Issue(s): Quasar #37
Cover Date: Aug 37
Title: "Infinity manifestations"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Greg Capullo - Penciler
Harry Candelario - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
Quasar, Her, and Makkari are (still) waiting around with the giant space embryo from the previous arc. The embryo is leaking fluid, endangering the fetus.

Luckily, the Contemplator shows up.

And when he sees the problem, he summons a fellow Elder of the Universe, one that we haven't seen before, called the Caregiver.

Caregiver is able to heal the embryonic sac.

Contemplator says that he's in the area searching for someone that has been imitating him, which is our first clue that the Contemplator that we saw throughout Steve Engelhart's Silver Surfer run was an imposter. But before Quasar delves into that, he's contacted by Captain America, who casually announces that he's looking for Eternity.

Contemplator says that he can help Quasar find Eternity, but he can't bring Makkari and Her with him. So Quasar asks them to go back to the Mourners from the previous arc and tell them that the problem with the lost Kree souls has been settled. Her uses the word "kismet" again, but she's not yet changing her name.

What happens next is something i'm not too sure i understand and/or like. Contemplator takes Quasar to a voided place where the big abstract entities store body shells for themselves, like clothes in a closet. I'm splitting a double page spread in half here for readability.

The fact that Mark Gruenwald has used a specific configuration from Infinity Gauntlet, and makes some comments about Galactus and the Stranger not being abstract entities like the others, as well as the comment about the size discrepancy, makes me think that Gruenwald has an axe to grind with the way Starlin handled these characters in Infinity Gauntlet, or at least that he thought that there was something that needed explaining. He's definitely "explaining" the depiction of Epoch in that story.

I am sure some people like this sort of thing, but as i've said before, Gruenwald has a tendency to de-mystify the cosmic elements to the point where it all seems kind of mundane. John Byrne already established that Galactus looks like whatever a particular culture perceives him to be. That's all the explanation i ever needed about Galactus (i mean, to be frank, i'm fine with Galactus literally being a guy running around in a purple helmet with antennas, too), and i'm happy to apply that sort of explanation to the other entities as well, and even to a greater degree when it comes to the likes of Lord Chaos or Eternity.

Gruenwald goes further with this and introduces an entity called Anthropomorpho, who is in charge of these shells.

I find this to be really, really dumb.

Here are some more scans with Anthropomorpho's explanations, since i really don't feel like typing any more to explain this.

Since Quasar is a "physical", he doesn't really belong in Anthropomorpho's realm, so he's chased around by Anomaly for a while. The short of it is that he finds Eternity, or one of his "M-bodies", but it's catatonic, as we've already seen in Infinity War.

Meanwhile, Quagmire searches the area where he attacked Kayla and H.D. last arc, looking for the little guy that he fought (Antibody). He doesn't find him, but Antibody attaches himself to Quagmire as he's leaving.

As for Kayla and H.D., they are met by the Chief Examiner, who tells Kayla that she's the most powerful being that he's met on Earth, and he needs her help to defend his planet from the Black Fleet.

I'd guess your enjoyment of these issues depends a lot on how you want Marvel's cosmic entities to be treated. I don't mind a little exploration of them, but i want them to retain most of their mystery and make it possible for a group of (geeky) friends to sit around and argue about what they are and how they work. I didn't need someone to come along and define it all very explicitly for me, especially when that definition includes a guy that is literally called Anthropomorpho. Gruenwald seems increasingly out on a limb with this stuff, too. Jim Starlin will incorporate Gruenwald's creation Infinity into (appropriately enough) Infinity War, but characters like Anthropomorpho, Caregiver, Anomaly, and Origin never appear outside of Gruenwald's issues of Quasar, and that doesn't surprise (or disappoint) me at all.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Caregiver

Chronological Placement Considerations: See last issue's entry regarding the space between this issue and last, and see the comments in Infinity War #2 regarding Quasar's brief appearance in that issue. This takes place during Infinity Watch #3. The scene of Captain America contacting Quasar is repeated from that issue. Anomaly previously appeared in issue #20, but that was a flashback, and this is Anomaly's only other appearance, which is why i haven't listed him as a character appearing. I'm continuing to treat everything relating to the Chief Examiner as happening in another dimension operating on a different time flow, which will become very necessary once we get out of Infinity War.

References:

• Quasar remembers getting a glimpse of Eternity in Quasar #25. In that same arc, issue #20, Anomaly was seemingly killed and replaced by Maelstrom, but it's speculated that Maelstrom only killed a *sigh* M-body.
  
• When Quasar sees the initial group of empty manifestation bodies, he vaguely remembers the same grouping from Infinity Gauntlet #5. The memory is only vague because of the cosmic reset that happened in Infinity Gauntlet #6.
  
• While giving Quasar a tour of his little closet dimension, Anthropomorpho takes him into a room with a recent "reflection" of the scene of Adam Warlock's trial from Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1.
  
• The Chief Examiner previously appeared in Questprobe #1, Questprobe #2, Questprobe #3, and Marvel Fanfare #33. There's no footnote for that last one. There is a conceptual image of Wolverine among the other heroes, which does sort of acknowledge the Fanfare issue, although there's also an image of the Sub-Mariner, so maybe there's an Untold Tale out there somewhere.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Should Anomaly be tagged?

Personally, I love this kind of stuff. I'm one of those guys who likes everything known, explored, indexed, and filed.

I mention why i didn't tag Anomaly in the Considerations.

Gah, I'm sorry. My eyes must have just glazed right over that.

Caregiver must be related to Eccentrica Gallumbits...

Fnord, Anthromorpho does serve another purpose besides just Gruenwald's need to explain the cosmic beings. As we'll find out next issue, the Magus's duplicates of the heroes came from his dimension.

On the one hand, while it was nice to have an Infinity War crossover that wasn't the usual hero-fights-evil-clone scenario, I found Gruenwald's examination of the forms that various cosmic entities to be both tedious and, as fnord said, an unnecessary bit of de-mystification.

On the other had, I liked that Gruenwald used the Contemplator. What can I say? I've always had a certain fondness for Jack Kirby's more oddball concepts, including the former "Mister Buda."

It appears that Anthropomorpho is the universal embodiment of Zip-A-Tone :)