Quasar #60
The Long Goodbye
With his girlfriend Kayla Ballentine trapped on an alternate Earth forever, Quasar was given the opportunity to join her. However, this would have forced him to give up being protector of the universe, something that he was surprisingly unwilling to do. Having no choice but to give Kayla up, Quasar leaves a goodbye message in the sky for her to read before heading home for his own Earth.[1][2]
On his way back home, Quasar comes to the conclusion that he has not been an effective guardian of the universe because he continues to live on Earth. Deciding that he would do a better job living among the stars, he decides to wrap up his loose ends on Earth and say goodbye.
His first stop is to his family home in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he is happy to see that his mother has been released from the hospital and is at home making dinner with his sister, Gayle.[3] After a happy reunion, Wendell tells his mother and sister that he is leaving Earth to focus on being a protector of the universe. He then leaves them with a beacon made out of quantum energy that they can use to call on him whenever they want. After a tearful goodbye, Quasar leaves to say goodbye to the rest of his friends.
Meanwhile, in the quarantine zone within Khysstm, Russia, Darkstar has delivered the dead body of her brother Vanguard to her father, the Presence.[4] Darkstar explains how Vanguard died fighting alongside Quasar. This angers the Presence, who had previously been stranded in the Quantum Zone for some time because of Quasar.[5] When he suggests that he and Darkstar kill the hero to avenge their fallen family member, Darkstar agrees to this twisted plan as she blames Quasar for the death of her brother.
By this time, Quasar has arrived at the Four Freedoms Palaza where he pays a visit to his former company Vaughn-Tanaka Security Consultants at the Four Freedoms Plaza. There he says goodbye to his good friend and business partner Ken Tanaka, giving him full control of the company while he is gone. He then goes up to the Fantastic Four’s headquarters to say his farewells to his old friend, the Thing.[6] Only the Human Torch is present and he tells Quasar that Ben Grimm is off out. Unable to wait for his return, Quasar has the Torch pass along his goodbye instead. Unaware that he is now being followed by the Presence and Darkstar, Quasar next uses his Avengers ID to try and get in touch with Captain America. The Star-Spangled Avenger is not at Avengers Headquarters but the Black Widow patches Quasar in with Cap while he is on the road. Quasar thanks Cap for being a source of inspiration.[7]
After the call, Quasar has a chance encounter with Spider-Man and says goodbye to the wall-crawler as well, even though they haven’t had much of a history together.[8] He then heads to Project PEGASUS to say goodbye to his friends in the Squadron Supreme. They tell them how Kismet’s cocoon was stolen and Hyperion is on his way home from their mission in space.[9] Concerned about Kismet’s fate, Quasar follows her energy signature and discovers that she is caring for her creators, the Enclave, who are regenerating in cocoons she spun for them.[10] Seeing that she is safe and has found a weird family of sorts, he wishes her luck and departs.
Quasar’s next stop is one he has been avoiding all night: the Ballentine home to tell Kalya’s father what happened to her. As usual, Kayla’s father is drunk off his ass and when Wendell tries to explain what happened, he is attacked. That’s when the Presence and Darkstar make their presence known and offer to kill Quasar on Mr. Ballentine’s behalf. Quasar fights back against the pair and tries to convince them that it wasn’t his fault that Vanguard died. However, his rationalizations fall on deaf ears. The commotion of the battle catches the attention of Nova who just happens to be passing by the area on a delivery job.[11] Nova races in to lend Quasar a hand. However, Wendell realizes that the battle isn’t going anywhere and instead surrenders to the Presence and Darkstar and accepts whatever punishment they want to dish out.
The pair bombard Quasar with their powers, seemingly killing the hero and leaving behind only a scrap of cape and his Quantum Bands. Collecting these trophies, the Presence and Darkstar teleport away. No sooner are they gone does members of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Warriors arrive on the scene to assist in the battle, leaving Nova to report that Quasar died in battle.
However, Quasar is still alive and faked his death in order to give the Presence and Darkstar the closure they needed. Having quantum jumped into space, Quasar finally leaves Earth to find his destiny in the stars….
… Quasar’s journey continues in Starmasters #1.
Recurring Characters
Quasar, Presence, Darkstar, Nova, Gayle Vaughn, Lisa Vaughn, Starlight, Vanguard, Ken Tanaka, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Avengers (Captain America, Giant-Man, Vision, Black Widow, Thunderstrike), Spider-Man, Squadron Supreme (Doctor Spectrum, Power Princess, Whizzer, Skylark), Kismet, Enclave (Wladyslav Shinski, Carlo Zota, Maris Morlak), New Warriors (Firestar, Justice, Rage)
Continuity Notes
There is a lot going on here all at once. The details:
This alternate Earth is from the so-called New Universe, aka Reality-148611 per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1.
Quasar found himself trapped in this reality back in Quasar #31 and had to use the Star Brand to escape back to his native reality. From there he accidentally transferred the power to his girlfriend, Kayla Ballentine.
Since that issue, Kayla had been hounded by all manner of aliens that wanted to steal the Star Brand. This ultimately led to the Earth of the New Universe being shanghaied to Earth-616, forcing the Living Tribunal to quarantine the planet forever with Kayla and the Star Brand imprisoned on it. See Starblast #4 and Quasar #57-58.
What happened to the New Universe Earth from this point on is unclear. According to Squadron Supreme (vol. 4) #1, the New Universe was destroyed during the collapse of the multiverse as chronicled in the Time Runs Out storyline that ran in Avengers (vol. 5) #35-44 and New Avengers (vol. 3) #24-33. Allegedly, only the Blur survived the New Universe’s destruction, which suggests that — at some point — the New Universe’s Earth was eventually returned to its native reality prior to its destruction. The status of the New Universe following the restoration of the Multiverse in Secret Wars #9 has yet to be revealed as of this writing in April, 2022.
Lisa Vaughn underwent treatment for cancer that went into remission. See Quasar #49.
Vanguard seemingly died during a battle with the Starblasters in Quasar #55. He is, in fact, not dead. A vestige of his mutant energies are still going and the Presence will eventually resurrected Vanguard in Avengers (vol. 3) #43.
Quasar dumped the Presence into the Quantum Zone back in Quasar #20. He remained trapped there until he was freed by Neutron in issue #45.
Quasar worked along side the Thing from Marvel Two-In-One #53-58.
Quasar got to know Captain America particularly well when he was part of SHIELD’s Super-Agent team. See Captain America #228-231 and Incredible Hulk #230.
Other than when they got involved in major crossover events (such as the Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade) Spider-Man and Quasar had only worked together a handful of times, notably in Marvel Team-Up #113, Annual #5 and Quasar #7.
Lots of continuity drops at Project PEGASUS going on here:
Kismits kidnapping at the hands of the Enclave. That happened in Quasar #57.
Hyperion is still in space. He went along with Quasar to stop the Starblasters and got his neck snapped and had to be left behind. See Starblast #1 and Quasar #54.
Quasar hopes that the Squadron can get back to their native reality. The group got sucked out of their native reality in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe #1 and ended up on Earth-616 in Quasar #13. They learned that they were being prevented from returning home by their reality’s Wizard Supreme in issue #19. They will eventually get back home in Avengers Annual 1998.
We’ll catch up with Kismet and the Enclave in Cosmic Power Unlimited #2 where the Enclave members are reborn into new super-human forms. This is short lived as they will return to normal by their following appearance in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #11-12.
Yeah, believe it or not, at one point Nova had a courier business. Real practical use of your cosmic powers Richard, no wonder Xandar gets blown up all the time. See Nova (vol. 2) #1.