Quasar #7
Terminus Rising
In the recently restored Savage Land stands the shattered armor of Terminus. Suddenly, his power lance comes to life and burrows into the ground.[1]
Meanwhile, Quasar — aka Wendell Vaughn — visits the pocket dimension where Eon has been hiding since informing him of a threat to the universe. Wendell is asking for a little more guidance since he isn’t sure if his investigating aliens on Earth has been overly effective. Eon tells Quasar that he has imparted all the knowledge he can and it is up to Quasar to act on it as he sees fit. This doesn’t sit very well with Vaughn, as he is also growing jealous of how much time his father has been spending with Eon when he is not around.
Heading out of the Four Freedoms Plaza, Quasar’s Quantum Bands begin detecting an alien energy source. Moments later he runs into Spider-Man who is passing by. Quasar discovers that the energy signature is coming from the web-slinger.[2] However, when he tries to question Spider-Man, the temperamental hero isn’t in the mood to talk and strikes Quasar so hard he is knocked into a garbage scow out in bay. Spider-Man is instantly horrified by what he has done and flies after Quasar to make sure he is still alive. Quasar is fine, but when he tries to restrain Spider-Man with his Quantum Bands, the wall-crawler is able to break free and warns Quasar to leave him alone. Quasar promises to stop hassling him and lets him go.[3]
Deciding that he has had enough for one night, Quasar returns to his father’s home to sleep for the night. Wendell is instantly annoyed when his father, Gilbert, is more interested in hearing about how Spider-Man might be an alien over anything else. The following morning, Wendell goes for a meeting at his security company’s first client, International Data and Integration Control. While Wendell meets with Shintaro Kuramoto and his board of director, Terminus suddenly emerges from the ocean and attacks a ship. Getting an alert from his Quantum Bands, Wendell has to pretend he is sick in order to get out of the meeting and investigate as Quasar. After changing into his costume and heading out to sea, Quasar hopes that he hasn’t ruined his deal.
When arriving on the scene, Quasar is shocked by the sheer size of Terminus. When he tries attacking, the massive alien shrugs them off. Terminus then blasts Quasar with his power lance. Although Wendell is protected by his quantum field, he is knocked into Earth orbit. Realizing he’s going to need some help, Quasar skips back to New York City where he sends out a message to Spider-Man for help. He also contacts Eon to find out what is known about Terminus. He learns how the alien is a planet level threat who tried to come to Earth to salvage it for its materials, but was defeated by Mister Fantastic who attached a device that sucked Terminus into the Earth’s core.[4] Terminus managed to pull himself free from the core but was trapped in some tunnels deep underground. There he encountered a Deviant named Jarro and, after constructing him a replica suit of armor, had Jarro go to the surface in an attempt to recover his power lance. It was Jarro who has decimated the Savage Land and died battling the Avengers.
As Eon finishes imparting this information, Spider-Man has arrived in response to Quasar’s call. Hearing what’s going down, the web-head agrees to help Quasar deal with Terminus. The pair fly out to the ocean where they dive into the water under Terminus. Creating a platform with his Quantum Bands, Quasar and Spider-Man then push Terminus into space. Once they are out of Earth’s atmosphere, Quasar tells the wall-crawler he can handle things from here. After Spider-Man departs, Quasar tries to quantum jump the power lance. He succeeds in pulling free its power source and dumps it on an alien world. Returning to Terminus he watches as the world ravager drifts off into space. He hopes this is the last they’ll hear from the creature, but somehow doubts it.[5]
Recurring Characters
Quasar, Spider-Man, Terminus, Eon, Gilbert Vaughn, Shintaro Kuramoto, Ken Tanaka
Continuity Notes
The Savage Land was decimated by a Deviant name Jarro, who was posing as Terminus in Avengers #256-257. The High Evolutionary restored the Savage Land to its former glory in Uncanny X-Men Annual #12.
Quasar reminds Spider-Man of how they fought together in the past. A footnote here reminds readers that they first met back in Marvel Team-Up #113. However, the pair encountered each other more recently in Marvel Team-Up Annual #5.
The facts about Spider-Man’s cosmic powers that are on display here:
Spider-Man obtained the power of Captain Universe in Spectacular Spider-Man #158. However, the bonding process was incomplete and the web-slinger won’t learn the truth until he faces down the Tri-Sentinel in Amazing Spider-Man #329.
During his time with these powers, Spidey has had trouble controlling his new powers. He mentions here how he almost killed both Goliath and the Hulk with his powers. These clashes happened in Web of Spider-Man #60 and Amazing Spider-Man #328 respectively.
As an aside, when Spider-Man lifts the garbage scow out of the water, one of the panels is drawn in the style of Steve Ditko. Ditko co-created both Spider-Man (Amazing Fantasy #15) and was a regular artist of Captain Universe stories (Marvel Spotlight (vol. 2) #9-11 and Web of Spider-Man Annual #5). The panel itself is a homage to Amazing Spider-Man #33.
Terminus first threatened Earth and was defeated in Fantastic Four #269-270. Eon states that this was while Quasar was off planet. As detailed in Quasar #2, Wendell spent some time in space investigating the origins of his Quantum Bands.
Quasar would win that bet as Terminus will return to threaten Earth anew in Thor Annual #15, Avengers West Coast Annual #5, and Avengers Annual #19.
Topical References
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center is depicted as part of the New York City skyline. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and replaced with the Freedom Tower.
