Issue(s): Quasar #28, Quasar #29
Cover Date: Nov-Dec 91
Title: "Mating dance" / "Having her baby!"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Greg Capullo - Penciler
Harry Candelario - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
Oh Quasar, you are so hunky! Not only did Kayla Ballantine and Moondragon fight over you in the last arc, but these issues are all about how the cosmic female Warlock, Her, wants you to be her mate! And that's after considering a whole bunch of super-strong guys, including some gods! It seems that your purity and dedication make you even more desirable than guys with with huge pecs.

This is a very silly story although it does have a serious edge to it, like acknowledging the fact that what Her is doing in going around and putting birthpods or whatever on the back of various characters is a kind of rape and getting into the ethics of harming those pods, since they might in a vague sense be "life" depending on your stance on abortion (although in this case it's eventually determined that that's not a concern). The story also ends with an affirming "women don't have to get pregnant to be of value to society" kind of message at the end, although it's immediately undermined by having Her immediately return to hang around Quasar from now on.

I'm not going to dignify the story any more than that. The main thing you need to know beyond the fact that Her is going to be sticking around is that Moondragon eventually releases her control over Jack of Hearts and decides that Quasar is "not ready for a love as perfect as mine" and decides to stop pursuing him.

But let me go through some random events of note.

Epoch is referred to as a male in this story.

This is where it's acknowledged that Quasar wore the wrong costume in Infinity Gauntlet.

Issue #28 intertwines with Thor #437, with the majority of it taking place between these two scans, before Her starts impregnating people.

Captain America #395 also expands on some of the scenes above.

Wolverine is drooly.

The candidates that were chosen by Her include Hercules, Gilgamesh, Wonder Man, Hyperion, Ikaris, and Doc Samson. Here's a panel showing the candidates that were rejected during Her's impregnation spree, which is interesting for how people are categorized (e.g. Namor, Cable, and Vanguard seemingly not being included as mutants, Hercules not being disqualified even though Marvel's gods are sometimes treated like aliens, a similar situation regarding Hyperion even though he's from another dimension, etc.).

Hercules is hilarious.

C'mon, Her! Don't leave Herc standing ready like that!

Herc later starts begging everyone to smite him to get the pod off his back.

Here's the catfight portion of the story. Always works better if you strip down to your underwear first.

That (and this whole story, frankly) is Gruenwald at his worst, i.e. handling female characters. Here he is at his best, bringing various characters together to have them comment on their connections to each other. Plus more Hercules.

Greg Capullo's art is good for this lighthearted stuff, although everyone has too much of a baby face for my tastes.

The cover of issue #29 is referencing a Vanity Fair cover with a naked pregnant Demi Moore. At least Quasar had the decency to actually get pregnant for his photoshoot, unlike She-Hulk, who would only commit to holding a green beach ball. But of course even Quasar isn't really pregnant like that in the interior of the comic.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: A note says that this takes place after Infinity Gauntlet. The X-Mansion is back and Cyclops is wearing his new costume, but Wolverine is wearing his brown costume (none of that suggests an exact placement, but it's worth noting). I'm not counting the rejected candidates as Characters Appearing; i don't know what was involved in her "interviewing" of them. Thor #437 and Captain America #395 take place during Quasar #28. Wonder Man uses his jet pack in this story, placing this before the jet pack is destroyed in Wonder Man #3.

References:

• Quasar tells Jack of Hearts that he meant to go find him after he exploded in Quasar #20 but "things got really busy after that".
  
• Moon Knight knows Her from Marvel Two-In-One #61-63.
  
• Hercules tricked Quasar into fighting Thor in Thor #437.
  
• Quasar knows Her from Alpha Flight #97-100, where she acted like a good guy.
  
• Wonder Man says "Hi Doc, long time no see." to Doc Samson, with a footnote saying that they met in Marvel Two-In-One annual #7. I guess they didn't formerly meet in Contest of Champions or the Hulk's pardoning, but they definitely have seen each other since the Two-In-One story (with Hulk #316 probably making the biggest impression).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Personally I enjoy the running gag of Quasar being so hot that most of Marvel's women and several of the men want to sleep with him.

Quasar accidentally putting on the wrong costume still doesn't explain his hair, though.

I wonder what Gruenwald meant by "chromosome damage" listed next to... Cable? Was it a sneaky comment that Cable suffered from machoism?

Maybe it is a hint that Cable is a "mule" of sorts - his parents are both mutants, too far apart from the baseline human for their offspring to be fertile.

It would make sense, but that is not how Marvel treats mutants.

It's possible that this was written while Cable was going to be the clone and Stryfe the real deal. I don't know when that was the operative plan, or if Gruenwald would have known about it.

Maybe Gruenwald was referring to the virus Apocalypse infected him with.
In any case, it makes no sense not to refer to Vanguard as a mutant. He's a mutant- he just needs mechanical devices to help him control his powers. That's like saying that a black man with a hearing aid isn't really black because he needs a device to help him hear.

Never read this, but it seems fun. Dumb plot, but good comedy. I think Gru had written women perfectly well in the past (in DP7 among other things) but he did seem to be losing it by this point. I'm not sure Gruenwald and the artist actually worked together on that panel of Her's choices. The mutants are spread over the page, and what category is Nova in?

I find it more amusing, given Herc's look and expression ("Huzzah! I have been smitten!") to think that he just fell in love.

Well, Herc and Gilgamesh ARE living together in the current comics.... ;)