Quasar #6 — Nick Peron

Mar 22

Mar 22 Quasar #6

1990s, Acts of Vengeance

Flies in a Cathedral

Quasar is on a mission to investigate every alien entity living on Earth to determine if any of them are a threat to the universe, as per his mission as Eon’s protector of the universe. To this end, he has tracked down Venom, who has just recently broken out of the Vault prison.[1] Although augmented by an alien symbiote that can fire webbing, Venom is quickly subdued by Quasar’s Quantum Band energies and turned back over to the Vault. He leaves the villain in the care of the Guardsmen and heads back to New York.

Quasar soon arrives at the Four Freedoms Plaza where he changes into his civilian guise of Wendell Vaughn and heads to the office where he runs his security consultation firm. He meets with his secretary, Kayla Ballentine, and tells her that he is going to be working in his private office all day and not to be disturbed. As he is going over plans for his first customer, Wendell is visited by Eon from his pocket dimension hidden behind Vaughn’s bookshelf. Wendell apologizes for being busy with Avengers related duties, but the cosmic entity assures him that the cosmic threat has not surfaced yet.[2] As he settles down for work again, Wendell gets a call from Peggy Carter, part of the Avengers support crew, who tells him that Klaw — another Vault escapee — is on a rampage and none of the other Avengers are available.[3] At first, Vaughn turns down the request for aid since he is work is so backed up. However, he changes his mind and changes into Quasar.

The hero soon arrives in St. Louis, Missouri, where Klaw is attacking the Wakanda Exports Company. Klaw tries to defeat Quasar with his solid sound constructs. However, Quasar quickly defeats his foe by trapping him in an air tight dome. Since sound cannot exist in a vacuum, Klaw is shunted into his sound-horn. As he transports Klaw back to the Vault, he is ambushed by the Living Laser.[4] During the attack, Klaw is freed but Quasar is too busy dealing with the Laser. The battle is a difficult one because the Living Laser is literally comprised of laser energy. Eventually, Wendell taps into the Laser’s energy signal and attempts to disincorporate him. In a panic, the villain takes off into space to try and get away.

Quasar is able to track him to the moon and while searching the fabled Blue Area, he two alien cities: One very new and the other very old.[5] As Quasar searches for his quarry, the Living Laser tries to evade capture by retreating into the Watcher’s citadel. Uatu, however, is too busy observing an alternate reality to notice that his home is being invaded.[6] As it happens, the Red Ghost has also come to the Watcher’s home in order to steal some of the powerful alien technology that is being kept there.

Soon, Quasar comes upon the Watcher’s home and asks Eon for information on the strange construct. He learns about the Watchers, their mission, and their oath of non-interference.[7] When nobody answers his knocks, Quasar goes inside and look for the Living Laser anyway. He finds the villain and after a chase, the Laser flees into the screen that the Watcher uses to observe alternate realities.[8] When Quasar tries to explain his presence to the Watcher, Uatu uses his vast mental powers to teleport the human back outside. There, Quasar is ambushed by the Red Ghost, who was also detected and kicked out of the Watcher’s citadel.

In the ensuing battle, the Red Ghost tries to suffocate Quasar by making his body intangible so his protective aura is rendered useless.[9] However, Quasar is only playing possum and when Red Ghost gets close enough, he is able to use his Quantum Bands to knock him out with a barrage of energy fist constructs. Quasar then takes the Red Ghost back to Earth, intending to dump him off in Russia where he will hopefully not cause any more trouble.

Recurring Characters

Quasar, Watcher, Red Ghost, Living Laser, Venom, Kayla Ballentine, Eon, Peggy Carter

Continuity Notes

Venom was one of the many super-villains that escaped during a breakout at the Vault that happened in Avengers Spotlight #26.
Quasar has been busy dealing with the fallout from the Acts of Vengeance conspiracy. See Avengers #311.
Peggy specifically states that both Thor and She-Hulk are unavailable. At the time of this story Thor was busy battling the Juggernaut in Thor #411-412 and She-Hulk is busy with Damage Control, as seen in Damage Control (vol. 2) #2-3.
Quasar states here that the Laser is an old Avengers foe. He first appeared in Avengers #34-35. A footnote here reminds readers that the Laser was last seen in Iron Man #211.
The first city he encounters is the home of the Inhumans which was moved to the Blue Area in Fantastic Four #240. The other is an ancient Kree city that was built as part of challenge issued by the Skrulls as seen in Avengers #133. The Blue Area was first discovered by the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #13.
The alternate world being observed by the Watcher is one where the “New” X-Men (Storm, Wolverine, et al.) were killed on their first mission circa Giant-Size X-Men #1. This alternate reality was explored in What If? (vol. 2) #9.
The Watchers took on their oath of non-interference after they shared nuclear technology with the Prosilicans, who then proceeded to wipe themselves out. See Tales of Suspense #53 and Original Sin #0.
The Living Laser’s escape will cause some problems across the multiverse that Quasar will have to fix, as seen in Quasar #30.
Here, Quasar recounts how the Red Ghost got his powers by being exposed to cosmic rays. That also happened in Fantastic Four #13.