So, now SHIELD agent Avril Kincaid has the Quantum-Bands and is even being called ‘Quasar’ by Wendell Vaughn. As a long-time fan of Quasar, I find this transfer of mantle to be bittersweet. On one-hand, Wendell Vaughn and the Quantum-Bands are getting attention they haven’t been since the Annihilation event when Wendell Vaughn was killed off. I mean, it’s nice that some modern fans will finally get to see what the bands are capable of- which I’ve known for years. On the other hand, Wendell passed the torch to someone else, and according to writer/creator Nick Spencer Marvel has “big plans” for this new Quasar- big plans that outside of the late Mark Gruenwald they have never had for Wendell Vaughn. Marvel even had big plans for Phyla-Vell when she was called Quasar... but never for Wendell Vaughn. In fact, Marvel has spent more time lampshading the old Quasar’s failings or outright making a joke out of him then they have spent trying to make the character viable (let alone successful) in the Marvel Universe’s status-quo over the past two decades.

Wendell Vaughn was interesting to me partly because he was a pacifist, because the extermination of life was not something that the Protector of the Universe should be capable of. The idea of pacifism was nearly unheard of in Marvel in the early 90’s. Wendell would contain or neutralize enemies rather than make any effort to harm them, the exception being when a planet or the universe itself was at stake. But then, Joe Quesada never quite got the “lack of killer-instinct thing”, so any chance the Wendell Vaughn might have had died right there except that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning liked the character and showed him some of the respect he deserved if only for a brief time in Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy. This is, of course nothing new to me. Since Wendell was stuck in limbo for years prior to Annihilation and then killed off and replaced, I have had some trouble wanting to patronize a company that blatantly ignores a fan-base (small and rabid though it may be).

In universe, I have some trouble accepting the logic of Wendell Vaughn bringing the Quantum-Bands to Earth and placing them under the care of SHIELD. Never mind, the fact that the idea of Wendell Vaughn losing control of the q-bands has NEVER been brought up before, suddenly now its an issue he’s been dealing with for a while… The Q-bands are part-and-parcel with the station of Protector of the Universe, so why not ask Epoch to find a new Protector. Why bring them back to a planet you exiled yourself from for years? Why bring them to an organization whose track record keeping fantastically powerful weapons locked away isn’t great. As far as I can tell, Wendell Vaughn has never so much as met Maria Hill, She’s never betrayed being aware of Vaughn, over the past 10 years when a cosmic level danger has reared its head (Civil War, Infinity, Age of Ultron, Fear Itself, Original Sin... etc…), SHIELD director Maria Hill nor even Steve Rogers ever so much as included the Protector of the Universe/former Avenger in any of their contingencies.

So, by bringing the Quantum-Bands to Earth and handing them to another human, Wendell Vaughn is completely disregarding the station of Protector of the Universe. What conclusions can we draw from this? The universe no longer needs protection? Epoch isn’t in charge of deciding who the Protector is anymore? Putting Wendell back on Earth and under the employ of SHIELD again creates a void in the cosmic side of things. A void that cannot be filled by Avril Kincaid as based on all appearances she will be hypothetically training on Earth for the foreseeable future- but I’m sure she’ll be competent with the Q-bands by the time of the next crossover event and integral to the plans of Steve Rogers and/or whoever makes those types of plans… because "Marvel has BIG PLANS” for this Quasar! Just never for the other Quasar.