Why Sentry was weakened during the World War Hulk arc and why it ended on a stalemate :
By RealityWarper 181 Comments
So I debated with some users on comicvine about the battle between The Hulk and The Sentry and here is my point of view :
My accuser :
"You seem to be ignoring that the very scans you used points out that Sentrys aura weakens Hulk. Sentry wasn't weakened in the slightest, but you've done a good job of showing that Hulk was massively weakened. And holding back no less, something Sentry wasn't doing in that fight. Kind of puts into perspective how far above Sentry Hulk is without context."
My answer about this :
Sentry's aura calms Hulk in the scans I posted.
It's not the case in WWH, even Reed Richards synthetize the Sentry's Aura and it don't work at all because Hulk is extremly angry.
Sentry was utterly weakened in WWH, he spends 29 hours with agoraphobic issues in his home and moved only because he had no other choice, and wanted Hulk to stops him because he lost control of his powers.
And Hulk wasn't holding back against him.
LET'S ANSWER TO THIS
A question that is always been asked,was Sentry weakened during WWH?
Here is the answer:
Sentry's aura is known that it can calm the Hulk
It's not the case in WWH, even Reed Richards synthetize the Sentry's Aura and it don't work at all because Hulk is extremly angry.
Sentry was utterly weakened in WWH, he spends 29 hours with agoraphobic issues in his home and moved only because he had no other choice, and wanted Hulk to stops him because he lost control of his powers.
And Hulk wasn't holding back against him.
Reed try to use the energy of Sentry's aura to calm Hulk :
"Reed synthetized your energies, tried to calm the Hulk down but it don't work."
>>>>>>> That means that in the fight of The Sentry Vs WWH the calming aura of The Sentry wasn't effective, it's impossible to calm down WWH.
Sentry is stuck at home with agoraphobic issues so they try motivates him to come :
"We need the real you. The Hero."
>>>>>> But at this state he don't moves.
HULK is at his Strongest during WWH :
Taking the Dr Strange's own words :
Dr Strange : "He's never been angrier so he's never been stronger."
THE REASON WHY HULK FIGHT AT FULL POWER AGAINST THE SENTRY :
During the arc Amadeus Cho point the fact that Hulk's mind calculate subconsciously the exact amount of force he needs to avoid killing innocent people : That means regular people like you and me,
Hulk don't have to hold back against nigh-invulnerable and immortal people like The Sentry :
Amadeus Cho :
"I've figured out how your brain works. You're like me. You can see everything. The mathematics of every object around you. As long as your brain hasn't been tampered with. There's part of you that's always running the numbers. You know where the innocent are and how to save them."
So that confirms what I said : WWH don't have to hold back against Sentry : He is considered totally invulnerable by Iron Man.
SCANNING FOR PHYSIOLOGICAL DEFECTS... NONE DETECTED...
THE SENTRY POWERS ARE DEPENDENT UPON HIS MENTAL STATE :
The power of The Sentry is linked to his mental state, according to the Handbooks and confirmed by the feats in the comics :
[...] and dependent upon his mental state. [...] however, if his mental state wavers, he becomes weaker and easier to defeat.
THE SENTRY POWERS ARE SEVERLY WEAKENED DURING THE WHOLE WWH ARC ( AND I PROVE IT! ) :
During the whole WWH, The Sentry has to deal with his agoraphobic issues, he stay stuck at home the whole time because he can't move by himself.
He will need the help of Tony Stark and to have his friends endangered to take the decision to move, and even with this his is reluctant to fight with The Hulk, who's a long time friend and therefore, he is scared of his own powers.
So three things weakens him :
1) Agoraphobic issues.
2) Fighting an old friend.
3) To lose control of his powers because it could destroy everything.
Request :
Reed Richards and Tony Stark comes to help The Sentry and to use him against The Hulk :
Robert Reynolds : "I stopped that hurricane in Bogota, just like you asked Reed."
Tony Stark : "Well done Roberts, that's the graduated exposure therapy getting you used to being out in the World."
Robert : "So what's next ? An earthquake ? A volcano ?"
Tony : "Close. It's the Hulk."
[...]
Robert Reynolds : "The Hulk's my friend."
[...]
Then he explains that the Void broken all the bones in Hulk's body and that Robert discovered that he's the Void.
Reed and Tony remembers him that he defeated The Void as being The Sentry and The Hulk needs him.
Then he changes into The Sentry's shape and say that he is ready.
That clearly shows that Robert Reynolds is unstable since the beginning of the story and needs some psychological support from Reed and Tony : HE IS IN AN UNSTABLE MENTAL STATE.
1) AGORAPHOBIA :
That's confirmed several times in the following scans :
"HE'S AN AGORAPHOBIC SCHIZOPHRENIC WHO'S SPENT THE PAST TWENTY-NINE HOURS STANDING IN HIS DOORWAY !"
<<<<<<<<<<< He is so scared that he can't move.
Weakened ? Definitively !
Tony : "What are you scared of Robert ?"
Sentry : "It's the agoraphobia. Some days it's... I can't... I'm sorry Tony. You'll have to handle this one yourselves."
2) SCARED BY HIS OWN POWERS :
As I said, he is scared by his own powers :
Key quotes :
Iron Man : " [...] Without you we'll loose. [...] He's never been so angry."
The Sentry : "... Against an opponent so powerful...The amount of energy I'd have to expend... If I lost control, for even a millisecond..."
Tony : "You have the responsability, whether you cant it or not. [...]"
The Sentry is under pressure and clearly fear to kill everybody if he lost control of his powers fighting the Hulk : The side effect is that weakens him even more.
He is weakened by his general anxiety disorder.
3) FIGHTING THE HULK. WHY HE HAD NO CHOICE BESIDES BEING RELUCTANT TO DO IT :
The Hulk capture his friends and put them in the Arena, after a fight Reed have to kill his opponent because Hulk, as the master of the Arena, put the thumbs down :
Seeing that, Robert has no other choice than going to fight The Hulk.
THE FIGHT : AN EXTREMELY WEAKENED SENTRY STALEMATING THE HULK :
So after that The Sentry rushes The Hulk :
The Hulk is clearly not holding back, he replicates to The Sentry at full power in the face :
As I explained above The Sentry is weakened so he begins to lose control of his powers and beg The Hulk to stop him :
Sentry his busting out his powers, he never unleashed them like this before : he is scared so he loose control, thing that he wanted to avoid.
Reed : "But... He's an agoraphobic schizophrenic, TERRIFIED of his own power..."
Miek : "Waht are you worried about Rick Jones ? He can't kill The Hulk."
Rick : "No. Just everything ELSE on the planet."
Then Reed and Tony speaks about stopping The Sentry with the satellites. Hulk disagree, said that the machines can't stop Bob and jump on him to continue the fight : He is angry and will do everything to stops him or The Sentry will kill all life on Earth.
The threat is very clear :
Or Hulk takedown Sentry or EVERYBODY DIES.
Then Hulk hit Sentry at full force for the rest of the fight.
BOB : "ALL THESE YEARS I TRIED TO CALM YOU DOWN AND NOW IN THE END OF IT ALL IT'S ME..."
"WHO CAN'T SEEM TO STOP. GOOD BYE OLD FRIEND."
Sentry has lost control his powers, is severely weakened and think that the energy burst will kill everybody.
THE HULK :
"STUPID. THEY CAN CALL YOU WATHEVER THEY WANT. SAVIOR. DESTROYER. ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHAT YOU CHOOSE."
Hulk try to convince him while fighting but it don't works and they continue to hit each others.
They continue to hit each others while reverting back to their humans forms.
Holding back ? If Hulk had held back he would have choose to block The Sentry's attacks and to subdue him or calm him down.
He clearly try to stops him via brute force and The Sentry is invulnerable so that's clear that he don't hold back.
BOB : "BRUCE. THANKS..."
BOB thanks Bruce and falls inconscious.
CONCLUSION :
The Sentry stalemated Banner in this fight :
They both reverted to their human forms and The Sentry was clearly weakened the whole arc contrary to The Hulk who was fueled by anger, the main characters reminds us everytime that The Hulk has never been so strong and that The Sentry is weakened by several mental issues : his agoraphobia that makes him unable to act, his Generalized Anxiety Disorder that makes him loose control of his powers, his fear to loose control of his powers and is reluctant to fight his friend The Hulk.
My opinion :
If Sentry was stable minded he would have been far more powerful and durable, I guess that only Banner would have reverted to his human form so it should have been a one-sided fight.
According to the fact that the purpose of the story is to enlight the current power of The Hulk, the writer would have been very inaccurate to use The Sentry this way.
Nuff said.
~RealityWarper.
Greetings to @sophia89 for correcting the spoiler block issues and improving my post, thanks to Enzeru for the precision about the general anxiety disorder of the Sentry.
FINAL POINT WITH THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
"[...] But the mentally unstable Sentry, fearing to loose control of himself while unleashing power sufficient to subdue the Hulk, found himself payhologically unable to leave his house."
That first point shows what I proved above : The Sentry was unstable so in other terms he was weakened. He never displayed so much mental issues in other books so we can understand that he was far more weakened than he has ever been in other comics.
The first paragraph, enlighted in red proves that the Hulk directed his assault to protect innocent so not the Heroes that he considered guilty. That renforce the points I made about Wolverine and The Sentry. Hulk wasn't holding back against them.
The second paragraph shows that The Sentry act because he realized his responsability, not because he overcame his mental issues. He moved while weakened by his Generalyzed Anxiety Disorder.
The last paragraph definitely proves that Hulk wasn't holding back in the final fight :
"Hulk and Sentry unleashed their full power against each other, the energies ultimately forcing BOTH WARRIORS back into their powerless Banner and Reynolds forms."
So like I said : Sentry and Hulk releases all their energies at this point.
As we saw during his fight against Genis-Vell, The Sentry released energies strong enough to shred Worlds aparts while he was holding back, and he was mentally stable.
ALL OF THIS PROVE MY POINTS AND MAKE THEM MORE THAN STATEMENTS BUT FAIR READINGS.
THANKS ! :D

And confirmed by the editor. A big thanks.