...And He Shall Crush The Stranger!

Having recently seen the fate of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--alien conquerors whose return visit to our planet was challenged and repelled by the Fantastic Four--it might be interesting to pay a visit to the laboratory world of the enigmatic Stranger and learn what others have been trapped and imprisoned there, without hope of reprieve or escape. We know that at one time, both Magneto and the Toad shared that unfortunate fate, and were only able to return due to an experiment conducted by Dane Whitman, the future Black Knight, which inadvertently retrieved the two; but thanks to writer and stalwart Marvel researcher Mark Gruenwald, we'll discover that there have been many other Marvel characters who have ended up in captivity on the Stranger's world, which has been a handy if unofficial holding area for characters whose prior stories have conveniently left the door open for their reappearance but haven't yet been followed up on by other writers.

But most interesting of all is the catalyst for bringing them all out of mothballs in one story, himself a character who, like the others, found himself in creative limbo--the Over-Mind, ready to resume his path to conquest and eager to destroy the one he blames for ending his mission of crushing the universe. The Over-Mind was rather handily dealt with by the Stranger when the former made his move to fulfill his original mission; but escaping his fate, his form and power were eventually co-opted by a collective of six psychics who had been former captives of the Secret Empire, and the character segued to the pages of The Defenders. Yet shortly before the Defenders were reorganized and rechristened, the Over-Mind simply disappeared from the book without explanation, summarily dropped from the roster and never referred to in the mag again.  (And not long after an issue is dedicated to the psychics coming to terms with their new existence as the Over-Mind and being formally accepted for "membership" by the others in the group.  Seems like a lot of trouble to go through, only to then jettison the character.)

When we encounter the Over-Mind in Gruenwald's tale, he's regained his faculties and apparently looking to settle the score with the Stranger with a vengeance. And having enthralled various members of the Squadron Supreme to do his bidding, he arrives at the Stranger's lab world to exact that vengeance in full.

Meanwhile, Quasar and the other Squadron members have followed the trail of the Over-Mind's spacecraft and have begun their search for the Squadron's errant members. In so doing, they encounter a veritable Who's Who of Marvel characters who may have never again seen the light of day but for Gruenwald's sense of nostalgia.

Most of the Stranger's captives under study have been provided with environments that not only function as effective "cells" but are conducive to any environmental needs of their occupants. Yet not all of the Stranger's studies are innocuous. For instance, Jakar--who hails from a parallel dimension where he was the sole survivor of a galactic plague that destroyed the populations of every world, including his own--once disguised himself as the Stranger in a plan to kidnap a number of children from Earth so that he could siphon their life essence in an attempt to revitalize his world's race. Leaving Earth in defeat, he was apparently intercepted by the real Stranger, who from the looks of it wasn't at all amused at Jakar's assumption of his form.

It's through the searches conducted by Quasar, Hyperion, and the Eternal known as Makkari that we "tour" through the various cells and turn up characters we'd all probably consigned to the Bullpen dustbin. For example, it's no surprise that Woodgod, one of Bill Mantlo's less interesting characters, ends up there--but the Horsemen are present, as well, killing whoever crosses their path and, incredibly, attacking each other when they've run out of foes.

And how about Shanga, the Star-Dancer, whose exploration of the heavens with the Blue Diamond was brought to an end soon after it started:

Also present is the advanced mutant known as Alpha, appropriately sharing confinement with another evolved entity--the Futurist (f/k/a Randolph James, an old friend of Reed Richards whose evolutionary-acceleration technology transformed him to godhood and, like Alpha, departed Earth for a destiny in the stars). And how about the creature from Kosmos, which was responsible for the death of Janet Van Dyne's father?

In the midst of these discoveries, and with the Stranger currently off-world, the Over-Mind begins the first part of his plan of revenge by facilitating an old-fashioned jailbreak--effectively bringing to ruin the Stranger's work with these "specimens" and allowing the Over-Mind to conscript even more slaves for his budding army.

A few of these characters admittedly made me put on my thinking cap, and I'm still drawing a blank on some of them. Clockwise from the top, I couldn't place the characters at 1:00, 2:45 and 9:30. Two mags I never followed--Machine Man and Rom--are represented here by the Ethicals (at 8:00) and Stardust (at 11:30), respectively, while Fusion (6:00) jogged my memory from his (er, their) depiction on a cover of Amazing Spider-Man. Others, like the Presence (12:30), Dragonfly (4:00), Mercurio (5:00), the Bi-Beast (5:30), and the Horsemen (10:30), have all been covered elsewhere in the PPC.

As we can see, Quasar is having a devil of a time with Ego-Prime (7:00), who remains as haughty as ever. (And, by all appearances, famished.)

Thanks to the Over-Mind's tampering, Ego-Prime is able to make his break for the stars--along with a few others, including Rocket Raccoon and the Jack of Hearts. (Krakoa, unfortunately, has no choice but to stay where he is.)

It looks like even the Trikon were snagged. (Maybe that helps to explain why they went M.I.A. when the Inhumans feature in Amazing Adventures was dropped.)

In order to save the Squadron members from instant death, Quasar is forced to follow the directive of the Over-Mind to locate and return with the Stranger--though he unknowingly leads him directly into the Over-Mind's trap. (Wouldn't you set a trap for the Stranger?) But the Stranger isn't down for the count yet--and after the Over-Mind offers a brief recap of his history, the stage is set for these two to begin a rematch long in coming.

The Stranger and the Over-Mind get down to business, leaving Quasar and the other Squadron members to confront the former lab captives now under the Over-Mind's control, as well as those of the Squadron who originally fell under his power. But during the melee, the Over-Mind discovers that his main reason for wanting the Stranger dead no longer applies--though that information won't be enough for hostilities to end between them. Far from it.

Given that, in their previous encounter, the Over-Mind was no match for the power of the Stranger, his precaution of making a preemptive strike against the Stranger seems well-founded, attesting to the shrewd tactician that we know the Over-Mind to be. As a result, the Over-Mind now has a slight edge over the Stranger; but while the Stranger's admittance of his deception adds a measure of drama to their battle, it seems fruitless effort on Gruenwald's part to sever the Stranger's origin from having any connection with Gigantus. How does that information add to the story beyond inflaming the Over-Mind's rage further? It makes no difference to the Over-Mind as far as his revenge against the Stranger is concerned--nor does the Stranger have any reason to broach the subject, since he has every reason to continue his attack against the Over-Mind.

But the tide of the battle changes when the Over-Mind becomes aware of the arrival of a group of Watchers which the Stranger has become involved with while investigating a spate of suicides among them. The discovery of their presence produces an uncharacteristic instability in the Over-Mind's behavior, to the point of practically throwing a tantrum because of his assumption of the Watchers being the Stranger's allies in this contest--another odd development on Gruenwald's part, since the Over-Mind had not only proven to be both collected and confident throughout the FF story, but also given the fact that he's not exactly the injured party here since he's amassed his own group of allies to fight at his side. Nevertheless, that instability provides the Stranger with the opening he needs to bring the battle to an end.

Recovering quickly, the Stranger tends to securing the Over-Mind before turning his attention to retrieving those of his escaped prisoners specimens he's able to locate. One can only wonder, as Hyperion did, just what the Stranger's experiments are aiming to accomplish; but as to the Stranger's plan to recapture those that managed to escape, Quasar decides to leave well enough alone, despite having strong feelings to intervene on their behalf. With the exception of Jakar (and perhaps others--who knows?), those in confinement appear to be under close study, rather than being subjected to physical abuse--though when it comes to the Stranger, all bets may be off where our human definition of abuse is concerned.

(This review covers events from Quasar #s 14-16.)