Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody #4

By Former Contributor
On 19 January 201516 June 2017
0

by Christopher Priest, M.D. Bright

Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody #4 continues to expand upon the mysterious origin of the new Quantum and Woody with some interesting new plot twists. The original Quantum and Woody decide to infiltrate a Sword yacht to prevent them from continuing their super soldier experiments. As they scale the side of the boat, Woody decides to back out of the plan worried about their chances of succeeding in their mission, but also distrustful of Quantum’s (Eric) true intentions.

Woody decides to go see the new Quantum (Jonathan) who has been struggling with regaining his memories and the two discuss their power bands, Eric’s true intentions, and we get a very revealing flashback scene to the car accident from Jonathan’s viewpoint – a story which is very contradictory to that which Eric has been telling. As it turns out, Jonathan was a secret NSA operative keeping tabs on Eric’s research and his relationship with the Grail, leading to an action packed car chase which ends the book.

After a rocky and very confusing start, I love how this miniseries has evolved over the last few issues. Issue #3 began to unravel many of the mysteries behind the new Quantum and Woody team, but issue 4 blows the lid wide open, presenting us with a secret conspiracy by the government against Eric and really making his true intentions much less obvious than before. Has Eric turned into somewhat of a villain in his old age, or are his goals hidden from everyone in order to protect the thing that is most important – the Grail?

The flashback scenes continue to be somewhat disconnect from the main story though I presume that all threads will be connected with the fifth and final issue of the miniseries. I have enjoyed the exploration of Eric and Woody’s characters in the past, and I suspect that Eric’s protective instinct over Woody will play a major role in the final issue. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. As much as I loved James Asmus’ run with these characters, I am really digging Christopher Priest writing these characters again. Sure, there is some humor spread out throughout this issue, but the story is much more series and engrossing than the current take on these characters.

If you’ve been waiting for this story to finally start paying off, you will be very happy with the revelations in Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody #4. The new revelations about the new Quantum’s past and what really happened during the car accident are certainly key into tying together all the threads which have made this book a bit confusing for fans of the current Quantum and Woody books. Issue #4 is probably the best book in this miniseries so far, and I can’t wait to see what Priest and Bright have in store for the conclusion of the story next month.