The Cosmic Avenger Quasar #8: Still Life With Metal

*Contains spoilers*

Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Mike Manley
Inker: Danny Bulanadi
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Paul Becton
Editor: Howard Mackie
Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco

Well I guess that depends upon your definition of the word 'last'. And 'tie-in'.

Anyway, while out searching for aliens, Quasar looks in on his old employers Project: Pegasus, and quickly finds himself fighting a giant metallic monster that has evolved from spare parts that Iron Man found on Battleworld. (during the above-mentioned Secret Wars) Quasar then successfully engineers it into a nearby bottomless pit, which isn't really bottomless, but short of going right through the Earth is about as close as you can get.

Along the way he helps out his job's successor there in the form of the new Security Chief - the Blue Shield. The rescue enables Quasar to pay some penance for his own failing in the role, and turns his regrets into a more positive force by reassuring the new guy afterwards, to avoid letting the cycle of self-blame repeat.

I gotta be honest and admit that I found this issue to be dull throughout, but that final page was so worth it. It shows the choice that our own failure confronts each of us with, in greater clarity than I think I've seen anywhere else.

Will the Blue Shield let his own psychological insecurity get the better of him, or will he overcome it? Will he choose to become a victim of the monster, or a survivor? Will he choose spiritual death, or life???

Click away now if you don't want to know the answer...

Tut. Temps.