Quasar

Origins

The "Power Bands"

Wendell Elvis Vaughn was an unassuming young man born in Fon du Lac, but raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He had served his country in the army with distinction, and had applied at SHIELD with the intent to be a field agent. However, despite his high marks in all his classes it was the committee’s opinion (as voiced by Dum Dum Dugan himself) that Vaughn lacked a certain ‘killer instinct’ that they felt was required in all their field agents. Feeling that he would likely be relegated to desk work Wendell went home and quietly awaited word of his first assignment. Word came weeks later in the form of a letter offering him an assignment working security for Stark International on his father’s project. Wendell assumed that his father, Dr. Gilbert Vaughn pulled some strings.

Agent Vaughn reported for work and was assigned a post at the main door to the lab. He watched as test pilot William Wesley (a possible allusion to Hal Jordan) was shown a pair of bracelets apparently made of a highly durable metal unknown to modern science and immune to the energy output of the most powerful lasers/energy weapons on earth. Wesley was asked to put on what was dubbed the Power-Bands; as he did so there was a strange energy emission. Wesley reported that he had seen alien landscapes and attributed the vision to his eating habits. Dr. Gilbert Vaughn ordered Wesley to field test the seeming alien bracelets. Over the course of several hours Wendell stood in awe as Wesley was able to channel energy through the power-bands, forming shapes made out of energy, lifting an automobile with his own augmented strength, even using the power of the bands to counter-act gravity itself. Finally, an exhausted, yet, glowing Wesley was given the okay to take off the bands. He placed his wrists in the restraining clamps, but to his shock, the bands refused to come off. Wesley panicked and exploded in a burst of energy before everyone’s very eyes. All that remained was the pair of power-bands on the floor where Wesley had been standing.

As everyone slowly recovered from the shock, the bands were re-collected into the restraining clamps, but it was in this moment of shock that A.I.M attacked. One of the scientists was a traitor and had signaled the terrorist cell that it was the time to strike and acquire the alien power-bracelets. Over fifty AIM robots led by an attack ship began to tear into the SHIELD agents. Wendell’s first thought was to protect his father. They both ducked down behind the console that held the bands in clamps and Dr. Vaughn informed his son that the bands were more important than the their lives, but was horrified as he watched his son put the bands on his own wrists to protect them.

The same energy emission that had afflicted William Wesley minutes earlier now affected Wendell Vaughn. Wendell saw an atmospheric dome covered city; and felt an ancient alien intelligence. He blinked away the vision and over the course of the next few minutes, he single-handedly defeated the AIM attack force, punctuating their defeat by cutting the AIM attack ship clean in half. By this time however, he was glowing as wildly as Wesley was before he died. In order to protect the scientists, his fellow agents, and his father, Wendell flew as high as he could to minimize the damage caused by his probable explosion. He calmed down and went with the flow of the energy currents and was astonished when the energy build-up dissipated. His lack of ‘killer instinct’ had actually saved him. He had accidentally clued in on how to work the power-bands! Nick Fury arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and after getting briefed on what happened, he offered Wendell a new job. He became a founding member of the SHIELD Super-Agents.

Marvel Man

A hero in training

Early in his superhero career Wendell had the oppourtunity to work with his idol, the legendary Captain America. After joining the Super-Agents of SHIELD, Wendell was dubbed Marvel Boy (after a believed  previous wearer of the bands but, quickly changed his name to Marvel Man), and began training with the Falcon along side of the Texas Twister, Vamp, and Blue Streak. However when Vamp and Blue Streak turned out to be double agents and the Texas Twister quit, which left Marvel Man to assist Captain America in rescuing the Falcon from the Corporation which was responsible for Vamp and Blue Streak. It was during this mission that Wendell showed Cap that he had great potential. He not only was insturmental in stopping the Corporation, but he held in own in battle against the power of the rampaging Hulk. During this struggle he changed his name to Quasar when a group of children laughed at his Marvel Man code-name (he also made this change because his father believed at the time that the Power-Bands channeled energy from Quasars). Cap was impressed enough to recommended him to chief of security at Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

Project: PEGASUS

Quasar soon landed his job at the recently built Potential Energy Group/Alternate Sources/United States or  Project: PEGASUS facility in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. Within weeks of his arrival the Fantastic Four’s strongman the Thing was asked to assist with security for some past damage he dealt to the facility. He meets Dr. Myron Wilburn who goes to escort the Thing to the security chief’s office for a proper introduction. As Dr. Wilburn says “Oh, here he is now.” Thing turns as sees the Crusader!

The former hero from the 50’s known as Marvel Boy who had gone insane and endangered the people of New York City. He fought the Fantastic Four and nearly killed them. He however in the end attempted to use too much power from his “power bands” and disintegrated himself. Now, years later, the Thing is facing him again, by himself.

Grimm attacked knowing he may not have the chance to hurt him shortly and the “Crusader” responded with surprise, he dodged a blow that would likely cave-in his skull and attempted to take to the air but Grimm grabed him by the cape.

The “Crusader” blasts him with a jolt of energy, enough to make Grimm loose the cape. They fight a bit some more, finally Grimm complains that the “Crusader” is jumping around to much and that he should sit still, and oddly the “Crusader” obliges.

The ever-loving blue eyed Thing winds up for a blow that might hypothetically leave “Crusader” a bloody smear on the wall and “Crusader” just stands there, waiting for it. Thing throws his rocky fist and it bounces off a force shield that the “Crusader” has projected in front of himself. The force of Thing’s attack is enough to knock himself over. “Crusader” envelops Thing in an energy cage, saying “It’s time I showed you the might of Quasar!” Once Thing has calmed down and understands that Quasar is not the dreaded Crusader, he just wears a nearly identical costume and has similar powers.

Benjamin Grimm and Wendell soon became good friends.

Things quickly got out of hand when Deathlok attacked, wounding Thing, but was destroyed by Quasar; Thundra soon followed along with Screaming Mimi and other "Grapplers", but was captured. It soon becomes obvious that there was something definitely amiss, but then the mutant Solarr and Klaw escaped from their prisons, but are quickly defeated by Goliath, Quasar, and Thing. The living black hole known as the Nth Man (aka:  Dr. Tom Lightner) then manifested; it took the combined power of Thing, Thundra, Quasar, Giant-Man and the Aquarian to stop him. After the Nth man collapses in upon himself, Quasar is left prophetically wondering what would happen if the Nth man should appear in another universe. Quasar vowed to never again allow a situation get so out of control.

During this time Wendell assisted Spider-Man in capturing the Lightmaster who had possessed the "Power-Bands" (and therefore Quasar) to reconstitute his body.

The young heroine Dazzler was brought to the Project soon after to test her abilities and receive training in her powers. She and Quasar shared a mutual attraction; over a few days she came to feel that Quasar was the only one she could trust at the Project. She however was manipulated by the villain Klaw into freeing him, although she overpowered him when he showed his true colors by attacking Quasar. Having absorbed Klaw's power, Dazzler lost control and fled.

Quasar fell victim to the Serpent Crown only months later which had already corrupted the rest of the Project. Only the interference of the Thing, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Scarlet Witch averted certain disaster. Quasar, blaming himself, tendered his resignation.

Finding himself

Putting his costume away, he spent several weeks at his mother’s house in Wisconsin. He sat in his old bedroom basically avoiding life in general. Finally his mother contacted her ex-husband, looking for a way get her son to fight off his depression.

His father soon came up with a dangerous plan. Wendell would fly to the planet Uranus without any sort of spacecraft, where the power-bands were apparently constructed according to Robert Grayson, Marvel Boy of the 1950’s. Attracted by the prospect of spending time alone in the void of space, Wendell readily agreed. He quickly entered a heavy training regiment, which included confirming that the power-bands would protect the wearer in a vacuum, and mastering the controls of his equipment. Soon he was ready to go. He took off after some lengthy goodbyes, and penetrated the atmosphere and promptly was injected with a sedative and fell asleep.

Quasar finds his power is useless against Deathurge

Death amongst the ruins

The drug cocktail Wendell had been injected with slowed his bodily functions to a crawl and induced a coma-like suspended animation. Four years and nearly three billion kilometers later, Quasar found himself awakening as he neared the seventh planet. He contacted his father and was slightly dismayed at the 8 hour wait to get a reply due to the extreme distance.

He quickly identified something reflective on the surface of the planet (despite that Uranus is believed to be a gas giant). He had found the atmospheric domed city he had seen all those years ago in the vision he had received when he first put on the bands! He found the city largely decimated, the dome shattered, the city’s population flash frozen. There was an assortment of artifacts of both the Kree and the Eternals scattered around the city proper. He logged them as well as he could but was shocked to realize that his communication device was no longer in contact with earth, in fact he hadn't received a transmission since he landed on the surface.

It was then that Deathurge made his presence known. He made quite clear that he intended to “help” Quasar succumb to his depression by killing him. After a brief chase in which it became clear that Deathurge could not be harmed by someone who was considering death as an alternative whether consciously or unconsciously, Quasar was seemingly killed after Deathurge shot him several times with ebon arrows.

Protectors of the Universe

Protector of the Universe

Quasar found himself no longer on Uranus, where a what appeared to be a tree with a face and a giant eye spoke to him. Calling itself Eon, it claimed to be over four billion years old, and to be the offspring on Eternity. It went on to say that it was responsible to make sure that life continued to thrive in the universe and to that end it was to appoint a universal protector. The most recent in a long line of Protectors died from the ravages of what the humans call Cancer. His name was Mar-Vell. Eon also said that the ‘Power-bands’ upon Wendell’s wrists are known as the Quantum Bands; they are not only powerful tools, but are traditionally the symbols of the station of Eon’s chosen Protector. It explained that Wendell had the necessary attributes of Intelligence, Courage, and Resourcefulness to be a worthy successor to Captain Mar-Vell as Protector of the Universe.

Eon required Quasar to specifically to protect it from a new universal menace of which it knew three things: 1) It would come from space. 2) It would manifest on Earth. 3) It would attempt to slay Eon for the secret of cosmic awareness. Quasar agreed only after persuading Eon to accompany him back to earth so that he could better protect it. Eon altered his costume slightly, and opened Quasar’s mind to the full potential of the Quantum-bands and returned him to Uranus where Deathurge awaited him. Quasar quickly overpowered Deathurge, but before he retreated he issued a prophesy. ‘The next time we meet you shall beg me to kill you… and I will refuse.’ Quasar disregarded the cryptic message.

Eon accompanied Quasar back to Earth. Quasar now aware of the full capabilities of the bands, quantum-jumped back, reducing a four year journey to fifteen seconds.

 

Back on Earth

Wendell Vaughn quickly set up shop in Four Freedoms Plaza as a security consultant both for income and to cover his cosmic duties. Shortly thereafter he was asked to join the Avengers personally by Captain America after his showing of power against the menace of Garthan Saal in Chicago, which not only had the East and Avengers West Coast responded to, but the Fantastic Four as well.

During his interview and orientation with Cap, he flew from New York Harbor to the Sea of Tranquility (on the Moon) and back in under ten minutes (He would later be known as the fastest Avenger on record), and was able to acquit himself well in an unscheduled combat with the former herald of Galactus: Firelord.

As an Avenger he assisted against the Lava Men and a confrontation with the Winter Guard (Russia's answer to the Avengers) over a submarine. He was one of the few present on Hydro base at it’s sinking. He also soon after encountered Aquarian again, along with the villain Quantum, whom Quasar defeated. Quasar went on to battle such villains as the Angler, Absorbing Man, Venom, Klaw, Living Laser, Red Ghost, and MODAM. He, with the help of a cosmically endowed Spider-Man physically exiled Terminus from Earth. Not long after, Quasar was forced to simultaneously defend himself against Modred the Mystic and the power of the Phoenix, defeating them both.

Journey into Mystery

Quasar at Mar-Vell's tomb

 
Shortly thereafter Quasar encountered the Unbeing and Origin. Two entities that was responsible for all the meta-beings in the universe. Origin was the one who chose certain people to be given powers, by being exposed to cosmic rays, bitten by a radioactive spider, or spontaneously decide to put on a pair of alien bracelets. Unbeing on the other hand, was the instrument of how many of these same people had been forgotten over the years. Quasar managed to protect Origin from the Unbeing by destroying the Unbeing's current physical form (an 8 year old boy), and as a gift was given a costume that retroactively replaced his old one altered by Eon when he became the Protector of the Universe.

Around this time he assisted the Avengers against the Tertrarchs of Entropy and the Collector. Later he, along with the Avengers assisted Alpha Flight during an alien invasion of Canada, where he met Her for the first time.

Cosmos in Collision

Quasar checking on a energy reading heading toward Earth found Jack Of Hearts leading a rag-tag group of tethered spaceship hulls. He confronted Jack, who responded with naked aggression

Jack of Hearts

He radioed ahead to the Fantastic Four, telling them that a couple of cosmic level menaces were breaking into a lower level of their building. The FF was able to capture Starlight, and Quasar was able to arrive in time to protect Eon by trapping the Presence in the trackless Quantum-Zone. Feeling that he had saved his mentor from the “Cosmic Assassin”, Quasar decided it was time to celebrate. He instead found the girl he was just starting a relationship with in the arms of his best friend, Makkari. He left the scene without a word to either of them. He traveled to his father’s house and found him dead on the kitchen floor. He learned to his shock that his father had been dead since Quasar was at the Stranger’s Lab world. Quasar felt betrayed. Eon chose to animate him because he was certain that the Cosmic Assassin had killed him to throw off Quasar’s mental stability, and Eon was not convinced that the Presence had been the threat that Quasar had been appointed to combat. Quasar quit as Protector and told Eon to stay out of his life.

Discovering Moonraker buzzing Four Freedoms Plaza the next day in an attempt to draw the Fantastic Four into combat, Quasar lost in his pain brutally attacked and hospitalized him.

Maelstrom back by Oblivion against Quasar

Maelstrom learned over the course of hours how to augment his own power with the near limitless might of the Quantum-bands. He then traveled to the Eonverse with the intent to kill Eon and take the secret of Cosmic Awareness from it. Back on Earth, still alive after several hours of being strung up like a slaughtered lamb, Deathurge appeared to Quasar; explained that he could release him from this torment, taunting him, even getting Quasar to beg for death, but then Deathurge reminded him of his prophetic warning a seeming eternity ago on the surface of Uranus, Deathurge refuses Quasar’s plea and leaves. Shortly thereafter, an energy manifestation of Mar-Vell appears to Quasar and speaks for Eon, saying that despite that he was facing death now, he was a worthy successor and that he surpassed all of Eon's expectations. He then departs saying only "Goodbye, brother." Then, an energy manifestation of Gilbert Vaughn appeared and explained his aloofness to his son sincerely apologizing

“Wendell, you know that I was never any good at expressing how I felt. But I’m telling you now that I was proud of you, son. Maybe a little jealous, too. Each generation wants their progeny to do a little better than they did—but what you achieved was just so much better than I could have hoped to have accomplished… it was hard to accept…”

“… I’m very proud of you, son. I’m sorry you had to wait until I was dead to hear it… …I love you.”

And with that Dr. Gilbert Vaughn vanished.

  Later, after Wendell was whipped repeatedly by Phobus, one of Maelstrom’s minions, Quasar finally died when his personal death avatar (Kid Reaper) appeared before him and stabbed him through the heart. Maelstrom immediately donned the Quantum-bands and began burning large swaths through Eon’s body with Quantum energy.

Now, in the empty void there is an energy wraith that appears to be a still armless Quasar. Kid Reaper appears next to him as they assess the situation, Kid Reaper admits that this has never happened to him before and he has no idea what this place is. Quasar realizes that dead or alive, he still has a responsibility to Eon and the universe, no matter form he is in. He realizes that the energy manifestation of his starscaped cape can send him wherever he wishes to go. So, he travels through it and re-appears in the Eonverse.

Infinity

Once there, Eon directs him to Maelstrom but asks that Quasar kill Eon before Maelstrom can steal cosmic awareness from him. Explaining that if Maelstrom is able to learn the secrets of the universe, then there is no telling the damage he could do. Thinking that Eon is the one animating him, Quasar figures he’ll probably cease to exist once Eon is dead, so Quasar asks Kid Reaper that once Quasar is dead to contact the Avengers and have them kick Maelstrom’s butt.

Quasar quickly arrives at the base of Eon’s brain, which is about the size of a moon, where Maelstrom reclines in a chair and has created various probes into the grey matter. Maelstrom hears Eon explain where Quasar should fire a blast that would result in immediate death for Eon. Maelstrom howls in rage at the sudden re-appearance of his adversary and attempts to blast him into nothingness, but since the energy-wraith Quasar is made from the same energy type that the Quantum-bands produce the beam passes harmlessly through him. Quasar responds by heeding his mentor’s wishes and firing a devastating bolt of energy right into Eon’s Brainstem.

As the smoke and dust clears Quasar is shocked to find Eon quite dead and himself still in existence and Maelstrom is fully enraged by this turn of events. It’s then that Quasar finds that as his last act, Eon passed cosmic awareness to him. Maelstrom attempts to threaten Quasar into giving up the gift, but Quasar rightfully notes that there’s nothing more Maelstrom can do to harm him. Maelstrom sadly agrees and then quantum-jumps to high earth orbit; Quasar follows. Maelstrom uses his mastery of kinetic energy augmented by the might of the Quantum Bands to halt the Earth’s rotation, which would hypothetically wipe out all life on the planet within minutes. He then offers Quasar a choice. He will free Earth if Quasar gives him the secrets of cosmic awareness. Quasar realizes that Maelstrom would only wreak even more devastation across the universe. Unable to make the decision to sacrifice the Earth, Quasar retreats into the Quantum-zone. Maelstrom summons Deathurge after dispatching Kid Reaper and explains that he had already stolen cosmic awareness from Eon when Quasar killed him; he just wanted Quasar to give his up.

Quasar flying through the Quantum-zone to regroup discovers his true benefactor allowing him to continue to exist beyond death. Infinity. She names Quasar her Avatar and explains she represents the physical space of the universe (hense her name), and that Maelstrom has created a large black hole that will continue to grow until it completely encompasses the entire universe, leaving him as its single anomalous ruler.

Quasar returns to normal space and attempts to replace the matter and energy with the power Infinity has leant him as it is taken by the black hole. Maelstrom senses this and attacks him; Quasar maneuvers them into the event horizon of the black hole, destroying Maelstrom. Quasar then realizes his previous attempt would not be enough and throws himself into the maw of the black hole and attempts to release all the power at his disposal which could start a reaction that might reverse the flow of the black hole. However he is shunted to Oblivion’s realm, he is greeted by Oblivion and his new Avatar, Maelstrom. Maelstrom is quickly augmented by Oblivion, and Maelstrom declares that they will thrash the Infinity-force out of him. It is then that Infinity makes her presence known she augments Quasar so that he and Maelstrom are on even terms; Oblivion tells her that it is time that a new deal is struck between the forces of life and death. Infinity regretfully agrees.

Quasar returns from death... for the first time

Infinity Gauntlet

Fresh off his defeat of the Cosmic Assassin, Quasar returns to Four Freedoms Plaza to check in with his friends. He makes it clear to Kayla that he would like to pursue a relationship with her, Moondragon interupts saying that Kayla isn’t worthy of a relationship with the universe’s most cosmic man, and that Moondragon herself has all the prerequistes to be the ideal woman for him. Quasar disagrees, he says relationships and love are about feelings, not ideals or prerequistes. Moondragon angerly leaves and goes in search of allies to help her gain Quasar’s affections.

The cosmically empowered Her, notes Moondragon’s cloaked starship, but pays it no heed. She goes in search of her ideal mate as well.

Quasar returns one last time to the Eonverse to pay his last respcts to his fallen mentor. He says a few words of regret for its passing, but is interupted when he detects energy readings within the Eonverse, noting he’s not alone, he goes to investigate.

Finding a starship that more resembles a cathedral than a ship, he is greeted by what appears to be an alien cadre of priest known as the Mourners. They claim they have arrived to mourn the loss of Eon. Quasar can detect no weapons aboard the ship and they seem to be forthright so Quasar allows them to carry out their ritual.

Their representive, Fath, tells Quasar that the funeral will begin in 3.14 days, so Quasar goes to take care of his personal life, helps the Avengers, and continues repairs upon his office inflicted by the Presence and Starlight.

He returns to the funeral to find an image of a tree-like creature that has many faces. Quasar surmized that this is Eon’s true form.

The Infinity Gauntlet

Quasar is directed to sit and during the eulogy find that he is more moved by fath’s word about Eon than he was over the priest’s words at his father’s funeral. It is then that Thanos appears and disrupts the proceedings. Quasar tells him to leave, and it devolves into a fight. Despite that Thanos possesses the Infinity Guantlet he has no interest in killing Quasar (not yet, anyway), so, Quasar holds his own and directs 100 megaton blast right between Thanos’ ears.

Unbelieveably, Thanos reforms and says he: ‘has other more interesting enemies to fight’, with that Thanos grows four entities from Eon’s dead form. They are: The Stygian Starbender, Eon’s first Protector; former Protector, Ree of the long dead Archepeians; former Protector Trantra of the Trill, Marvel Boy, the first human to wear the Quantum-Bands. They all have fully functioning replicas of the Quantum-Bands and have all been in instilled with the need to kill Quasar, the last one surviving will be Thanos’ Protector of the Universe until the end of time.

As a parting gift, unbeknownst to Quasar, Thanos has opened all the portals from the Eonverse to the universe and turned Eon’s immense body inside-out. This has caused Eon’s body to come pouring out of each of the portals, including the one in Four Freedoms Plaza.

Inside the Eonverse, Quasar is trying to converse with the previous wearers of the Quantum Bands (Stygian Starbender, Ree, Trantra, and Marvel Boy), but they are hungry for blood. Quasar manages to down Marvel Boy and In a brief exchange of Quantum-constructs, Quasar manages to hold his own, but realizes he’s far too outnumbered.

He flies off to put some distance between himself and the other Quantum-banders, which the three remaining consider quite cowardly. Meanwhile, Her discovers that her genetic twin is still alive, she finds him, but he (being Adam Warlock) is deeply embroiled in the Infinity Guantlet affair and has no time for mating at the moment. He tells her to join the effort or begone. Elsewhere many of New York’s heroes ( Sleepwalker, Darkhawk, the Squadron Supreme… etc…) are attempting to save inncent bystanders from the green flesh that has erupted from the FF headquarters.

Back in the Eonverse, Quasar attempts a “total energy drain” but is caught by surprise when they slam a pair of Quantum-slabs the size of trucks in an attempt to crush him. They briefly discuss which of them will win the honor of being the last Protector. Trapped, Quasar briefly considers giving up, but he overcomes it and manages to escape after hearing a call for help that sounds a great deal like Eon. He Quantum-Jumps into the Quantum-Zone and waits for them. He figures that if the ‘background noise” of the Q-Zone can cover what he is attempting then he stands a chance. He begins concentrating on his connection with all fourteen gems on the bands and opens them to their fullest. The three remaining Banders come and he surprises them by overloading their Quantum-Bands with too much power. They get disintegrated and Quasar returns to the Eonverse. There, Quasar begins to notice how sparse the Eonverse is of Eon’s body and again hears the call for help. He is however attacked from behind by a recovered Marvel Boy. Quasar quickly makes clear that Marvel Boy is not in the same league with a Protector of the Universe by swatting Marvel Boy away.

Quasar finds and plugs-up the portal to Earth with a quantum-constructed plug, stopping the flow of Eon's flesh to earth through the dimensional portal. Quasar finds where the calls for help are emanating from. He finds an egg-like object near the entrance. From this egg comes a small Eon-like entity. Calling herself Epoch, she tells Quasar that she is Eon’s offspring and successor as the guardian of all life in the universe. She thanks Quasar for saving her life and shows him a message from Eon which says that Eon considers Quasar its greatest champion. With the threat of the green substance from burying the entire world over, New York's heroes begin the work of recovery.

He later took part in what became a masacare on Thanos' stronghold in space (wearing the older costume that Origin gave him), where Thanos willed the Quantum-bands to explode, then to put Quasar out of his misery, Thanos disintigrated him.

Quasar was later resurrected along with the rest of Earth's heroes when Nebula restored everything to how it was twenty-four hours earlier. (This may or may not have included Thanos' act of turning Eon's corpse inside-out.) Quasar notes to Makkari about this time that he had worn his old costume for an entire week before he noticed. (Explanation for the art mistake in Infinity Gauntlet because Quasar changed his costume twice in eight issues)

Quasar is contacted by Hercules who explains to Quasar that Thor has been enthralled by a "sinister alien force". Quasar doesn't quite believe it, but Hercules tells Quasar tells him to have faith. While waiting for Hercules, Quasar is enchanted by the Enchantress. He agressively attacks Thor and fights him to a standstill, finally Thor accidentally frees Quasar by energizing the Quantum-Bands which have a protection against mental control. Enchantress retreats from the combined might of the three heroes. In light of Hercules' "elaborate deception", Thor and Quasar leave him tied to the lamp of the Statue of Liberty.

Her (later known as Kismet) makes her presense known as she seeks the ideal mate among the various male super-heroes of Earth. (Having recently met Adam Warlock and realizing they were a poor match as they are genetically nearly identical.) She rules out Mutants as their DNA is too unstable. She goes about planting cocoons of her genetic material upon the back of the neck of any super-powered male that impresses her genetically, she chooses(Hercules, Wonder Man, Hyperion, Ikaris, Doc Samson, and Gilgamesh to this end.

Quasar attempts to intervene since he's had more experience with her than most and he is the only Avenger capable of catching her. She at first disregards Quasar as he has no power of his own, it emanates from his wrist-weapons. She only decides that he is a worthy potential mate when he displays impressive control of his power and resourcfulness in catching Her, also a great deal of honor when he defends her against a jealous Moondragon and a mind-controlled Jack of Hearts. When every other person she attached a cocoon to attempts to either remove or otherwise destroy their cocoon, she chooses Quasar as he has shown that all life is important to him.

As a compromise to Quasar, Her removes the cocoon but decides that her destiny lies with him.

What if?

Shortly later, Quasar was asked by the Watcher to find and capture the Living Laser who he had months earlier pursued to the Watcher’s viewing portal. Living Laser fled into it, traveling to the alternate earth that the Watcher happened to be watching at the time. So, traveling through various alternate Earths; even seeing a version of himself possesed by Captain Universe fighting the serpent-god Set. Quasar eventually found the version of the Living Laser from Earth-616, but in doing so had traveled to an alternate universe in which Maelstrom had not been defeated by Quasar. Quasar was a bit surprised to see Maelstrom and Thanos struggling with each other for dominance of the universe. Maelstrom upon seeing Quasar panics and fires several blasts of energy at him. Quasar attempted to quantum-jump out of the way but the bolt of energy exploded just within the aperture to the Quantum-Zone, causing a trans-dimensional chain reaction, sending Quasar to another dimension.

The Star Brand

Quasar found himself in a New Universe, discovering that he no longer had a direct connection to the Quantum-Zone or to Epoch, he only had the power that was in the Bands when he crossed-over. He flew to the Moon and found no Watcher there. He interacted with various inhabitants and found that there was a power source that was the most powerful in that world called the Star Brand, which could have the power to return him home. After finding the Star Brand on a retired Air Force pilot named Jim Hanrahan who had vowed never to use it, Quasar explained his situation and asked for the Brand. Jim not fully trusting a stranger wanted proof of Quasar’s sincerity, so they sat and exchanged stories for most of the evening. Finally, exhausted, Jim offered Quasar the Star Brand. It indeed gave Quasar the boost he needed to return home. When he arrived back at his office he embraced his then girlfriend, Kayla, he accidentally transferred the Star Brand to her, thinking it burnt out in transit, Quasar didn’t give it a second thought. Unbeknoenst to Quasar, he kept a small fraction of the power.

Operation Galactic Storm

Soon the Kree/ Shi'ar war erupted. Quasar was able to send envoys of Avengers to both sides in an attempt to have them end the war, while Quasar himself protected Earth’s solar system from reprisals.

Quasar failed to catch a Kree starship leaving the Sol system through a stargate and a large solar flare obliterated the ship's trail. He inquired about the massive flare activity with the scientists of the Starcore solar observatory just outside the orbit of Mercury. They informed him that the sun was indeed acting highly unusual.

He received as distress call on the Avenger’s frequency from Starfox that alarms at Mar-Vell’s tomb had been tripped. Quasar quantum-jumped to Titan in orbit of Saturn, leaving Her at the stargate. He met up with Starfox and they discovered Dr. Minerva and Captain Atlas attempting to plunder the Nega-Bands from Mar-Vell’s body.

No sooner had they found the Kree agents did the entire Imperial Guard attack. Realizing that Minerva and Atlas would be brutally cut down if he didn’t protect them, Quasar created shields for Starfox and Dr. Minerva, but Captain Atlas had vanished. Quasar created a pair if nunchakus and charged the biggest Guardsmen which turned out to be Titan and Gladiator. Quasar was however shocked when he simply phased right through them as though they weren’t there at all. As he was distracted he was blinded by Manta. Out of instinct he armored up and interfaced mentally with the Quantum-bands he found that the bands could not detect the vast majority of the Guardsmen, they were simply false images created the Guardsman Magic who was quickly disposed of by Dr. Minerva. Quasar found himself under attack by Impulse, but Quasar accidentally breached his armor and Impulse discorporated. Manta fell victim to Starfox’s charms.

Quasar battles the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.

Quasar and Her later pursued a Shi’ar Warship that held a captive Captain Atlas and the Nega-Bands, but the ship releases Neutron and Starbolt of the Imperial Guard to give the ship time to make it to the stargate. Quasar finds that Neutron is more than capable of destroying his Quantum-Constructs with his brute strength and seems to feed of his energy-blasts. In his concentration is nearly fried by Starbolt if not for a timely save by Her.

They trade sparring partners long enough for Quasar to encapsulate Starbolt in an energy sphere and then they both concentrate on Neutron. Finally Quasar is able to charge Neutron and Quantum-Jump with him. In the Quantum-Zone, Quasar manages to leave Neutron there trapping him indefinitely.

Quasar manages to jump to the location of the starship, leaving Her to defend the stargate. He drills into the ship’s hull and demands the return of Captain Atlas and the Nega-Bands. When Shi’ar question why they should give up either when they greatly outnumber him, Quasar points out that he is more than capable of doing more damage to the ship’s hull. The Shi’ar fearing the destruction of their ship (since the vast majority of them cannot breathe in a vacuum) releases Atlas, but had transmitted the Nega-Bands to a Shi’ar world already. On the way out Quasar damages the ship’s star-drive.

Later, as Quasar and Captain Atlas (who is now Quasar’s prisoner) attempt to locate the Nega-Bands they encounter Binary who is currently serving the Shi’ar Empire, she claims that Quasar’s actions may cause the deaths of millions of lives and serves to distract Quasar long enough for members of the Imperial Guard (who are still angry over their earlier defeat) to ambush him and gate him to an unknown sector of space. Captain Atlas is later rescued from the Shi’ar by Shatterax.

Back at the Sol system star gate, Her is standing guard as the immense Nega-Bomb comes through the gate from the Shi’ar end. Thinking fast she creates a chaotic latticework covering the star gate, hoping it’ll give the captain of the Skrull starship leading the Nega-Bomb through some pause.

Super-Skrull emerges from the starship and attacks her, she disperses his attack but as she distracted he punches her with Thing’s strength through the star gate. It is just then that Quasar jumps back to Earth’s system. Super-Skrull tries to surprise him as he did Her, but Quasar detects Kl’rts attack and encapsulates him. Noting that the Skrull starship about to depart, Quasar moves to shear off its payload, but is interrupted by a hologram of the ship’s captain.

He tells Quasar that if he does not allow the Nega-Bomb to leave Earth’s solar system undisturbed the captain will detonate the bomb right there. Quasar seems nonplussed by the threat, but when he notes the Sun get dimmer because of all the sunspot activity caused by the gates in close orbit and the radiation put off by the Nega-Bomb. He allows to the bomb to go, and deal with the more immediate problem of the Sun. He vows to jump to the Kree empire as soon as he’s dealt with the sun-spot activity.

He contacts Epoch for assistance, who physically materializes and samples a solar flare that erupted from a sun-spot and detects anti-matter. Epoch considers her next move and Quasar detects someone at the star gate and q-jumps there and finds Her fighting with Binary. He breaks up their fight. Binary, apparently under orders to stop the Nega-Bomb admonishes Quasar for not stopping the Nega-Bomb, but Quasar explains that the sun is in its death-throes. Binary seems shocked. Quasar takes Her and quantum-jumps back to Epoch. Binary is forced to choose between saving the Kree Empire and Earth.

As they return Epoch explains that the anti-matter must be removed and/or contained away from the sun. Quasar realizes that the only way they have to do that is to open up an aperture to the Quantum-Zone within the sun’s corona to suck in all the sun-spots. Epoch explains that it might work, but it would take days if not weeks and that Quasar would probably not survive to finish the task.

Quasar requests Epoch to contact other cosmic entities to save the sun, and that Her go back to Earth to contact Dr. Strange to see if he can help. Then, heedless of the dangers to himself, Quasar flies deep within the corona. Her begins to ask Epoch of the likelihood that Quasar might succeed or survive; Epoch interrupts saying: “Not good.”

Binary suddenly appears and asks Epoch where Quasar went and Epoch tells her and she disappears into the corona as well. She finds Quasar’s energy vortex and creates one of her own far more powerful than Quasar’s. Quasar detects this and assumes it’s a cosmic entity that Epoch was able to contact.

Finally, with all the anti-matter and sun-spots gone, Quasar moves to leave, but then realizes that the entity is still there and making no attempt to escape. He moves to it and recognizes the energy signature of Binary. Too weak to escape she is consigned to burn up within the sun. Quasar wraps her within his cape and flies out of the corona as fast as he can. He immediately q-jumps back to earth and brings her to the hospital at Avengers headquarters. There he finds out that Binary was once known as Ms. Marvel and was an Avenger. Quasar then sets out to the Kree Empire to stop the Nega-Bomb, but he would be too late. He would be hit by the shock-wave, but his quantum-aura protects him.

Aftermath

The war finally ended when the Skrulls detonated the Nega-Bomb in Kree space. 
 
On the near-dead throneworld of the Kree: Hala, the Avengers come to terms with the destruction wrought by the Nega-Bomb. When it becomes clear that the Supreme Intelligence manipulated them all for this outcome a group of Avengers led by Iron-Man agree that Supremor is sentient machine construct that should be destroyed. Cap disagrees and the Avengers are divded on the issue. Iron-Man and his group depart to deal with Supremor. Quasar somewhat bluntly asks Captain America if he wants him to stop them. Cap tells him to let them go. When Iron-Man and his group return from their mission, cap declares that nothing will ever be the same again.

Feeling that he could have done more to stop the Nega-Bomb, Quasar quit Avengers active roster and set out into space to assess the devastation to the Kree Empire and more suitably protect the universe. There he along with Her and Makkari find that the souls of the fallen Kree have been absorbed by the Soul-Eater. Quasar manages to convince them to free themselves causing the seeming destruction of the Soul-Eater.

Infinity War

The Infinity War soon followed. After discovering Eternity catatonic, Quasar was hand-picked by a temporarily reformed Thanos to fire the Ultimate Nullifier at their enemy, the Magus. Magus using a partly re-integrated Infinity Gauntlet wished the power of the Nullifier be turned on the bearer. Quasar found himself in the realm of Oblivion once again, Kid Reaper betrayed him and Quasar was sent to the White Room, a place were former Protectors go when they die. Quasar was able to resurrect himself from even this death with the remaining power of the Star Brand and re-aquire the Quantum-Bands which Origin had moved to her new form to protect them for Quasar's eventual return.

It is during this time that the Marvel Boy duplicate created by Thanos reappeared on Earth claiming to be Quasar's replacement as Protector of the Universe. Calling himself the Blue Marvel and going to so far as to assume that he automatically deserved Quasar's spot on the Avengers roster. When Thanos sensed that there were forces at work attempting to ressurect Quasar, he sent the Blue Marvel destroy Quasar. Blasted with a quantum-construct cannon, Quasar was able to re-form through the power of the Starbrand. Quasar and the Blue Marvel fought for seveal minutes, and Quasar won through trickery and the fact that he was effectively immortal as long as he had the Starbrand. Quasar returned the Marvel to the White Room and left him there and then returned to Earth to ask the Avenger Thunderstrike to assist him in finding the Quantum-bands. They travelled to the moon and asked the Watcher for assistance, but Uatu would not interfere. He did however leave an image of the a nacient cosmic entity with the Quantum Bands within its fetal form. Quasar recognized it as the creature he had protected from the Soul-Eater days earlier. He eventually reclaimed the bands just as the power of the Star-Brand residue burned out.

After that the Angler returned and attempted to steal the Nth Projector from Porject: PEGASUS. He found the Project well defended by the Squadron Supreme, but managed to free the Geometer from another dimension. It wrecked havok, even nearly killing Hyperion. Evenually Quasar was able to transport the creature back where it came from with the Nth Projector. 
 
Shortly thereafter, Starfox asked Quasar to accompany him on 'family business'. They travelled to a remote moon for Starfox to meet with his brother: Thanos. A fight ensued when Quasar misunderstood Thanos' presense, not realizing that one day out of the year the brothers exchanged gifts peacefully. However, Thanos stole his gift meant for Starfox and the guards of the wronged party arrived to reclaim it. Starfox charmed the guards into believing they had reclaimed the item and Quasar managed to restain Thanos from killing them.     

Ego the Living Planet

Exile

Eventually, the Presence returned, wanting revenge against Quasar for past misdeeds, blaming him for the death of Presence’s son Vanguard. He and his daughter ambushed Quasar and forced him to fake his death even as he had been planning to leave Earth.

Exiled to space, he tried several times unsuccessfully to form groups, first with the Star Masters, where it was revealed that he was 'chosen' to wear the Quantum-bands because he had a very strong will, stronger even than the Silver Surfer or Beta Ray Bill. 
 
Quasar briefly returned to Earth to take a pivotal role in the Avengers' defeat of Morgan Le Fay, when he was the first to lend his considerable willpower to the Scarlet Witch as she challenged Morgan's power, and defeated her. Afterward he returned to space.  
 
Along side Thor, Photon, Starfox and others formed Avengers Infinity; together they persuaded the Infinites not to end all life in the Milky Way galaxy in their quest to make a more perfect universe. During the Maximum Security crisis, Quasar saved Earth by absorbing Ego the living planet into his Quantum-bands.  

Shortly afterwards, he assisted the Fantastic Four along with Genis-Vell, Moondragon, and the Silver Surfer fought minions of Abraxas on earth's moon. Later, He was contacted by Reed Richards to help the FF retrieve Johnny Storm (who had traded powers with his sister) was acting as Herald of Galactus. During this encounter Quasar managed to stalemate Galactus long enough for Reed and co. to come up with a plan to stop Galactus and turn him back to his original mortal form for a time.  
 
Later, Quasar while stationed on the Avengers deep space monitoring station within the asteroid belt, picked up reports of incidents of extra-dimensional incursions. One where a powerful alien had appeared suddenly within Shi'ar space and the Imperial Guard was having trouble keeping him contained. Also, there were reports of invasion fleets of previously unknown species appearing out of nowhere and invading civilized worlds. He was able to scan the bio-readings of different groups of aliens and found they were all from the same universe. It turned out that walls between the 616 universe and another were being deliberately weakened.

Later, Quasar returned to the Avengers to team with Photon to find an item of power on an extra-dimensional hunt against an other-dimensional League of heroes, mostly directly confronting one who shared Quasar's powers but in green ( Kyle Rayner), and an Amazon ( Wonder Woman). Only the timely arrival of Iron Man through a boom tube saved Quasar and Photon from defeat.

Annihilation

When Annihilation was announced by Marvel a good percentage of the response was for Quasar's involvement.
To which the writers and editors explained that fans would be proud of Quasar.

Quasar saved Nova, Drax and a young human girl Cammi from crashing on Nycos Aristedes’ surface. It seems he is heading the evacuation of Nycos Aristedes from the forces of the Annihilation Wave.

Annihilus

Annihilus uses the Quantum-bands to augment his personal power in his quest for the Power Cosmic, but Nova challenges him one final time. Phyla, Captain Mar-Vell’s daughter is able to claim the Quantum-bands during the struggle turning the tide in Nova’s favor.

Phyla had since apparently laid claim to Quasar’s mantle despite never meeting him.

After Quasar's unceremonious death in Annihilation, a group of fans got together and began working for Quasar's return, creating online petitions and infamously sending a " Quasar Cake" to the Marvel offices.

"The killing of the Wendell Vaughn Quasar didn't sit well with some fans. A group of fans on the Quantum Zone Forum, led by the board's owner Will Allred, decided to let Marvel know there were readers out there who still cared about the character and wanted to see him return. Instead of launching a typical write-in campaign or petition, they opted to send Marvel editor Bill Rosemann a half-sheet cake with a very special message as part of the frosting."

During Annihilaton: Conquest, The hero Nova experienced an alternate future in which Wendell was seen in an Quantum-energy form advising the Nova Corps, including Gamora and Phyla-Vell who had given up the Quantum-Bands (a desision that Rider had apparently helped her come to) as they began the siege of the last Phalanx controlled planet: Earth.

Quasar: Annihilated.

Full Circle

During Secret Invasion, as Nova fought to protect Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S., Dr. Gruenwald and Dr. Necker, along with Nova's younger brother Robert, sought to use the Xandarian WorldMind to open the Quantum Flask and awaken the exotic energy that had recently been extracted from the Negative Zone within it. Just as the Skrulls were about to overwhelm the defenses of the Project, the flask opened and the energy shot forth and spoke to Richard Rider, revealing itself as the Quantum-energy manifestation of Wendell Vaughn... reborn. In this form it seems Wendell will have powers similar to those of the Quantum Bands themselves, not unlike when he was reanimated by Infinity.

During the battle at Project: PEGASUS, Quasar went 'nova' and destroyed a sizable percentage of the Skrull invasion force in defense of the Nova and the Project itself, however he used too much power and was forced to return to the Quantum Flask. However while he was active he shared with Nova that he remembered fighting Annihilus along side him, and realized that Annihilus was going to kill him so he attempted to Quantum-Jump to escape, but he surmised that his body didn't make it, but his mind did. It is still unknown how he returned in this energy form. Later, Quasar couseled Richard Rider when the WorldMind had taken the power of the Nova-Force back from him, this led to the discovery that Richard was dying.


After Nova #17 came out an article on CBR was published quoting Bill Rosemann...

Rosemann agreed. "Wendell is a 'Captain America' of the sci-fi set. Honest, forthright, noble--given the current chaos and growing darkness out in the cosmos, we're glad to see this shining light return."

Vaughn's return has a significant effect on the mental states of others as well, especially Nova. "Rich probably feels a fair amount of guilt over Wendell's death — and is most likely thrilled (and more than a bit shocked and confused) — by his return," Rosemann explained. "While Richard has definitely matured over the last couple years, he still views Wendell as one of his heroic superiors, and holds him in high esteem. Which will probably only add to the guilt Rich will continue to carry with him now."

That guilt stems from the circumstances of Vaughn's death. "Wendell fell at Nova's side when the two of them were trying to stop Annihilus," DnA said. "The death of such a significant hero and such a good friend shocked Rich deeply, and was one of the defining moments in the Annihilation War that changed him from teen hero to a seasoned veteran and an A-List hero."

If Wendell Vaughn's return is permanent, reverberations will be felt across the cosmic landscape of the Marvel Universe, especially in DnA's other ongoing series "Guardians of the Galaxy," which features she who inherited the Quasar mantle from Vaughn, Phyla-Vell. "If Wendell's back for good, then the universe can't have two Quasars," the writers remarked. "If Wendell's already died in the line of duty, will he want to continue in the role? How will Phyla feel about using the Quasar mantle if Quasar isn't dead? And who do the Quantum Bands really belong to? Who decides who gets to be the Protector of the Universe? All these questions will be explored in the upcoming 'Guardians' issues."

Wendell Vaughn reborn

It was announced at 2009 New York Comic Con - as part of the War of Kings panel - that Wendell Vaughn's story will continue in both the ongoing Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy series'.

Realm of Kings Quasar

Characteristics

Wendell Elvis Vaughn appears to be very much an ‘everyman’. He’s modest, polite (even to his enemies up to a point.), noble and selfless. Religiously speaking, he appears to be an Atheist despite having regular contact with beings that would have every right to refer to themselves as gods. Early in his career he is characterized as usually referring to others as “sir” or “ma’am” and this included his enemies.

While in combat, Quasar usually fought defensively using the minimum amount of power to neutralize his opponent. This bordered on pacifism; it wasn’t unusual for an adversary to find themselves in a nearly-unbreakable energy bubble soon after engaging Quasar and on their way to the Vault or other similar super-powered holding cell. An excellent example of this is Klaw ‘the master of sound’ who barely managed to fire a shot at Quasar before he was trapped within a quantum-constructed vacuum bell, which Quasar removed the air from, and since sound cannot travel within a vacuum… Klaw was forced into his emitter. Another example is when a mentally controlled Jack-of-Hearts attacked Quasar and Her, Quasar simply created force-bubbles over Jack’s hands. Effectively stopping him from doing anymore damage with his energy-blasts (Quasar was also nice enough to make the constructs lighter than air in this case so that Jack wouldn’t fall to his death). This sort of active-pacifism separated him from other heroes of the time.

Early in his career he was often described as being quiet and soft-spoken, this changed after he defeated the likes of Venom and Absorbing-Man with little effort. He even seemed to kill Absorbing-Man in this instance, but only because Creel had absorbed the power of the Quantum-Bands and Quasar couldn’t take the chance of him losing control of the power in the densely populated New York City. So, Quasar overloaded him and Creel exploded. Creel later re-appeared months later.

One of the few exceptions to this was when Wendell was dealing with the death of his father and idea the possibility that the woman he cared very much for was possibly having relations with his best friend. It was then that the villain Moonraker was seen buzzing Four Freedoms Plaza, Quasar engaged and nearly killed him.

Quasar was held back from being an active field agent in SHIELD because of a lack of ‘killer-instinct’. But it was the same lack of ‘killer-instinct’ that allowed him to figure out how to properly use the basic functions of the Quantum-Bands and it would be years later when Eon opened his mind to mastery of the bands.

Appointed Protector of the Universe by the cosmic entity who job it was to ensure that the universe remained amicable to life; Eon found Wendell uniquely suited to this task. He selflessly risked his own life to save Earth’s sun during the Kree/Shi’ar War; sacrificed his own life for a chance to end the Infinity War before it endangered Earth. Wendell felt that all life was precious, not just innocents or other heroes. Quasar saved adversaries from death on more than one occasion.

These personality traits made up along with the requisite attributes of Intelligence, Courage, and Resourcefulness made Wendell Elvis Vaughn the ideal Universal Protector, more so possibly than Captain Mar-Vell. Quasar exemplified what it was to be a Protector of the Universe.

 

Notable Feats

These feats aren’t simply inventive ways Quasar has used the Quantum Bands, it’s more representative of his character and what sort of man he is based on actions he has undertaken.

Early in Wendell Vaughn’s career as Marvel Man he was back-handed by the Hulk and sent flying several blocks (Hulk #223). This, when compared to his easy neutralization of the Thing a few short (continuity) months later (MtiO #53) (in which not only did his energy constructs withstand a strong blow from Grimm, but trapped him in a cage) gives an impression to the speed of Wendell’s learning curve.

Afterward, Quasar flew from the Earth to Uranus with only a life-support rig and given a drug cocktail which sent him into suspended animation (Quasar #2). The trip took several years. To even consider taking such a trip speaks to Vaughn’s courage and willpower, or perhaps he figured worst case scenario he just wouldn’t wake up. Soon after, he was appointed by Eon to be Protector of the Universe.

Vaughn returned to Earth to join the Avengers after impressing Captain America and Hawkeye as he fought along side not only the Avengers, but the Fantastic Four against Garthan Saal (Avengers #302-303), who was backed by nearly the entire might of the Nova Force. Quasar was the first to respond (having flown from New York to Chicago) and tested his power against the self proclaimed “Super-Nova”, and came up short, but managed to evacuate all nearby civillians. He played a pivotal role later during the fight in not only saving the life of Hawkeye (by litterally plucking Barton out of Saal’s grasp just before he distintegrated him), but transported Dr. Richards from Chicago to New York City in under fifteen minutes and back again.

A few days later, Quasar was sent to capture the Absorbing Man who had hospitalized several guards at an Adamantium plant, stealing only a small piece of the metal (Quasar #5). During their fight Creel managed to touch Quasar’s Quantum Band and absorbed its power, he grew over 70ft tall and was clearly drunk on the power, the same very power that Wendell has complete control of everyday. Absorbing Man (backed by the limitless power of the Quantum-Zone) now flew toward New York to attack the Avengers. Knowing the kind of destruction that Creel might create with the power he now had, Quasar had to act. Forced to choose between the lives of the millions of people in New York or the life of Carl Creel, Quasar didn’t hesitate. He overloaded the cosmically powered Creel and in a blinding flash of light, Absorbing Man exploded. Wendell felt as though he had no choice in the matter.

Days later, Quasar captured and returned Venom back to the Vault in less time than it takes to tell, he was then asked to capture Klaw, who was attacking the Wakandian Embassy. Quasar trapped him in a vacuum and forced him to return to his Sonic Converter. Out-thinking his opponents rather than attempting to use naked power against them. (Quasar #6)

Quasar later encountered the cosmically powered Spider-Man and enlisted his help in exiling Terminus from the earth, a villain normally known for taking on entire teams of heroes. (Quasar #7)

In Quasar #11, he not only held his own against the magic of the Modred the Mystic and the power of a Phoenix-Force augmented Rachel Summers but he managed to turn the Phoenix’s power on Modred, effectively stalemating both of them.

Later (Quasar #16), He reasoned that yes, the Watchers were indeed interfering with events by merely watching them, but their effective self-imposed geneocide would interfere even more. In effect, he saved the entire Watcher race from the Oblivion Plague.

When Quasar had no memory of his powers or responsibilities (Quasar #18) he reasoned that the real threat was the Unbeing and not Origin. When the Unbeing attempted to manipulate him into killing Origin who was the cosmic entity who created all meta-humans.

During " Cosmos in Collision" (Quasar #19-25) Quasar repeatedly chooses to make the ultimate sacrifice of his life for the betterment of the universe. First, when he believes it is Eon who is re-animating his form he agrees to kill Eon thinking that not only will it stop Maelstrom from getting Cosmic Awareness, but it will end his existance. Second he willingly flys into the black hole in an effort to reverse the flow of energy and matter knowing the effort will kill him. After Maelstrom and Oblivion are defeated, Quasar undoes all the damage Maelstrom had done and resurrects himself.

During Eon's funeral, Quasar manages to outthink four previous bears of the Quantum-Bands (three of them chosen Protectors) created by Thanos. (Quasar #27)

Wendell garners the attention and affections of Her (as she is looking for her ideal mate) despite that he is simply a average human and his powers only come from his "wrist-weapons", but through his action he defends Her from Jack of Hearts and Moondragon. (Quasar #28-29)

In Quasar #31, Wendell over the course of hours explains his life story to Jim Hamorahan to earn his trust and eventually, Jim gives him the Starbrand so that Wendell can return to his own universe.

At Captain Mar-Vell's gravesite, Quasar (along with Starfox) held his own against seemingly the entire Shi'ar Imperial Guard. (Quasar #32)

Quasar's Standard Operating Procedure

While Quasar's powers are quite powerful and diverse, since he doesn't like to make a habit of using all of his power to destroy his opponent, it is important to note his standard operating procedure.

• Contain: Q encounters someone who looks menacing. Immediate reaction: whip up a containment vessel around him to prevent further danger.

• Drain: If it appears this menace has energy-based powers, Q taps those powers and drains them off. The length of time this takes depends on the extent of the menace's power. He cannot do this to persons whose energies are outside the electromagnetic spectrum.

• Attack: Clobber the guy with a quantum-construct, be it a personal weapon (Q prefers nunchakus) or a big something like a giant hammer or anvil.

Relationships

Wendell Vaughn often found himself pursued by various women.

 
Kayla Ballantine caught Wendell's eye when he first returned to Earth from Uranus, he was quick to hire her as his secretary; they shared a mutual attraction and even dated, but his duties as an Avenger and Protector of the Universe often interfered with any chance at a relationship. Kayla was eventually exiled by the Living Tribunal to a parallel new earth orbiting the Stranger's Lab World after being exposed to the Star Brand.

Moondragon attempted to persuade Quasar into mating with her as she had several qualifications that would make her an ideal consort for the Protector of the Universe, even going so far as to attempt to confuse Quasar when she mentally controlled Kayla. Quasar felt otherwise about Moondragon and informed her that qualifications have nothing to do with feelings.

Kismet

Powers

Since his ressurection in "Quantum-Light" form during Secret Invasion, Wendell Vaughn seems to have a vast array of personal power not unlike the powers of the Quantum Bands. This is a hypothetical list based on the powers he has thusfar exhibited and explanations (with some scientific basis) as to why he must have a power even he has yet to display it.

Cosmic Awareness: Wendell Vaughn has declared he has Cosmic Awareness, but has explained that it is to a lesser degree than a cosmic entity such as Ego or Eon has. This gives Wendell the potential of Omniscience, but it's likely that he simply has access to a large 'library' of information by simply thinking about a particular subject.

Density Control: This ability is assumed as some level of it would be required to make the Shape-Shifting power worthwhile. Becoming the Hulk and hitting someone doesn't have as much impact if you have the density of a typical human or average energy construct. At the same time if he indeed is made of energy then he must obey the hypothetical laws of energy and light. Einstein postulated quite famously that Energy equals Mass, therefore if Quasar has control of his Quantum-Light form, then he probably has a similar control over his density and mass.

Energy Channelling: While he does not seem to have the vast energy-manipulating powers of the Quantum Bands, Quasar seems to the ability to generate damaging energy blasts and also the ability to large devastating explosions. The later of these seems to expend his energy and at the time he was forced to return to the Quantum Flask, but the Flask has since been shattered by Richard Rider. It's unknown what effect the larger explosion would have on his form. 

Energy form: Since his ressurection Wendell Vaughn now seems to be composed of energy or light; functoning with Vaughn's personality and memories. This effectively makes him immortal (as energy can neither be created nor destroyed). It has yet to be explained how this has happened to him as a result of his body being destroyed by Annihilus. Powerful energy manipulators would likely have a degree of control over Quasar's form.

Flight: Quasar can fly but has not been clocked doing any particular speed. We can assume he is now limited by the speed of light (since he is composed of light), roughly 186,000 miles per second.

Quasar shape-changes into the Hulk

 

Energy Constructs: The bands can construct anything the wearer can imagine from "Quantum energy". The more care the bearer takes in the creation of a construct, the stronger and more durable it is. A practiced bearer can alter the mass of the constructs so that they have the consistency of molasses or to be lighter than air. These constructs last indefinitely or until the bearer reabsorbs the construct into the Q-bands.

Flight: The bands allow the bearer to fly in atmosphere or in space (surrounding the wearer in an energy aura to protect from the vacuum of space), and can achieve incredible speeds (Quasar once flew from New York Harbor to the Sea of Tranquility in under 5 minutes), Quasar had been clocked at near light-speed on several occasions. Starhawk was estimated at "thrice lightspeed" by Eon's offspring Era.

Teleportation: The Quantum-Bands also enable the bearer to "quantum-jump" or create apertures between the fabric of space/time of various sizes in the actual world of matter and energy and the potential world of matter and energy that is the quantum zone. He can then travel through this trackless featureless zone and emerge at a different point in our physical space light years away from his starting point only seconds later. His quantum-bands enable him to keep his bearings while in the zone and thus emerge where he wants to. He can cross countless light years in a single jump, (taking only seconds) if he so desires. Important note, however, he cannot quantum-jump within a planetary atmosphere without ripping a hole in its ozone layer unless he does so from within a construct like a large energy bubble. Quasar has on one occasion used his Quantum-jump ability to simultaniously send one Avengers Quinjet (upgraded for space travel) to Kree space within the Greater Magellanic Cloud; another to the Shi'ar galaxy.

Communications: The bands can detect, emit, and receive radio waves; thereby the bearer can communicate with other radio receivers. The bands can also create a “Quantum-link” which appears as a glowing golden sphere about 2 inches in diameter, which travels to the point of contact at warp speeds and connects with any communication device present allowing the bearer to carry on near-instantaneous communications even over extra-galactic distances.

Altered Metabolism: One previous bearer of the Quantum bands(Marvel Boy) has been known to be able to augment his strength and stamina to unknown limits with the Quantum-bands. Quasar himself rarely exibited this ability and only when it was needed. He once physically restrained She-Hulk by himself, whether this was a statement of his physical strength or her own restraint is unknown, though she seemed to struggle against him.

Mental Protection: Despite the fact that the Quantum-Bands have no control over the mind or Psionics, at least one previous bearer (Quasar) had "programed" the Bands to protect his mind for mental attacks and takeover. So powerful is this protection that powerful psychics, such as Moondragon or the Overmind could not overcome it.

Limitations:
Worthiness: Similar to the hammer of Thor, a bearer of the Quantum-Bands must to be worthy. As the Quantum-Bands are tied to the station of the Protector of the Universe, the bands seem to require a calm mind lacking ‘killer instinct’ to learn to use them to their fullest potential. A bearer with the intent to commit acts of depravity and destruction will quickly find himself losing control of the energy output of the bands until they disintigrate him.

Magic: The Bands cannot absorb it or resist it. However, an enchanted physical object will only be as strong as the object itself would otherwise be. Therefore, Mjolnir will simply not shatter Quasar's forcefield like glass. Fortunately, magicians have no control over the energies he manipulates so, it evens out.

Extradimensional energy: Quasar is susceptible to all persons using Darkforce. His Q-bands cannot create constructs to  hold or resist darkforce energy. The Darkforce penetrates his energy like it wasn't even there. Also entities from the  Negative-Zone (such as Annihilus) can corrupt the bands if wearing them, rendering the worthiness clause nullified.

   Kinetic Energy: The Quantum Bands have no defense against someone manipulating it psionically. (Which is why 
 Maelstrom overwhelmed Quasar so easily to begin with), but a bearer can resist a kinetically imbued object (sich as a knife or a deck of cards) If a bearer of the Quantum Bands senses the attack they can throw up a shield to defend  themselves with.

Psionic energy: A psionic blast will cut through any quantum constructs like papier mache'. Fortunately, most psionic  manipulators are susceptible to the energies of the Quantum-Bands, so it evens out.

Matter manipulation: Foes who manipulate matter, psionically or otherwise, the Quantum Bands cannot effect their powers. They deal with energy, not matter. The Molecule Man, Sersi, Phoenix, Her, and the Silver Surfer, among others, affect matter in a way that a bearer of the Q-bands cannot. However, Her, Sersi, and the Silver Surfer use cosmic energy to power their matter manipulation abilities and therefore a practiced bearer could affect the energy source, but not the ability itself.  
 

Alternate Realities

 
Quasar of Earth-616 briefly views (the Uni-Power possessed) Quasar of Earth-915 as he battles the Serpent-God Set. 

Earth-398

 
Earth-915
Wendell Vaughn of Earth-915 was chosen as the recipient of the power of Captain Universe to defeat the serpent-god Set. Combining the Uni-Power of Captain Universe and the formidable power of the Quantum Bands, Quasar grew fully as large as the Serpentine Elder God himself and was able to meet Set on even terms. 

Earth-1610
In the Ultimate universe Wendell Vaughn is a SHIELD agent and head of security for Project Pegasus. 
 
Earth-2149
In the Marvel Zombies earth, Quasar is a zombie and shown to be part of Sentry's team of Undead Avengers. It is mentioned that Quasar held Kitty Pryde underwater with a construct until she turned tangible and then Namor consumed her.

Earth-9200
In this alternate reality, Quasar was (presumed) killed by Maestro in his rise to power. In his memory his distinctive starry cape was put on display for everyone to see by Rick Jones. What became of the Quantum Bands in this reality is unknown.

Earth-58163
Wendell Vaughn was shown in the House of M reality as a SHIELD agent. It appeared as he didn't have any powers.