CSBG Archive
Comic Book Alphabet of Cool – Q
Today, we feature the cosmic character Jeff Ryan keeps asking for!
Enjoy!
Quasar

Introduced as a bit of a joke character (complete with a punderful name) in an issue of Peter David’s Captain Marvel, it is a bit of a surprise to see Phyla-Vell, Quasar, become such a notable character in the Marvel universe, but I guess it makes sense, as she has quite the interesting pedigree.
First off, she is the daughter of the legendary Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell, but she only came about because her brother, Genis-Vell, destroyed and recreated the universe, with stuff slightly different, such as Phyla now existing, so she is sorta like Dawn Summers on the TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in that she did not originally exist when the show began.

After taking up the mantle of Captain Marvel for a time, Phyla eventually took off on a tour of the universe with her friend (and soon to be girlfriend), Moondragon.
While visiting her father’s grave, though, Phyla was caught up in the Annihilation storyline, when Thanos kidnapped Moondragon. Phyla teamed up with some of the other rebels and helped defeat Annihilus. In fact, it was her taking the Quantum Bands from Annihilus that likely weakened him to the point where Nova could destroy him.

The bands had belonged to the previous Quasar, some guy named Wayne Vaughan or something like that.
Now Phyla had them, and they give her all sorts of awesome powers, including energy manipulation (sorta like a Green Lantern ring). So just like she had followed in the history of Captain Marvel, she now followed in the Quasar tradition, and became the new Quasar.
She did this just in time for a NEW cosmic threat to emerge – the evil Phalanx. She once again turned her powers to help the universe.
Soon after, Moondragon became a, well, actual moon…dragon.

They were still together, though, which is awesome – how many other superheroes date DRAGONS?
So yeah, Jeff, you’re totally right – Quasar is a cool character. Thanks for suggesting her!






27 Comments
FunkyGreenJerusalem
April 9, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Well Played.
Apodaca
April 9, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Brilliant!
My favorite part was “She helk”.
dmor173
April 9, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Nicely done.
And ‘some guy named Wayne Vaughan or something like that’? Genius.
Apodaca
April 9, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Aw, man, You took out she helk. Now everyone’s gonna think I’m crazy.
Chris
April 10, 2008 at 12:00 am
Then “T” better stand for The Question.
Tomer S
April 10, 2008 at 12:14 am
Brian is gonna get himself a Quasar cake, but not as good as the one sent to Marvel.
I really hoped for The Question. Waht about Q2?
Brian Cronin
April 10, 2008 at 12:44 am
Oh, sorry, Dan!
For the record, folks, I began to write “She helped…” in conjunction with something (Annihilation, maybe?) but made a typo, and wrote She helk instead. Then I came up with a totally different paragraph opener instead of “She helped”, but forgot to delete the “She helk.”
Dan noticed it and found it amusing – but then I edited it out.
So Dan is not crazy.
jazzbo
April 10, 2008 at 12:49 am
You sir, are a bastard.
And what the hell is Apodaca talking about with this “She -helk” stuff? He’s obviously a raving lunatic, since I seee nothing resembling that. Weirdo.
jazzbo
April 10, 2008 at 12:50 am
Dammit, we were writing at the same time. So now my lame joke seems even lamer.
BDaly
April 10, 2008 at 3:06 am
Absolutely brilliant Brian. I was going to complain about the lack of Quantum & Woody before I saw what you’d actually done.
Take that, Jeff Ryan!
Chris Simpson
April 10, 2008 at 5:44 am
Nice.
Bizarely, this reminds me of a scene in Cerebus “Church and State”. circa #80 but I’ve not got the comics with me at the moment.
Pope Cerebus is “preaching” in front of a huge crowd when a woman at the front keeps pestering him to bless her baby. Finally, Cerebus relents, takes the child, gives his blessing and then promptly throws the baby as far away as possible saying to the crowd “Let this be a lesson to you. You can get what you ask for and still not be happy”.
Of course, this may be the version of Quasar that Jeff loves so much…
Chuck D
April 10, 2008 at 6:17 am
AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! CHUCK SMASH!!!!!!! Bring back Wendall!
Izod
April 10, 2008 at 6:49 am
Dating a dragon could lead to some interesting websites.
Jeff Ryan
April 10, 2008 at 7:18 am
So this is what it feels like to be pwned.
(sinister laugh) At long laugh, my master plan to keep Queen and Country to getting recognition has come to fruition! Take THAT, Rucka!
avengers63
April 10, 2008 at 7:49 am
I absolutely HATE the way she’s being written right now. Without touching on the fact that she’s gay and Moondragon was turned gay as well, the pair of them are just NOT being well written. Whenever they’re in a fight and it ends, they immediately fall into each other’s arms in some romantic embrace. Sorry, that’s just NOT how folks act. That is just men writing their fantasies to male fans, teasing them with almost getting a girl/girl make-our scene. Couples do not switch emotions like that.
Every other hetrosexual couple in comics have need written just like real life. These two should be as well.
Andrew Collins
April 10, 2008 at 9:13 am
Sigh…The Question just can’t seem to catch a break…poor Vic…
Tomer S
April 10, 2008 at 11:40 am
Isn’t being dead is enough for a break…? O_o
Tomer S
April 10, 2008 at 11:40 am
Enough of*
Mer
April 10, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Hey yeah…what happened to The Question?!? I sure this Quasar chick is swell and everything but is she framed original sketch present worthy? :-p
Matt D
April 10, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I am amazed that Phyla actually became a real character. Really.
Matt D
April 10, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Oh and T DOES need to be The Question.
Then make it Renee.
Apodaca
April 10, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I think what made me laugh about “She helk” was that it seemed like you were identifying the character as She-Hulk, but misspelling the name. It had this making-fun-of-bad-blogs, Tim & Eric-y kind of vibe.
Matt Bird
April 10, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Is there a conspiracy to kill off all the superheroes whose names begin with Q and replace them with lesbians? Watch out Quicksilver! (Wait just a second, wasn’t his sister replaced with a gay kid? The conspiracy is everywhere!)
Patent Dragon
April 10, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Heehee – nice one!
Tomer S
April 11, 2008 at 1:49 am
Matt, guess who’s gonna be Marvel’s next EIC…
Alex
April 11, 2008 at 7:14 am
I’m surprised not to see Frank Quietly considering he drew the We3 panel yah guys use.
But dragon dating aliens are cool too…
wwk5d
April 22, 2008 at 3:25 am
Gay aliens dating dragons? I can only imagine the slash fan-fic being produced on this topic lol