Warning! Spoilers for Marvel’sPower Man: Timelessseries ahead!
Marvel just reignited the biggest debate surroundingSentry,revising the origins of the hero’s dark opposite, the Void, which are not cosmic and primordial, but rather deeply personal.The publisher has gone back and forth on the true nature of the Void over the years, and with thecharacter’s arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans might want a decisive answer, but the truth is not so simple.
Power Man: Timeless#4, written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, is the stellar conclusion to the miniseries, which features a future version of Luke Cage wielding the powers of multiple Marvel heroes, including Hulk and Sentry.
The latter’s powers prove pivotal to the climax of the issue, as Cage is forced to confront and overcome the Void to harness its powers for heroic purposes, something the original Sentry, Robert Reynolds, never achieved. In the process, Cage comes to a conclusion about the Void’s existence that goes against the grain of Marvel’s lore surrounding the villain.
Marvel Just Changed The Origin Of Sentry’s Dark Opposite, The Void…Again
Power Man: Timeless#4, Written By Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing; Art By Bernard Chang; Color By Marcelo Maiolo; Lettering By Travis Lanham
For some time now, it has been accepted Marvel canon that the Void is an ancient force of evil, which latched onto Bob Reynolds when he gainedthe powers of the Sentry, and ever since has attempted to usurp those powers; on the occasions it has succeeded, the scale of devastation that followed has been unimaginable, proving theVoid to be one of the Marvel Universe’s most dangerous beings. InPower Man: Timeless, Luke Cage gaining Sentry’s powers comes with the peril of having to contain the Void, a story thread that reaches its apex in the series' final issue.
In an exciting twist, Cage is actually forced to unleash the Void himself, out of desperation in his bid to defeat the centralantagonist ofTimeless, known as Aeon the Knife. The fight with Void is nearly the end of the future Power Man, even before he gets the chance to have a final confrontation with Aeon, but he is able to prevail, and claim the Void’s powers as his own,upon realizing that his enemy is “not some fundamental force of the universe,” but rather “just the weakest parts of [Cage]” himself.
Marvel’s Rewrite Of Void Lore Is A Return To The Original Intention Of The Sentry’s Arch-Nemesis
The Void’s Origins Were Always Meant To Be Psychological, Not Primordial
The Sentry debuted in Marvel in 2000 with a novel conceit: he was a powerful hero who had played a major role in the history of the Marvel Universe, except his existence had been wiped from continuity, and the collective memory of the world, including that one his human alter-ego, Robert “Bob” Reynolds. The Sentry’s comeback was precipitated by the return of his archnemesis, the Void, and in the series' ultimate twist, it turned out Void and Sentry were two personalities, villain and hero, housed within the same body/mind, Reynolds'.
Power Man: Timeless#4 loops back to the idea that the Void is an intrinsic part of the Sentry, with Luke Cage going as far to declare “Bob was wrong” at the pivotal moment of triumphant realization.
Originally, the point of the Sentry/Void divide was to encapsulate the razor-thin line all superpowered characters walk between heroism and villainyin a single, individual character. Subsequent elaborations on the characters' lore retconned the Void into a distinct entity, rather thana facet of Bob Reynolds. That is why it is so noteworthy thatPower Man: Timeless#4 loops back to the idea that the Void is an intrinsic part of the Sentry, with Luke Cage going as far to declare “Bob was wrong” at the pivotal moment of triumphant realization.
Power Man’s Remix Of The Void’s Nature Highlights The Great Thing About Marvel’s Flexible Continuity
The Best Story Triumphs Over Fixed Lore
Marvel continuity is a neverending project; its continuity is not just fluid, but superfluid, meaning that when multiple, often contradictory ideas about a character exist, it is a matter of which one a particular creative team chooses to use in a given story. It is a kind of canon Schrödinger’s cat situation, in which different versions of a character coexist until a story opens the box and uses one version or another. All of that is to say,Power Man: Timeless#4 might have altered Sentry/Void lore for now, but only until the next story changes it back.
Many fans might prefer a fixed continuity, but that would be creatively limiting, andTimeless#4 is a great example of the flexibility Marvel’s infinitely rewritable lore offers. The series delivers a final issue that is packed with both action and emotion, and Luke Cage’s epiphany about the Void is at the heart of the issue. That wouldn’t have been possible without the creative freedom to give Cage theSentry’spowers in the first place, and to explore how Cage’s battle against his dark opposite would differ from that of Bob Reynolds.
