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Quasar #27

Oct 1991
Mark Gruenwald, Greg Capullo

Story Name:

From here to maternity


Synopsis

Quasar #27 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue Thanos interrupted the funeral of his enemy the cosmic being Eon whose body extended throughout his own pocket Eonverse. The Mad Titan then returned to his Infinity Gauntlet business in IG#1, but not without tampering with Eon's still not-quite-dead body in 2 ways.

1st we see some of Eon's body-mass flooding through a portal to Wendell Vaughn's office in Four Freedoms Plaza, and from there out into Manhattan. Left unchecked it will bury the surface of the Earth. Wendell is unaware of this because as Quasar he is in  the Eonverse facing 4 beings that Thanos created out of small portions of Eon. They are copies of 4 previous bearers of the Quantum Bands handed out by Eon. But Thanos gave them facsimiles of the Bands with all their powers, and imbued the beings with an overwhelming desire to kill the current bearer Quasar.

The 4 are are duplicates of:- The avian being Ree of long-dead Archeopia (presumably the very 1st Band-bearer). The Stygian Starbender, 1st Protector Of The Universe. Tranta the Trill, the 1st non-humanoid bearer of the Bands. Marvel Boy, Quasar's immediate predecessor, the 1st Earthman to wear the Bands.

They attack simultaneously with Quantum Energy blasts, but because the energy of their Quantum Bands is identical to his own it is easy for him to absorb it in his Bands and send it back to them, which downs Marvel Boy immediately. Wendell tries to talk the other 3 down but they continue to attack with Quantum-formed weapons.

Meanwhile Moondragon's starship Sensia II has found an object floating in space. She telekinetically draws it into the ship and then carefully chips away the substance encasing the man she knows is within. Her care is because a misstep might cause him to explode, and the energy stasis field she's enclosed him in might not be enough to contain the blast. Eventually she has revealed the naked body of a human male, but he's still unconscious. She causes her ship to create a copy of his old protective garment that enabled *him* to control his energies. And then she allows Jack Of Hearts to awaken.

Back in the Eonverse Quasar has got tired of barely fending off the foes' weapons and decides to flee, and the other 3 follow him. On the way Vaughn thinks he hears a voice in his head say "Help me. This universe is about to decay.". But then the trio catch up with him and combine forces to trap him in a Quantum vice, which starts to squeeze him to death. And the distracting desperate voice in his head isn't helping.

On Earth Her returns to Dr Strange's house where she met Silver Surfer last issue. At that time she sensed that he had been in contact with her counterpart Him (for a long time now called Adam Warlock, who Surfer met in Soul World in his #46-47), who she thought long-dead. Now she returns to see the resurrected being. Adam comes out to meet her, intrigued by this female who looks so similar to him and is clad in a version of 1 of his old outfits. She explains that she was created by the same scientists who created him as the perfect human. Destiny decrees that they should mate and give birth to a wondrous new race. But Warlock says he's too busy for that, and goes back inside. Her thinks to coerce him, but doesn't want to do that. And she's at a loss as to what to do next.

In the Eonverse Quasar manages to form a Quantum wedge to force the vice open a bit and zoom out. Then he Quantum Jumps himself into the Quantum Zone, a totally white space which the Quantum Bands draw their energy from. The other 3 follow him but he has a plan. He siphons as much of the infinite energy source as he can through his Quantum Bands and fires it at the trio. They are caught by surprise and try to absorb the energy which causes them to explode into nothingness. Wendell tries to console himself with the thought that they weren't real living beings, just things created by Thanos. Then the mystery voice speaks again and he tries to track its source.

But we return to New York where Eon's body is still spreading its tentacles. Various heroes are trying to deal with it:- the Squadron Supreme (Dr Spectrum, Haywire, Hyperion, Moonglow, Power Princess, Shape, Skylark and Whizzer), Darkhawk, Deathlok and Sleepwalker, but with little effect. Her joins them, as does Moon Knight and Quasar's pal Makkari. Moondragon arrives home in her starship and drops JOH off to help.

Meanwhile Quasar has noticed a lot of Eon's body spiralling through a hole like water down a drain. But before he can investigate the voice in his head leads him to an egg, and tells him it needs to be freed from its mother's dying body. But before he can do anything about that, Marvel Boy (remember him from the beginning of the issue) hits him with a Quantum baseball bat. However Vaughn just sends him far away with a Quantum fly swat.

The egg tells Quasar to take it out of here so he carries it through the hole and finds himself back in his own office, almost full of Eon-stuff. He quickly plugs the hole with a Quantum construction and turns to the egg which hatches a baby Eon who declares herself to be Epoch, Eon's successor. Epoch tells Wendell that there are 17 more portals in other parts of the universe that must be sealed (we have to assume Quasar fixes that because they're not mentioned again). Also the remains of the body, no longer animated by connection to the rest in the Eonverse, must be gathered up and cremated. We see Dr Spectrum using his Power Prism to create a giant bulldozer while Her and Jack Of Hearts incinerate stuff, and Darkhawk and Sleepwalker stand around like spare wheels.

Epoch then says that she's not strong enough yet to help against Thanos. She predicts that Quasar will play a role in the conflict, but it will be others who bring the Mad God down. She relays a message from her dead mother Eon asking Wendell to help her grow to omniscience. And she declares herself proud of the greatest of her Protectors Of The Universe.


 

Review / Commentaries


Quasar #27 Review by (March 27, 2021)
This issue isn't bannered as part of Infinity Gauntlet but is entangled with Sleepwalker #7 which *is* so-bannered, and both extend across IG#2-3.

Archeopia was the 1st planet consumed by Galactus. The remaining Archeopians started the Wanderers (Thor #160), a group of survivors of Galactus. They led Thor to save Ego The Living Planet from Galactus (Thor #161), and he let them settle on his surface. However it was revealed in Fantastic Four #235 that the Planet ate them.
It isn't clear whether the original Ree was given the Quantum Bands by Eon while Archeopia still existed, or as a member of the Wanderers.

The original Starbender was a Stygian. They are now part of the Shi'ar Empire and have provided a member of the Imperial Guard called Neutron (1st seen in X-Men #107).

Nothing more is known of the original Tranta or the Trills. (Absolutely nothing like the Trills in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.)

When this issue was written 'Marvel Boy' was supposed to be a duplicate of Robert Grayson who was Marvel Boy in a brief series in the 50's. He was a human boy brought up on Uranus and sent back to Earth with powers to be a hero. He went back to Uranus and returned to Earth insane as Crusader in FF#164-165 where he died. And supposedly Quasar inherited his Quantum Bands via Eon.
However it will be revealed in Agents Of Atlas that the Crusader was a Uranian replacement for Marvel Boy named Thelius, and the real Marvel Boy returned later as and Agent Of Atlas called the Uranian (confusing). Robert Grayson didn't/doesn't have the Quantum Bands as Marvel Boy or the Uranian. Since the Marvel Boy here was drawn from Eon's vestigial memories it is assumed that it was Thelius/Crusader who was given the Bands by Eon. A strange choice given that Thelius was allegedly always insane as Crusader.

The Ree, Starbender and Tranta constructs die here, but the spirit of the original Stygian Starbender will be seen in the White Room in #42-43. The Marvel Boy construct will survive in the Eonverse and go on to take the name Blue Marvel in #41 during the Infinity War event.

Jack Of Hearts turned up in #19 leading refugees from Stranger's planet back to Earth, but his containment suit was breached by the Presence in #20, leaving him in the state Moondragon found him in here.

Sleepwalker is here in the middle of #7 of his own series. This is his 1st guest-app. The fight against the Eon-mass began in his issue.

The Squadron Supreme were unable to return to their own timeline after the Squadron Supreme: Death Of A Universe graphic novel. Trapped on this Earth they were 'adopted' by Quasar and Project Pegasus in #13. Dr Spectrum and Hyperion started fighting the Eon-mass in SLEEP#7.

Darkhawk is early in his career between #6 and #7 of his own series, and he's just had his 1st guest-star app in New Warriors #14. And in the IG event he too began the fight in SLEEP#7.

Deathlok is another char continuing the fight from SLEEP#7. He's the 2nd Deathlok cyborg, Michael Collins. (The 1st, Luther Manning, was in an alternate timeline in Astonishing Tales #25-36.) *His* apps here and in SLEEP#7 lie between #5 and #6 of his 2nd series. After this event he'll show up in Nick Fury, Agent Of SHIELD (1989) #30-31.

Moon Knight is the last of the holdovers from SLEEP#7 and he's the only 1 who'll have another app in the event in IG#3. The event occurs between Marc Spector, Moon Knight #30 and #31.

The 1st half of this issue parallels IG#2, after the disappearance in IG#1. It ends with Her meeting Warlock after he leaves his cocoon and goes to Dr Strange in IG#2.
The 2nd half is in IG#3 after Strange recruits his army but before Warlock and Quasar go to a meeting with cosmic beings.

Follow Quasar and Epoch into the Infinity Gauntlet series, and then back to this series with Her, JOH, Makkari and Moondragon.



> Quasar comic book info and issue index

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(The Boy Wonder)

Greg Capullo
Keith Williams
Paul Becton
Dave Hoover (Cover Penciler)
Dave Hoover (Cover Inker)
Paul Becton (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Janice Chiang.
Editor: Kelly Corvese. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Jack of Hearts
Jack of Hearts

(Jonathan Hart)
Moon Knight
Moon Knight

(Marc Spector)
Moondragon
Moondragon

(Heather Douglas)
Quasar
Quasar

(Wendell Vaughn)

Plus: Blue Marvel (Thelius), Darkhawk, Deathlok (Michael Collins), Eon, Epoch, Her, Sleepwalker, Squadron Supreme.