This was the opener for probably the book's greatest epic, the seven-part "Cosmos in Collision," and opens in prolog with the Eternal Kronos. Who, while investigating the "life force" of his people, was blown apart, but didn't die. For five thousand years, his mind and consciousness had been expanding: in volume, he was larger than Saturn, but in density far, far less so. Oddly, today he meets another not unlike him, another virtually immaterial being, who says he has no name, anymore: he explains, "beings jealous of my power forced me to hyper-enlarge," which is technically true. So, what to do with this new existance? Kronos says he used to keep busy with "parochial concerns," as a god to the Eternals of Titan, but as he expanded he seemed to lose focus on them, which meant he wasn't super-paying attention when Thanos rose up. Kronos may have made a bit of an attempt to stop Thanos, but the Mad Titan had returned yet again, and...enh. His new thing, was trying to see Infinity, one of the abstract entities of the universe, which intrigues the newcomer, who immediately leaves, intent on partnering up with one...
Back on earth, Quasar is hanging out with the ex-Squadron Supreme, who were still trapped on our earth, at Project: Pegasus; awaiting a house call from Doctor Strange. Strange warns Quasar he had felt "a presence...something evil," which Quasar worries could be the big threat he had been watching for; but the Squadron interrupts, anxious to return to their earth. Unfortunately, his spell doesn't work, only sending them halfway--literally! Quasar has to pull them back together on this side, as something is blocking their return from the Squadron's earth. Namely, that dimension's new Sorceror Supreme, Dr. Lightner; and Strange had to respect his "proprietorship," that was out of his jurisdiction. Moonglow, the Squadron's magic-user, thinks her son would eventually be able to get them home, but not yet.
Meanwhile, in space, Jack of Hearts is towing a chain of small ships towards earth, refugees and escapees from the Stranger's laboratory planet in Quasar #16. They're a few pages away from arriving, though: Quasar makes an appearance at his security company, where he finds the mysterious Ms. Steckley returned, after being missing for two weeks. He doesn't know she peeked behind the bookcase where his cosmic mentor Eon stays, though, or that she was still in psychic contact with him. Still, she had been neglecting her own well-being, and needed time to recover: back at her place, she undresses for a bath, removing everything including her hair! This would be a big clue to who she really was.
Later, Wendell Vaughn has a date with his secretary Kayla, when of course his bands detect Jack's arrival. Forced to bail, he does the unusual-for-the-time option of being honest, and tells Kayla his secret identity right there, then takes off, leaving her a bit stunned. Finding Jack, Quasar tries to ask what's up, and the often-cranky Jack tells him to piss off, then takes a shot at him. Knocked backwards since he used both hands to shoot at Quasar, Jack breaks a porthole on one of the ships, and the Gargoyle nearly gets sucked into vacuum before Quasar saves him. (Sorry, Gargoyle fans, I think that's it for his appearance in this storyline!) While Jack rants, Quasar realizes what happened to him on the Stranger's planet, but is unwilling to let who knows who loose on earth; including the unstable Jack. He had a pretty standard playbook by then, though, and starts by using his quantum-bands to drain Jack's energy--which he needed to live!
Quasar lets up, not wanting to hurt him, and gets in a bubble with him, intent on getting him medical help. Furious, Jack lashes out, a blast that ricochets around the bubble until it knocks Quasar out. Great, now kill him, suggests a new player: Sergei, better known as the Presence; accompanied by his girl, the second Red Guardian. (I swear she used to be a character in old Defenders comics, but even prior to this had been reduced to little but arm candy, and completely ineffectual or uninterested in stopping the Presence from consistently and repeatedly being a dick.) If Jack won't kill Quasar, the Presence will, then "nothing can stop us from making our presence known to Eon!" First off, using your own alias in a threat like that? I'm not sure if I should be impressed, but there you go. And is the Presence the big-bad Quasar had been waiting for? What's his beef with Eon? Well, there's still a couple issues of this one I haven't blogged, which I'd bet we get to before I get that friggin' Quasar figure...
EDIT: Smurfberry crunch, it finally happened: I already blogged this issue, like six years ago! Ugh. We'll be more careful for reruns going forward.
2 comments:
I remember Maelstrom from his 1992 Marvel Trading card and I don't think I was too, too impressed by him. I didn't know jack about him other than what the info on the back of his card said. I certainly didn't know he'd been around for about 11 years at that either. I guess he was supposed to become a major cosmic threat again after Gruenwald brought back from obscurity, only for him to right back there after his eventual defeat. Power-wise he should've been a big deal for awhile, but that wasn't to be. He's shown up a few times here & there in the modern era, but still doesn't seem to accomplish much.
I read how Mr. Immortal of the GLA talked him into a suicide pact w/ him and that's he died. Funny AF though, but VERY humiliating for your rep.
Still waiting for that classic Jack of Hearts ML figure as well.
Hopefully when he is finally made, he won't be as much of a perpetually- angry, jerk as his comic counterpart.
Don't get me wrong I like Jack as a character and his costume design, but you'd think by now he'd learn to chill out more & not being so fucking angry & hard-headed like he is.
You're right about the second Red Guardian, she was in Defenders for most of Steve Gerber's run, and rather than being a tool of the state, she was actually more a standard vigilante, helping people and then running from the KGB or police or whatever. And she was a world-class surgeon.
Strange called her in, I think to put Nighthawk's brain back in his body after the Headmen removed it, and she stuck around a while. Nowadays, I'd expect her and Strange to have a fling. But yeah, she hasn't really gotten to do anything since a later Defenders writer linked her to the Presence (can't remember if that was David Anthony Kraft or Ed Hannigan.)
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