Quantum (comics)
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Quantum is a fictional character, an alien supervillain appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in West Coast Avengers, Volume 2, #12 (1986).
[edit] Fictional character biography
Quantum is an alien soldier, one of the platoon of superpowered Dakkamite troops known as The Elect. The scientists of his race noted that exposure to earth's sun had given one Dakkamite renegade superpowers - they sought to exploit this by placing a platoon of soldiers inside specially designed 'incubator capsules', which were then located close to the sun. Quantum awoke at the end of this treatment to discover that his powers had manifested - but that the rest of The Elect had already gone.
Searching for his comrades, he made his way to earth - becoming part of a supervillain team assembled by Graviton to resemble the Unified Field Theory. Halflife represented the weak force, Quantum represented the strong force, while Zzaax represented electromagnetism. Graviton himself represented gravity - and promised Quantum that he would help to locate the missing soldiers. Graviton and his allies were defeated by the West Coast Avengers and Quantum, no longer believing Graviton's promises, abandoned the team and went his own way.
Although he didn't locate the other members of Elect, Quantum did find one other superpowered Dakkamite on earth - the Aquarian, the pacifist whose powers had originally inspired the plan to enhance Dakkamite soldiers. Quantum considered the Aquarian, the son of a renegade, to be a traitor to the fatherworld - so attempted to kill him. However, Quasar intervened, saving the Aquarian, and used his abilities to distort Quantum's powers, trapping him as a trio of intangible duplicates.
In Annihilation: Ronan #3 (August, 2006) Quantum reappears as one of the beings who have been subtly drawn to the planet Godthab Omega by the manipulations of Glorian. This is only a cameo appearance - Quantum does not speak and does not play a major role in the story, although he no longer appears to be trapped in an intangible form. The planet is later assaulted by the Annihilation Wave, killing many of the inhabitants. It is unclear whether or not Quantum survived.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Quantum possesses enhanced strength and is highly resistant to harm, far tougher than a normal human being. He can fly at high speed and it appears that he does not need to breathe - after he first gained his powers, he was able to fly to earth under his own power. Quantum has also stated that he has flown through the sun itself without harm.
He may also possess some form of enhanced senses, as he was able to detect gravity waves (emitted by Graviton) - and was still far from earth at the time.
Quantum can also create 'copies' of himself - this is done by constantly shifting (teleporting) his form between several nearby locations at incredibly high speed, so that he appears to be a dozen or more duplicates. These share his other powers and he is able to coordinate their movements. He has used this ability to bypass solid barriers and escape from confinement, creating one or more copies on the other side of the barrier and then vanishing from his original position.
Hawkeye believed that Quantum's powers relied on direct sunlight and was able to render him unconscious by obscuring the light with a cloud of smoke. When Quasar later encountered Quantum, he stated that this theory was incorrect - but was unable to explain why the smoke had been so effective.
