Issue(s): Quasar #34
Cover Date: May 92
Title: "The scorched sun"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Rurik Tyler - Penciler
Keith Williams - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
Her has been waiting in Earth's solar system, guarding the stargate. The Skrull ship towing the Nega-Bomb passes through, and Her is attacked by the Super-Skrull (although Her assumes it's another Shi'ar Imperial Guard).

Her fights Super-Skrull for a page and change, and gets knocked out. And then Quasar makes it back to Earth's solar system. Despite Super-Skrull trying to ambush Quasar, here is how the subsequent fight goes down.

And that's it.

I've gotten on my Monica Rambeau soapbox before, noting how she got the shaft while Mark Gruenwald was editing Roger Stern's Avengers, and then subsequently Gruenwald's pet, Quasar, got hoisted onto the team AND got his own book. And i've seen fans complain that the problem with Captain Marvel was that she was "too powerful". But here we have Quasar dispatching a villain with the powers of all four members of the Fantastic Four as an afterthought. Isn't that "too powerful"? It seems downright ridiculous to me. And yet i don't think i've ever seen people complain that Quasar is too powerful.

Quasar is about to cut the Nega-Bomb free from the Skrull tow-ship, but then he notices that the sunspots on the Earth's sun are getting worse and worries that it's because of the bomb. So he lets the bomb get dragged away after all. However, the sunspots continue to worsen even after the Nega-Bomb passes through the warp.

Quasar calls in Epoch to help with the sun. Epoch alerts Quasar that someone else has come through the stargate, so Quasar leaves Epoch to investigate the sun and flies back to find Her fighting with Binary.

It turns out that Binary was trying to retrieve the Nega-Bomb for Shi'ar Empress Lilandra. Quasar explains that he let it go because of the problems he thought it was causing for the Earth's sun. Binary is also human (although Quasar doesn't know it at first) so she's torn between going after the bomb or helping with the sun. She chooses the latter.

Epoch tells Quasar that the sun is covered with anti-matter that needs to be removed. Quasar hits on the idea of opening a hole to the Quantum Zone and pulling all the anti-matter into it. Epoch says it would take weeks for Quasar to suck it all up and he might not survive the experience, but he gives it a try. And he's bolstered by Binary. I love this footnote that is like "Yeah, we don't know what Binary is talking about". It reminds me of a similar situation when Blackout tried to describe his powers in Avengers #237.

Thanks to Binary's help, Quasar is able to fix the sun. But Binary exhausts her powers, and Quasar has to bring her to Avengers Mansion (not Project Pegasus?). It's at that point that he finds out that Binary used to be Ms. Marvel.

Quasar then heads back out to try to catch the Nega-Bomb.

In a subplot, Kayla is attacked by the Angler (who has been stalking her for the past couple issues), but the villain is mysteriously knocked out.

Kayla's brother Devon comes in to see what's going on.

I mentioned at the start of this that Bob Harras didn't love the idea of all the space stuff that was being used in X-Men, and so it made sense to bring the Shi'ar into the Avengers' corner of the world. I wonder if the developments for Binary are along the same lines. This story brings her back to Earth, away from the Starjammers, potentially de-powers her, and makes her available for use in the Avengers and Quasar (and the Starblast event).

Even ignoring my Captain Marvel obsession, i think it's a weird choice to have the fight with Super-Skrull happen in three one panel while several pages are devoted to Quasar flying around absorbing blobs of anti-matter on the sun. A fight with the Super-Skrull would have been more memorable and allowed for better visuals, and just would have been more fun. I do enjoy Quasar's interactions with Epoch in this issue. Epoch is very literal minded and is interesting in that she's cosmically aware/potentially omniscient but also new to the world. So that creates some fun scenarios.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part seventeen of Operation: Galactic Storm. It continues in Wonder Man #9. The situation with Kayla will continue next issue, which is a Galactic Storm Aftermath issue.

References:

• Kayla recognizes the Angler from Quasar #3.

Crossover: Operation Galactic Storm

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Given that I'm a big fan of Monica, I don't think her OR Wendell are too powerful. They're cosmic, they should be right up there.

"A fight with the Super-Skrull would have been more memorable and allowed for better visuals".
But that's been done soooooo many times already. The scenes with Quasar "flying around absorbing blobs of anti-matter on the sun" fit more in line with his role as the protector of the universe. Super-Skrull is a villain. In the grand scheme of things, the sun ranks higher on Quasar's priorities, IMO.

Thanos6 - Quasar can absorb Monica's powers if he really wanted to. Or, he could teleport her to the quantum dimension and leave her stranded there. That's why I think he's more powerful.

I agree he's MORE powerful. But I don't think either of them are TOO powerful.

Quasar works best as a solo character, exactly because he is so powerful. He is meant to star in a certain kind of story, somewhat like Superman.

Monica is powerful as well, but not to a comparable level, nor do I see her as actually cosmic - then again, it is not his power level that makes Quasar cosmic, either; it is his connections to Eon, Epoch and the Elders.

Anyone with half a brain would make saving the sun their priority. If something bad happens to the sun, that will directly affect all life on Earth (not maybe or possibly). Quasar made the right call.

It is true Quasar does sometimes overmatch supervillains a bit too easily (while sometimes having more trouble with supervillains who seem less powerful), though I'm not overly bothered by him defeating Super Skrull that quickly.

I guess I've never seen Super Skrull as that big a threat, even though I'm sure he started off as one. When you first see a guy with the powers of the whole FF, you think he must be unbeatable, but he can't use them all at once, and he doesn't have the powers at as high a level as they do, or with as much control. (Particularly The Thing - the old TOHOTMUDE I think said he could lift 5 tons, or 15 tons when powered up by the Skrull's beam.)

In my comics reading youth I saw him being beaten by Ms Marvel and Spider-Man, overpowered by Sasquatch and Hulk, and killed by Captain Reptyl, who I'd never seen as a major threat. So I'm okay with Quasar not having too much trouble with him here. Hulk didn't have much trouble with him either. I don't know if it was already established before PAD that he couldn't use all his powers at once for too long, but that was always how I'd seen him portrayed so it made sense.

Monica moves at the speed of light, plus in her energy form she is basically invulnerable. Any normal foe, including Quaser would never even get a chance to move before being blasted a couple of hundred times. Monica should be able to a whole team of villains like that Masters of Evil before they could even speak. So ya, she's a little overpowered.

It's not so much that Super-Skrull gets dispatched in one panel and you might not like that if you think he should be a bigger threat (personally, I'm a big fan of old K'L'Rt…and by the way, you should make it clear that he wasn't beaten by "Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man" separately, that was a team-up and they had to create a mini-black-hole to get him out of their hair…*), what's dispiriting to me is the relentless consistency with which Gruenwald applies the "if you don't have energy-based powers, it's one panel and a Quantum Bubble for you" to everyone, be it Venom (Quasar #6) or SS or, presumably, the Hulk. (Or Superman…)

I would have liked to see more cases where the "bubble wrap" wasn't as simple as Wendell thought it would be…for example, the Super Skrull is getting his powers beamed into him, so maybe that disrupts the Q-Bubble? Or maybe getting the Bubble punched really, really hard gives Wendell headaches like Susan Richards used to get if villains punched her force bubbles? Or anything to prevent Quasar's fights from always devolving into the Battle of the Blast Beams, which was pretty boring, visually.

*-OTOH, the Skrull did get beaten by Tigra in the prelude (Marvel Chillers 6-7) to that MTU story, so I'll admit he sometimes punches below his weight. Ah, well, we all have off days, right?

The easy solution is that Quasar's force bubble is dependent on Quasar's will when the force bubble is subjected to enough force. That would mean significantly strong foes could get out, and it's a content between Q's will versus their strength. Pick a lower tier where the force bubble can easily handle the force, a range where it is a content of chance where various factors can go either way, and a upper threshold where it is only a matter of time before the foe gets out. Or set up a situation where the quantum bands do not have infinite energy, and maintaining the bubble upon sufficient force drains it excessively so Q has to ration it on occasion.

@Dan Spector- Tigra only won because the Super-Skrull was sucked into some mystical thingie- she didn't been him in combat.