QUANTUM
Real Name: Lomen
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Dakkamite) mutate
Occupation: Super-Soldier
Group Membership: None; formerly the Unified Field (Graviton/Franklin Hall, Halflife/Banca Rech, Zzzax), the Elect (aka. Power Platoon)
Affiliations: Graviton's henchmen;
formerly controlled Aquarian (Wundarr)
Enemies: Annihilation Wave, Aquarian (Wundarr), Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye/Goliath, Mockingbird/H'rpa, War Machine/James Rhodes), Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), Water Children, West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Mockingbird/Barbara Barton, Tigra/Greer Nelson, Wonder Man/Simon Williams)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile;
formerly the planet Dakkam
First Appearance: West Coast Avengers II#12 (September, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Quantum is a trained Dakkamite soldier, who was mutated by the radiation Earth's sun emits. Quantum lost access to his abilities and fell unconscious when cut off from sunlight. He gained superhuman strength (lifting over 100 tons), the ability to fly at sub-light speed and can generate a sheath of flames about his body, to which he is immune.
He has the ability to quantumize, which means that he can occupy multiple positions in space at nearly the same time by actualizing his various potential positions within a probability field on a macroscopic level. He can teleport himself with great rapidity back and forth among many different positions. Due to the phenomena of persistence of vision, a human observer will then see Quantum appear to exist in many different positions simultaneously. He appears to in fact create duplicates of himself. He can teleport himself a maximum of about six inches away from his previous position.
He also possesses a high level of resistance to physical injury, enabling him to survive a fall to Earth from an enormous height. He is immune to the tremendous heat, gravitational forces and pressure of stars. He can also survive without food, water or oxygen indefinitely.
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 230 lbs.
Eyes: Unrevealed (no visible pupils or irises)
Hair: Red
History:
(Quasar#4 (fb) ) - Dakkamite scientists observed Wundarr on Earth after
he was sent there by his parents and realized that the energy of
Earth's sun reacted with Dakkamite physiology in such a way that it
granted Dakkamites superhuman abilities. They reported their
observations to Dakkam's ruling elite, who directed the scientists to
perform an experiment to determine the viability of endowing their
military with similar powers. A platoon of soldiers were elected as
test subjects and placed in incubator capsules. These capsules were
launched 30 million miles away in the solar orbit of Earth's sun
because it was theorized that the close proximity would endow the
soldiers with even greater power than the subject (Wundarr) that landed
on Earth (93 million miles away). The capsules circled the star with
the soldiers inside soaking up the sun's energizing rays while sensors
monitored their bodies for signs of cellular enhancements.
(Avengers West Coast#97 (fb) ) - Quantum was the last to emerge from his capsule with greater power than the rest of the platoon.
(Quasar#4 (fb) ) - When Quantum finally awakened he quickly discovered his new superhuman abilities, but also that his fellow platoon members were gone. Quantum flew through the sun and upon emerging on the other side felt a gravity wave coming from Earth.
(West Coast Avengers II#12) - Quantum followed the wave, sent by Graviton, to Earth. He soon arrived in Los Angeles where people flocked around him while he emitted extreme heat and talked in Dakkamite. Some bystanders were sure he uttered a challenge for the West Coast Avengers. Moments later the alien Halflife and the energy being Zzzax joined him.
The WCA were called in for help by the LAPD and battled the trio. During the fight Quantum used his power to create multiple duplicates of himself nearly taking out Iron Man and Wonder Man all by himself. Wonder Man ended up crashing into the street, but got back into the fight against Quantum only to switch his attention to Half-Life midway when she appeared to be a bigger threat. Hawkeye used a smoke arrow to cut off Quantum from sunlight, which proved to be successful when all Quantum duplicates collapsed. The WCA's victory didn't last long as they were all overpowered by Graviton moments later.
(West Coast Avengers II#13) - On a flying island Graviton celebrated his victory with Quantum and Halflife standing next to him. He urged them to remember that they owed this victory to him, which angered Halflife. Graviton assured her that she and Quantum were recruited because in his opinion they both adequately represented a force of nature with Quantum representing the strong force (the attraction between particles in an atom's nucleus). Quantum tried to talk with Graviton, who not only seemingly understood him (or he just pretended to), but also reminded him that they had agreed to assist each other on their projects of evil. Later Tigra, who had transformed back to her human form and stolen the suit of one of Graviton's henchmen, told Quantum that Halflife planned to destroy. Quantum believed her and because Tigra told Halflife the same a bit earlier, the two extraterrestrials got into a deadly fight on Graviton's flying island. Graviton called over some of his henchmen to help break up the fight, which gave Tigra the opportunity to free her fellow teammates. They watched as Graviton tried to break up the fight between Quantum and Halflife, but the tremendous energies built up by the fight between them caused an energy explosion, which hurled Quantum off the flying island like a bullet.
(West Coast Avengers II#13 / Quasar#4 (fb) ) - Quantum only went along with Graviton's plans because Graviton had promised him to assist him in locating the rest of his platoon. When it became clear to Quantum that Graviton could not help him he allowed himself to be repelled from the floating island.
(Quasar#4 (fb) ) - Quantum kept searching for his platoon all over Earth.
(Quasar#4) - During his search for his platoon Quantum saw the hero Quasar fly and followed him because he believed him to be one of his platoon. When Quasar encountered Aquarian and his Water Children, Quantum considered testing both men in combat to determine if they were enhanced members of his race. He quantumized and rained down on Quasar, whose Quantum Bands were de-powered at the time due to Aquarian's null-field. At Quasar's request Aquarian detracted his null-field so Quasar could form a dome to protect the Water-Children and Aquarian from Quantum's attack. While a multitude of Quantum duplicates hammered on the dome, one of them made it through. Aquarian extended the null-field, deactivating Quantum's powers as well, removing all of his apparent duplicates. Aquarian recognized Quantum's language, but Quantum choked him out from behind. Quantum was disappointed because Aquarian was clearly not a warrior and couldn't be one of his kind. Quantum then switched his attention to Quasar again, but the hero didn't even understand his words and erected another force field around himself. He tried to flee from Quantum while Eon told him who this being was. Quasar's attempt to cut him off from sunlight by diving into the ocean failed as much as his attempt to capture some of the Quantum duplicates in energy bubbles. Quantum knocked Quasar out and tried to steal his Quantum Bands, but was confronted by Aquarian, who revealed himself to be a Dakkamite like Quantum. Quantum told his origin to Aquarian and eventually realized that Aquarian was the son of the traitor Hektu (see comments), who was the reason why Quantum and his platoon were sent into the solar orbit of Earth's sun. Quantum angrily attacked him, but Quasar used his Quantum Bands to alter the probability field around Quantum to resolve him in between two discrete quantum levels, which left Quantum split into three and intangible. Aquarian offered Quantum to join his pacifist group, but Quantum called him a fool and disgrace to Dakkam and then angrily flew off in his intangible state.
(Avengers West Coast#97 (fb) - BTS) - Quantum spent months finding a way to mentally control Aquarian. He succeeded and turned Aquarian back into the dim-witted Wundarr, who fell completely under Quantum's mental control. Quantum also learned English during this time and then continued his search for his platoon with Wundarr as his muscle.
(Avengers West Coast#97) - Quantum appeared at Avengers West Compound after Hawkeye, Mockingbird and War Machine had defeated and captured the Power Platoon in Los Angeles. He offered to take the Power Platoon off the heroes' hand, but Hawkeye knew from Quantum's file that Quantum was incapable of harming them because he was intangible in his current state. This didn't matter much to Quantum because he had Wundarr with him to do his dirty work. Under Quantum's control Wundarr broke the ceiling and then freed the Power Platoon to bath them in sunlight to reinvigorate them. Wundarr and the Power Platoon, influenced by the universal influence of the Goddess, stopped their attack on the Avengers West Coast when Quantum ordered them to kill the heroes. Quantum screamed at Wundarr and his former platoon, but they just didn't feel like hurting someone anymore. The Power Platoon departed after finally finding Quantum, but left him behind screaming after them. Quantum threatened to kill the Avengers West Coast as soon as he was freed from his current state and then left as well.
(Annihilation: Ronan#3) - Quantum was one of a number of beings who traveled to the planet Godthab Omega, presumably drawn there by Glorian. The newly arrived group witnessed the arrival of the Annihilation Wave.
(Annihilation: Ronan#4 - BTS) - The fate of Quantum is unrevealed, though Glorian eventually wiped out the Annihilation Wave attacking the planet.
Comments: Created by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom & Joe Sinnott.
His real name was revealed in the Dakkamites profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#4 (December, 2010).
In Avengers West Coast Annual#7 (1992) Quantum was listed as one of the team's top ten villains. Not too surprising considering the story was written by Roy Thomas and he used Quantum a short time later in Avengers West Coast#96-97.
Quantum received profiles in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#6 (September, 1989) and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition#20 (1992).
The first appearance of a Dakkamite was in (Adventures into) Fear#17 (October, 1973), which showed the origin of Wundarr and his arrival on Earth. This story and his subsequent appearance in Marvel Two-in-One I#2 (March, 1974) saw Dakkamite scientist determine that Earth's sun gave him superhuman abilities.
Quantum wrongfully claimed in Quasar#4 that Wundarr was the son of Zeneg, who was one of the Dakkamites sent to Earth to capture Wundarr and not his father. Hektu was Wundarr's father.
This profile was completed 2/28/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Quantum has no known connection to:
images (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#6, Quantum profile (main)
Quasar#4, p12, pan7 (from behind)
West Coast Avengers II#12, p9, pan5 (first appearance)
Avengers West Coast#97, p16, pan1 (triplicated)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition#20, Quantum profile (Master Edition)
Appearances:
West Coast Avengers II#12-13
(September-October, 1986) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom
(pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Quasar#4 (December, 1989) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Dan Bulanadi (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Avengers West Coast#97 (August, 1993) - Roy Thomas (writer), Andrew Currie (pencils), Don Hudson (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Annihilation: Ronan#3-4 (August-September, 2006) - Simon Furman (writer), Jorge Pereira Lucas (artist), Andy Schmidt (editor)
First Posted: 09/09/2021
Last updated: 09/07/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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