After June of 1989, the New Universe titles were all cancelled. That did not mean, however, that readers of Marvel Comics were never to see the New Universe or any of its denizens ever again. In February of 1992, thanks to Mark Gruenwald, the characters of the group D.P.7 popped up in the pages of the cosmic adventure comic, QUASAR.

In QUASAR #30, a super-villain named the Living Laser had entered one of the Watcher's viewing portals and, when he tried to escape, created several duplicates of himself which wreaked havoc in the Multiverse. The Watcher, Uatu, appointed Quasar to stop these renegade Lasers. Midway through his quest, however, Quasar ran into a little trouble of his own -- landing smack dab in between a battle between Thanos and the cosmic being known as Maelstrom. Maelstrom spotted Quasar and hit him with a burst of incaculable force which propelled Quasar outside the Multiverse into the greater Omniverse, a continuum of Multiverses. This continuum happened to be that of the New Universe Earth.

Quasar, deprived of the quantum field that gave him his powers, tried desperately to find a way to the Multiverse he knew. He was observed and encountered by the super-group, the D.P.7, and they helped him become aware of the "most potent power source on the planet," the Star Brand. After hours of searching and after having nearly run out his quantum powers, Quasar located Lieutenant Jim Hanrahan, an ex-pilot who was the last living possessor of the Star Brand. After hours of conversation which Quasar intended to generate trust, Hanrahan surrendered the Star Brand to Quasar, and soon enough Quasar found his way back home, arriving at the Nexus of Realities in Citrusville, Florida. He raced home to his friends Ken and Kayla, and after introspecting a while, he had determined that the Star Brand's power had been burned out by the long trip home.

Quasar's assumption, however, was in error. A few short weeks later, Kayla Ballantine, Quasar's friend who had been one of the first to see him after he returned from the New Universe, began feeling strange. She and her friend from the office, Holly Steckley, were suddenly transported to an alien world where a being known as the Chief Examiner (see the QUESTPROBE limited series and MARVEL FANFARE #33 for more information) informed Kayla that she was "the most powerful Earth being I've yet to encounter." The Examiner claims that his people are in danger of attack from the Black Fleet, so as protection the Examiner needs to harness the powers of superhuman beings and channel them to fight the oncoming Fleet. When the Examiner tried examining and absorbing Kayla's alleged "power," he exploded. As a result, Kayla and Holly were left stranded on an alien world where war was impending.

When the war broke out, Kayla tried using her power, but the aliens saw her and fired at her, disintegrating her instantaneously. However, even as Holly mourned the loss of her friend, Kayla began regenerating her body, and eventually was reborn. At this time it was noticed that a star-shaped brand had appeared on the back of her neck -- the mark of the Star Brand.

Eventually Kayla and Holly were transported off-world by another race of extraterrestrial beings who intended to study Kayla for purposes unknown. No sooner did they start their research than did they stop, apparently stunned by the degree of power she possessed. The aliens then brought Kayla and Holly back to Earth.

Meanwhile, Quasar had had his share of adventures in the cosmos. After losing his quantum bands in a struggle with the Magus (in the INFINITY WAR debacle), he found that he had not "burned out" the Star Brand as he had originally believed; it had merely moved to a spot on his wrists, underneath his bands, standing revealed when the bands were gone. For a while Quasar used only the Star Brand while he searched the universe for his lost quantum bands. He soon discovered that one of the "Antibodies" from the New Universe (see issues of D.P.7) had tagged along with Quasar to this Earth and had found a new, evil host named Quagmire. Quasar went toe-to-toe with Quagmire and his vicious Antibody. Powered by Quagmire's own darkforce powers, this formerly small Antibody grew to human size, then during this battle became a giant, and later the giant begat an entire army of such creatures! Eventually Quasar defeated Quagmire and brought the Antibodies under control with the help of Doctor Druid and his "Shock Troop" of followers.

After finding his quantum bands once more, Quasar faced off against the Possessor, an Elder of the Universe. He defeated the Elder with the help of the Avenger known as Thunderstrike, and since by this time the Star Brand was only operating at about 1/1,000,000th of its original power, the portion Quasar possessed effectively, totally, burned itself out.

Kayla and Holly travelled back to New York, and soon Kayla found herself in mortal combat against Kismet, the being formerly known as Her (Adam Warlock's feminine counterpart). Kayla defeated Kismet with ease, sending her into her regenerative cocoon-like state at the bottom of the East River. She then felt she had used the Star Brand irresponsibly, and so decided the best option was to give it away. Since Quasar was nowhere to be found, she passed the Star Brand on to her friend Holly. However, Holly Steckley turned out to be a Deviant in disguise -- an evil entity by the name of Ereshkigal. The Deviant had originally taken over the identity first taken by Moondragon (see early issues of QUASAR) in order to be in a position to steal the quantum bands from Quasar, but soon found Kayla had come into possession of the Star Brand, which was even more powerful than Quasar's weapons. She had made Kayla trust her so that she might at some point trick her and take the Star Brand for herself.

At this time, Quasar and Kayla were finally reunited, and together, though Kayla had no more powers, they helped track down Ereshkigal, who had taken over the interspace between nexuses of reality for herself. Ereshkigal then encountered the Living Tribunal, an entity which begged her not to use the nexus for her own ends. Quasar and the Silver Surfer both found their way to interspace, and a battle was fought between them as the Tribunal and Ereshkigal chose their champions. For the universe to be safe, Quasar had to lose the battle, and did so. Ereshkigal annihilated herself rather than surrender the Star Brand to the Tribunal, who after the battle took the Brand and, in his own words, "...while I cannot possess it without forfeiting my own limitless authority, I can determine where to best dispose of it." The place where he disposed of the Star Brand? Quite simply, it was passed back to Kayla Ballantine.

Kayla discovered that she had retained the Star Brand while adventuring with her boyfriend Quasar on an alien world, and immediately wished the Brand removed. Quasar and Kayla talked with Moondragon of the Infinity Watch, who told her she had nothing to fear, and that she was as good a choice to have the Star Brand as she was to wield the Mind Gem. With this knowledge, Quasar and Kayla returned to Earth, not knowing that another alien menace awaited them there.

An alien race calling themselves the Starblasters had discovered the existence of the Star Brand. Their leader, a cybernetic lifeform named Skeletron, was determined to obtain the Star Brand from its wielder, Kayla, by any means possible. The Starblasters kidnapped the Watcher and placed a thruster on the moon in an attempt to scare out the wielder of the Star Brand. After sensing the energy given off by the moonthruster on the moon, Quasar and a group of super-heroes including Captain Marvel of the Avengers; Binary of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard; Hyperion of the Squadron Supreme; Ikaris of the Eternals; Adam Warlock of the Infinity Watch; Darkstar and Vanguard of the Soviet Super-Soldiers; and Black Bolt of the Inhumans mounted an assault against the alien forces. After having defeated the parasite-like defenses of the moonthruster, Quasar returned home only to find that since Kayla had not gone to the moonthruster, the Starblasters had searched on Earth for her, subdued, and kidnapped her from Quasar's apartment. Skeletron then placed her in a stasis tube to render her unconscious for as long as he needed.

Quasar found a new team to help rescue his girlfriend, including Perun and Vostok of the Soviet Super-Soldiers, and Lockjaw of the Inhumans in addition to the other heroes (with the exception of Adam Warlock). They encountered the Shi'ar Imperial Guard on their way, and commandeered a Shi'ar starship to get to their destination via the transgalactic gateway near Earth's sun. Meanwhile, the Starblasters went to visit the Stranger on his planet so that they may find a means of removing the Star Brand from Kayla's body. Skeletron then revealed that he meant to not only take the Star Brand from Kayla, but also find the universe of the Star Brand's origin and reap the remaining energy from that universe.

Quasar and his group soon arrived on the Stranger's planet, having to leave the Shi'ar behind due to a political agreement with the Stranger. The group engaged the Starblasters above the planet, and Quasar soon found his way to the Stranger's laboratory in an attempt to save Kayla and the Star Brand. At the same time, Kayla, due to her possession of the Star Brand, found a visitor in her dreams while in the stasis tube -- none other than Nightmask from the New Universe. Skeletron and Quasar fought while the Stranger tried to remove the Star Brand from Kayla's body. The Watcher escaped from his confinement so that he could observe the Stranger's actions, as the heroes continued to battle the Starblasters in space while the Fantastic Four and Namor dealt with the alien threat on Earth. The Stranger posed as God in Kayla's dreams in order to procure the Star Brand from her freely, and when the Star Brand was removed, the Stranger's planet was engulfed by an energy manifestation that shifted it partly into the Multiverse that contained the New Universe Earth, the source of the Star Brand power.
 
 

Even as the Stranger's planet shifted into the other Multiverse, Nightmask, in an attempt to help Kayla, gathered several powerful paranormals for his cause, including Justice (who was wearing his old uniform), Psi-Hawk (who had died at the hands of Rodstvow six years ago), Overshadow (the most sinister paranormal of all, who had had his powers removed by the Star Brand, also six years ago), Metallurge (actually Metallurgist), All-American (Jack Magniconte), Captain Manhattan and Chrome (of D.P.7), and Pitbull. Somehow, as soon as the Stranger removed the Star Brand from Kayla, Kayla disappeared from the stasis chamber and reappeared on the New Universe Earth before Nightmask and his group. Quasar, on his way to find Kayla on the New Universe Earth, was attacked and subdued by Psi-Hawk and Overshadow and brought to the other paranormals. After convincing the others he was one of the "good guys," Quasar embarked with the other paranormals to combat the Starblasters. Back in the Marvel Universe, the Stranger freed the heroes from the clutches of the Starblasters and asked their help in defeateing Skeletron once and for all. All of the heroes together proved too much resistance for Skeletron, and when Skeletron finally confronted the Stranger, the Stranger responded by teleporting the New Universe Earth into orbit around his own planet. He then gave the Star Brand power to Skeletron, who quickly burned it out, and returned to his own planet which had returned completely to the Marvel Universe. As the Stranger himself put it, "Skeletron and I have traded prizes. He has the greatest power in a universe devoid of all life save himself, while I have a world teeming with paranormal beings. Who would you say got the better bargain?"

After the Stranger had secured the planet around his, however, the saga was still not over. The Living Tribunal had heard of the Stranger's plans, as had he heard about the power of the Star Brand. Suspecting that the portion of the Star Brand power which had permeated the New Universe Earth could possibly contaminate the rest of the known universe, the Tribunal interfered, and after he had transported the heroes to their respective homeworlds, he encased the entire world in a special force-field which would not let anything pass in or out of it. This would mean that Quasar's girlfriend, who had stayed on the New Universe Earth while Quasar came back with the Stranger, was trapped on the New Universe Earth without chance of coming back to her own world.  At last sighting, Kayla appeared to be faring well on the New Universe Earth, beginning a friendship with the paranormal called Metallurge.

Some time after the end of the Starblast affair, Quasar requested an audience with the Living Tribunal in the Dimension of Manifestations.  He presented his case that it was a terrible mistake that Kayla had been trapped on the New Universe Earth, and he wished her freed.  The Tribunal replied, "That is not possible.  The Starbrand (sic) is too dangerous to be brought into the greater universe.  The woman still possesses a fraction of it.  Therefore she must be kept under quarantine."  When Quasar told the Tribunal it was actually his own fault that Kayla had been infected in the first place, the Tribunal argued that blame was not the issue, that infection of the Multiverse was.  Quasar, still not understanding the judgment, wondered about the piece of the Star Brand that he himself had possessed for a while, and which doubtlessly was still inside him, to which the Tribunal said:

"The portion left in you is so minute, it would take a being with my perceptions to detect it.  Entities are more likely to covet your Quantum-Bands than your Starbrand-residue (sic).  Not so with her.  Still, your good works in the universe have not gone unnoticed.  I will grant you this boon: I will let you pass through the barrier .... There are two conditions, however.  One: I will open the barrier but once.  If you go through it, you shall live out your life on that world.  Two: You must forfeit your Quantum-Bands to me so as not to adversely affect the balance of power in the greater universe.  Please make your decision."

FANTASTIC FOUR #385-386

NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER #46-48

QUASAR #30-60

SECRET DEFENDERS #11

STARBLAST #1-4

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