away from his universe for so long he had grown homesick and wished to return. But he had nowhere to go. Not unless he could help Alexander remake the multiverse. So Superboy Prime would get his universe back by any means necessary. This includes murdering members of the Teen Titans and attacking Connor Kent, who he believed to be an awful successor to Superman.


Prime fought many foes and did many favors for Luthor. He was only stopped by Bart Allen pulling from the power of the entire Speedforce, sending him into Red Son imprisonment. But Prime got out, he always does. This time with a new suit that harnesses solar energy in a similar way to Anti-Monitor harnessing antimatter. Unfortunately, when Prime returned the plan was already beginning to fall apart. So in a desperate bid to create a universe he could inhabit, Prime was going to destroy the universe and remake it to his whim. However. he was stopped by Superman and his Earth 2 counterpart before he could set this into motion.


From here Superboy Prime went in and out of imprisonment and villainous schemes. He even made his way back to the Prime dimension before realizing his parents and Laurie had read his comics and now feared him. But everything changed once again when he was called upon by The Darkest Knight. At first, Prime was working to help feed the Darkest Knight Crisis Energy to increase his power. But when spoken to by Wonder Woman he took a moment to reflect. He had begun to realize that nothing mattered. So why not just take down a dark evil asshole and set things right with those he could? In his first real act of heroism, Prime would clash with the Darkest Knight, severely weakening him with his punches. These punches were changing reality around him as they had done long before. But it wasn’t just changing events, Prime was freeing entire worlds, creating better and brighter futures for those around him until he destroyed every last dark world.


Unfortunately, he would not get to be the one to defeat the Darkest Knight. By putting in so much power Prime had overworked himself and he died, rewriting history one final time. Except he actually isn’t dead and he is just chilling in the Prime dimension it’s super vague on what actually happened just like everything else Death Metal. While Prime may have lived as an evil douchebag, he died finally realizing what it meant to take a shot in the dark and become… Superman. 

Experience/Skill/IQ/Other

Sentry

Sentry is a brave hero who has fought against supervillains (and heroes) for many years. Showing some remarkable intelligence at that such as when he had bypassed Reed Richard’s security system and hacked an alien spaceship to detonate. The former being especially impressive as Mr Fantastic is one of the smartest people in the entire marvel universe, consulting Bob for science and experiments on a few occasions. 


He’s no slouch in skill either having been in a hand to hand battle for almost an hour straight and battling for extended periods of time against foes as experienced or intelligent as Ultron, Blue Marvel or Ares. That said, he prefers to end fights quickly… 

Just ask Carnage or Ares or Morgan Le Fae or- yeah you get the idea. 

Superboy Prime

Superboy Prime is not the most impressive being when it comes to his intellect but he does still have his moments. Most importantly his fanboying over comics has given knowledge on a lot of superheroes and tropes in the genre that help him identify what he’s up against. Prime’s most notable feat of skill is when he escaped his imprisonment by the Flashes. He was imprisoned under red sunlight for years and still found a way out by the time of Infinite Crisis 5-7. Superboy Prime is also a surprisingly good builder, as he built his Anti-Monitor armor all by himself. He also quickly figured out how to work his retcon punches to destroy the dark worlds during the events of Death Metal; which continues to show how he is decent when it comes to tinkering and understanding certain concepts quickly.


When it comes to more combative skills however, Superboy Prime isn’t exactly. He has shown the ability to take on entire superhero groups such as the Titans and multiple Lantern Corp members at once. He in general matches large groups of superheroes attacking him at once consistently. He even formulated a plan to steal a Black Lantern Ring to beat the Black Lanterns who were attacking him in the Prime universe. Outside of his experience in jumping though, Superboy doesn’t exactly have much going for him. He kinda just yells at you about how he’s Superman and hits you hard.

Abilities

Sentry

Super Serum Formula Physiology

When a super serum formula is swallowed by a high-schooler named Robert ‘Bob’ Reynolds, he would be instilled the power of a million exploding suns and become The Sentry.


This would change his body to have his molecules be an instant ahead of the current timeline, not need food, water or sleep, to have no need for oxygen in order breathe in space, can glow in the dark, has super breath, and changes the universe and its history by existing. 


His backstory would be changed slightly over the years as Bob realized more about himself and what lies he had been forced to endure but what remains consistent is The Sentry’s power remaining one of the strongest of Earth’s heroes. 


Heightened Senses

When given the formula, Bob also had his senses greatly enhanced such as increased hearing and sight, sensing people’s auras (as well as hiding his own) and what is specifically stated as Sentry Sensors which alert him of incoming danger.

Flight

A very common ability of The Sentry, Bob uses the power of flight very often for instances of floating a few feet off of the ground to flying interstellar distances.

Energy Manipulation

Perhaps the most notable ability of The Sentry is his use of energy manipulation given that he has the power of a million exploding suns and limitless energy. 


His offensive options would include being able to fire beams of energy large enough to flood entire city blocks, draw energy from anywhere, create a vortex of energy, fire beams from his eyes, power-bestowal, and even stabilize extreme cosmic forces such as The Cosmic Cube. 


And while those are all useful, he also has more traditional and defensive options such as his energy’s aura calming people down, creating energy constructs in the shape of balls, recharge technology, and can even deflect light to become invisible. 

Matter Manipulation

While not something Bob would ordinarily use throughout most of his early history, he learned just how powerful his molecular manipulation can be when faced against and defeating the powerhouse villain known as Molecule Man.


Sentry’s body is not from the mainline universe and is stated to have completely different molecules than what an experienced manipulator of them has seen before. He can control molecules and create whatever he wants, being able to tear objects apart molecularly. 


And while admitting that he is inexperienced, his power is compared if not superior to Molecule Man bringing people and places’ molecules back in place. 

Regeneration

A gift and a curse as even after being killed or attempting to take his own life, The Sentry will regenerate from any wound. From heat as intense as the Human Torch to The Sun, to even being destroyed physically, and has came back from being affected the molecular level unscathed. 

Resurrection

And with his incredible regeneration also comes the ability to restore life to himself and others like his wife. After Ultron (who was a hot woman for some reason) killed her in bed, Sentry had a breakdown and brought her back from the dead. As said before, he had been annihilated physically and on the molecular level, only needing his soul to come back to his normal… normal as can be at least, self. 

Telepathy

One of Bob’s earliest uses of powers would involve him being able to communicate with anyone he wishes through just his mind. Notably with the likes of Professor Xavier, Emma Frost, and Norman Osborn. 


This also would come with great defense of his own mind with it being stated as impermeable and forcing people out of it like Absorbing Man and as mentioned before with Emma Frost.


He can also do it without the other person his mind is reading even knowing such as when he learned Peter Parker is Spider-Man just by meeting the wall-crawler.

Teleportation

Not an ability he uses very often but Bob can teleport away with speeds fast enough to move before his wife, The Avengers, and Mr Fantastic could react. Sentry is presumably doing this to The Dark Avengers as well. 

Resistances

Superboy Prime 

Kryptonian Physiology

Before Superboy knew of his heritage, he believed he was just Clark Kent by name. However, everything changed when he realized he had supervision, spotting Halley’s Comet way before it was meant to be visible. Superboy can also use his supervision to see in different vibrational frequencies, seeing past the disguise vibration generators of an alien species. He can even see in X-ray and microscopic vision. To round out his super senses Superboy Prime also has the ability to hear at a low frequency. After he learned of his supervision, Superboy-Prime quickly learned he was also capable of flight, a Superman staple. Another Kryptonian staple Superboy Prime takes is the ability to gain power off yellow sunlight and heal off damage from something as potent as Kryptonite. He is even able to absorb other forms of energy through his cells.

Heat Vision

Like most versions of Superman, Prime can fire concentrated blasts of heat from his eyes. This can be used to flash fry enemies or Prime’s personal favorite way, engraving the Superman ”S” into anything he finds.

Super Breath

Another ability shared amongst Supermen and Women alike, Prime can blow chilling gusts of wind from his mouth that freeze the enemy solid. This makes them an easy target to be shattered while they are brittle. This can even freeze Red Star, who gives off the emissions of… a Red Star. Other Kryptonians have used Frost Breath to counter incorporeal beings like ghosts.

Super Scream

When Superboy Prime is super mad he can do a super scream that's super loud. Rips up terrain and is great for disorienting enemies.

Magic Absorption

Along with being naturally resistant to magic, Superboy-Prime was able to use magic from The Marvel Family. He then used the stolen magic to fight them.

Dimensional Travel

Whether it be through damaging the barrier of the Paradise Dimension or breaking out of the Phantom Zone, Prime can hit so hard he travels dimensions. When given the power of Oan energy, he can even travel across the multiverse and to the 5th Dimension.

Reality Warping

Superboy Prime is well known for his “Retcon Punch” as it has been dubbed. This comes from when Superboy Prime hit the walls of the Paradise Dimension, which caused reality and continuity to change. This punch also served as a balancing act to the new universe, fixing the glitches and resolving the conflicting truths caused by all of the universes colliding and folding in on each other during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. These punches had the random effects of resurrecting Jason Todd, rebooting the Doom Patrol, creating multiple versions and origins of characters such as Hawkman, Superman, Donna Troy and Metal Man. It also rewrote the criminal record of Hal Jordan. How kind!


You may believe this is tied to the Paradise Dimension’s unique status as the place where time gathers, however Prime has caused reality warping to happen in other places. Mainly his escape from the Phantom Zone in Teen Titans Volume 3 #32 and his fights in Death Metal the Secret Origins.


In Prime’s escape from imprisonment during Teen Titans he accidentally causes Beast Boy’s origin to change. With this punch, Prime practically forces reality to make it so Beast Boy is and was a member of the Doom Patrol. 


In Death Metal The Secret Origins the ability is shown to be on a much higher scale to match Superboy Prime’s new level of power. Here he ends up learning how to control his punches, slowly realizing how to change reality around him with precision instead of randomly. In this comic Prime changes The Darkest Knight’s dark universes to be rewritten into happier worlds free from his influence while others are destroyed entirely. This also comes with the side effect of showing him potential timelines where he is happier. Prime also shrinks The Darkest Knight into a regular size compared to his world-towering figure he had prior to being hit. In Death Metal #4, the punch is even shown capable of bringing back Batman from almost being erased and Superman from the world he was trapped in.

Resistances

Arsenal 

Sentry 

CLOC

An Artificial Intelligence that serves Sentry, it mainly works inside of Bob’s watchtower and has a miniature version that flies alongside Sentry. CLOC is mainly useful for supplying information based on a situation, locating entities, and can provide an analysis over people’s mental state and powerset on the fly. 


The Watchtower also has defenses controlled by CLOC that can fire missiles and create defenses that were seen as impenetrable to even a brilliant mind like Mr Fantastic. 

Watchdog

Sentry’s super-dog that has super strength and can fly. He can fly into orbit within seconds and draw blood from Sentry.


He’s a good boy. 

Belt of Flight

Built by his fan club, he was given a belt after losing his powers for a period of time so he could still fulfill his hero duties and fly. 

Superboy Prime

Sun Harnessing Armor 

Designed after the harness used by the Anti-Monitor, Superboy built an armor set capable of collecting and feeding him yellow sunlight.

Legion Ring

After enlisting the help of the Legion of Super-Villains, Superboy-Prime is given a ring which he carves in S into. Weird obsession he had during Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Forms

Sentry

The Void

Introduced as Senty’s nemesis, The Void is a being made of dark matter that attempts to destroy Bob’s life and take the souls of Earth. But while it is true that they are mortal enemies, The Void is in actuality a separate personality of Bob Reynolds along with The Sentry. Coming out when Bob is under mental distraught, destroyed physically, or when he is split between Sentry and Void like against The Absorbing Man with the Cosmic Cube. 


This form would give Bob many new powers that can battle some of Earth’s mightiest heroes and villains such as infi-tendrils that can force mental trauma of past and future, possession, technology manipulation, telepathy with effects that last for days, biological manipulation to create untreatable cancer, creating cosmic traps, shapeshift to create axes and even grow into a giant monster, pyrokinesis, can negate energy, life and anything kinetic, monster creation appearing from every person on Earth’s shadow, dimensional travel, and most importantly soul manipulation as Void aims to take every soul in the universe.


The Void also exists no matter what dimension or universe he is in, will always come back to life as long as Bob is, returning at some point even when sealed in a magic trap, and can regenerate from just an atom. 

Horseman of Death

Chosen across the seven prime timelines, Bob was made into one of the four horsemen of death to safely guide the new mutant homeworld. No longer a part of The Void and now one with death, completely blinded by the order of The Apocalypse Twins. However as a Celestial threatened the destruction of the planet, Sentry returned to being an Avenger to save mankind.


During this time Bob would have the power to fire beams from his eyes and mouth, halted Mjolnir’s momentum with telekinesis, his tendrils affecting its targets to the bone with emotion, and completely regenerated his head.


It should be noted that he achieved this form after Bob had been regenerating from an atom and The Void had left his body to go inside of The White Hot Room. And he could not achieve this power without being chosen by The Apocalypse Twins after that moment. That said there is not really any reason he wouldn’t have these abilities since it’s just Bob & Sentry without The Void’s abilities in place, and there’s nothing here that Bob couldn’t do already. 

Merged Sentry

When against his old sidekick Scout, something awakened in Bob as he put together his split mind and merged with himself, The Sentry, and The Void, making something new. Leaving to find himself and who he’s meant to be, meditating until his aura would grow out of control which needed Thor and warriors of Wakanda to knock some sense into him. Going off to The Negative Zone with the help of Mr Fantastic, as The Void would separate from his body and revert Sentry back into Bob Reynolds to fend for himself. After foiling The Void’s plan to destroy the universe, they would merge back together as one and leave to find themselves in the universe yet again. 


This new power allowed him to create darkness around people, create tendrils from his body, create wind, electricity and rain, and warp reality in his presence.


While not an often used form. In the context of this fight it can absolutely be used as it simply requires Sentry and Void to agree on fighting a common enemy.

Revenant Prime

Bob’s most recent appearance as The Sentry has him now become a god of demons known as Revenant Prime. Brought back by Director None, he is now powered by one hundred million human souls and has Clea scared of his new power, comparing it to Dormammu and Dr Strange. 


Despite making one appearance in only an issue, he is a deadly force who ignores all means of magic, death and the Sorcerer Supreme’s power. Only being destroyed by a merged Strange & Clea that matched his power and let him detonate his souls within to destroy Director None’s forces of evil. 


We will not be using this form as it requires outside help (as well as Bob already being dead to begin with) but it is worth noting. 

Superboy Prime

Sinestro Uniform

Works the same as the regular armored form of Prime but it tricked Hippo into thinking Superboy-Prime had a Yellow Lantern Ring.


But seriously what kind of lame-ass writing is it to have the leaders of the Sinestro Corpps NOT wear the Sinestro lantern ring. Prime himself already wears a yellow ring, just make it a Sinestro ring you fucking hacks.

Stats 

Sentry

Feats

  • Conquered his inner-demons and The Void several times

  • Made allies with Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four and many more 

  • Has defeated heroes such as Dr Strange, Wonder Man, The Thing and The Hulk

  • Has defeated villains such as Attuma, Carnage, Morgan Le Fay, Loki, and Dr Doom

  • Has torn people in half… a lot

  • Met Invincible (briefly)

  • Mr Fantastic believes he is the most powerful human in the universe 

  • Stalemated The Hulk at his strongest

  • Fought Galactus to a standstill

  • Was finally forgiven by The Thing… after he died 

Attack Potency

As Sentry


As Void

Durability 

As Sentry


As Void


Speed

As Sentry


As Void

Superboy Prime

Feats

  • Helped Superman and others defeat the Anti-Monitor during Crisis on Infinite Earths

  • Brought back Jason Todd (Yippee!!!) and rewrote much of reality 

  • Broke the Legion of Super-Villians out of Takron-Glatos

  • Has outmatched large groups of super heroes multiple times

  • Killed Earth 2 Superman, along with assisting in the deaths of Connor Kent and the Darkest Knight

    • He even killed a Guardian of the Universe, taking his power for himself and using it to torture Mr. Mxy

Attack Potency 

Durability

Speed

Scaling

Sentry

The Hulk

Despite being one of Sentry’s closest allies, Bob has battled his friend on more than one occasion whether it was The Sentry or The Void. Early-on Hulk was completely scared of The Void and had most of his bones completely broken as a result of their battle in The Negative Zone, but more importantly, The Sentry had battled World War Hulk to a standstill until both were out of commission (most of World War Hulk #5 as stated before) Thus being a very reasonable choice to scale Sentry to: 

Thor

Similar to the green giant, Sentry and The Void have battled Thor on a few occasions as well as foes like Absorbing Man and The Hulk who have given the god of thunder a run for his money. Even his brother Loki didn’t believe he could stand a chance against The Void and needed to power The Avengers to do so, even still resulting in The Void destroying the rival of Thor. Making it a fair point to compare him to: 

Silver Surfer

While they haven’t interacted very often, Silver Surfer alongside many of the mightiest heroes of Earth and beyond had feared to battle against the army of the negative zone led by The Void. Sentry has also battled many other heroes and villains who had battled the cosmic rider before such as Thor and Hulk as stated before, along with his superior Galactus which we will explore later. With that all said, this makes it fair to scale Sentry to: 

Galactus

(Presumed Unsatiated)


One of the first known feats of scaling for The Sentry, Spider-Man himself has said that Bob had once fought Galactus to a standstill (referencing this a second and third time). While unclear how satiated the devourer of worlds was, we can presume he was hungry based on the fact that he came to Earth in the first place, but even at minimum such a threat as him has done:

Molecule Man

(Inapplicable, See Before Verdict)


When a part of The Dark Avengers, Sentry had battled Molecule Man and completely embarrassed him with their difference in molecular power despite Molecule Man’s vast knowledge and experience in using it. Especially impressive with feats backing him such as:

Miscellaneous Marvel Characters

Sentry is considered one of Earth’s strongest heroes, if not outright the mightiest, so he can be compared to several characters that may not be notable enough to have their own section like:






Superboy Prime

Superman

As his inspiration and icon, Superboy Prime hates to beat up his idol but he has fought him and his clone on multiple occasions. First off he was capable of killing Earth 2 Superman and doing relatively well with Earth 1 Superman even after being rammed through a Red Star. While everyone in this example is depowered, Prime also has burnt holes through Superman’s hand and shoulder. Superman has all sorts of insane feats like when he:

The Flash(s)

When it comes to speedsters Superboy Prime had a distinct hate for them. Interesting because he tends to fare pretty well against them physically. Even to simply remove Superboy Prime from the fight, it took 4 Flashes and exhausting the entire Speedforce just to take him away. In other comics he has been able to tag and keep up with multiple speedsters jumping him at once. For something more direct, he was too strong for an alternate universe Jay Garrick, showing a consistent ability to outperform Flashes.

Green Lantern Corps

Along with scaling to other heroes who scale to the Lantern Corps, Superboy-Prime has both been shown and has stated to have killed multiple members of the Green Lantern Corps. Over 55 to be exact. A notable showing being how he beat an Ion empowered Sodam Yat in a fight with relative ease. Members of the Green Lantern Corps have:

The Anti-Monitor

One of the most dangerous characters in the DC Multiverse is the Anti-Monitor. Despite this Superboy has taken blasts from him and destroyed his armor before sending his body far away. Superboy Prime even survived the Anti-Monitor’s blast after he had absorbed all the energy that his universes could give him.

The Darkest Knight and Perpetua

In the one good deed he ever did, Superboy Prime weakened and damaged the Darkest Knight in his later years, even taking out the Last 52. This should scale him above Superman and… pretty much almost everyone else in the DC Cosmology including Perpetua, who the Darkest Knight defeated and absorbed the Crisis Energy of.

Miscellaneous DC Characters

By scaling to some of DC’s strongest characters and his own encounters, Prime should get scaling to many of DC’s others characters from their long history.






Weaknesses

Sentry

To be blunt, Bob on his own is a suicidal, nervous-wreck filled with self-doubt and fear. Diagnosed as a schizophrenic and has agoraphobia, he is deeply afraid of his own inner-demons and powers hurting others such as The Void. 


The Void itself is also a threat to Bob and his sanity as it tries to ruin his life, but at the same time also cares about Bob and needs him. More than often Sentry works through The Void and its destructive nature, but if under extreme stress or mental trauma, will take its form and spread evil to the world. 


His powers are also susceptible to being drained and can be split between Sentry and Void if an opponent is powerful enough like The Absorbing Man with the  or an enraged Thor. And more specifically, has had LSD work on him, reality warping, and The Negative Zone wrecks him with doubt and weakens his powers. 

Superboy Prime

Superboy Prime is powerful but he isn’t without flaws. Red Sons weaken his power tremendously and with enough exposure can completely remove his powers. The same can be said about removing light from his cells. By removing exposure to light the energy inside Superboy’s cells are sapped away weakening his power. This is mainly done via trapping Prime inside of darkness. Prime also shares the common weakness of Kryptonite with the rest of the Supermen. However, he rarely has to face this as other dimensional Kryptonite has no effect on him. Prime has also died(?) from overexerting himself against opponents after spamming retcon punches.


But the most potent weakness of Prime is not a physical weakness. Prime’s biggest weakness is instead his mental stability. Despite how desperately he wishes he was, Prime is not Superman, but a Super Boy (emphasis on the space between the words). He is a child with the powers of a god and thus Prime struggles with keeping his composure in tense situations. This is mostly due to the loss of his entire universe during Crisis on Infinite Earths. This has made Prime vulnerable to manipulation from people like Alexander Luthor and can cloud his judgement on the heat of battle.

Before We Decide

The Knull Shaped Elephant in the Room…

So this definitely happened.


If you are unaware, during the events of the well-known Venom comic series called King in Black where The Sentry attempts to take out the god of symbiotes, Knull but ends up being torn in half in a not-so-subtle reference to both Sentry against Carnage and Ares. Where Knull states that “he is the void” and in King in Black: Return of the Valkyries, a spiritual Sentry is met with Jane Foster as a Valkyrie confused before he goes off into the afterlife.


This was met with large backlash both due to the fact that Sentry had died before and had resurrected himself just fine as well as how Knull stated that he is the void as if that is a concept he can become and not Bob’s different state of being. On top of that, Sentry by this point had been in his Merged form with a completely different suit for some time while now he is donning his classic yellow costume for seemingly no reason. 


The reasonable conclusion is that Knull just has negation towards these abilities that Sentry has and can kill people while also removing their regeneration and resurrection, as well as destroying The Void’s antimatter being. Forcing Bob to go into the afterlife of Valhalla and move on. This would especially have to be the conclusion because the writer, Donny Cates had admitted that he didn’t consider The Void and Knull to be the same thing. 



So while yes this means Sentry’s regeneration and resurrection can be bypassed, it is not something he randomly doesn’t have anymore in the story and is more of an oversight of the writers at Marvel.

The Molecule Man Debacle

During the events of Dark Avengers, they had faced against the power of Molecule Man where Sentry was the one who took him down and threatened him to remake everything he had destroyed. This would then make sense just to scale Bob to him right?


… Well.


Molecule’s powers are very much inconsistent with his mental state and if he has his wand or not. In which case here he was mentally out of it, disoriented by a missile, being talked down by Victoria Hand and Norman Osborn, and didn’t have his wand either. This probably begs the question as to why we would include it. To which it’s simple as that he’s cool and a relevant foe of Sentry with some interesting history as to why their fight played out the way it did. 


Not really something we can fully scale Sentry toward in terms of power, especially with the consistency of him being able to battle The Beyonder who’s considered far above anyone Sentry has ever faced since it was unclear how fed Galactus was during their supposed ‘stalemate’. Still a very impressive battle for Bob but not one we can assume can scale to Molecule Man’s extraordinary power. 

How Does Prime Compare to Superman?

This section is made mainly so we can talk about Prime and how he compares to Superman in his physiology. Specifically resistances between the two characters.


The reason this has to be a question is because Superboy-Prime is a direct variant of Clark Kent, and is Kryptonian down to the cellular level. Meaning that on the surface, one could assume he has the same resistances as the original Superman.


However, this can be somewhat disproven by simply looking at the first appearance Prime ever had. In the same comic where he is described as Kryptonian and gets his backstory, we see Prime resist the effects of a device that gives off emissions of a red star while Superman cannot. Superman even calls this out as a difference between the two. While later on they move towards making Prime weak to red stars (either retconning this resistance or the artificer emissions have some difference that lets Prime ignore its effects), they still show a clear difference between Superman and Prime when it comes to resistances. 


You can also point to Superboy-Prime being totally magic-resistant, something Superman is vulnerable to. Even if it’s not a weakness for Superman, he doesn’t resist magic in the same way Prime does, being able to absorb and shrug off attacks from some of the strongest magic users in DC like Black Adam.


So in conclusion, while Prime is a variant of Superman he likely does not share the same resistances, as there are multiple resistances Prime has that are not shared with the original Superman. However, there are some general Kryptonian abilities and resistances Prime should be able to use like frost breath hitting the incorporeal, disease resistances and a very minor memory manipulation resistance as he is still a version of Clark Kent who is a Kryptonian at the cellular level.

Verdict

Stats & Cosmology Comparison

Oh.


Off the bat, both of these characters are consistent threats to their verses and some of their heaviest hitters from Thor to Superman to Galactus to Anti-Monitor, potentially to the entire omniverse with Scarlet Witch and The Darkest Knight. With at minimum direct scaling chains to universal to multiversal levels of destruction. 


The simplest terms for where both of these characters are within scale, both verses at minimum are beyond infinite in size (Marvel Examples / DC Examples) and contain at least 11 spatial dimensions (Marvel / DC). 


However, if you have been keeping up with the recent Marvel and DC blogs you know that these characters can get MUCH HIGHER. While debates around certain cosmology stuff gets incredibly wacky you can get both to Outer through their scaling chains.


For Sentry, you can scale him to the likes of a presumed Hungry Galactus. Hungry Galactus is a rival to the likes of Odin who can defeat Surtur, whose flames can burn the World Tree. The World Tree transcends the infinite higher and lower spatial dimensions of Marvel Comics which would be Outer.


Prime scales to Perpetua through The Darkest Knight. Perpetua was capable of reaching into the Overvoid and is powered by the Source. The Source and Overvoid both exist in the greater DC cosmology past the Source Wall, R>F transcending the verse and being considered Outer.


For a more in-depth look at the cosmologies, we recommend G1’s Ghost Rider VS Spawn and Simon VS Kyle blogs as they provide the full reasonings and research behind both cosmology’s Outerversal nature. Usually, we would not force you to check out other sources for full research at Media Mania but these blogs do such a good job it would be not worth it to try and paraphrase their arguments.


Both characters are also infinite to immeasurable in speed through Sentry and Prime scaling to the feats of the Silver Surfer, Thor, Flash and Superman.


So while there are many other scaling chains one could use or interpretations one could take, at the end of the day they would be relative in strength, speed and durability with both’s cosmologies being very high in scale. Thus making this section a Draw.

Arsenal & Abilities


The arguably most important segment of this. Superboy Prime has the inherent defense of a suit of armor that can absorb Sentry’s energy blasts and helps against Void’s darkness. In general Prime’s ability to absorb energy through his cells and would completely shut down solar blasts while giving himself a boost. But compared to the suit, Sentry has far better technology in the form of CLOC. CLOC would be able to feed him an analysis of Prime’s powers and mental state which would provide a huge advantage. 


It doesn’t help Prime that nothing Prime has can truly work on Sentry (outside of one option we will delve into later) since Sentry can match and resist heat vision, high-frequency screaming, frost breath, dimensional travel, and has no magic for Prime to absorb. Meanwhile, so many of Sentry’s powers would keep Prime on his toes with how versatile they all are with many different forms of energy manipulation, teleportation, matter manipulation and his constant regeneration & resurrection which Prime cannot get past other than eventually beating him to death… which would unleash The Void. Someone who would provide an even bigger challenge with how Void specifically can target his attacks toward mental trauma, darkness manipulation, possession and soul destruction. Soul destruction being the most notable power here as devouring Prime’s soul or damaging it is something he has never encountered nor resists. So with Void’s trickery with darkness, cosmic traps and tendrils he can get Prime into a spot easily capable of having his soul snatched.


Yet Prime does have one major trump card with his reality warping punch. The retcon punch completely flips this match-up on its head and makes everything much harder to determine. Prime’s retcon punch is capable of changing history and the origin of his opponent which could immediately defeat Sentry and Void. Something along the lines of Sentry never getting his powers from the serum or removing the Void’s influence could happen in the fight. Prime’s punches resolving issues with the timeline also hard counters Sentry’s timeline importance and cells being ahead of the timeline, countering any potential resistance to the attack. Seeing as this is an accidental by-product from Prime’s punches that he later learns to control, it seems like an incredibly easy wincon to use. However, it is important to note that in the time Prime learns to use his punches, they don’t act as they did when they were random.


In Death Metal: The Secret Origins retcon punches are multiversal-encompassing hits that don’t actually affect the person punched. While we aren’t arguing he can no longer affect people with his retcon punches it should be noted that he would likely have to adjust his mindset and use case for the punches on the fly. At best the punches may have shrunk down The Darkest Knight but to fully change someone’s origin would likely require tinkering from Prime. It would also require him having something in mind less the effects be completely random against Sentry. Prime not knowing anything about Sentry while CLOC gives Sentry information about Prime is a huge advantage.


It’s also important to note that while Prime’s wincon may seem a lot easier to access on paper. This blog follows the standard Death Battle rule around blitzing. It would be completely fair game to argue Sentry and Void would be given the time to transform into Merged Sentry along with being decently in character for the two to team up on a common foe. Even if they would not be allowed instant transformation into Merged Sentry, Void is capable of acting on his own accord and would likely recognize that for his survival he would need to take down Prime. Seeing as Void’s entire existence is around devouring every soul in the universe it can be argued that Void is going to go for his wincon just as quickly as Prime will to go for a retcon punch.


So while Prime has one of the strongest wincons possible in a match like this. Sentry’s variety and instant wincon allow him to match Prime.

Tertiary Factors


While Superboy Prime is no slouch in fighting experience, Sentry has been battling a multitude of varied opponents for far longer across his history of being a hero since a teenager. Sentry also has solid intelligence with hacking & aiding Reed Richards in technology. 


Compared to Prime who is a solid tinkerer, but has consistently shown his stamina is quite lacking and is less put together mentally. Even if his mental state generally seems to be better around the events of Death Metal he still hasn’t fully matured and lost steam incredibly quickly in his fight against the Darkest Night leading to his death from over-exertion.


 Prime also still has plenty of mental trauma he hasn’t yet dealt with, making him an easy target for Void and the Infitendril’s manipulation of his trauma that far outpaces the natural memory barriers Prime potentially has. It doesn’t help Prime that the Void and Merged Sentry are capable of shrouding areas in darkness. While Prime’s suit can hold this effect back for a time it’s not a permanent solution and Void can likely handle the technology inside of the suit, shutting it down.


Sentry takes this section without much trouble.

Conclusion

Despite 2 out of 3 categories in Sentry’s favor, this match is an extremely close call. Sentry really is holding himself back here as it’s mostly Void and Merged Sentry doing the heavy lifting. While both are equivalent in stats Sentry has a wide variety of hax he can use on Prime to slow him down and the ability to win using soul manipulation. However, Prime makes this close due to his retcon punch being an incredibly hard counter to Sentry. So it comes down to the likeliness of pulling off their wincon and tertiary factors. And while Prime’s fighting style means he will likely get his wincon off quickly, he needs to make sure he is targeting Sentry with its effects while Void just needs to use the ability that he solely exists to use. Along with the Void having ways to slow Prime down such as traps and Infitendrils, it is more likely that under rules that don’t allow for blitzing (and in general) that Void or Merged Sentry end the fight before Prime can pull off his wincon.


Prime is one of the strongest combatants this blog series has ever used and gave Sentry one hell of a match but Bob and the Void were in their Prime.


The winner is the Golden Guardian of Good, The Sentry… As well as his dark nemesis of evil, The Void.

Advantages and Disadvantages


Sentry

“Funny. All these years I tried to calm you down. And now at the end of it all… it’s me who can’t seem to stop. Goodbye old friend.”


Advantages:

  • More versatile abilities, especially with The Void

  • CLOC would give him a good idea of what Superboy is capable of

  • Resists a good number of Prime’s abilities…

  • Greater experienced in both general and combat

  • Matches all of Prime’s abilities

  • The Void preys on all of Prime’s weaknesses to leave him vulnerable for a soul attack 

  • Regeneration and Resurrection would make him tricky to put down for good

  • Thunderbolts* was goated

Equal:

  • Relative Strength, Speed and Durability

Disadvantages:

  • Cheated on his wife (it was Rogue though so fair)

  • The Void would be harmful to Bob’s mental state and possibly attack him

  • … But would not resist the reality warping punch, which would counter his continuity forcing him to exist could rewrite his origin

  • Lamest death ever 

Superboy Prime

“And before I get serious about what I’m going to do next or sucked into the latest attempt to sort a universe… I’m going to have some fun.”


Advantages:

  • Light and solar based attacks only serve to fuel Prime

  • Reality and continuity warping could have effects that instantly win the fight

  • Far greater AOE with the retcon punch

  • Fighting style complements his wincon meaning it would be possible to pull off…

  • While not dealing much damage, frost breath can counter intangibility from the Void

  • Specialized vision and hearing counter invisibility

  • Somewhat counters his darkness weakness with his suit

Equal:

  • Relative Strength, Speed and Durability

Disadvantages: 

  • The Void’s darkness would weaken Superboy Prime

  • Less versatile and more predictable

  • Not as mentally stable, skilled or generally smart

  • …If he didn’t have to tinker with its function to take Sentry down

  • Mental trauma can be exploited by the Void

Votes

Team Sentry [2]: Hippo, Tru

Team Superboy Prime [0]: 


Thank You

SURPRISE BUT NOT REALLY!!! Thank you all for reading this blog and MASSIVE thanks to Bang, Cardinal and especially Hippo for helping on this project. Did this to make sure I got into the comics space for Booster Jones and because Hippo wanted to do this as a duo blog. It was a lot more complex than I thought and has grown into one of my favorite matches. The amount of cool aura, psyche delving and even potential for style changes is really awesome and I hope you see that through this blog. 


Booster Gold VS Agent Jones is currently going very slow but it will hopefully pick up pace soon. See you all next time!

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