Philosophically, this might be a callback to Quasar #2, where Deathurge recounts via flashback how the Uranian Eternals (that had originally given Marvel Boy the Quantum-Bands, although they didn't invent them) discovered if not the Grand Unified Theory, then the secret to Life, the Universe, and Everything, and collectively it pretty much did them in: afterwards they didn't feel that they had anything left to strive for, so why bother? (The same thing happens to Professor Farnsworth in the "Future Challenge 3000" segment of the "Reincarnation" episode of Futurama.) If the unexamined life is not worth living, the over-examined life didn't seem to be worth it either: you kind of need to find the sweet spot in the middle.
Or, this could also be from Speed Force #1, of all things; where Barry has a momentary doubt whether he and Wally are even human any more. I want to say Gaiman did that too, in Secret Origins with the Flash, but that was Robert Loren Fleming! Was Barry just a lightning bolt in the shape of the person he used to be? I'd say no and Wally probably would too, but it's a compelling argument.
I'm with MK on this one- if you think you're alive, good enough. There's been way too many discussions about this sort of stuff. And especially with fictional characters, things end up meta really fast.
ReplyDeleteI just hope they don't get too into discussing stuff and 8-Ball and the rest end up escaping. I mean, a detainment facility's not a great solution but it's somewhere for the story to go at least.
That does raise a good point that poor Quasar sure has died an awful lot. It seems as though he was the go-to guy to kill of at Marvel to show off just how powerful & badass his killer was. Or at least I think that was the intention. Maybe they just got bored of him & it was a Tuesday. Who knows. But yeah, comics-wise Wendall's died more times than Marc (that we know of because I still think there's plenty of unchronicled times where he died a good bit. I know he dies in an issue of his anthology series recently.)
ReplyDeleteYou definitely should do that Quasar can see Khonshu bit though once you get him. Plenty of mileage to had with that interaction.
It would be a very Silver Age thing to do to Barry to have him be a human-shaped lighting bolt wouldn't it? So apparently Alan Moore wasn't the first person to go there. Nice.
There's no way Barry Allen can be a lightning in human form, because that would make him somewhat interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs for Quasar, I remember when he came back as the quantum hologram thing in Abnett & Lanning's Nova series (after they killed him off originally in the run-up to Annihilation), and Wendell really didn't seem too weirded out by the situation. More like, "Wow, I'm alive as a bunch of quantum energy! Neat."
Maybe Quasar is just the most well-adjusted person in the Marvel universe (low bar, I know.)
@CalvinPitt: Ha, ha point, point.
ReplyDeleteI mean, he didn't freak out over that infamous cover where he was pregnant, so yeah, you might be right about that, The only time he seemed to really freak out (and VERY understandably I might add) is when Thanos turned his hands to legos & blew them up during the IG.
Hey, no Barry Allen slander please- he's way more interesting than Hal Jordan or Wally West ever was. That sort of late 80's/early 90's thinking is what turned DC into the mess it is now.
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