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Everything There Is To Know About Quasar's Quantum-Bands
by Mark Gruenwald

What's Quasar's Standard Operating Procedure?

1.
2. Contain. Q encounters someone who looks menacing. Immediate reaction: whip up a containment vessel around him to prevent further danger.
3. 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 or are vastly more powerful than he (e.g., Thanos).
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.

How Strong Are Quasar's Quantum-Constructs?

It depends on:

1.
2. Energy available to the quantum-bands. Usually not a problem. The quantum zone--the realm of potential energy from which all actual energy in our universe derives--has an infinite amount of energy available for tapping. But if he's out of the multiverse, in some magical dimension for instance--oh-oh, he's dependent upon how much he happens to have stored in his wrist-bands at the time of entry.
3. His concentration at the time of the construct's construction. If he's really alert and imbues it with the appropriate thickness, density, and stability, it will be stronger than a quickly or sloppily-constructed object. Mental fatigue is a major factor. When he's tired, he's sloppy and makes poor judgments, including during quantum-construction.
The design, size, and thickness of the object created.
* Design: Some shapes are intrinsically stronger than others, usually the simpler the sturdier (spheres, triangles, tubes, discs).
* Size: The smaller the object the more time Q has to make it dense and thus more durable. A boxing glove around his fist would probably be denser and more durable than a boxing glove the size of a bus made in the same amount of time.
* Thickness: The thicker the "skin" of a hollow object the stronger it may be. Something as thick as a dictionary will be more durable than something as thick as a single sheet of paper. Furthermore, while the Black Knight's sword might be able to slice through a quantum-construct (see below), if the thickness of his construct is greater than the length of the blade, the blade will not be able to penetrate all the way through.

Does Quasar Feel The Pounding His Constructs May Take?

No. There is no feedback circuit between him and his constructs. In other words, if pressure is applied to a construct, he does not feel referred pressure on his head. His brain only shapes the energy, it doesn't provide it or is connected to it in any way. He feels it no more than a sculptor would feel it if you smashed his clay statue.

How Long Do His Quantum-Constructs Last?

In general, the energy remains solidified until he deconstructs them. Untampered with, a construct can remain in existence theoretically forever. Once an object is created, it is no longer dependent upon his consciousness or will power to remain in existence. If he is knocked out, the construct will just remain floating there. He can mentally embed a self-destruct timer into a construct at the time of construction, causing it to dissolve at an appointed time.
The forms that he makes out of quantum-energy may be broken, however. This is dependent upon how strong he originally constructs them. If he surrounds the Hulk in a tissue-paper width quantum-construct, the Hulk is going to be able to tear himself out pretty darn quick. The torn pieces however will not dissipate until he absorbs them back into his quantum-bands (which looks like he wills them out of existence).

Can He Bolster A Previously Built Construct?

No. If he does not construct one strong enough, he cannot just pour energy into it to bolster it, he must either create a second construct around it, or deconstruct it and reconstruct it stronger (which may only take a fraction of a second, but this would certainly allow super-fast so-and-sos to free themselves).

How Heavy Are His Quantum-Constructs?

It depends on how dense he makes them. Anywhere from barely negligible to several times as heavy as the object constructed of conventional materials would weigh. No matter what they weigh he can swing them around with the greatest of ease.

How Many Constructs Can He Make At The Same Time?

This depends on his powers of concentration. While it's possible to perform two similar but different tasks at the same time (e.g., transcribing the musical notes to one melody while humming a different melody), it's difficult and takes longer than doing a sequence of separate tasks. In other words, to form a shield and a chair at the same time would probably take him just as long as forming one first and then the other, and they probably would not be as well constructed as doing them separately. The exception to this would be the mass production of something simple, such as a swarm of baseball-sized spheres or a slew of javelins.

How Many Quantum-Constructs Can Remain In Existence At The Same Time?

Theoretically as many as he makes. Once they're in existence they're set for life. However, there is a definite limit to the number of things he can animate at the same time. If a construct has moving parts--say, two blades of a pair of scissors--it will take concentration to keep that object operating. When he stops thinking about it, it will stop moving though it will not blink out of existence. We've yet to see Quasar try to bring into existence as many quantum-constructs as he can manage. His mind would definitely fatigue before he came anywhere near using up all the energy of the quantum-zone available to him.

What Can The Quantum-Bands Do Besides Make Constructs?

They enable him to quantum jump or create small apertures between the fabric of space/time 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. 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, if he so desires. Important note, however, he cannot quantum-jump in an atmosphere without ripping a huge hole in its ozone layer. Thus using it for teleportation on Earth is out of the question.
Quasar could also use the quantum-bands to bolster his metabolism, though he has yet to realize this is a property of the bands. (His predecessor--Marvel Boy--did, though, and used them to give him superhuman strength and prowess.)

Can He Preprogram His Quantum-Bands With Specific Commands?

Yes. He has preprogrammed them to be sensitive to incoming energy fluctuations of sufficient power to do him harm and automatically absorb that energy. He also programmed his quantum-bands to automatically whip up a forcefield when it senses an incoming energy source that may be harmful to Q's form.
He cannot program his bands to automatically protect him from danger from non-energetic sources. Thus they cannot automatically protect him from ballistic objects (kinetic energy is not part of the electromagnetic spectrum). Thus a bullet could catch him by surprise but a laser blast couldn't.
He's also programmed the quantum-bands to automatically protect his mind from psionic influence by producing a jamming wave in his mind.

What Are Quasar's Specific Vulnerabilities?

Quasar is vulnerable to all energy outside the electromagnetic spectrum:

* Magic. He cannot absorb it, he cannot resist it. Magic can bind him, magicians can even take over his mind. A bolt of magic will penetrate his force field. However, an enchanted physical object will only be as strong as the object itself would otherwise be: while his forcefield could resist an adamantium blade, the Black Knight's magical ebony blade would be able to slice through Quasar's best quantum shield like tissue. Fortunately, magicians have no control over the energies he manipulates so he should be able to slam an energy construct through a mystical shield of Seraphim, for instance.
* Extradimensional energy. Q is susceptible to all persons using Darkforce (Shroud, Darkstar, Black Mamba, Quagmire). His q-bands cannot create constructs to hold or resist the dark stuff. The Darkforce penetrates his energy like it wasn't even there.
* Kinetic energy, the energy of motion. No defense against someone manipulating it psionically (which is why Maelstrom overwhelmed him so easily). He can however resist the effects of something imbued with kinetic energy--a thrown knife has kinetic energy, but if Q sees it coming he can put up a shield to stop the knife despite its kinetic force.
* Psionic energy. A psionic blast will cut through his quantum constructs like papier mache'. Fortunately, most psionic manipulators are susceptible to the energies he employs, so they're even.
* Matter manipulation. Foes who manipulate matter, psionically or otherwise, he cannot muck with. He deals with energy not matter. The Molecule Man, Sersi, Phoenix, Her, and the Silver Surfer, among others, affect matter in a way he cannot. Her, Sersi, and the Surfer use cosmic energy to do so, however, and he could stop the cosmic energy though not undo anything wrought to matter by that cosmic energy.

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Originally posted by Sentry
Quasar wins.

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Originally posted by DigiMark007
Quasar has the potential to be much more powerful than Supes...kinda like a good GL, except rather than willpower, Quasar just has an unlimited supply of energy from the Q-bands. He just doesn't know how to fully tap that power or he'd be much higher up in the cosmic hierarchy within Marvel (though he's up there anyway).

This fight could go either way, but yeah, Quasar should win more often than not.

-DM

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Originally posted by long pig
Hard to back Supes here, I mean, he doesn't have a speed advantage, and his strength is useless against the constructs. His heat vision can be blocked and his cold breath can too. He can't do too much.

Quasar should win.

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Originally posted by long pig
Hard to back Supes here, I mean, he doesn't have a speed advantage, and his strength is useless against the constructs. His heat vision can be blocked and his cold breath can too. He can't do too much.

Quasar should win.

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Originally posted by leonidas
masterson thor was able to pretty much ruin quasar and smash his constructs. he was even holding back. i can't see quasar's constructs holding supe's or preventing him reaching quasar. perhaps as digi says if he is able to fully harness all the power that he can supposedly command, this would be different. i think supe's beats classic quasar though.