Quasar 5 - Acts of Vengeance

If there's one hero more than any other for whom it would have been easy to find foes he hasn't fought before it must surely have been Quasar. Relatively little used in his first few years before disappearing into the limbo of outer space for another five or so, his series had only going a few months when "Acts of Vengeance" came along.

Quasar #5

Story: Mark Guenwald
Pencils: Paul Ryan
Inks: Danny Bulanadi
Letters: Janice Chiang
Colours: Paul Becton
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Such is his newness to the scene that despite being a member of the Avengers he still has to explain who he is to security guards as he goes. He's also still working out how to juggle the various aspects of his life, including getting his day job business off the ground. This series was quite a personal project of writer Mark Gruenwald and the care and attention they give shows.

The first half of the issue concentrates on Quasar's Avengers activities as he works with Stingray on salvaging equipment from the sunken Avengers Island, followed by the joys of civilian life. Meanwhile the mysterious stranger at the heart of the conspiracy recruits the Absorbing Man to the scheme and gives him the power to fly by hurling his ball and chain. It's curious to see this task handled by the stranger when up to now he's largely focused on bringing the six lead villains together, but it's noticeable that he both has the power to upgrade the Absorbing Man's abilities and also knows where to find him when the latter has pulled himself from the muck in a lake. The Absorbing Man is one of the most flexible foes in the entire Marvel universe because his ability to take on the properties of whatever substance he touches means that he can reach whatever power level is necessary to provide a serious challenge. Here that becomes especially so as he absorbs the properties of variously a piece of adamantium, Quasar's energy constructs and then the quantum bands.

Quasar is competent but lacking knowledge and experience of his foe, making for quite a classic encounter in the event since the lack of knowledge proves critical. Consequently he inadvertently screws up in allowing the Absorbing Man access to critical power and then has to watch in horror as his foe absorbs a potentially explosive power then heads towards a city, resulting in a critical dilemma for Quasar as he has to work hard to stop a major explosion in a populated area. It's a tough call for him, though in the aftermath Captain America relieves some of the guilt by providing some critical knowledge that suggests things didn't quite go as Quasar thought.

This is pretty much the quintessential first issue of a title's contribution to a big crossover. It introduces the hero and his world in a way that's easily accessible for new readers without becoming a drag, takes the basic premise of the crossover and applies it to logical characters, then gives us a strong confrontation. Often crossover issues forget that they're also serving as a sampler for the series, but this one instead rises to the challenge.

Quasar #5 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Omnibus (2011)
• Quasar Classic Volume 1 (2012)