QUASAR versus THANOS
Cosmic Battle on the Edge of The Universe! (Marvel)
Where: Infinity Gauntlet #4 When: October 1991
Why: Jim Starlin How: Ron Lim & George Perez
The Story So Far...
When the Silver Surfer crash lands to Earth through the roof of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum -- he brings ominous warning of the greatest threat the universe has ever known! Thanos lives and has taken possession of the Infinity Gems of Soul, Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space to form the omnipotent Infinity Gauntlet!
The Mad Titan's mission is to eradicate half of all sentient life in existence! A feat he achieves in an instant with but a mere thought! His quest to court the mistress Death does not end there, though. His dominion is now all that exists in the known universe -- a reality, his to dominate and reshape!
Ripples of Thanos' power echo throughout the universe, causing mayhem and destruction on Earth, where the mightiest heroes assemble in conference to discuss the unknown threat. The unexpected arrival of Adam Warlock provides limited answers as he takes command, selecting a special task force to confront Thanos in a desperate ploy to save the universe from The Infinity Gauntlet!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Thanos 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Thanos 5 (Professor)
Speed: Quasar 5 (Super-Speed)
Stamina: Thanos 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Quasar 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Thanos 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Thanos 6 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Thanos 34 (Super)
The heroes have suffered severe casualties, losing Thor in the ninth wave, and Nova immediately after! Their cosmically powered reserves are running low, but a new player is finally ready to enter the game and take Thanos on!
Quasar is Wendell Vaughn, wielder of the mighty cosmic Quantum Bands! They were created by Eon, and intended to be worn by Captain Marvel, but fate instead brought them to Earth. As an agent of SHIELD, Vaughn was forced to don them during an attack on a research facility by Advanced Idea Mechanics!
Vaughn quickly learned to master the Quantum Bands with a flexible will, harnessing the near limitless energies of the Quantum Zone. He can construct hard objects from light, create personal forcefields, fly and teleport through space, and manipulate and absorb energies in compliment to his own.
This is the first time we're seeing Quasar on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, so there's no record to draw upon. We've seen Captain Marvel using the derivative Nega-Bands created by Kree science [Captain Marvel #26], but their power spectrums are ultimately quite different.
Quasar's battled the likes of: Galactus, Terminus, Annihilus, The Magus, Ego the Living Planet, and many more villains -- not necessarily ending in -us! He's no stranger to fighting Thanos and surely has the power to stand against him.
There's some general similarity between Quasar and Cloak, in that both has access to the energies of a pocket dimension. The Darkforce Dimension was no match for Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet in Round 7's sneak attack, but perhaps the vast possibility of the Quantum Zone can produce different results.
The stage is set for a cosmic showdown! Let's forge ahead to see how it went!
The Tape: Thanos Ranking: Thanos (#11)
What Went Down...
Shards of glass scatter across the battlefield as Thanos brings an end to the life of the man once called Thor. With solemn and grim determination, Quasar steps onto the battlefield and demands Thanos turn to face him.
The Mad Titan immediately recognizes Quasar as the spiritual successor to his deceased former nemesis, the late Captain Mar-Vell.
Quasar identifies himself as the wielder of the Quantum Bands, and assures Thanos they will be his downfall. The omnipotent villain is unconvinced.
In a sudden, unexpected explosion of light & power Quasar's hands are taken from him -- and with them, the power of the Quantum Bands!
Where: Infinity Gauntlet #4 When: October 1991
Why: Jim Starlin How: Ron Lim & George Perez
The Story So Far...
When the Silver Surfer crash lands to Earth through the roof of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum -- he brings ominous warning of the greatest threat the universe has ever known! Thanos lives and has taken possession of the Infinity Gems of Soul, Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space to form the omnipotent Infinity Gauntlet!
The Mad Titan's mission is to eradicate half of all sentient life in existence! A feat he achieves in an instant with but a mere thought! His quest to court the mistress Death does not end there, though. His dominion is now all that exists in the known universe -- a reality, his to dominate and reshape!
Ripples of Thanos' power echo throughout the universe, causing mayhem and destruction on Earth, where the mightiest heroes assemble in conference to discuss the unknown threat. The unexpected arrival of Adam Warlock provides limited answers as he takes command, selecting a special task force to confront Thanos in a desperate ploy to save the universe from The Infinity Gauntlet!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Thanos 6 (Invincible)Intelligence: Thanos 5 (Professor)
Speed: Quasar 5 (Super-Speed)
Stamina: Thanos 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Quasar 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Thanos 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Thanos 6 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Thanos 34 (Super)
The heroes have suffered severe casualties, losing Thor in the ninth wave, and Nova immediately after! Their cosmically powered reserves are running low, but a new player is finally ready to enter the game and take Thanos on!
Quasar is Wendell Vaughn, wielder of the mighty cosmic Quantum Bands! They were created by Eon, and intended to be worn by Captain Marvel, but fate instead brought them to Earth. As an agent of SHIELD, Vaughn was forced to don them during an attack on a research facility by Advanced Idea Mechanics!
Vaughn quickly learned to master the Quantum Bands with a flexible will, harnessing the near limitless energies of the Quantum Zone. He can construct hard objects from light, create personal forcefields, fly and teleport through space, and manipulate and absorb energies in compliment to his own.
This is the first time we're seeing Quasar on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, so there's no record to draw upon. We've seen Captain Marvel using the derivative Nega-Bands created by Kree science [Captain Marvel #26], but their power spectrums are ultimately quite different.
Quasar's battled the likes of: Galactus, Terminus, Annihilus, The Magus, Ego the Living Planet, and many more villains -- not necessarily ending in -us! He's no stranger to fighting Thanos and surely has the power to stand against him.
There's some general similarity between Quasar and Cloak, in that both has access to the energies of a pocket dimension. The Darkforce Dimension was no match for Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet in Round 7's sneak attack, but perhaps the vast possibility of the Quantum Zone can produce different results.
The stage is set for a cosmic showdown! Let's forge ahead to see how it went!
The Tape: Thanos Ranking: Thanos (#11)
What Went Down...
Shards of glass scatter across the battlefield as Thanos brings an end to the life of the man once called Thor. With solemn and grim determination, Quasar steps onto the battlefield and demands Thanos turn to face him.
The Mad Titan immediately recognizes Quasar as the spiritual successor to his deceased former nemesis, the late Captain Mar-Vell.
Quasar identifies himself as the wielder of the Quantum Bands, and assures Thanos they will be his downfall. The omnipotent villain is unconvinced.
In a sudden, unexpected explosion of light & power Quasar's hands are taken from him -- and with them, the power of the Quantum Bands!
Thanos sneers, observing the suffering of his opponent with callous disregard. As Quasar grapples with the harrowing anguish of losing his hands for a second time, it's the suffering of delusions of grandeur that Thanos notes aloud.
Looming over his foe, Thanos fires beams of energy from his eyes as if to exterminate the insect after watching it squirm wingless for a moment.
With Quasar's bravado extinguished in an instant; Thanos is left to contemplate victory, arms folded amidst the broken and beaten bodies of his enemies. Only his perfect woman Terraxia is left standing -- and one mortal hero whose resolve far outweighs his human frailty. The last hero standing!...
The Hammer...
Another vicious irony delivers Thanos to victory. The cosmic omnipotence of the Infinity Gauntlet is now his foremost weapon. The heroes clearly have little to no chance as bitter ironies deliver swift death.
Over the course of the hero's gauntlet, we've seen Thanos deal some truly cruel and spiteful fates. Encasing Cyclops' head in a suffocating cube was a nasty way to end the sixth wave. Reducing Wolverine to quivering rubber in Round 5 - a fate possibly worse than death. The growth that took She-Hulk and Sub-Mariner was the earliest sign this wouldn't be the fair fight it was made out to be.
Quasar's end might contend for cruelest death of them all, though.
It was earlier the same year, in Quasar #21, that he first had to deal with the horror of having his hands removed. That's what he's referring to when he laments the loss of his appendages again, in a state of shock. That was the handiwork of Maelstrom: A villain of lesser means than Thanos, without the same proclivity towards senseless death.
Perhaps there was a ruthless efficiency to using his cosmic powers to remove Quasar's hands, and the source of his power with them. I'm more inclined to think Thanos could've gone straight to killing him, though. This was tantamount to a mean-spirited child tearing the wings off an insect before killing it.
Your mileage on sympathy for Quasar may vary. I daresay he was never the coolest second tier hero around. Some of his cosmic exploits were comparable, but he never reached the high-octane madcap thrills of Captain Marvel. When Quasar wasn't hanging with name heroes, or fighting name villains, it could get a little stale. I wouldn't want to offend any blonde kids named Wendell, but y'know... Stardom will probably be an uphill battle.
Of course, the benefit of characters like Quasar falling out of favour at the turn of the millennium was that they did fall into some pretty wacky scenarios. I'm reluctant to heap too much praise on Star Masters, but any team-up with Beta Ray Bill and Silver Surfer is instantly gonna increase the appeal of a character.
It doesn't say much for Quasar that he got wrapped up in New Universe shenanigans, but the re-think of Annihilation did a whole lot for making up for it. The Quantum Bands may've gone to a new character, but Quasar got to help whoop Annihilus, and turn into some kinda quantum being. Nice one, Wendell!
If you want quantum insights and to harness the powers of The Infinity Gauntlet for yourself, all you need to do is pick up the collected trade paperback! Shopping via the Amazon link provided should deliver you to a good deal and you'll help support the site at no extra cost! All thanks to the fine folks at Amazon!
If you want to put it all into the context of The Comic Book Fight Club then all you need to do is dive into the Secret Archive! There you'll find every featured fight indexed via publisher, series, and issue number! Every Infinity Gauntlet battle is there to be run through in sequential order!
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This is the penultimate battle from Infinity Gauntlet #4! If you're reading along at home you can jump backwards to the previous battle by clicking here, or advance to the final struggle by clicking right here!
Winner: Thanos
#11 (--) Thanos [+1 kill]
#847 (new) Quasar (Wendell Vaughn)
Infinity Gauntlet #4
Thanos runs the gauntlet of heroes in a special series spotlighting the classic cosmic showdown!
Versus Wave 1, Hulk & Drax, Wave 3, Thor & Dr. Doom, Wolverine, Wave 6, Cloak, Firelord & Drax, Iron Man, Spider-man & Thor, Nova, Quasar, Captain America
Thanos runs the gauntlet of heroes in a special series spotlighting the classic cosmic showdown!
Versus Wave 1, Hulk & Drax, Wave 3, Thor & Dr. Doom, Wolverine, Wave 6, Cloak, Firelord & Drax, Iron Man, Spider-man & Thor, Nova, Quasar, Captain America
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