Issue(s): Quasar #55
Cover Date: Feb 94
Title: "In a Stranger land"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
John Heebink - Penciler
Aaron McClellan - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Editor

Review/plot:
In a psychiatric hospital "somewhere", a catatonic patient wakes up.

He warns his doctor about a pending invasion, citing his known psychic powers as proof. The narration is deliberately vague about the location of all of this because it's actually occurring in the New Universe. The patient is Nightmask.

Meanwhile, the group of heroes with Quasar, now bolstered by the inclusion of some Shi'ar Imperial Guards and a Shi'ar spaceship and crew, continue to follow the trail of the Starblasters, the space pirates that kidnapped Quasar's girlfriend and the bearer of the Starbrand, Kayla Ballantine. They have to navigate past a bomb trap left by the villains. While they are traveling, we also get a minor development for Captain Marvel. Her fight with Manta in the previous chapter has somehow restored some of her old powers.

I'd say that this was a major development, but Monica's powers have been depicted so inconsistently since her depowering that's it's hard to keep track of what's actually new. In fact, in the first part of this crossover i was surprised at how easily she was captured by the tentacles. I was like "Just use your powers!". So i don't know if Mark Gruenwald had an even stricter interpretation of her powers than what was actually depicted in her solo oneshot, or if i've just been misled by the way she was shown in Atlantis Attacks and other minor appearances like that. In any event, things will develop even further for her in this series, although weirdly for reasons unrelated to what we see here.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Starblasters, Skeletron, has delivered Kayla to the Stranger.

Skeletron wants to trade the Starbrand to the Stranger in return for learning the Starbrand's place of origin and how to get there.

When the heroes get to the end of the trail and realize that they're at the Stranger's planet, Gladiator says that they can go no further. The Shi'ar have a treaty with the Stranger: as long as the Shi'ar don't bother him, he won't use their people for experimentation. Apparently Voyager, Moondancer, and Solar Wind were previously prisoners of the Stranger (and i hope that's not a reference to the Quasar story, since i didn't see them there). Quasar therefore says goodbye to the Shi'ar, and his own group teleport to the planet and get into a fight with the Starblasters.

Meanwhile, the three Imperial Guards that were formerly prisoners of the Stranger decide that they want to join the fight, even if it means resigning from the Guard.

We already have a lot of characters to juggle here, so keeping these three in the mix wasn't exactly necessary. I do have to acknowledge my bias against anything Imperial Guard related. But i mean, did we really need a guy whose power is to blow on people?

Obligatory: Solar Wind blows!

This issue ends with the fight unresolved and the Stranger still working on locating the source of the Starbrand, which he says will require removing it from Kayla.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is technically part six of Starblast. But i'm covering all the Quasar/Starblast issues sequentially. So i'll cover Starblast #3 next.

References:

• Captain Marvel fought Manta in Starblast #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Anyone know if Voyager, Moondancer and Solar Wind are supposed to be based on members of the Legion of Super-Heroes? Moondancer looks like she could be an expy for Dawnstar.

Moondancer is almost certainly a Dawnstar homage.

Solar Wind and Voyager have no obvious LSH parallels, though, unless you include Gates, who was created later.