With the vambrace-like bands she inherited from those previously code-named Quasar, this woman is arguably as powerful as other greats such as Captain Marvel.
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Table of Contents:
- Stats
- History
- Powers and Abilities
- Paraphernalia
- Avril & Auz
- Comics (Images Begin)
- Live
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Stats:
- Height: 5’6″
- Weight: 138 lbs.
- Hair / Eyes: brown / blue
- Breasts: perky B-cups
- Complexion: Caucasian
- Figure: feminine, fit
- Attire: superheroine uniform/s
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History
Avril Kincaid was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stationed in Pleasant Hill (a community holding super-villians brainwashed by Kobik). She was the leader of “plainclothes surveillance,” the agents on the town posing as citizens. She was also in charge of the daycare for imaginary children and Kobik.
When Pleasant Hill was attacked from the inside by several inmates, she was assaulted by the Blood Brothers. Captain America and the Winter Soldier, two of the heroes on the scene, protected her, not aware that she was planning on getting caught so she could be taken to the location of the break-out’s leader, Baron Zemo.
She later directed Cap and the Winter Soldier in shutting down the security of the Pleasant Hill Museum, where Avril wanted to go to retrieve a powerful weapon that could potentially turn the tide of the conflict.[1] After making her way through super villains looting the museum,[2] Avril encountered the curator, who gave Avril the set of items she was looking for, the Quantum Bands. Additionally, the curator revealed himself to be Wendell Vaughn, a.k.a. Quasar, the bands’ former owner.
Using the power of the Quantum Bands, Avril played a key role in Baron Zemo’s defeat. Once the conflict was resolved and the dust settled, Vaughn began tutoring her in using the bands, training her to become the new Quasar.[3] Because of this, she didn’t get to spend much time with her girlfriend, Joy, who had no idea what the training really was about.[4]
After a superhuman civil war (which started due to Thanos‘ arrival on Earth) and a looming Chitauri invasion, the idea to build a Planetary Defense Shield came up,[5] and, after it was built, Quasar was asked by Captain America to test it.[6]
Secret Empire
When the Chitauri invasion arrived, heavy-hitter superheroes prepared to hold the line while Iron Man and Ironheart fixed the Planetary Defense Shield. Meanwhile, it was revealed the Shield’s malfunctions were actually purposefully caused by Captain America, with superficial damage of Hydra’s attack covering that up. Rogers activated the Shield, leaving Avril and the rest of the heroes on Earth’s orbit exiled on the other side. The heroes were slowly being overpowered by the Chitauri and, without noticing, a Leviathan approached her and ate her.[7]At first, she was believed dead, but it was later revealed she had survived and was in a coma.[8]
Quasar eventually awakened from her coma and offered to destroy the Defense Shield after an attempt to breach it by crashing an Alpha Flight module into it failed. After much effort, Quasar sacrificed herself[9] to destroy the Defense Shield, allowing Captain Marvel to fly down to Earth and destroy the Chitauri queen eggs that were luring the Chitauri to Earth.[10]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Seemingly those of Quasar (Wendell Vaughn)
Paraphernalia
Equipment
The Quasars’ powers are derived from the pair of Quantum Bands fused to the bearer’s wrists (or more specifically, from the seven gems on each of the bands). The bands are permanently affixed to the wrists; while he or she can make light bend around them so they appear to be invisible, they are still tangible. They are linked to their wearer’s nervous system and grant tremendous powers of energy manipulation, apparently working the same for each bearer. Composed of unknown materials, the bands were originally created by Eon to be worn by his designated Protector of the Universe. At some point they were left in a weapons depot by the alien Kree, where they were discovered by the Uranian Eternals and brought to Earth by the deluded Crusader, who believed himself to be the 1950s Marvel Boy.
Foremost among the bands’ powers is the ability to tap into a limitless energy source called the “Quantum Zone”. Quasars can project quantum energy in the form of devastating beams of force or heat. Vaughn more commonly employs them to fashion incredibly durable constructs of solid energy, such as containment spheres or pincers. He protects himself with a personal force field of quantum energy.
The Quantum Bands can also exert control over many other types of energy that are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, Vaughn once caused a star to emit an enormous solar flare. It is also possible to absorb and redirect the cosmic energy wielded by such powerful beings as the Silver Surfer, Jack of Hearts, Adam Warlock, Thanos, Jean Grey and the Watchers, siphoning their power and using it to augment the quantum energy. Forms of energy the Quantum Bands cannot control include magic and the Darkforce.
Although the bands apparently cannot overtly affect psionic energy, Vaughn has programmed them to render him impervious to psionic mental control. Even such powerful psychics as Moondragon and the Overmind have proven unable to overcome this defense. This does not protect the bearer from magical forms of compulsion.[7]
It is possible to create apertures into and out of the Quantum Zone, thus allowing passage through its infinite, featureless expanse. Vaughn mainly uses this ability to traverse interstellar distances in a manner similar to hyperspace travel, which he refers to as a “Quantum Jump”. A Quantum Jump has a destructive side effect on the local environment, violently upheaving gravity and tearing holes in the atmosphere (on Earth, it would damage the ozone layer). Vaughn initially refrains from using this ability except when in space or in dire circumstances, but eventually discovers that he can prevent this effect by surrounding himself with a barrier of solid energy before jumping. It is also possible to shunt matter into the Quantum Zone, provided that the Quasar is in physical contact with it.
The Quantum Bands enable their wearer to fly by manipulating gravitons. The maximum obtainable flight speed is unknown, but Vaughn once made a trip from Earth to Uranus in approximately four years flying non-stop (this was before he learned how to quantum jump). That would require a constant speed of roughly 50,000 miles per hour (80,000 km/h). This doesn’t take into account the velocity that can be achieved in a short burst of acceleration.
The Quantum Bands’ gems possess some capability to analyze and process information as if they were extremely advanced computers. This makes it possible to navigate the Quantum Zone and the depths of space. The gems are able to detect, analyze, and track energy emissions across vast distances. They can also “program” Quasars’ quantum energy to register and react to certain preset conditions. For instance, at one time Vaughn had the Earth surrounded with an invisible lattice-work of energy that was designed to act as a global alert system against potential extraterrestrial threats. The energy field could detect any surges of exotic energy emanating from the planet’s surface and any object larger than a micrometeorite passing through it; in either case, the field would react by transmitting an alert signal to the Quantum Bands.
Vaughn has had a direct link to Eon and later Epoch through the bands, which provides ready access to their omniscience.
Phyla-Vell discovers that the bands contain a finite amount of energy which will drain away if they are isolated from their power source (as yet unexplained) and that they also remain linked in some way to their former users.[8]
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Avril & Auz:
One of the only people in the world or history who could ever have both braved the harsh environment of Antarctica and tested the barriers surrounding and masking Inisfree, Avril was asked by some of the shaken elites who made it through the Rapture to scout the area of the Trans-Antarctic Mountains where Auz‘s secret city and power center were thought to be. With her Quantum Bands, she had proven able to absorb and redirect even the incredible cosmic energies of Jean Grey, the Silver Surfer, and Thanos, so surely she could pull this daunting mission into the great unknown off… She found nothing, and was unable to breach (or even zero in on) Inisfree’s Perimeter Orb.
After letting her return to the base and elites who had sent her, reporting her lack of findings, Auz and his entourage of Inisfreean Master Females waited until she had moved on and fallen somewhat off their radar, then asked Avril to meet them wherever she would feel comfortable. They decided on a remote SHIELD facility that had been rebuilt shortly after the first 39 human cities allowed after the Rapture had been. Avril agreed, curious as ever, but on one condition; they had to let her come with a band of her own. Auz gave his consent.
There, the Inisfreeans instantly processed her entire personality, deeming her worthy to be shown the way into their distant home she had tried to spot on her own. The second offer was made; Auz and the seemingly-normal girls accompanying him would fly Avril to the outskirts of their city, giving her a chance to explore and enter on her own –and even test their defenses, as she had the powerful and global defense systems of others in the recent past. The Inisfreean policies were explained to those who had come with her this far (to their SHIELD meeting-place), and reassurances were given that they were peaceful and would take the very best care of her if she went with them.
Using a cloaked portal and their warp-surfing technique, the Inisfreeans flew Avril with them in their airship through a route undetectable and untraceable by those she had worked with. A few of their kind stayed behind during this process, continuing to reassure and mingle with Avril’s group. There was certainly some uneasiness and tension until she was returned.
At the outside base (‘foot’) of Inisfree’s Perimeter Wall, right up by its Pearly Gate 1’s outermost rectangular drawbridge-like door-and-ramp panel, Avril went to work. She found it difficult to penetrate the mile-high wall in any way, and couldn’t even fly over it; the barriers connected with it were impenetrable to her. Attempting to summon a solar flare didn’t even work; the energy shield of the orb beyond the wall was jamming that. Little did she know, the Inisfreeans were also learning all there was to know about her bands and abilities as she repeatedly attempted to use them. Their Rainbow Cannons and other devices across the Inisfreean realm were upgraded as this process went on.
Avril was then invited into the city, and that’s where its full effect finally hit her; she felt healthier, more alive, and more beloved than ever before. It overpowered her in the most agreeable of ways, leaving her in happy tears, looking back to Auz for an explanation. Embracing her, he then looked into her eyes and promised her she could return as often as she wanted, learning all he and his people taught in their schools, and even picking out one of their houses or apartments as her own. The woman who’d become the latest Quasar was speechless.
They returned on their airship to reunite her with her brave superhero friends at the rebuilt SHIELD facility. All of them could tell she’d changed; what a profound and positive impact the experience had had on her. They had so many questions, and Auz with his entourage politely and compassionately told them all their answers would come in time –through Avril, based on her studies and returns.
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Comics:
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Live:
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