Quasar #2

Quasar journeys to the planet Uranus and learns the awesome origin of his wristbands and why he must become the next Protector of the Universe!

Summary

Putting his costume away, he spent several weeks at his mother’s hours in Wisconsin. He sat in his old bedroom basically avoiding life in general. Finally his mother contacted her ex-husband, looking for a way get her son to fight off the depression.

His father soon came up with a dangerous plan. Wendell would fly to the planet Uranus without any sort of spacecraft, where the power-bands were apparently constructed according to Robert Grayson, Marvel Boy of the 1950’s. Attracted by the prospect of spending time alone in the void of space, Wendell readily agreed. He quickly entered a heavy training regiment, which included confirming that the power-bands would protect the wearer in a vacuum, and mastering the controls of his equipment. Soon he was ready to go. He took off after some lengthy goodbyes, and penetrated the atmosphere and promptly was injected with a sedative and fell asleep.

The drug cocktail Wendell had been injected with slowed his bodily functions to a crawl and induced a coma-like suspended animation. Four years and nearly three billion kilometers later, Quasar found himself awakening as he neared the seventh planet.

He quickly identified something reflective on the surface of the planet. He had found the atmospheric domed city he had seen all those years ago in the vision he had received when he first put on the bands! He found the city largely decimated, the dome shattered, the city’s population flash frozen. There was an assortment of artifacts of both the Kree and the Eternals scattered around the city proper. He logged them as well as he could but was shocked to find that his communication device was no longer in contact with earth.

It was then that Deathurge made his presence known. He made quite clear that he intended to “help” Quasar succumb to his depression by killing him. After a brief chase in which it became clear that Deathurge could not be harmed by someone who was considering death as an alternative whether consciously or unconsciously, Quasar was seemingly killed.

Quasar found himself no longer on Uranus, where a tree with a face and a giant eye spoke to him. Calling itself Eon, it claimed to be over four billion years old, and to be the offspring on Eternity. It went on to say that it was responsible to make sure that life continued to thrive in the universe and to that end it was to appoint a universal protector. The most recent in a long line of Protectors died from the ravages of what the humans call Cancer. His name was Captain Marvel. Eon also said that the ‘Power-bands’ upon Wendell’s wrists are known as the Quantum Bands; they are not only powerful tools, but are traditionally the symbols of the station of Eon’s chosen Protector. It explained that Wendell had the necessary attributes of Intelligence, Courage, and Resourcefulness to be a worthy successor to Captain Mar-Vell as Protector of the Universe.

Eon required Quasar to specifically to protect it from a new universal menace of which it knew three things: 1) It would come from space. 2) It would manifest on earth. 3) It would attempt to slay Eon for the secret of cosmic awareness. Quasar agreed only after persuading Eon to accompany him back to earth so that he could better protect it. Eon altered his costume slightly, and opened Quasar’s mind to the full potential of the Quantum-bands and returned him to the surface of Uranus where Deathurge awaited him. Quasar quickly overpowered Deathurge, but before he retreated he issued a prophesy. ‘The next time we meet you shall beg me to kill you… and I will refuse.’ Quasar disregarded the cryptic message.

Eon accompanied Quasar back to Earth. Quasar now aware of the full capabilities of the bands, quantum-jumped back, reducing a four year journey to fifteen seconds.