One character gave the english speaking world an exclamation; the other gave nerds continuity porn

Captain Marvel- Quasar/Marvel Man

The other day, while looking around for info on the second character named above, I happened upon a message board posting where some nerd was talking about how much he liked Quasar, a “cosmic” hero that kicked around without much notice until he starred in what I gather was a highly wonky series penned by Mark Gruenwald and which ran from the late ‘80s to the mid ‘90s (this was the time I was not reading funnee books) .

In the Image era to which the series yielded, said the poster, every character grimaces while he blows villains heads off. Whereas Quasar is a noble young man who tries to do the right thing. To which another poster, evincing the cheap scorn some nerds on the internet indulge in so as to create a geek pecking order, sneered “every character, no matter how lame, is someone’s favorite.”

Apparently, Gruenwald saw Quasar as an “everyman” character who would explore the cosmic byways of the MU in a different, more wide-eyed manner than, say, the Silver Surfer. I liked Gruenwald’s Captain America and enjoy superhero wonkiness, so I’d like to check the series out one day.

So of course, a character known only to earnest goofballs will be paired with a hero who frequently outsold the Superman books in the 1940s and early ‘50s; provoked a lawsuit from DC Comics against the character’s publisher Fawcett Publications over a reasonable similarity to Superman; ceased publication and saw its copyright languish so that other publishers could use the name; gave Gomer Pyle his favorite exclamation; and was finally purchased by DC and fully integrated into its fictional diaspora. Most importantly, Captain Marvel is probably better known than any DC character save Superman, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman.

The fanciful mythos common to the Big Red Cheeses probably doesn’t work past the 1940s: talking tigers and worms are best left in the past. But Captain Marvel worked well for about 25 years as a wish-fulfillment of many kids who read comic books before (and to a lesser extent after) the Stan and Jack revolution. Now he’s taken the wizard Shazam’s place as a mystical vizier, or somesuch other dumb shit.

Commonalities:
It’s the sense that both are essentially decent young fellows charged with great powers by ancient beings.

Differences:
Ostensibly, Quasar’s abilities to create energy constructs with his quantum bands, not to mention his relative youth and his cosmic bailiwick, would line up with Kyle Rayner. And Roy Thomas linked Rick Jones to Mar-Vell as an explicit nod to his namesake.

Alternate histories:

CM: Billy Batson is a rookie operative at a government agency who acquires an artifact once used by a that grants him immense strength, stamina and control of mystical thunderbolts. After a few years as the novice hero Captain Marvel, he travels into space and discovers that the artifact is a remnant of a offshoot civilization of “New Gods,” and that he has been chosen by the alien wizard Shazam to succeed the deceased Hawkman as a guardian of the “rock of eternity.” While he joins the Justice League for a short time, Captain Marvel spends most of his time opposing menaces throughout the cosmos; he apparently has been revived in a quasi-spectral state after he was thought to have been killed by an extraterrestrial antagonist.

QU: Teenager Wendell Vaughn encounters Eon, an omniscient creature who grants him various “quantum” abilities, which he henceforth accesses by transforming into adult form. Using the name Marvel Man and then Quasar, Vaughn is one of the few superhumans who can credibly challenge the Mighty Thor. During stints with the Avengers and the Liberty Legion, many colleagues, unaware that he’s truly an adolescent, note his naive demeanor. After a cosmic conflagration, Quasar has taken the place of the slain Eon as a universal guardian granted with “cosmic awareness.”

How African-American heroes are made, circa 1983

Dr. Light (Kimiyo Hoshi)- Captain Marvel/Pulsar (Monica Rambeau)

So we have two heroines who assumed the names of existing characters—one is of a good guy, the other bad.

Initially, Kimiyo Hoshi was an arrogant astronomer who was used as a pawn of the Anti-Monitor in the first Crisis, but who eventually came around to the good guy’s side. In the the most recent book featuring the character I’ve read (of which more below), she spoke like an American.

As for Rambeau: apparently Marvel felt like they needed a character by the name “Captain Marvel” for copyright purposes, since the Mar-Vell character had been killed off. So Roger Stern came up with an African-American woman to take the name: she was not a stereotype, but simply a black woman with courage and super-powers. She was made chairperson of the Avengers, but apparently editor Mark Gruenwald felt like Captain America needed to be emphasized again, so out went Rambeau, and so did Avengers writer Stern. She’s appeared occasionally since the ‘80s, under the name Photon and Pulsar.

Commonalities:
Both characters have more or less the same abilities. And, in the first issue of of Giffen and DeMatteis’ Justice League in 1987, Hoshi behaves and speaks rather like Rambeau, with whom I’m much more familiar.

Differences:
Hoshi is from Japan; Rambeau’s from N’awlins.

Alternate histories:

DL: Japanese-American policewoman Kimiyo Hoshi is bombarded by the energies of an extra-dimensional channeling device: she gains the ability to transmute and manipulate light. Taking the name Dr. Light, Hoshi becomes a member and soon leader of the Justice League. She’s worked with the League sporadically after her chairmanship concluded.

PU: Astronomer Monica Rambeau is imbued with the ability to transform into any energy included in the electromagnetic spectrum during a universe-wide conflagration. Taking the name Pulsar, Rambeau has served as a member of the Avengers and briefly the Fantastic Four and the Defenders.