Quasar #2
Destiny Amidst the Ruins
Quasar is heading to Uranus to learn the secrets of the light bands that are bonded to his wrists. Even under his own power, the trip has taken years of travel.[1] In order to survive the trip, Wendell has been kept in a sedated state and kept alive thanks to as sophisticated life support system. As he nears the distant world his mind drifts back to his past exploits….
He recounts how he enlisted at the spy agency known as SHIELD and passed training despite his lack of a killer instinct. This led to him on a security detail for his father’s scientific examination of the power bands. When the facility was attacked by Advance Idea Mechanics, Wendell put on the bands and was able to control them, something nobody had been able to do previously without ultimately getting disintegrated.[2]
From there, Wendell — as the new Marvel Boy — was brought onto SHIELD’s new Super-Agents team. However, its ranks were infiltrated by the criminal Corporation. Eventually, Wendell took down the Corporation with the help of Captain America and the Hulk, but the Super-Agents were disbanded as a result.[3] From there, Wendell got a job as head of security for Project PEGASUS as Quasar and defended it from various threats, even averting its destruction at the hands of the Nth Man. However, he failed to prevent the facility from falling under the control of the demonic Serpent Crown. Although everyone was eventually saved, Quasar resigned from his post as he blamed himself for what happened.[4]
Wendell returned to live with his mother and went through a deep depression. That was until his father, Gilbert Vaughn, convinced his son to travel to Uranus to learn more about the mysterious race that helped create his light bands and hopefully unlock their remaining secrets.
After four years travel, he finally begins waking up and re-established contact with Earth to keep his father up to date with his observations. While Gilbert and his ex-wife Lisa are receiving their son’s transmission, there is a lag of several hours to send and receive transmission due to the distance from Earth. Gilbert warns his son that he only has five days to explore before he has to head back home, otherwise he will not have enough oxygen and nutrients to survive the trip back.
Piercing the atmosphere, Quasar finds a highly advanced city in ruins and discovers that the inhabitants are all dead, frozen to death when their protective dome was shattered and they were exposed to the planet’s hostile atmosphere.[5] He also finds records that this society was visited by a Kree Sentry at some point in its past, but Wendell can find no context as to why and how this is important to the people of this world.[6] No matter how much he looks around, Quasar cannot find any of the answers he seeks. Between this, the isolation, and the lag between communication with his father, Wendell can’t help but laugh over how pointless this all was. He then begins wondering what the point of everything is.
Wendell’s deepening depression has attracted the attention of Deathurge, who tells the young hero that he has come to end his life. He decides to give Quasar the questions he seeks. He explains how the Uranian Eternals were immortal but soon grew tired of their existence. In order to try and regain mortality and finally die, in the 1930s they contacted Earth scientist Horace Grabsheid and taught him how to build a rocket that would transport him and his son, Richard Grayson, to Uranus. Grayson was molded in Marvel Boy, a hero that fought crime on Earth using the bands that Quasar now wears. However, the Eternals did not unlock the secrets of mortality, and gave into despair. Answering the call, Deathurge came to the Eternals and slaughtered them all. According to him, they all gave up their lives willingly as this is what they all wanted.[7] This all happened while Quasar’s predecessor, Marvel Boy, had returned to Earth seeking a cure for his father’s illness. When he returned he found everyone dead and returned to Earth to get his revenge, which led to his battle with the Fantastic Four and his being disintigrated when the power of his bands overloaded.[8]
Deathurge now senses Quasar’s deep depression and explains that he has come to end his life as well. However, Wendell doesn’t actually want to die and fights back against his would-be killer. Unfortuantely, Deathurge’s body is able to absorb the energies of his bands, leading to a chase across the planet. Despite his best efforts, Quasar is struck with an arrow of dark matter and is quickly absorbed. However, rather than dying, Quasar is teleported away.
The hero finds himself in a strange other-worldly dimension where he is greeted by Eon, an impossibly old cosmic entity. It explains that Wendell has been chosen to be the next protector of the universe the most recent in a long line and that his bracelets — actually Quantum Bands — have been passed down to each successive protector when they were chosen. Eon explains that the last protector was the Kree hero Captain Marvel. Under Eon’s guidance, Mar-Vell was able to save the universe from the threat of Thanos.[9] Unfortunately, in recent times, Mar-Vell died of cancer, necessitating a new guardian to be selected,[10] as a new threat is now coming.[11] When Quasar asks if Marvel Boy was a chosen protector, Eon explains that Richard Grayson was not and had usurped the Quantum Bands, preventing them from being passed down to Mar-Vell due to happenstance. With this explanation out of the way, Eon once again reiterates that Wendell has been chosen to be the next guardian, a role that he accepts. Eon then charges Wendell with cosmic energy, giving him a new costume and unlocking the secrets of the Quantum Bands.
Whendell is then returned to Uranus, where he uses his new powers to defeat Deathurge. Surprised at this resistance, the death-bringer vows that when he returns he will kill Quasar once-and-for-all. With the immediate battle over, Quasar then agrees to transport Eon back to Earth to keep him safe from the coming threat. In order to get back as quickly as possible, Wendell is shown how to make a quantum jump, cutting down his travel time to just seconds. As they arrive in Earth’s atmosphere, Quasar jokingly says can’t wait to tell his father who he’s bringing home to dinner.
Recurring Characters
Quasar, Eon, Deathurge, Gilbert Vaughn, Lisa Vaughn, (in flashback)
Continuity Notes
This story states that Quasar has been on this trip for 4 years. Per his chronology these events take place following his appearance in Marvel Team-Up Annual #5 and Avengers #302. This measurement of time does not add up with the Sliding Timescale. See below for more details.
This was all detailed last issue. The gloss over that these were the same bands worn by the 1950s hero known as Marvel Boy. See Marvel Boy #1-2, Astonishing #3-6, Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1-3, and Agents of Atlas #1-6.
Quasar’s time on the Super-Agents and their infiltration by the Corporation was chronicled in Captain America #217-218, 228-231 and Incredible Hulk #232-233.
Quasar’s time at Project PEGASUS was chronicled in Marvel Two-In-One #53-58, 67, 73-74, 81, Dazzler #9-10, and Marvel Team-Up Annual #5.
The Uranian Eternals were wiped out by the native inhabitants of that world. As detailed in Agents of Atlas #3 and Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1-3, the Eternals made a pact with the indigenous population that allowed them to live on the planet as long as they remained in their domed city. However, as the Eternals attempted to re-establish ties to Earth (more on that below) the Uranians found this in violation of their pact and wiped them all out. This is in contradiction to Deathurge’s claim that he killed the Eternals. See below.
As detailed in What If? #23-28, the Eternals of Earth were involved in a civil war that saw a great division of their people and opposing factions going into exile in space. One such group ended up on Uranus where they discovered a Kree colony and defeated the Sentry robot left to guard it. Here, Quasar recalls how the Fantastic Four once fought such a robot. That was back in Fantastic Four #64.
Deathurge’s claims that he killed the Eternals appears to be at odds with later stories that state that the Eternals were wiped out by the Uranians. However, the Deathurge profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #2 explains that the Eternals slain by Deathurge were ones that survived the Uranian genocide.
Marvel Boy was believed to have died in Fantastic Four #164-165. It’s later revealed in Agents of Atlas #3 and Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1-3 that this was not Robert Grayson but an Eternal named Thelius that was slated to take his place. The memory implants was imperfect, driving him mad and leading to his battle with the FF.
Captain Marvel fought Thanos in Captain Marvel #25-33 and Avengers #125.
Captain Marvel was exposed to carcinogens back in Captain Marvel #34. This developed into full-blown cancer, leading to his demise in Marvel Graphic Novel #1.
This threat to the universe is later revealed to be Maelstrom, as detailed in Quasar #19-25.
Quasar’s Time in Space
The narrative of this story states that Quasar’s trip from Earth to Uranus took 4 years. As stated above, this trip takes place between his appearances in Marvel Team-Up Annual #5 (published in 1982) and Avengers #302 (published in 1988). Comparing this to the Sliding Timescale, it suggests that only about a year would have passed in-between those two stories. Where this becomes hard to reconcile is the fact that Quasar was equipped for an extended trip through space wherein he needed to be sustained by life support and kept in a comatose state through the entire trip.
Based on Gruenwald’s narration, he states that this trip took four years. Two years less than the number of years between publications. His measurement certainly compresses time in-universe, but not to the 4:1 ratio of the Sliding Timescale.
It could be a simple matter of just chalking this up as a topical reference and leaving it at that, but I always like to put a bit more thought into my theories.
I would like to think that Gruenwald’s assessment of time is accurate, from the perspective of Quasar and Quasar alone. For him the trip took several years based on the principals of time dilation theory and space travel. He wasn’t traveling very fast because he hadn’t unlocked the full potential of his Quantum Bands (which allowed him to travel at faster speeds or open warp gates between two points in space). As such, he was susceptible to time dilatation. So while only about a year passed on Earth, the trip for Quasar took much longer.
