BIOGRAPHY - page 3
Wendell’s friendship with Makkari continued to grow. When the speedster was invited by the Elder of the Universe known as the Runner to participate in a race between the Earth’s greatest 
speedsters, Quasar stuck close to the man to make sure everything was above board. He even invited the Eternal to stay at his home with his father, who was somehow alive and well. Though his father was acting strange and distant, Wendell chalked this up to him still being mad at him. When the race began, Quasar stuck close to make sure everything was all right and reassured his friend when he came second. [Quasar #17]
Soon after, Wendell had his first solo team-up with Captain America when the duo had to take down the villain Nefarius, who had kidnapped the super-villainess Moonstone. Secretly Wendell, who was still in awe of the Captain, was excited to be teaming up with the man and more excited to learn that Cap considered him a friend. Together the pair fought against Nefarius but, in the end, it was his prisoner Moonstone that overpowered him. [Captain America (1st series) #379]
When Quasar received a mysterious letter from his hometown, warning of a great cosmic threat, he rushed to investigate. However, upon arriving he suddenly lost his costume, his abilities and his memories of being a superhero. Confused and not remembering why he was there, Wendell visited his mother and sister, where his mother introduced him to a little boy next door named Billy. Billy, who loved superheroes, claimed to be in fact an ancient entity named Origin, whose sole purpose was to create superheroes. Billy claimed to have created Quasar and all the other superheroes on Earth but his work was being undone by his nemesis, the Unbeing. Billy offered to restore Wendell’s powers if he helped kill the Unbeing for him. Quasar was suspicious but agreed to go along with it, until he learned the Unbeing was an old woman in a hospital bed. Billy’s savagery in trying to smother the old woman convinced Quasar the boy was not who he claimed to be. Instead of blasting the old woman, Quasar instead blasted Billy, revealing the boy had lied 
and was in fact the Unbeing. The creature faded away and the old woman, who was really Origin, was grateful and rewarded Wendell with a new costume. Unknown to Quasar at the time, Origin had given him the costume retroactively, meaning she had rewritten time to make this his new costume from the beginning. [Quasar #18]
After the Avengers had their charter revoked by the US government, they embraced their international status with a charter from the United Nations. With such a change came a new roster but luckily Quasar’s membership continued on this new squad. He continued to participate in Earth bound super-heroics, both with the Avengers and solo. [Avengers (1st series) #329-340, Captain America (1st series) #383, Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #348]
When the Avengers rushed to Canada to aid Alpha Flight in fighting off an alien attack, Quasar met the enigmatic Her, a genetically-engineered “perfect woman,” akin to Adam Warlock. Soon after, Wendell, Her and some Avengers and Alphans were teleported to an alien world about to be consumed by Galactus. While the residents sought their aid against Galactus, several of the heroes debated whether they should interfere. Quasar felt his role as Protector meant he had to save these aliens, and argued in favor of stopping Galactus, a sentiment with which Her agreed. Through the group’s combined might, and the sacrifice of Vindicator, they drove Galactus away. Back on Earth, Wendell offered to be Her’s guide on Earth if she ever needed it. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #99-101]
After months of preparation, the time finally came for Quasar to face the challenge for which he had been preparing since becoming Eon’s Protector. Many of the trials Wendell had faced in recent months, the Watchers’ oblivion plague and the clash with the Unbeing, were the result of manipulations by the villainous Maelstrom. The half-Deviant, half-Inhuman had reached a higher level of being during a previous clash with the Avengers and set out on a quest to become a cosmic being and acquiring cosmic awareness. After seizing the cosmic role of the Anomaly, Maelstrom set his sights on killing Eon to steal his cosmic awareness.
Through the Unbeing, Maelstrom distracted Quasar long enough to enter the Earth without detection. Earlier, he had convinced two prisoners on the Stranger’s world, Starlight and the Presence, that Eon was a cosmic threat. When the prisoners escaped their captivity due to 
Quasar’s actions, they headed straight to Earth and attacked Eon. Quasar mistook this attack for the cosmic threat and managed to save his mentor, though not without revealing his identity to his secretary/love interest Kayla and staff member Ken. Far worse, upon returning home to his father’s house, he found his dad dead and learned that Eon had been sustaining his father for weeks since his death, all so that Quasar wouldn’t be distracted by his duties. The trauma of the attack meant that Eon could no long sustain Gilbert’s body. The whole revelation angered Wendell to no end, causing him to quit as Protector. [Quasar #19-20]
After his father’s funeral, the distraught Wendell returned to his office with his staff and Makkari to pick up the pieces. Miss Stockley, alive and whole after being seemingly devoured by Eon, had returned with a new secret pact with the entity to protect Wendell and his staff. Feeling he had no other choice, Wendell revealed his identity to her also. Trying to get back to normalcy, Wendell accepted an invitation from rich potential client Mr. Stromburg for the group to attend dinner at his mansion. Things took a dark turn, however, when Stromburg revealed he was in fact Maelstrom, who took Wendell’s friends hostage and killed Makkari, all before hacking off both of Wendell’s arms and taking the Quantum bands for himself. [Quasar #21]
Hung from the wall like a trophy, Wendell hit a new low of despair and longed for death. His call was answered by Deathurge, with whom Quasar had clashed on Uranus months ago. Wendell begged for death but Deathurge instead taunted the man and left him to hang. Soon after, Wendell was visited by a quantum specter of his predecessor, Captain Marvel, who had been sent by Eon. Captain Marvel told Wendell that Eon was sorry for what he did to his father. Wendell forgave Eon; it was himself he couldn’t forgive for his failure. Next, he was visited by a specter of 
his father, who told him how proud he was of him and asked for forgiveness for his flawed fatherhood. Now ready to die, Wendell was visited by an aspect of death, Kid Reaper, who ushered him into death. With Quasar dead, Maelstrom was finally able to seize control of the Quantum bands. [Quasar #22]
Wendell awoke within a black void, with a form made of energy seemingly created by Eon. He teleported out of the void into Eon’s pocket universe, where he was surprised to learn Eon was in fact gigantic, over six million miles across. Within Eon’s massive form, Quasar found Maelstrom linking with Eon’s brain to steal his cosmic awareness. Eon directed Quasar to kill him by blasting his brainstem. While Wendell was reluctant, he did as asked, killing his mentor. Quasar’s energy form did not dissipate with Eon’s death; instead he acquired his mentor’s cosmic awareness. In a rage, Maelstrom rushed into orbit and used his newfound abilities to stop the Earth’s rotation. Unable to stop him, Wendell instead retreated into the Quantum Zone where he was safe from Maelstrom’s cosmic awareness while he tried to formulate a plan.
In the Quantum Zone, Quasar encountered the cosmic entity Infinity, who had been the one who had provided Wendell with his energy form. Quasar had been chosen by Infinity in her conflict with her counterpart, Oblivion, for whom Maelstrom had acted as an avatar. Now chosen by Infinity to be her avatar, Quasar returned to the universe as Infinity’s champion to stop Maelstrom’s plan, which was to collapse the universe in on itself, leaving himself as the sole cosmic anomaly. The pair fought at the mouth of a black hole inside which Quasar managed to trap Maelstrom, seemingly killing him. However, the black hole did not cease, forcing Wendell to dive in to use his abilities to stop it. Snatched from death, Wendell found himself before Maelstrom, who had been saved by his benefactor Oblivion. Soon joined by Infinity, Quasar and Maelstrom fought as 
champions for their respective entities. Ultimately, Quasar managed to overcome Maelstrom, because Origin’s recent retroactive changing of Wendell’s costume had created a temporal anomaly. As the greater of two anomalies, Quasar destroyed Maelstrom.
Imbued with Infinity’s powers, Quasar returned to Earth to restart its rotation. Thanks to a bargain struck by Infinity and Oblivion, along with Death and Eternity, Quasar was permitted to return to life, along with Makkari. Eon, however, was to remain dead. Returning to life, Wendell created a new costume for himself, the first that hadn’t been created for him by someone else; signifying that the various stages of his apprenticeship were over. [Quasar #23-25]
Unknown to Quasar until he returned from battling Maelstrom, Miss Stockley was in fact Heather Douglas, the former Avenger called Moondragon. After briefly meeting Quasar during an Avengers meeting, Moondragon sensed the great comic role the man would play and decided he would make an ideal mate. Wendell, however, only had eyes Kayla and, while Heather tried psychically to force the woman out of the picture, Quasar made it clear he wasn’t interested.
Soon after, Quasar returned to Eon’s pocket universe, only to discover that he was not alone. Within the very mass of Eon’s gigantic corpse was a spaceship that doubled as a portable, cosmic cathedral. Quasar soon learned it was utilized by the Mourners, a religious group of extraterrestrials from an untold number of worlds who were dedicated to the commemoration of the passing of all great things in the universe. Having learned of the passing of Eon, the Mourners intended to memorialize his passing by holding funeral services. Seeing no harm in their actions, Quasar agreed to attend, hoping to find closure. Unfortunately, the funeral was crashed by Thanos, who had recently gathered the Infinity Gems and had detected the passing of his old cosmic foe. Drunk on the power he had acquired, Thanos gloated at the death of Quasar’s patron and easily shrugged off the Avenger’s attack.
Though he could have easily killed Quasar in retaliation, Thanos instead used the gems to create simulacrums of four previous Quantum Band wielders to battle, including Quasar’s immediate predecessor, Marvel Boy. While the battle was intense, Wendell managed to outthink his enemies 
by teleporting to the Quantum Zone and using its vast energies to overcharge the Quantum Bands of three of the others, incinerating them. Back in the Eonverse, he easily dispatched the Marvel Boy simulacrum and abandoned him there. Before he left, though, Quasar was surprised to discover a baby version of Eon, named Epoch, hatching from an egg. While Eon had been Wendell’s mentor, Wendell himself was now to fill that role with Epoch. [Quasar #26-27]
Quasar clashed again soon thereafter with Thanos, who through the gathered Infinity Gems was literally now all-powerful. Having used his powers to halve the population of the entire universe, Thanos had become the mutual enemy of all of Earth’s heroes, who moved to retaliate. Quasar’s first action as part of the resistance was in helping Epoch gather the universe’s cosmic entities, 
before joining the Earth’s heroes in an assault on the Titan. Once again, Wendell’s powers proved fruitless against Thanos. During the battle with Earth’s heroes, the Titan caused the Quantum Bands to explode, taking Wendell’s hands with them, all before disintegrating the man. Fortunately, though Thanos was later defeated by Adam Warlock, it was through the efforts of his duplicitous “granddaughter” Nebula that all that Thanos had wrought was undone, including the killing of Quasar. [Infinity Gauntlet (1st series) #1-6]
[Note: Quasar is depicted in Infinity Gauntlet, and some subsequent Avengers titles, wearing his previous costume. Though this is likely due to an artistic error, in Quasar (1st series) #28 it is explained he simply mistakenly wore the wrong costume on some occasions.]
Afterwards, things finally quietened down for the Protector of the Universe, allowing him some down time to hang out with Makkari and renovate his apartment. That down time didn’t last long, as he was soon called away by Hercules. Wanting to help the new Thor, Eric Masterson, hone his skills, the demi-god tricked Quasar into attacking him, under the pretense that Thor was possessed. Complicating matters was the Enchantress, who had also become involved due to her investigation into this “replacement” Thor. Using her magic, the villain mind-controlled Wendell into fighting Thor. In the end, Quasar’s Quantum Bands helped him return to his senses, after which Quasar and Thor helped Hercules drive away the Enchantress. Despite the fight and its deceitful origins, Thor and Quasar became better friends for it, though they taught Hercules a lesson by leaving the Prince of Power bow-tied to the Statue of Liberty’s torch.
The next day, the trio received a call from Captain American to explain their actions, only for the meeting to be interrupted by the return of Her. The cosmic woman explained that she had decided to revisit all of the men of power she had previously met, in hopes of choosing one of them to be her mate. Declaring Hercules to be among the candidates, Her hugged him and departed. It was Quasar who quickly noted that Her had left a small cocoon affixed to Hercules’ back. Though his Quantum Bands declared it safe, Quasar soon caught up with Her and demanded an explanation. Reluctantly, Her explained that Hercules was one of six candidates and all possessed similar cocoons, each of which would remain attached until they came to term. Impressed at Quasar for his resourcefulness in capturing her, Her declared Quasar a seventh candidate and promptly affixed a cocoon on him as well.
Though she escaped Quasar’s custody, Her soon found herself captured by Moondragon, who was angered for what she had done to her “beloved.” Fortunately for Her, Quasar tracked Her to Moondragon’s ship and stopped the woman from killing Her. The perceived choice of Her over Moondragon drove the telepath to renounce her claim over Quasar, deeming him unworthy of her. Now freed, Her’s cosmic senses returned, alerting her that during her captivity the other five candidates had managed to remove and destroy their cocoons. Surmising that while the other “mates” had rejected their pods, Quasar had actually shown concern for it, thus proving himself worthy of her. Appealing to her reason, Quasar made Her understand that her desire for progeny 
was not her choice, but that of her creators’, and that biology did not mean destiny. Impressed with him, Her removed Quasar’s genetic cocoon and declared that she would become his companion, until such time as he changed his mind about becoming the father of her children. Though uncomfortable with the implication, Quasar resigned himself to her decision. [Thor (1st series) #437, Quasar #28-29]
Back on Earth, Wendell tried to dissuade Her of her designs by showing her how boring his everyday life was. Unfortunately, bringing her to the office resulted in the loss of a potential client. While at the office, Wendell was surprised by the unexpected arrival of a Miss Stockley, who did not seem to be a disguised Moondragon. The mystery of this new Miss Stockley’s identity had to wait, as Quasar found himself summoned by the Watcher to his residence on the moon. The Watcher revealed that when Quasar had chased the Living Laser to the moon months before the villain had escaped through the Watcher’s viewing screen into the multiverse, splitting himself into multiple versions throughout various universes. As the Watcher could not intervene, he instead now tasked Quasar with travelling through the multiverse and absorbing each Living Laser into his Quantum Bands.
Quasar agreed and recovered each Living Laser with little incident. However, on the last world, he encountered the cosmically empowered Maelstrom and an Infinity Gauntlet-wielding Thanos destroying their universe in an epic battle. While trying to escape an energy blast from Maelstrom, Quasar was blasted outside the multiverse and into the greater omniverse. Quasar soon found himself crash-landed on Earth in a New Universe, a world very unlike his own with no counterparts to anyone he knew. With no Watcher on this world, Quasar had no portal through which to get home. Furthermore, his Quantum Bands were now cut off from the Quantum Zone and thus slowly losing power.
Quickly making friends with several of this world’s super humans, known as paranormals, Wendell learned of the mysterious Starbrand, the most powerful paranormal. Going under the assumption that this Starbrand possessed the largest reserve of “paranormal” energy on the planet, Quasar was able to use his Quantum Bands to track the individual, a former military pilot named Jim Hanrahan who claimed to have been given a star-shaped tattoo, the source of the Starbrand power, by a flying, glowing baby. Realizing that the man wanted to be rid of the Starbrand and that the powered tattoo might be his only way home, Wendell offered to take it and spent the next day telling his life’s story to alleviate any concern Jim might have to his motives or character. Finally convinced, Jim transferred the Starbrand to Quasar, who then used the power to teleport himself 
back to his native reality. Upon arrival at the Nexus of Realities in the Florida Everglades, Quasar sensed that the Starbrand had burned itself out during the transit. Unbeknownst to him, one of the miniature, phantom-like “antibodies” of the paranormal called Anti-Body had hitched a ride too. [Quasar #30-31]
Quasar soon became embroiled in Operation: Galactic Storm, a war between the Shi’ar and the Kree. When the Shi’ar constructed stargates in orbit of Earth’s sun, using the star to power the portals that acted as a hyperspace transfer point between each Empire’s respective galaxies, it was Quasar and the scientists at Starcore who identified that the device was damaging the sun.
Before they could investigate further, Quasar was called by Starfox to Mar-Vel’s tomb, located on a small moonlet above Saturn, where the pair captured Doctor Minerva and Captain Atlas trying to steal the late captain’s Nega Bands. Even as the two Avengers interrogated their captives, they were attacked by the Shi’ar’s Imperial Guard, who also wished to steal the Nega-Bands. Blinded by Manta, Quasar constructed himself a suit of quantum armor and used his sense of energy to target his foes, learning in the process that all but three of the Guardsmen were illusions. Together with Starfox, he defeated the Guardsmen, but during the chaos Captain Atlas succeeded in stealing the Nega Bands. As the pair fought, Atlas accidentally used the Nega-Bands to switch places with Rick Jones, who had been connected with Captain Marvel during the hero’s life. Unfortunately for Atlas, he found himself on Earth in front of Wonder Man, who quickly defeated and captured him.
With Thor, Sersi and the Vision, Quasar rescued the staff of the Starcore station from another solar flare, caused by the arrival of a massive Shi’ar fleet. The quartet were attacked by the lead ship but managed to easily fight their way onboard and capture the crew. With the threat of the alien war threatening their world, the Avengers split into three teams; one to speak with the Kree, another to deal with the Shi’ar and a third to remain on Earth. Wendell had a separate role to these groups: to remain with the stargate and monitor the sun’s deteriorating condition.
When some of the Earth-based Avengers’ Shi’ar prisoners escaped with the Nega Bands, Quasar was sent to intercept. However, they were attacked by two Imperial Guardsmen, Starbolt and Neutron. While Starbolt was easily subdued, Neutron proved especially tough, since he could absorb Quasar’s energy. Ultimately, Quasar was forced to teleport Neutron a light year away, leaving him in deep space. Quasar then hunted down the Shi’ar ship and learned the Naga Bands had already been teleported ahead to Shi’ar space. With Epoch’s help, Quasar identified the location of the bands and quantum jumped there to retrieve them, only to battle former Avenger Binary, now a Starjammer, and then more of the Imperial Guard. The Guard pulled the same trick on Quasar that he had used on Neutron earlier, leaving him abandoned in deep space.
Upon returning to Earth’s solar system, Quasar was surprised to discover the Shi’ar’s nega-bomb being towed through the stargates near the sun, headed for the Kree Galaxy. Though the Shi’ar 
empress, Lilandra, had decided not to go through with bombing the Kree, the massive bomb had been hijacked by the Skrulls, who had been manipulating events. Quasar attempted to stop the bomb’s transfer, fighting the Super-Skrull in the process, but was stopped by a powerful threat from the Skrull leader. If Quasar did not allow the ship and bomb to continue through the stargate, the Skrulls would detonate it in Earth’s solar system, destroying it. Quasar opted to let them go, rather than risk the Earth, though he intended to give chase.
Unfortunately, the action of moving the nega-bomb through the stargates tipped the sun past its breaking point. Antimatter sunspots now riddled the sun’s surface, leaving Quasar without a clue 
how to stop it. After seeking the cosmic wisdom of Epoch, Quasar came upon the plan of opening a portal to the Quantum Zone, sucking in the anti-matter to that dimension, where it would be harmless. Though he knew it would not be enough, Quasar began anyway, hoping to save the Earth against all odds. Fortunately, he was joined by Binary, who used her cosmic ties to a white hole to open her own vortex, finishing the job and saving the sun.
After dropping the exhausted Binary off at Avengers mansion, Quasar raced after the nega-bomb. However, the delay in saving the sun had proved too long and he didn’t arrive in time. The bomb went off, devastating the entire Kree Galaxy. Fortunately, the Avengers survived and reunited, after which they headed to Kree homeworld Hala to retrieve Captain America. After arriving at the devastated world, the Avengers learned that the entire war was the result of the Supreme Intelligence’s machinations. The Kree’s leader orchestrated not only the war but the construction and use of the Nega Bomb itself to use against untold billions of his own people, all to help kickstart the Kree’s stalled evolution. Horrified by this news, the Avengers were split on an ethical 
decision: whether to kill the Supreme Intelligence. Quasar sided with those opposed to the killing and personally tried to talk Thor out of it. In the end, half of the Avengers went through with execution, casting a dark shadow over the team on their journey home. [Operation: Galactic Storm crossover]