Journey into Mystery Part Three: Death Watch

Quasar, Hyperion, and Makkari have come to the Stranger’s home world to find the missing members of the Squadron Supreme. Splitting up, the trio have found themselves searching through the various habitats created for the various subjects he has kidnapped. Quasar almost finds himself a snack for Ego-Prime, but manages to smash his way out of through the giant’s teeth. The escape punches a hole through the protective barrier keeping Ego-Prime in, and the entity uses it to make his escape. While watching Ego-Prime leave, Quasar is almost attacked by the living island of Krakoa. Getting to safety, he observes others making their escape such as Rocket Raccoon, Alpha the Ultimate Mutant, Jack of Hearts, and the Ethicals. Since his primary concern is the Squadron Supreme, he decides to let them go and looking for his comrades. Elsewhere on the planet, Makkari has been defeated by the energy being known as the Trikon, while Hyperion is fending off an attack from the Power Platoon.[1]

Meanwhile, at the Stranger’s fortress, the Overmind is furious that nobody has been able to destroy the intruders. He decides to deal with them directly and orders the enslaved members of the Squadron Supreme to do something to lure them to their location. Doctor Spectrum has a solution and begins using his powers to create massive arrows pointing the way. Spotting these, Quasar follows them to their location. When Overmind tries to use his mental powers against the hero, he discovers that Quasar has made himself immune to telepathic attack.[2] Since he only wants to get revenge against the Stranger, Overmind orders Quasar to summon his foe back to his home world, threatening to mentall kill the Squaron Supreme if he does not comply. Not wanting to see his friends perish, Quasar complies and after getting the Stranger’s co-ordinates from Eon, makes a quantum jump to find him.

Quasar appears on the Stranger’s ship and after fighting through its defenses, he find the Stranger has collected the dead bodies of seven Watchers. This comes as a shock to the hero and confronts the Stranger about the deaths. The cosmic being explains that the Watchers have been dying of some strange malady, something that he is more interested in investigating than dealing with the situation back on his home world. When Quasar offers his assistance, the Stranger turns him away, saying he needs no help.

Not wanting to give up, Wendell decides to find the next closest living Watchers and find out what’s going on. With Eon’s help, he teleports to a location where two Watchers — Ualu and Otmu — are meeting. They do not take kindly to an intruder appearing before them and Otmu tries to use his mental powers to teleport Quasar away. Teleporting back, Wendell demands to know what’s killing the Watchers. Otmu then responds with physical violence, hitting Quasar so hard he is knocked out of the citadel. Racing back inside, he then has to face Otmu in his energy form. Luckily, the Quasar’s Quantum Bands are able to lock onto the energy and force Otmu to return to his physical form. As Otmu surrenders, the Stranger arrives on the scene and demands to know what’s going on. Explaining that he was defending himself, Quasar and the Stranger work together to stop the rogue Watcher. Suddenly, Otmu renounces his station as a Watcher and suddenly drops dead.

Ualu explains to the two intruders that Otmu’s committed suicide, just like the other Watchers found by the Stranger. He explains that this wave of suicides had begun when Otmu has been presenting his fellow Watchers with a philosophical idea regarding their vow of non-interference, saying that even the mere act of watching affects the civilizations that they observe.[3] Caught in the moral implication presented by this idea, some 10 billion Watchers have already committed suicide as a result. With the mystery now solved, Quasar convinces the Stranger to return to his home world.[4] Once they arrive — via a quantum jump — they mentally attacked by the Overmind, who looks forward to finally destroying his mortal enemy.

While back on Earth, at Vaughn Security Consultants, Kayla Ballentine is still upset that their new employee H.D. Steckley has locked herself in Wendell’s office.[5] Little do they know that Steckley isn’t in there to get her work done, but because she knows that Eon is hiding in a pocket dimension hidden behind Vaughn’s bookshelf. When the coast is clear she pushes the bookshelf aside and announces to Eon that he now has a visitor.

Recurring Characters

Quasar, Squadron Supreme (Hyperion, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, Whizzer, Skylark, Moonglow, Shape, Haywire), Makkari, Stranger, Otmu, Ualu, Kayla Ballentine, Ken Tanaka, “H.D. Steckley”, Overmind, Ego Prime, Krakoa, Rocket Raccoon, Futurist, Alpha the Ultimate Mutant, Jack of Hearts, Ethicals, Power Platoon, Trikon

Continuity Notes

1. The various entities encountered by Quasar here include:

   • Ego-Prime was grown out of material taken from Ego the Living Planet. TL;DR version, it was all part of some huge scheme by Odin to create the New Gods. When last seen, Ego-Prime’s energies were stolen to create said gods and appeared to vanish. Check out Thor #199-204 and 300 for all the details. As of this writing (March 2022), the fate of Ego-Prime following his escape has yet to be revealed.

   • Karoka the Island that Walks Like a Man was the catalyst for the formation of a new team of X-Men, as seen in Giant-Size X-Men #1. That story ended with Krakoa being shot into space. The creature was not totally expunged from Earth, a spore released by Kraoka came to life in Excalibur #31, a portion of the creature was used to create the “Danger Grotto” in Generation X #1, a portion of the creature remained in space as seen in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6, a second spore came to life in Young X-Men #7. The primary bio-mass of Krakoa became the homeland to the mutant race on Earth after escaping the Stranger starting in House of X #1. This was explained in the Krakoa profile in the X of Swords Handbook #1.

   • Rocket Raccoon: The future Guardians of the Galaxy mainstay is seen here following his appearances in Rocket Raccoon #1-4 and Incredible Hulk #271-272. He will appear next in Sensational She-Hulk #44-46.

   • Alpha the Ultimate Mutant was created by Magneto in one of his many quests to conquer humanity. However, Alpha evolved beyond being a simple slave and used his power to defeat Magneto and then find his destiny in the stars. See Defenders #15-16. As of this writing, Alpha has not been seen since.

   • The similarly powered Futurist was a scientist who managed to hyper-evolve himself. After a fight with the Fantastic Four he decided to find his own destiny among the stars. hyper-intelligent beings aren’t very original is what I’m saying. See Fantastic Four #215-216. Just like Alpha, the Futurist hasn’t been seen since, as of this writing.

   • Jack of Hearts: Is probably one of the more prolific prisoners seen in this story. He was last seen in Jack of Hearts #1-4. He will turn up again in Quasar #19.

   • The Ethicals were first seen in Machine Man #12. This would be their last appearance to date, as of this writing.

   • This is the Trikon, a powerful energy being that once threatened the Inhumans. See Amazing Adventures (vol. 2) #9-10 and Inhumans Special #1. It also won’t be seen after this story.

   • The Power Platoon are missing Dekkamite soldiers who got their powers from Earth’s sun. Who they are and where they came from was detailed in Quasar #4. They will escape following this issue and turn up again in Avengers West Coast #96-97.

2. Quasar made himself immune to telepathic attacks after his encounter with MODAM in Quasar #9. Overmind mentions how he tried to mentally control him earlier, that was in issue #13.

3. The Watchers had taken on a vow of non-interference because the one time they did — offering nuclear technology to the Procillians — lead to an entire alien race wiping themselves out. See Tales of Suspense #53 and Original Sin #0.

4. They didn’t entirely solve the mystery behind the Watcher’s suicides. In Quasar #22 it is revealed that this germ of an idea was implanted into their minds by Maelstrom, the cosmic threat that Quasar is supposed to stop. He had done so to prevent the Watchers from observing his scheme to collapse the entire universe and potentially warn someone who could stop him.

5. The truth about H.D. Steckley is that she is actually Heather Douglas, aka Moondragon, in disguise. She is posing as Steckley in order to try and forge a romantic relationship with Quasar, whom she views as the ideal mate. Her pseudonym derives from her initials and her mother’s maiden name. This is all revealed over the course of Quasar #21-25.