Quasar #5 — Nick Peron

Mar 22

Mar 22 Quasar #5

1980s, Acts of Vengeance

The Absorption Principal

Hydrobase has been sunk, sending Avengers headquarters to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Quasar has been called in to assist Stingray in recovering equipment from the Mansion in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.[1] The pair are coordinated by Michael O’Brien, a member o the Avengers support crew. Quasar wishes they could do something to salvage Avengers Mansion itself and is sad to see it in this state.[2] When the job is done, Quasar heads back to his father’s home in Connecticut to get some much needed rest.

Later, in Las Vegas, Carl Creel — aka the Absorbing Man — has managed to pull himself out of the river near a dam and return to human form.[3] Although he wants to get revenge against the Hulk, Creel is approached by a mysterious man in a trench coat and fedora.[4] He suggests that the Absorbing Man go after new opponents he hasn’t faced before and get a few wins under his belt before trying to settle old scores. To assist him on this endeavor, the mysterious man uses his magic on Creel’s ball-and-chain, allowing him to travel great distances by throwing it and grabbing onto the end, much like Thor does with his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir.[5] The mystery man disappears, leaving Creel to hatch a new scheme.

By noon, Quasar has returned to New York and changes into a business suit stored in a hidden compartment in the alley near the office or Vaughn Security Consultants. Heading into the Four Freedoms Plaza, Wendell is told by his secretary, Kayla Ballentine, that they just got their first client. This company is International Data Integration and Control. Pleased by this news, Vaughn heads into his private office and calls the president of IDIC and makes an appointment to meet. He then checks in on Eon, who is hiding in a pocket dimension hidden behind Wendell’s bookshelf. He is surprised to see his father, who is appearing as an astral projection this time in order to continue collecting data about alien species in the known universe. Gilbert Vaughn is not overly interest in his son’s new job. After checking in to see that Eon doesn’t need anything, Wendell suddenly finds himself feeling jealous that Eon and his father are spending so much time together.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the Absorbing Man arrives at Adametco, a company that creates the neigh indestructible metal known as adamantium. He quickly subdues the security guards and orders one of him to point him to the factory’s supply of adamantium.

By this time, Wendell has arrived at IDIC to meet with its owner, Shintaro Kuramoto, to discuss beefing up the company’s security systems. Here, Vaughn is reunited with his old SHIELD biddy, Ken Tanaka, who quit the spy agency to work for IDIC and work his way up the corporate ladder. Kuramoto has Ken show Wendell on a tour of the facility saying they can meet and discuss security solutions later. As he is being shown around, Wendell’s hidden Quantum Bands begin to vibrate. Excusing himself to go to the washroom, Vaughn answers a distress call from Captain America asking him to confront the Absorbing Man. Making an excuse for his abrupt departure, Wendell heads into an alley to change into Quasar.

He finds the villain as he is leaving the factory and quickly subdues him in a sphere of quantum energy. Absorbing Man tries taking on the properties of the energy. When this doesn’t work, Absorbing Man tries his ace in the hole, a chunk of adamantium he stole from the factory. Taking the properties of the near indestructible metal allows Absorbing Man to break free from his energy prison. In the ensuing battle, the Absorbing Man manages to wrap his chain around the Quantum Bands, he discovers that they are incredible powerful and absorbs their properties instead. This causes Creel to grow in size and he decides to use his new found power to crush all his foes. Quasar tries to warn the Absorbing Man that the power of the Quantum Bands are hard to control and he could end up disintegrating himself.[6]

When Creel refuses to listen, Quasar realizes that he has no choice and — in order to save countless lives — he begins bombarding the Absorbing Man with more quantum energy than he can handle and he explodes, leaving only his ball and chain behind.[7] When Quasar returns to Captain America to tell him what happened. Although Quasar is upset that he was forced to kill the Absorbing Man, Cap assures him that the Absorbing Man survived much worse and will probably be back.

Recurring Characters

Quasar, Absorbing Man, Loki, Stingray, Michael O’Brien, Kayla Ballentine, Eon, Gilbert Vaughn, Ken Tanaka, Captain America, Shintaro Kuramoto

Continuity Notes

Hydrobase was sunk in Avengers #311.
Avengers Mansion was relocated from its original location in New York City to Hydrobase in Avengers #278. A new headquarters is constructed at the old city site in Avengers #329. That building will be replaced with an identical copy of the original mansion from an alternate reality in Avengers #375.
The Absorbing Man was previously defeated by the Hulk in Incredible Hulk #348.
This mystery man is revealed to be Loki in Avengers West Coast #55.
Here, the Absorbing Man vaguely recognizes Loki, hinting to his true identity. Absorbing Man got his powers from Loki, as seen in Journey into Mystery #114-115.
Those untrained in channeling the energies of the Quantum Bands found themselves disintigrated such as Thelius the Marvel Boy impostor (Fantastic Four #165) and test pilot William Westley in Quasar #1.
Although seemingly destroyed here, Absorbing Man is seen among the prisoners returned to the Vault in Avengers Spotlight #29. How he reconstituted himself is never fully explained, but the character has come back from worse before and after this story, so I’m not going to lose sleep over it and neither should you.

Topical References

The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and subsequently replaced by the Freedom Tower.