![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icon_uk posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyAt the request of ficticons, the first couple of issues of Wendell Vaughn's Quasar, by the much missed Mark Gruenwald and the still with us, and I still like his art, Paul Ryan.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, I ADORED Mark Gruenwald's work in the 1980's and 90's. The Squadron Supreme, DP7, Marvel Two-In-One, his Cap run. (Even when he wasn't perhaps at his best, it was always a fun read) He's one of those pro's I would have loved to meet, at least once, but alas, I never got the chance.
He was, by anyone's reckoning, not A comic book geek, but THE comic book geek. He knew more about Marvel Comics history than we do... and I mean that cumulatively (and I am aware of the level of geekiness that s_d can summon up). Marvel used to run a contest where any fan could try and stump him at trivia, without reference to notes. It was eventually discontinued when it was realised that no one ever could... as far as I know, no one ever did. He was the mastermind behind things like "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" and was the unofficial "Keeper of the Continuity", and is considered to be the "Patron Saint of Marveldom" to this day.
To him, the MU was the biggest, most insane, most fun toybox imaginable and that it's long history of shiny toys SHOULD be played with whenever possible. To do that properly you need a suitably cosmic agent, and since he didn't have one, he set out to make one, using the rich tapestry the MU provided. and thus Quasar, the Cosmic Avenger got his own series in 1990. (Though that wasn't the first time he'd used him, but we'll get to that...)
We start with a flashback.. as an unknown person outlines the history of the original 1950's Marvel Boy, Robert Grayson, a gung-ho cheery hero of the Commie-bashing variety. No one ever knew the origin of the light generating bracelets he wore, but they were rumoured to be from a period in time that Grayson and his father had spent in space. He vanished for some years, before returning as a crazed and lethal man calling himself "The Crusader", who had now learned to not just release light but blasts of solar level heat and light, tried to destroy the Fantastic Four before apparently losing control of the bracelets and destroying himself, leaving only the bracelets behind... Reed Richards originally took possession of them for study, but for security reasons they were then entrusted to SHIELD... and so we pull back to see who's doing the talking... Yup, it's Nick Fury, rocking a natty three piece suit. SHIELD have decided to call in some consultants to study them fully....
This is just one of many nice little "moments" of the sort Gruenwald made his trademark, adding real world style dynamics into the comics-verse. Six month consultation contracts with third parties, things like that.
Tony's colleague Gilbert is Dr Gilbert Vaughn, who mentions that his son Wendell is a SHIELD trainee who is somewhere on site, and wondering if he could see him. Dum-Dum Dugan agrees to try and find him.
As it turns out Wendell is undergoing one of his final training exams, martial arts. He's had two lacklustre bouts and this is the third and final one.
Here's our hero...
Dum-Dum asks if he'd like to say hello, but Gilbert declines, which strikes Dum-Dum as being a little... cold. Wendell meantime is disappointed as he thinks he's failed the test. he didn't manage to beat his opponent after all. (Aksi
Then comes the final assessment...
So here, in 1990, we have a main character who DOESN'T HAVE A KILLER INSTINCT. Surrounded by the likes of Wolverine, Venom and the like, it was terribly refreshing.
Back at Stark Research, all is not well with the team involved in research, the bracelets have proved to be completely indestructible and absorb whatever energy is directed at them. Dr Vaughn's assessment is that the gems on the bracelets act as batteries, taking in energy from any number of sources, for later release.
Oh, and apparently nice guy Dr Zane shows his true colours...
Again, I like the little nod that Zane may be a traitor and a weasel (with a big nose to boot), but he's a normal guy too, who likes root beer.
I posted the next couple of panels mostly to introduce Wendell's mother, and also because it features the name Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which is a wonderful name,,,
Yes, we will draw a veil over what Wendell might have been doing in his room all by himself.... with that great big picture of Captain America on the wall. ahem,,,,
So Wendell ends up being assigned as security for the very project Dr Vaughn is working on. Someone probably thought that they were doing him a favour, unaware that his parents divorced years before and he has almost no contact with his father.
A subject has been chosen to test the bracelets..William Wesley, test pilot and SHIELD'S top tech-jockey
Clearly, Dr Vaughn is a harsh taskmaster... Wesley performs well, he gets the hang of flight, generating shields, energy blasts and even boosting his strength by using the bracelets to bear the weight. So far so good....
Oops! So long Mr Wesley....
At this point, AIM attacks, sending in a rather cool flying saucer and armies of android soliders....
Wendell rushes to protect his Dad (Who STILL hadn't noticed his son standing there)
Cue some serious destructive Green Lantern-esque scenes I have to trim for length. Wendell gets the hang of the bracelets even faster than Wesley, perhaps since he's actually in a live combat situation with other peoples lives depending on him.
Wendell feels the same power build-up that Wesley noted, and starts to worry....
Yeah, that WAS a nice flying saucer AIM had.... but it's not enough, Dr Vaughn hadn't had a chance to tell anyone that, based on his findings, the power builds up the MORE you use it, so Wendell has only made things worse for himself. Since he sees no way out, Wendell puts as much distance between himself and the ground as he can....
I like that, HAVING to have control will consume you, letting the energy be part of you and you're fine. This also explains why Marvel Boy never really had a problem at the start, as far as he knew the bracelets could produce beams of bright light, and that was it, and there was no need to ever panic about it. When he unlocked the other powers, they became more dangerous and he DID panic (I am aware that Agents of ATLAS sort of undid a lot of that, but that's not this series' problem)
And this being an American comic, we do get a slightly hokey ending to this first issue...
Get your mind out of the gutter! Actually, no, you just keep it there, I'll join you later! :)
The offer, of course, is to become part of SHIELD first attempt at creating their own superteam, first as Marvel Boy, then Marvel Man, then taking the name Quasar (It was postulated that the bands gained some of their power by tapping into the power of quasars via some extradimensional means... Gruenwald LOVED pseudo-science like that)
Issue 2 opens with a brisk recap of Wendell's career.
The next issues were his appearances in the Gruenwald penned Marvel Two-In-One, notably the Project Pegasus Saga, which was excellent.
So we find out where Quasar disappeared to for several years, he was flying under his own (not incredibly fast) power to Uranus. Since he could provide his own shields and motive power, he doesn't need much equipment, but the side effect was that he more or less spent four years in suspended animation.
Well, it's certainly a unique way to spend a sabbatical.
Alas, all he finds on Uranus (after the bracelets home in on what's left of a nuclear reactor) are a shattered life support dome, and devastated buildings, many with frozen corpses in them. The entire colony is dead. This is not the best environment for someone who is already in a fit of depression and unsure of his own worth.
Deathurge may look cool (and that is an awesomely simple visual) is not a fun guy, he's the embodiment of self-destruction. Sort of a sleeker, more proactive version of Depair of the Endless methinks.
He explains that the Uranians on the colony had discovered the secret of life, the universe and everything a thousand years ago. It took centuries to check it, but when they confirmed their findings they realised they had nothing else to live for. All their profoundest questions had been answered, and when you know everything there, there's not a lot left to inspire you, but Uranians are almost immortal. They summoned Robert Grayson and his father to them in order to try and learn how to die. They did learn it and adapted themsleves to become mortal. Robert's father sympathised with their plan and joined them. Out of pity though, they sent Robert back to Earth with the bracelets and without telling him what they planned. They gave him the strange bracelets as a gift, though they didn't know their origin themselves.
Now THAT was creepy...
Robert had fought on Earth as Marvel Boy, but returned to Uranus to find his father and everyone dead, and it was THAT that drove him mad and sent him back to Earth as the Crusader; he blamed the people of Earth for delaying him from returning home, either to prevent the deaths, or to join them. And we know how that ended up...
Wendell discovers that his powers don't work on Deathurge because he IS filled with self destructive thoughts, and Deathurge can absorb those all day.
Axes, javelins, Deathurge can manifests them all, but there's one motif that any good comic-book embodiment of death should be able to manifest, and yes, he can do that too!
What IS it with these guys and skis? Shadowy bow and arrows manage to find their target and Weldell is consumed with gloopy shadow...
Something tells me Deathurge wasn't expecting THAT outcome... but where has our hero gone? He's actually in a nearby dimension...
Eon has quite the heritage... and three parents apparently, but hey, he's a cosmic entity. He actually dates back to 1973... but I'll let these pages tell the story...
I like that costume by the way. Deathurge discovers that he is VERY susceptible to energy attacks from someone who has recovered their purpose and is positively brimming with positivity about their life. He vanishes, promising (with suitably awesome cosmic crypticness) that the next time he sees Quasar, Quasar will BEG him to take his life, and he will refuse).
With that completed, Wendell and Eon start to head back to Earth.
I'm not sure if Wendell's reaction would be awestruck, or chronically pissed off that he'd wasted FOUR YEARS of his life in the outward journey when he could, in theory have made the trip in less time than it took to type this sentence. Still, he now has a snazzy new costume, a mentor, an ongoing plot to investigate... Let the fun begin!
Hope you liked this introduction. Quasar was very much an oddity in the early 90's, a classic everyman made good hero of the old school, a genuinely nice, well-meaning, responsible guy turned cosmic guardian. I loved it then, I love it now!
And the cover to issue 2
ficticons, the first couple of issues of Wendell Vaughn's Quasar, by the much missed Mark Gruenwald and the still with us, and I still like his art, Paul Ryan.I've said it before, I'll say it again, I ADORED Mark Gruenwald's work in the 1980's and 90's. The Squadron Supreme, DP7, Marvel Two-In-One, his Cap run. (Even when he wasn't perhaps at his best, it was always a fun read) He's one of those pro's I would have loved to meet, at least once, but alas, I never got the chance.
He was, by anyone's reckoning, not A comic book geek, but THE comic book geek. He knew more about Marvel Comics history than we do... and I mean that cumulatively (and I am aware of the level of geekiness that s_d can summon up). Marvel used to run a contest where any fan could try and stump him at trivia, without reference to notes. It was eventually discontinued when it was realised that no one ever could... as far as I know, no one ever did. He was the mastermind behind things like "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" and was the unofficial "Keeper of the Continuity", and is considered to be the "Patron Saint of Marveldom" to this day.
To him, the MU was the biggest, most insane, most fun toybox imaginable and that it's long history of shiny toys SHOULD be played with whenever possible. To do that properly you need a suitably cosmic agent, and since he didn't have one, he set out to make one, using the rich tapestry the MU provided. and thus Quasar, the Cosmic Avenger got his own series in 1990. (Though that wasn't the first time he'd used him, but we'll get to that...)
We start with a flashback.. as an unknown person outlines the history of the original 1950's Marvel Boy, Robert Grayson, a gung-ho cheery hero of the Commie-bashing variety. No one ever knew the origin of the light generating bracelets he wore, but they were rumoured to be from a period in time that Grayson and his father had spent in space. He vanished for some years, before returning as a crazed and lethal man calling himself "The Crusader", who had now learned to not just release light but blasts of solar level heat and light, tried to destroy the Fantastic Four before apparently losing control of the bracelets and destroying himself, leaving only the bracelets behind... Reed Richards originally took possession of them for study, but for security reasons they were then entrusted to SHIELD... and so we pull back to see who's doing the talking... Yup, it's Nick Fury, rocking a natty three piece suit. SHIELD have decided to call in some consultants to study them fully....
This is just one of many nice little "moments" of the sort Gruenwald made his trademark, adding real world style dynamics into the comics-verse. Six month consultation contracts with third parties, things like that.
Tony's colleague Gilbert is Dr Gilbert Vaughn, who mentions that his son Wendell is a SHIELD trainee who is somewhere on site, and wondering if he could see him. Dum-Dum Dugan agrees to try and find him.
As it turns out Wendell is undergoing one of his final training exams, martial arts. He's had two lacklustre bouts and this is the third and final one.
Here's our hero...
Dum-Dum asks if he'd like to say hello, but Gilbert declines, which strikes Dum-Dum as being a little... cold. Wendell meantime is disappointed as he thinks he's failed the test. he didn't manage to beat his opponent after all. (Aksi
Then comes the final assessment...
So here, in 1990, we have a main character who DOESN'T HAVE A KILLER INSTINCT. Surrounded by the likes of Wolverine, Venom and the like, it was terribly refreshing.
Back at Stark Research, all is not well with the team involved in research, the bracelets have proved to be completely indestructible and absorb whatever energy is directed at them. Dr Vaughn's assessment is that the gems on the bracelets act as batteries, taking in energy from any number of sources, for later release.
Oh, and apparently nice guy Dr Zane shows his true colours...
Again, I like the little nod that Zane may be a traitor and a weasel (with a big nose to boot), but he's a normal guy too, who likes root beer.
I posted the next couple of panels mostly to introduce Wendell's mother, and also because it features the name Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which is a wonderful name,,,
Yes, we will draw a veil over what Wendell might have been doing in his room all by himself.... with that great big picture of Captain America on the wall. ahem,,,,
So Wendell ends up being assigned as security for the very project Dr Vaughn is working on. Someone probably thought that they were doing him a favour, unaware that his parents divorced years before and he has almost no contact with his father.
A subject has been chosen to test the bracelets..William Wesley, test pilot and SHIELD'S top tech-jockey
Clearly, Dr Vaughn is a harsh taskmaster... Wesley performs well, he gets the hang of flight, generating shields, energy blasts and even boosting his strength by using the bracelets to bear the weight. So far so good....
Oops! So long Mr Wesley....
At this point, AIM attacks, sending in a rather cool flying saucer and armies of android soliders....
Wendell rushes to protect his Dad (Who STILL hadn't noticed his son standing there)
Cue some serious destructive Green Lantern-esque scenes I have to trim for length. Wendell gets the hang of the bracelets even faster than Wesley, perhaps since he's actually in a live combat situation with other peoples lives depending on him.
Wendell feels the same power build-up that Wesley noted, and starts to worry....
Yeah, that WAS a nice flying saucer AIM had.... but it's not enough, Dr Vaughn hadn't had a chance to tell anyone that, based on his findings, the power builds up the MORE you use it, so Wendell has only made things worse for himself. Since he sees no way out, Wendell puts as much distance between himself and the ground as he can....
I like that, HAVING to have control will consume you, letting the energy be part of you and you're fine. This also explains why Marvel Boy never really had a problem at the start, as far as he knew the bracelets could produce beams of bright light, and that was it, and there was no need to ever panic about it. When he unlocked the other powers, they became more dangerous and he DID panic (I am aware that Agents of ATLAS sort of undid a lot of that, but that's not this series' problem)
And this being an American comic, we do get a slightly hokey ending to this first issue...
Get your mind out of the gutter! Actually, no, you just keep it there, I'll join you later! :)
The offer, of course, is to become part of SHIELD first attempt at creating their own superteam, first as Marvel Boy, then Marvel Man, then taking the name Quasar (It was postulated that the bands gained some of their power by tapping into the power of quasars via some extradimensional means... Gruenwald LOVED pseudo-science like that)
Issue 2 opens with a brisk recap of Wendell's career.
The next issues were his appearances in the Gruenwald penned Marvel Two-In-One, notably the Project Pegasus Saga, which was excellent.
So we find out where Quasar disappeared to for several years, he was flying under his own (not incredibly fast) power to Uranus. Since he could provide his own shields and motive power, he doesn't need much equipment, but the side effect was that he more or less spent four years in suspended animation.
Well, it's certainly a unique way to spend a sabbatical.
Alas, all he finds on Uranus (after the bracelets home in on what's left of a nuclear reactor) are a shattered life support dome, and devastated buildings, many with frozen corpses in them. The entire colony is dead. This is not the best environment for someone who is already in a fit of depression and unsure of his own worth.
Deathurge may look cool (and that is an awesomely simple visual) is not a fun guy, he's the embodiment of self-destruction. Sort of a sleeker, more proactive version of Depair of the Endless methinks.
He explains that the Uranians on the colony had discovered the secret of life, the universe and everything a thousand years ago. It took centuries to check it, but when they confirmed their findings they realised they had nothing else to live for. All their profoundest questions had been answered, and when you know everything there, there's not a lot left to inspire you, but Uranians are almost immortal. They summoned Robert Grayson and his father to them in order to try and learn how to die. They did learn it and adapted themsleves to become mortal. Robert's father sympathised with their plan and joined them. Out of pity though, they sent Robert back to Earth with the bracelets and without telling him what they planned. They gave him the strange bracelets as a gift, though they didn't know their origin themselves.
Now THAT was creepy...
Robert had fought on Earth as Marvel Boy, but returned to Uranus to find his father and everyone dead, and it was THAT that drove him mad and sent him back to Earth as the Crusader; he blamed the people of Earth for delaying him from returning home, either to prevent the deaths, or to join them. And we know how that ended up...
Wendell discovers that his powers don't work on Deathurge because he IS filled with self destructive thoughts, and Deathurge can absorb those all day.
Axes, javelins, Deathurge can manifests them all, but there's one motif that any good comic-book embodiment of death should be able to manifest, and yes, he can do that too!
What IS it with these guys and skis? Shadowy bow and arrows manage to find their target and Weldell is consumed with gloopy shadow...
Something tells me Deathurge wasn't expecting THAT outcome... but where has our hero gone? He's actually in a nearby dimension...
Eon has quite the heritage... and three parents apparently, but hey, he's a cosmic entity. He actually dates back to 1973... but I'll let these pages tell the story...
I like that costume by the way. Deathurge discovers that he is VERY susceptible to energy attacks from someone who has recovered their purpose and is positively brimming with positivity about their life. He vanishes, promising (with suitably awesome cosmic crypticness) that the next time he sees Quasar, Quasar will BEG him to take his life, and he will refuse).
With that completed, Wendell and Eon start to head back to Earth.
I'm not sure if Wendell's reaction would be awestruck, or chronically pissed off that he'd wasted FOUR YEARS of his life in the outward journey when he could, in theory have made the trip in less time than it took to type this sentence. Still, he now has a snazzy new costume, a mentor, an ongoing plot to investigate... Let the fun begin!
Hope you liked this introduction. Quasar was very much an oddity in the early 90's, a classic everyman made good hero of the old school, a genuinely nice, well-meaning, responsible guy turned cosmic guardian. I loved it then, I love it now!
And the cover to issue 2
no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 11:50 pm (UTC)Although, my only experience with Quasar was JLA/Avengers and I'm fairly sure his powers didn't extend beyond being the Not Green Lantern
no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 11:55 pm (UTC)He's very creative about such things, like generating solid energy armour for close combat a good while before I ever saw a GL do it.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 07:14 am (UTC)I must admit....
Date: 2011-03-30 01:55 am (UTC)Mark G., you are missed.
Re: I must admit....
Date: 2011-03-30 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 05:19 am (UTC)I'm curious about the previous wielders of the quantum bands.
And doesn't Eon look like he's made up of part of Captain Marvel?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 04:26 pm (UTC)Are you reading Annihilators? I ask because I think Wendell's in that.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 04:47 pm (UTC)"I'm not in the weapon-making business, Colonel Fury!"
"That's not what you said last night, Meeeester Stark!"
Also, Uranus.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 07:22 pm (UTC)These two are not friends; Fury is addressing a millionaire industrialist he has no personal history with, and Stark is meeting a potential client who can offer a unique opportunity to Stark Industries.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 07:50 pm (UTC)Thank you very much for this post!
Date: 2011-04-27 11:57 pm (UTC)I'm surprised SHIELD thought they needed Stark Industries' consultants to do the analysis work! I'd have thought Reed could do the same sorts of tests that they did in (one of) his lab(s).
Interesting that not having a killer instinct will allow you to be a security officer but not a field agent. I suppose the difference is along the lines of the fact that as a security officer, you probably wouldn't have to silently strangle some poor guy on duty at the top-secret facility you're breaking into...or something like that...which is where having a killer instinct could come in handy.
Me too! I didn't realize that that's how the Bands worked - it's great. :)
Do we know what eventually happened to Bluestreak, the Vamp, and Texas Twister?
I love that Wendell wonders about the effect of spaceflight on his muscles. IIRC that's an issue that real-world astronauts also have to deal with - although Wendell's experience is definitely more than an anything an astronaut has been through - and seeing that included here makes the space-enthusiast in me happy. I also love the new hairdo! :P Wendell looks good with long flowing hair, nicely drawn. :P
Another thing I like is Wendell wanting, before he agreed to become Eon's champion, to know more about the nature of the threat he'd be facing. So that he could know how best to fight a threat to the entire universe, sure why not - but perhaps he also realized that if he accepted the role being offered to him then the threat would also, in all likelihood, become personal to him as well. Pragmatism for the win! :D.
But I must admit that one thing I find a bit surprising is that he (and SHIELD in general) didn't know already that the colonists on Uranus had died - and that therefore he'd only find a desolate cityscape (and possibly bodies) there. Didn't Crusader announce (during the course of his fight with the FF) that he was angry with the 'people of Earth' for withholding resources that he could have used to help 'his people'? So why would Dr. Vaughn send his son on a potentially dangerous mission that might ultimately not be worth much (for all he knew)?
Also, something I'm curious about - do we ever learn if the headband that Eon gave Wendell as part of his new costume was also a powerful tool? Or was it just cosmetic/an accessory?
Having read this, I've become interested in (and now like) Wendell as someone apart from 'the person who had the Quantum Bands after Bob'...which, if I'm honest, is where my interest in him started. The story is really interesting and I too like the art. In fact, I knew something about the unfortunate Mr. Wesley looked familiar and upon checking, I found that his hair is somewhat similar to that of Scott Lang (whom I like very much) as he's portrayed in some early-90s Fantastic Four issues that I have...which also had art by Ryan.
Thanks for doing this post for me,