Upon becoming the wildly powerful Sentry, Robert Reynolds also manifests an evil persona called the Void. Reynolds struggles to keep this malevolent force from destroying the world and beyond.
A Dark Opposite
Robert Reynolds, a high school freshman suffering from schizophrenia and anxiety disorder takes an experimental version of the Super-Soldier Serum from one of his science professors, a subcontracted researcher with Project Sentry. Unaware of the serum’s nature, and hoping for a memorable experience, Reynolds drinks the serum which endows him with solar-powered superhuman abilities. Though his psychiatric problems result in a split personality known as the Void, an intensely malevolent persona that manifests at around the same time his subconscious manifests a balancing heroic persona, the Sentry. Unconsciously separating into two entities, neither are aware of their connection to the other.
Reynolds, unable to manage the Void identity right away, takes the form of the Blue Buffoon, a costumed criminal based on childhood drawings and threatens Lindy Lee, a classmate to whom Reynolds is attracted. The heroic persona, wearing a makeshift mask, defeats the Buffoon and departs.
Tendrils of Darkness
The Void possesses many of the same powers as the Sentry, such as remarkable levels of superhuman strength, speed, and intelligence, as well as invulnerability, enhanced senses, energy-projection abilities, and the power of flight, all fueled via absorption of solar radiation and dependent upon his mental state. He has the potential for virtually limitless power, described as equal to “a million exploding suns”; however it can be dependent on his mental state. The Void can also manipulate matter and generate darkness, the latter of which is the opposite of his counterpart, the Sentry, who can project and control light. He also possesses vast, untapped psionic powers.
In addition to the abilities above, he can assume different shapes and invade the minds of others using tendrils of darkness.
The Darkest Hour
The Void’s own worst enemy is himself, or rather the lighter half of himself, the Sentry. As the malevolent side of the coin, the Void commits to killing as many people as the Sentry saves. For some time, the Sentry and the Void are unaware of each other, and the Sentry makes many attempts to defeat the Void, even altering his memories and that of the worlds’ memories as well to remove the Void.
The Void goes up against the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Avengers, all of whom are allies to the Sentry. The Void is also manipulated into working with Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin.
Later, the Void becomes trapped by Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, but when Strange is in a pinch, he releases the Void only to bond with the entity to face the threat of Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki.
Dark Underbelly
The Void allies himself with criminals and those against his heroic half, the Sentry, such as Hammerhead and Norman Osborn. The Void acts as Osborn’s enforcer and secret weapon to help keep his Cabal in line.
A Dark Cloud on the Horizon
When Reynolds became a patient of psychiatrist Dr. Cornelius Worth, Worth’s treatment inadvertently stirred Reynolds’ long-dormant evil persona, which finally re-manifested as the Void, a dangerous madman who murdered thousands in Manhattan, decimated the planet Temporalon, and allied himself with various criminals, including Hammerhead, who dealt the Sentry an unspecified but humiliating defeat. The Void, operating out of a parody of the Watchtower in Antarctica, managed by its own computer, COLC (Computer to Obliterate Life Completely), instilled primal terror in his victims and was devoted to killing as many people as the Sentry rescued, making him as feared as the Sentry was revered.
The Void continued to fight the Sentry and his heroic allies, nearly killing Billy Turner, AKA Scout, and Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk. The Sentry soon realized the Void was an aspect of his personality, or vice versa. But both personas were soon memory wiped by Reynolds, using his own untapped psionic powers, after the mutant Jason Wyngarde, AKA Mastermind, who was hired by the madly militant General, who prompted him to do so. He also altered the memories of everyone in existence as well, making it so neither the Sentry nor the Void had ever existed. The Void and the Sentry merged again, leaving Reynolds to live an ordinary life. Though he unconsciously implanted vague impressions of his career in the minds of comic creators.
Years later, the Void persona awoke within Reynolds again, and again separated himself from the Sentry, who revived the world’s memories of both himself and the Void. The Void, now wielding power of cosmic proportions, soon faced the Sentry and his allies, the FF, the X-Men, and the Avengers. The Sentry defeated the Void by re-merging himself with his evil counterpart, and became the again amnesiac and forgotten Reynolds.
Though both personas eventually resurfaced, and the Sentry came to wrongly believe the Void had murdered Lindy, Reynold’s wife, and demanded that S.H.I.E.L.D. imprison him in the Raft. The Void later monstrously manifested to fight Earth’s heroes, until the mutant Emma Frost telepathically unearthed the true cause of the world’s lost memories.
To deceive the Void persona into inactivity, the Sentry pretended to believe he had imprisoned the Void in the Watchtower in New York, since if the Void believed this as well, he would not re-emerge. Though when the Sentry pursued the General into the Negative Zone, where his solar-based powers were weakened, the Void used the opportunity to emerge, having remotely manipulated the General for this purpose. The Void killed the General and escaped into the Earth dimension. When the Sentry caught up to him, he and the Void fought a devastating battle at an amusement park where Worth confronted them. When the Sentry remembered that the Void was Robert Reynolds, it strengthened the Void. The Void retreated to his base and ignored the Sentry’s taunting claim to be essential to him, and was then hurled into the sun.
The Void was then released by Norman Osborn, who had given the Sentry the serum that originally unlocked his powers. Osborn, now the head of the National Peacekeeping Task Force, H.A.M.M.E.R., had his own team of Avengers, and offered the Void a job to keep control of his Cabal. The Void accepted. Though when Lindy attempted to kill her husband for his strange behavior, the Void took control and threatened her life. But the Sentry re-emerged and flew into the sun in an attempt to destroy the Void once and for all. Though he regenerated as soon as he was destroyed, and the Void convinced his heroic side to hand over the reigns. The Void returned to Earth and began a wave of destruction, only to be stopped by the Dark Avengers. Meanwhile, Osborn had his version of Hawkeye (actually the assassin Bullseye) kill Lindy.
Osborn soon set his sights on Asgard, which floated above the fields of Broxton, Oklahoma. Osborn invaded Asgard with his Dark Avengers and the Void in tow. When Ares, God of War and one of Osborn's Avengers, discovered the truth about the invasion, he turned on him, only to be destroyed by the Void, and thus the city was also destroyed. The Void was struck by a Hellicarrier at Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man’s hand but it did not defeat him. Reynolds emerged and begged to be killed and it was Thor’s lightning strike blow from Mjolnir that took the Void down, charring his body. Thor sent the remains into the sun where they continually regenerated and were destroyed, until the Void escaped into the White Hot Room.
Doctor Strange captured the Void and trapped him in the Sanctum Sanctorum. He was only released when Strange needed the entity’s help against the new Sorcerer Supreme, Loki. The Void possessed Strange and the new amalgam revealed the location of magic hidden away in the Sanctum’s librarian Zelma Stanton. Loki removed it as the Void/Strange attempted to get at Loki, and despite being known as the God of Lies, Loki restored magic to Earth. The Void spit Strange out. who then joined Loki to contain the Void. But they proved unable until the Sentry joined the fight and helped retrap the Void.
Strange helped contain the Void in Reynolds’ psyche and eventually the Sentry and Void merged, turning him into a Dark Sentry. He engaged in a conflict with the Agents of Wakanda and Black Panther, and it wasn’t until Fat Cobra consumed a piece of the Void that the Sentry was back to himself, but he escaped custody.
When the Sentry desired to be rid of the Void, Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, sent him to the Negative Zone, hoping they could be separated there. But once separated in an explosive manner, the explosion gave way to the Cancerverse, where nothing can die. The Void became the realm’s ruler while impersonating the Sentry and helped spread the Cancerverse’s destructive purpose, to consume all life, but met the Cancerverse’s Avengers, the Revengers, and Beta Ray Bill who trapped the Void in the Negative Zone.
When Knull, the God of Symbiotes, invaded Earth, the Sentry attempted to defeat him but Knull ripped him in half, unleashing the Void. Knull assimilated the all-powerful Void, however, Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, with the Uni-Power defeated Knull, sending his body into the sun, apparently destroying Knull and the Void simultaneously.
