Issue(s): Quasar #26, Quasar #27
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 91
Title: "The eight billion year funeral" / "From here to maternity"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Dave Hoover / Greg Capullo - Penciler
Fred Fredericks / Keith Williams - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
The cover of issue #26 notes that this issue features Quasar in his All New and Final Costume. It doesn't mention that it features Moondragon in practically no costume. Makkari has managed to get himself in costume since last issue, but Moondragon not so much.

And issue #26 is all about beautiful women throwing themselves at Quasar. First Kayla Ballantine.

And then Moondragon (who also mind-controls Kayla into kissing Makkari, which is also the explanation for why she was snuggling with him in the previous arc).

Mark Gruenwald has been doing stuff like this for a while from his mind-control and body-swapping rape stories in Squadron Supreme, to Diamondback trying to force Captain America into sex in Captain America #319. The mind control element is softer here than in the Squadron story (if we assume that Moondragon wouldn't have forced Kayla and Makkari to go beyond "snuggling" if they weren't left alone), but the repeat situation of a 'bad girl' throwing herself at the whitebread hero who stoically refuses her advance... it feels like it's either a personal fetish or a calculated attempt at delivering fantasies to an adolescent male audience, and neither makes me comfortable. I can't say it's out of character for Moondragon, who did mind-control Thor into loving her in Avengers #219-220, but in that story she was a calculating villain that was in control (and wasn't running around in her underwear), whereas in this story she's an emotional wreck and earnestly wants Quasar to love her, which makes her totally psycho. And of course Quasar just lets this mind-controlling crazy person walk out the door without even thinking to contact the Avengers and see if there's anything they want to do about it.

Quasar then heads into the closet/pocket dimension where Eon used to be. A funeral is being held for Eon...

...and he and finds that the death of Eon has attracted a group of professional mourners.

I've mentioned a couple of times that i feel like Mark Gruenwald's treatment of the cosmic entities is on the pedestrian side, and i see these Mourners the same way. It's so matter of fact it seems silly.

Meanwhile, Thanos suddenly realizes that Eon is dead.

Someone seems confused here. Is it me? Eon created Drax? I'm fairly certain that Kronos created Drax in Iron Man #55. In the lettercol for issue #27, someone mentions the possibility that Kronos created Eon, which, as Michal notes in the comments, came from Captain Marvel #27, and the response notes, as Michael does, that the info in that issue wasn't really possible. Regardless, that doesn't offer a clue to clarify Thanos' seeming error here, which is central to the plot of this story.

On top of that, the scripting is just awful here. I expect Thanos to ride in to attack Quasar on his Thanos-Copter next.

After a three day period wherein Quasar visits his mom and helps Captain America, Quasar returns to the pocket dimension for Eon's funeral. And Thanos shows up.

Quasar is ineffective against Thanos.

Goofy.

It does come out that the Infinity that Quasar met last arc has nothing to do with Thanos' Infinity Gems, or at least so Quasar assumes at the moment. Which is a bit confusing.

Thanos decides that he has "other, greater foes to torment", so he leaves. But he first forms creatures for Quasar to fight from the dead body of Eon.

They are replicas of the previous wielders of the Quantum Bands. Some of them were seen previously in flashback in flashback in Quasar #3, and of course there's the original Marvel Boy.

Thanos also causes Eon's dead body, which is infinitely huge, to come pouring out of the pocket dimension and into Earth. Quasar, fighting the "Quantum Banders"...

...is unaware of this, but other heroes help out.

Oh, Greg Capullo and Keith Williams took a break after the Cosmos in Collision storyline, but they are back for issue #27.

Quasar is able to dispose of the Quantum Banders when he realizes that their bands are just replicas of the real thing, and he's able to overload them. The replica of Marvel Boy is the easiest to defeat.

He then finds out that Eon is being reborn, so he helps Epoch into the world.

The message of this story is that Quasar, despite officially being the Protector of the Universe, won't be too involved in the threat of Thanos.

Quasar was again succumbing to despair while fighting the Quantum Banders, but shook off his "dark urges". In the end Epoch gives him a final message from Eon, telling him that he was "the greatest of my champions", and that seems to cheer up Quasar for now.

Moondragon. meanwhile, decides that she needs an ally to help in her marriage scheme, and heads into space to retrieve Jack of Hearts, who has been floating in a cocoon since last arc.

And Her comes to New York. She's also looking for a husband. A lot of that going around.

Failing that, she also helps out with Eon's corpse.

I said in the Cosmos in Collision entry that it was unfortunate timing that the story invited comparisons to Infinity Gauntlet. The comparative writing abilities of Mark Gruenwald vs. Jim Starlin is again invited with this story, where Thanos comes across like a generic cheesy super-villain and Quasar feels comfortable enough to make lame jokes around him. Add to that the bewildering treatment of the female characters in this story and the pretty boring use of what originally seemed like an interesting use of the Quantum Band legacy, and this is not a good issue. On the positive side, the threat of Eon's overflowing corpse is a bizarre but cool addition to the chaos of the Infinity Gaunlet crisis, and the birth of Epoch is a nice surprise that promises a twist on the relationship Quasar had with Eon.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Epoch

Chronological Placement Considerations: The introductory scene in issue #26, showing Quasar and company returning from the fight with Maelstrom, takes place immediately after issue #25. The rest of the issue (beginning "three days later") may take place later, giving Quasar at least enough time to participate behind the scenes in Captain America #392. Her appears here after Alpha Flight #101. With relation to Infinity Gauntlet, Quasar is wearing his Quasar #18 costume in Infinity Gauntlet #2, but Epoch is around. The costume will eventually be explained. So based on that, Epoch's birth here should occur before Infinity Gauntlet #2. The problem with that is that Adam Warlock is shown at Dr. Strange's house (when Her comes looking for him) before the birth of Epoch, whereas in Infinity Gauntlet #2, Epoch is seen before Warlock arrives at Dr. Strange's place. One of the books must have a scene out of order. But broadly speaking, this arc takes place at the same time as Infinity Gauntlet #2. Sleepwalker's appearance (and that of the other heroes fighting Eon's dead body) is repeated in Sleepwalker #7, but that issue ends at the end of Infinity Gauntlet, so i'll be placing that issue later.

References:

• Moondragon failed to become the Celestial Madonna in Giant-Size Avengers #4, and now she's looking for a new husband.
  
• It's noted in issue #26 that during the three day gap, Quasar helped Captain America in Captain America #392.
  
• Her's return to Earth was shown in Alpha Flight #97-100.
  
• Her exhumed Warlock's corpse in Marvel Two-In-One #63.

Crossover: Infinity Gauntlet

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I do enjoy the funeral scene where Quasar gradually comes to term with the deaths of both Eon and his father, and shifts from atheist to more agnostic.

Odd - because when Quasar faces Thanos in IG 4, the dialogue implies it's their introductory meeting.

Nice pickup Bob not to mention Quasar is wearing his old costume ...

That was a very weak moment for our boy Wendell. I guess Mark Gruenwald does not understand atheism at all.

I'm pretty sure that his widow said he was an atheist or agnostic. What makes you say that, Luis?

I am an atheist and I read that panel. It is utterly disconnected from reality.

What did you find wrong with it? (Just did some quick research; yes, Gruenwald was an agnostic/Deist, but definitely not a theist)

So in IG#4 Quasar mentions 'not again' before getting cooked by Thanos. Is he referring to here in that he could beat Thanos at all?

The very first protector of the universe being the same race as Neutron from the Shi'ar Imperial Guard was a nice touch.

@davidbanes: I think he means losing his hands again.

Oh okay, can't say I know anything about losing hands then but mystery solved.

Maelstrom cut them off during the COSMOS IN COLLISION story in issues 19-25.

The red one-eyed mourner appears to be from the "Mega-Monsters" story in Godzilla.

Fnord, the idea that Kronos created Eon was mentioned in Captain Marvel 29. Unfortunately, that scene suggested that Kronos created Eon 8 billion years ago,some time after the formation of Uranus. When several people pointed out to Starlin that Uranus isn't 8 billion years old, Starlin quietly forgot about that part.

Ah, thanks Michael. That still doesn't explain why Thanos thinks that Eon created Drax, but at least now i know what that letter writer was talking about.

Possibly he doesn't believe that his father had the power to create Drax...? Good question.

It's possible Moondragon is still obsessing over her cousin's relationship with Demeityr and how happy they were together from Solo Avengers #18 which is fueling her obsession with Quasar here too. That ripped open the Celestial Madonna wound again.

@Michael: Starlin is going by Greek mythology. Uranus is not a personification of the planet, but of the sky.

Of course, he is also the offspring of Gaia, the Earth, so there is no point in expecting it to make chronological sense.

I think I must be the only person who actually ships Quasar with Moondragon...

In Quasar #27, page 14, Quasar muses "Infinity, why have you forsaken me?" After the 39 lashes and the crucifixion in the previous story arc, it really seems like Gruenwald is portraying Quasar as a whiney whitebread Christ figure. I don't know if he's trying to make some sort of point, or if he just isn't good enough as a writer to give Quasar a distinct personality.

There's s continuity glitch in Quasar #26 regarding the timeline of the Infinity Gauntlet. On page 8, Thanos and Mephisto are shown lounging around on the thrones of the shrine to Lady Death when Thanos starts laughing because he has just perceived that Eon has died. Mephisto then asks if it was a result of Thanos' "halving of the universe's population" and Thanos denies it, stating that his "population implosion did not affect the likes of him." And Eon's funeral is held "three days later."

However, in Infinity Gauntlet #1, Thanos creates his shrine to Lady Death and only a few pages (and minutes) later he wipes out half of the population of the universe. Those people stay dead/gone until early in Infinity Gauntlet #6 when Nebula uses the gauntlet to undo it by making everything be as it was "twenty-four hours ago." This establishes that everything from late in IG #1 to early in IG #6 took place over the course of only one twenty-four hour period.

So, there's the discrepancy: If Thanos wiped out half the population of the universe before Quasar #26 began and Nebula reversed that twenty-four hours later, how could Thanos have appeared at Eon's funeral three days after the universe-halving took place? And what about Epoch? Her birth took place after Eon's funeral means that it also took place three days after Infinity Gauntlet #1 so how could she appear in IG #2-6?

I vaguely recall that this problem was discussed...somewhere...but I don't remember where. Help?

Thanos isn't omniscient (unless he consciously wishes to use the gems to be) so maybe he only becomes aware of Eon's death when doing a conscious check of what his old enemy is up to, by which point Eon has already been dead a while? I mean, Quasar is already aware at the start of this issue, but Thanos isn't. I haven't got the issue to hand so not sure if it specifies that the three days took place between Thanos found out and before Thanos arrives at the funeral?

If you really had to come up with a fix, you could also say that when Nebula says "24 hours" she is using, I dunno, Saturnian hours or Xandarian hours or wherever the hell she was raised, and 24 of them add up to more than 3 Earth days. Not that an alien who has spent very little time on Earth would have actually said "24 hours", that's just our closest translation.

Quasar #26 does specifically state that Eon's funeral takes place three days after Thanos discovered that Eon had died. The problem arises from the fact that he and Mephisto refer to his halving of the population as something which has already occurred.

The chronology from Infinity Gauntlet is simple: Thanos kills off half the universe on Day One, Earth's remaining heroes confront him and die on Day Two, then Nebula steals the Infinity Gauntlet and resets the universe to "twenty-four hours ago" so that everyone who died (in IG #1) was only gone for a matter of seconds. If you want to say that the elapsed time wasn't exactly 24 Earth-hours and that the Gauntlet responded to Nebula's will to undo the biggest use that Thanos had made of the Gauntlet's power instead of to her exact words, then I won't disagree. Personally, I was thinking that maybe the Time Gem had somehow given both Thanos and Mephisto some sort of premonition of what Thanos was even then thinking of doing, something that he had previously promised Mistress Death that he would do.

Anyway, my main reason for posting these comments was to ask if anyone remembered such a discussion having taken place online and to find out where said discussion might be found.

I think in general when you're offered a specific time of unseen events like that, you've got to ignore them.

There's a similar one in Infinity War again involving Quasar and 3 days!