Games Deviants Play

Tired of feeling like a failure all the time, Quasar convinces the Vault to release the alien Blood Brothers into his custody so he can deport them from the planet. He dumps the twins off on Mars where he tries to fight them.[1] However, he quickly learns that this was a huge mistake as he is easily outmatched. Feeling even worse than before, Quasar retreats back to Earth, stranding the Blood Brothers on Mars.[2]

Quantum jumping back to Earth, Quasar heads to Avengers Compound on the west coast to check on Makkari, the Eternal he left in the care of the Avengers West Coast. There he meets with Wonder Man who tells him that Makkari took off after waking up.

Deciding to check on things back home, Quasar heads back to New York where he changes back into his civilian guise of Wendell Vaughn. At his security company he learns that H.D. Steckley is coming through on her promise to bring five new clients to the company in exchange for employment. She has already secured four companies and has one left to go.[3]

When Wendell checks on Eon in the pocket dimension hidden behind his bookshelf, he is not happy to see his father, Gilbert Vaughn is meeting with him again. Wendell pulls his father aside and finally tells Gilbert that he doesn’t like how he is always talking with Eon as it gives off the impression that they don’t approve of the job Wendell is doing as defender of the universe. Gilbert tries to explain to his son that’s not what is going on, but Wendell insists on his father backing off for a bit. Gilbert decides to honor his son’s request and pulls back his astral form. When Eon asks why Gilbert left so abruptly, Wendell cattily tells him that if he is is so omniscient to figure it out for himself and then departs.

Back in his office, Wendell wonders why he is so short tempered with people, and chalks it up to his poor showings against Doctor Minerva and Modred the Mystic.[4] Unable to focus on his work, Wendell tells Kayla to cancel all his appointments as he is taking the day off, leaving her and Ken Tanaka to wonder what’s up with their boss.

Changing back into Quasar, Wendell decides that he needs to be more proactive in identifying alien threats on Earth. To this end, he goes into space and uses his Quantum Bands to create an invisible grid around the Earth that will alert him whenever an alien presence tries to come to the planet. He hopes this will be enough to give him advance warning of the threat he has been charged with stopping. As Quasar returns to Earth, he picks up a tachyon trail that matches that of Makkari when he uses his super-speed. Following the trail, he finds the Eternal in a cave in the middle of the Himalayan mountains. Makkari thinks Quasar is a threat and tries to attack until Wendell is able to explain who he is and how he was the one who got Makkari medical help earlier.

He gets Makkari to explain why he was running across the ocean when he encountered him the day before. Makkari explains that he had recently sought the tutelage of a reclusive Eternal named Master Elo who taught him how to run at greater speeds and that he was testing out he enhanced powers at the time Quasar found him. After waking up in Avengers Compound, Makkari returned to Elo’s cave to tell him of his success only to find that he was missing. The only clue to his whereabouts was the letter D scratched into the dirt floor of the cave. Makkari believes that Master Elo was captured by the Eternal’s mortal enemies, the Deviants.[5]

Quasar offers to help Makkari rescue Master Elo and the pair travel to the Deviants undersea city of Lemuria. Once sneaking inside, Makkari races off to search for Elo at super-speed while Quasar conducts a search of his own. He disguises his appearance by using his cape like a cloak and soon arrives at the Deviant gladiatorial arena where a battle is taking place between the Deviants Ransak the Reject and Tutinax. Seeing Tutinax take the advantage and begin beating a defenseless Ransak, Quasar decides to intervene.

Watching from the stands is the Deviant’s leader, Warlord Kro, who decides to allow the battle to continue. During the ensuing battle, Tutinax uses his power to take on the appearance of Quasar’s father, catching him off guard. As Tutinax beats Quasar, his cloak is ripped away, leading the Deviants to believe that Wendell is an Eternal. Vaughn takes a serious beating until Ransak recovers and manages to ambush and defeat Tutinax.

At that same moment, in Connecticut, Gilbert Vaughn is hard at work typing out the notes he has taken from Eon when he is suddenly stricken by by some malady and collapses to the ground.[6]

Meanwhile, Makkari has found Master Elo and rescues him from his cell. He then pulls Quasar from the battle and the trio flee from Lemuria. Confused about his experience, Quasar contacts Eon to find out where his father is. Eon confirms that Gilbert is at his home, satisfying Wendell that what he saw was an illusion, he then cuts off Eon before he can tell him about his father’s suddenly collapse. Wendell then returns to his office where he sleeps for the night. When he wakes up the next morning H.D. Steckley has returned with a fifth client under her belt and has come looking for a job. Wendell is impressed and agrees to hire her and discuss her salary after he has had a moment to clean himself up.

Meanwhile, Eon checks on Gilbert Vaughn and discovers that Gilbert has been dead for over 12 hours. Deciding that this situation will not due, Eon decides to do something about it.[7]

Recurring Characters

Quasar, Makkari, Wonder Man, Kayla Ballentine, Ken Tanaka, “H.D. Steckley”, Gilbert Vaughn, Eon, Blood Brothers, Tutinax, Ransak the Reject, Warlord Kro, Willie Lumpkin

Continuity Notes

1. During the battle the Blood Brothers mention how they were abandoned on Earth by thier master, Thanos. This is because Thanos died in a battle with Captain Marvel. See Captain Marvel #25-33, Marvel Feature #12, and Avengers #125. Little do they know that Thanos had just recently been resurrected at the time of this story, as seen in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #34.

2. Although they are stranded on Mars, the Blood Brothers end up back on Earth again in Maximum Security #1.

3. It’s later revealed that H.D. Steckley is actually Heather Douglas, aka Moondragon, in disguise. She is trying to get close to Quasar in order to form a romantic relationship with him as she views him as the perfect mate. This is all revealed over the course of Quasar #21-25.

4. Quasar fought Doctor Minerva and Modred the Mystic in Quasar #10 and 11 respectively.

5. Here, Makkari states that the Eternals and Deviants are sub-species of humanity. They were created centuries earlier by the Celestials as explained in Eternals #1.

6. Gilbert Vaughn suffered a deadly stroke. We’ll learn that it was caused by Maelstrom who is the galactic threat that Quasar has been charged with stopping. The truth will be revealed in Quasar #24.

7. As we’ll discover in Quasar #14, Eon ends up using his power to re-animate Gilbert’s corpse. Quasar will remain oblivious to this due to his strained relationship with his father until he learns the truth in issue #20.