The comic history of The Void, the villainous dark side of The Sentry, Lewis Pullman's potential Thunderbolts MCU character

In the MCU, The Void is a place beyond time and space where things that have been "pruned" or eliminated from reality go to be destroyed into nothingness by the monstrous Alioth. It's played a major role in the Loki streaming series as well as in the recent Wolverine and Deadpool, with several characters who were trapped in the void potentially escaping.

But with the official debut of the new Thunderbolts* trailer, which seems to confirm the casting of Lewis Pullman as Bob Reynolds/The Sentry, new questions are being raised about what that could mean for The Void, because in comics, The Void is also the name of The Sentry's villainous dark side, who is powerful enough to challenge the entire Avengers and more.

What is The Void in comics?

In comics books, The Void is a being of dark energy who is connected inextricably to The Sentry, a superhero who has "the power of a thousand exploding suns" with an equally powerful opposite, evil personality - that being The Void. 

The Sentry has a bizarre Marvel Comics history. In his origin, Robert Reynolds is a meth addict who breaks into a lab to find drugs, only to ingest an experimental compound called the Golden Sentry Serum. Obtaining amazing cosmic power, Reynolds becomes addicted to the drug, but eventually turns himself around and becomes one of the strongest heroes in the Marvel Universe to adventure alongside the Avengers, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and even the X-Men. 

But through it all, The Sentry struggles against The Void - which kills over a million people in a devastating attack on New York City - until he discovers that The Void is in fact part of him, and the only way to truly defeat the evil inside him is to essentially erase all memory of his existence and his powers, even from himself. With the help of Doctor Strange and Reed Richards, the Sentry hides his existence, erasing his past and hiding his actions in the Marvel Universe.

Years later, however, Reynolds' memories and powers resurfaced, and with them came The Void. Though he was able to rally Earth's heroes and stop The Void once more, once again being forgotten by all, this didn't last long, and The Sentry began reappearing regularly, even becoming associated with the Avengers again.

Of course, this in itself proved to be a tragedy following the events of Secret Invasion in which Norman Osborn, a key character in preventing Earth from being conquered by Skrulls, is named the leader of HAMMER, a more authoritarian version of SHIELD. Osborn creates his own 'Dark Avengers' comprised of villains taking on the identities of known heroes such as Spider-Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, and more, all while operating according to Osborn and HAMMER's whims. 

For his powerhouse, he recruits The Sentry - beginning a series of manipulations and subversions on the hero to bring back The Void as Osborn's secret weapon. Here's where the Thunderbolts movie connection may come in, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine potentially taking Osborn's place.

All the while, Osborn is also working with Loki as part of a scheme to return Asgard, which was then located on Earth, back to its own realm with Loki as the leader.

Here's where things get even worse.

Osborn's time as leader of HAMMER culminates in the story Siege, in which Osborn, Loki, and the Dark Avengers launch their assault on Asgard. But much to Loki's horror, Osborn has been manipulating him all along as well, with a plan not to send Asgard home but to destroy it. 

As the Avengers and other heroes intervene, Loki seizes the Norn Stones, reality-altering Asgardian artifacts, to empower the heroes and save Asgard - he can't rule rubble, after all. But The Void, now fully in control of the Sentry, manages to send Asgard crashing to the ground before attacking Loki and killing him.

This sets off the chain of events in which Loki is reborn as Kid Loki, and starts on a journey toward heroism and self-discovery that's reflected in the Loki streaming show. And though Sentry/Void is defeated again, this isn't the end of his association with Loki.

Years after his death and rebirth, Loki (now a young adult and once again engaging in some cosmic mischief with a bit more of an altruistic motive) tricks Doctor Strange into ceding the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to him in the story Doctor Strange: God of Magic, under the belief that he is better poised to take on an impending magical threat than Strange.

Things take a serious turn when Loki accidentally kills Strange's dog, Bats (don't worry, Loki later brings him back in his astral form), leading Strange to seek out The Sentry, who's in isolation after being separated from The Void. Sentry confronts Loki, who escalates the conflict by releasing The Void from its magical prison inside The Sanctum Sanctorum, inadvertently setting up the very threat that Loki was initially trying to fight.

In the end, Loki and Strange team up to defeat the magical threat that is bigger than both of them, and The Void is recaptured and imprisoned once again in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

The Void in the MCU

In the MCU, The Void is a place rather than a being. And while Loki does indeed have a history with The Void in the MCU, it's very different from their arch-enemy relationship in comics thanks to the change in what "The Void" actually is.

But that doesn't mean The Sentry's Void is off the table for the MCU. For one thing, Thunderbolts* could establish a connection between The Sentry and its version of The Void. It doesn't seem totally out of the question for a being of ultimate destruction to have a connection to a place where things go after they're destroyed.

There's also the chance that The Sentry's dark side will simply be rolled into his core being, with no transformation into "The Void" to speak of. And of course, there's also the possibility that The Sentry's villainous half will have a different name in the MCU.

Whatever the case, with The Sentry on the board in Thunderbolts*, it's hard to imagine The Void (or something like it) won't come into play in the story. 

We'll find out when Thunderbolts* releases in summer 2025.

The Sentry played mind games with comic fans, but Thunderbolts #1 is still the greatest trick Marvel Comics ever pulled.