Quasar #30
Calling All Lasers
The artificially created woman known as Her has decided to learn more about the world of her creation by tagging alongside Quasar, the guardian of the universe. Quasar, aka Wendell Vaughn, explains to Her that he isn’t Quasar 24 hours a day. To prove this, he takes Her to Vaughn Security Consultants, the security firm that he runs out of the Four Freedoms Plaza. Their sudden appearance scares away a prospective client, much to Wendell’s chagrin and he quickly departs. As he goes, his secretary Kayla Ballentine is jealous seeing her boss with another woman. Quasar instead decides to pass Her off on his friend, Makkari, so he can show her around the city.
Wendell then returns to his office in his civilan guise and apologizes to Kayla and Ken Tanaka for souring a deal with a potential client. He assures Kayla that there is nothing between him and Her before pulling Ken aside. Realizing that his role of guardian of the universe an an Avenger will take up a lot of his time, Wendell has decided to make Ken a full partner of the company so Ken can run things whenever he is absent. Ken is overjoyed by the decision. However, things take a weird turn when Holly Steckley shows up for work, an impossibility since H.D. Steckley was a disguised used by Moondragon.[1] However, when Wendell pulls on Holly’s hair, he discovers that she is not wearing a wig. They are surprised that this woman is the apparently real Steckley. Unsure how to handle this new revelation, Wendell asks to speak to Holly in his private office. However, when he walks in he discovers Uatu the Watcher waiting for him inside. He quickly makes an excuse so they can talk later, much to Holly’s annoyance.
Going back into his office, Wendell asks what the Watcher wants. Uatu says that there is something he needs help with and asks for Quasar to meet him on the moon. After giving his message, the Watcher then teleports away. Since this is probably something important, Wendell changes into Quasar and quantum jumps to the moon. Appearing in the Blue Area, recalling his previous time on the moon, he quickly finds the Watcher’s Citadel and goes inside.[2] Sure enough, the Watcher needs help from Quasar because of what happened last time he was on them moon. Uatu recounts how Quasar was chasing the Living Laser and, in order to evade capture, the Laser retreated into the view screen that the Watcher uses to view alternate realities.[3]
The Watcher explains that the Living Laser decided to stay in this alternate reality until he discovered his counterpart in that universe. He then used the multiversal viewing screen of that reality’s Watcher uses to return home. However, in doing so, he created a divergence. While the Living Laser did indeed return to his native reality, the divergent version found himself on yet another alternate reality.[4][5] He continues to try to return home but keeps getting lost deeper and deeper into the multiverse, and is upsetting the balance of things. This has caused issue with the Time-Keepers, the last living beings at the end of time who work to preserve the timestream to ensure that all time ends with them.[6] Seeing the damage being done, they sought out the Watcher and demanded that he correct the imbalance created.[7] However, Uatu is bound by the Watcher’s code of non-interference and cannot act directly.[8] As such, he has reached out to Quasar for help. Realizing he has no choice in the matter, as he is partially responsible, Quasar agrees to help. Uatu then instructs him to enter the multiversal screen and travel to different realities and hunt down each divergent Living Laser — currently seven in total — before they cause irreperable harm to the multiverse.
Plunging into the multiversal viewer, Quasar first appears in an alternate reality where Korvac won. Now a massive god-like entity sitting atop the Earth, he contemplates suicide by using the Ultimate Nullifier on himself. With an alien armada heading his way, Korvac is begged by this reality’s Watcher not to kill himself. Although Quasar finds all of this interesting, he has a more important task at hand. He quickly finds the divergent Living Laser trapped in this reality and absorbs him into the Quantum Bands before jumping off to another reality.[9]
In the next reality, Quasar witnesses as all of Earth’s super-humans — now cosmically powered — leave the Earth, and once again finds him wondering what’s going on before returning his focus on the job at hand. He quickly finds the divergent Living Laser here and absorbs him into the Quantum Bands. Quasar then jumps to various other realities: One where Captain Marvel is still alive, another where the Punisher is Sorcerer Supreme, a world where Phoenix destroys the Earth, and yet another where the Venom symbiote takes possession of Thor, and yet another one where Quasar’s counterpart battles the demon Set.
The next reality Quasar jumps into he finds that reality’s Watcher dead. Going out into space to search for the Laser, he suddenly witnesses Maelstrom and Thanos fighting over the fate of the universe. Quasar quickly realizes that this is an alternate reality that has diverged from recent events. It’s as he is making this realization that he is noticed by Maelstrom. Furious to see that Quasar is there, he fires a bolt of energy at the hero. Seeking to escape this attack, Quasar tries to escape into the Quantum Zone dimension but the bolt follows him there and strikes.
Recurring Characters
Quasar, Watcher, Kayla Ballentine, Her, Ken Tanaka, “Holly Steckley”, Living Laser,
Continuity Notes
H.D. Steckley was an false identity created by Moondragon back in Quasar #11. She created it to get close to Quasar, who she had come to view as her ideal candidate for a mate. She revealed the truth over the course of Quasar #21-25. This Holly Steckley is another impostor. As we’ll learn in Quasar #49-50, she is actually the Deviant known as Erishkigal. She took on the Steckley identity in order to try and steal Quasar’s Quantum Bands. Kind of silly that Wendell and his supporting cast fall for this trick twice, but whatever…
Quasar first went to the moon in pursuit of the Living Laser back in Quasar #6.
On the Watcher’s view screen here is an image of Captain Marvel fighting the Silver Surfer. This reality was first viewed in What If? (vol. 2) #14. In that reality, Captain Marvel did not die of cancer like his Earth-616 counterpart did in Marvel Graphic Novel #1. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3, it has been designated Reality-906.
The reality that the Living Laser of Earth-616 ended up in was Earth-105709, per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5. This reality was first seen in What If? (vol. 2) #9. It is a reality where the “New” X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, et al.) died on their mission against Kraoka. Uatu was viewing this reality in Quasar #6.
As Quasar points out, the Living Laser did eventually get back to the Prime Marvel Universe. Following his disappearance in Quasar #8, he popped back up again in Iron Man #258-261.
The Time-Keepers origins were first detailed Thor #282. Their end-of-the-universe timeline is designated Reality-794282, again in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5.
In the flashback where the Time-Keepers confront Uatu, his view screen is depicting the Juggernaut from Earth-905 (per Official Handbook A-Z #3) This reality was first seen in What If? (vol. 2) #13. In this reality, Charles Xavier becomes the Juggernaut instead of his step-brother Cain Marko, like what happened in X-Men #12.
The Watchers adopted a vow of non-interference after they shared advanced technology with the Procillians. The Procillians can’t have nice things and ended up annihilating themselves in a senseless war. See Tales of Suspense #53 and Original Sin #3.
This is Reality-82432 (per OHOTMU A-Z #5). First seen in What If? #32, in this reality Korvac won his battle against the Avengers. See the Korvac Saga in Avengers #167-168, 170-177.
This is Reality-89721, first seen in What If? (vol. 2) #1 (OHOTMU A-Z #5 again) is a world where the heroes of Earth lost the Evolutionary War. See X-Factor Annual #3, Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, New Mutants Annual #4, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Fantastic Four Annual #21, Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8, and Avengers Annual #17 for the Earth-616 version of events.
These quick jaunts are also previously seen realities. All reality numbers are referenced in the aforementioned handbook issues. They are:
The world where Captain Marvel was still alive is already referenced above in point #3
The world where the Punisher becomes Sorcerer Supreme happened in What If? (vol. 2) #24 and exists in Reality-9140. This diverges from a story where the X-Men fought Dracula circa X-Men #159.
The reality where Phoenix destroys the Earth (Reality-81727) was seen in What If? #27. This was adapted from the Dark Phoenix Saga originally chronicled in X-Men #129-137.
Reality-1089 is the reality where the Venom symbiote takes over Thor’s body. It was seen in What If? (vol. 2) #4. This diverges from the events of Amazing Spider-Man #258, where Spider-Man tries to remove the alien symbiote to prevent it from bonding with him.
The reality where Quasar fights Set is What If? (vol. 2) #25 and happens in Reality-9151. This is based on the Atlantis Attacks event which took place in Silver Surfer Annual #2, Iron Man Annual #10, Uncanny X-Men Annual #13, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23, Punisher Annual #2, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #9, Daredevil Annual #5, Avengers Annual #18, New Mutants Annual #5, X-Factor Annual #4, Web of Spider-Man Annual #5, West Coast Avengers Annual #4, Thor Annual #14, and Fantastic Four Annual #22.
The last reality, where Maelstrom and Thanos fight over supremacy of the universe was designated in Earth-92301. I had not been previously seen. It is a diverged from the Cosmos in Collision and Infinity War storylines seen in Quasar #19-25 and Infinity Gauntlet #1-6.
