Quantum and Woody

Quantum and Woody is a comic book series co-created by writer Christopher Priest and illustrator Mark Bright. Editor Fabian Nicieza called Priest because he wanted a buddy super-hero book similar to Power Man and Iron Fist. Priest then suggested they use the artist of that series, Mark Bright. Originally reluctant to work on this, Bright suggested they make the white character the comic relief for once. Drawing inspiration from the characters played by Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump, they created Quantum & Woody.^[1] After Acclaim Entertainment purchased the rights to the Valiant catalog in 1994, Quantum and Woody was introduced to the Valiant Universe. In 2013 Valiant Entertainment began publishing a re-imagined version of the characters written by James Asmus with art by Tom Fowler.

Publication history

Volume 1

The first volume of Quantum and Woody was published by Acclaim Comics for 17 issues beginning in June 1997 and ending in October 1998. It returned for 5 issues released between September 1999 and January 2000.^[2]

Volume 2

On March 21, 2013 Valiant Entertainment released a teaser signaling the return of Quantum and Woody. The image read "The World's Greatest Comic Company Presents...The World's Worst Superhero Team".^[3]

On March 26 a new series written by James Asmus with art by Tom Fowler was announced. It was given a July 2013 release date. The characters in the new series are re-imagined and do not continue the story line of the previous series.^[4]

On October 12, 2013, Valiant announced that Priest and Bright would be returning to produce a five-issue miniseries (scheduled for release in 2014) featuring the original Quantum and Woody, set twenty years after the last issue of the original series.^[5]

Fictional character biography

Valiant Entertainment (2013)

Eric Henderson and Woodrow Van Chelton are adoptive brothers. After years of estrangement they are brought together by the mysterious death of their father (Woody's foster father). They set out to find their father's killer and, in the course of their investigation, are accidentally imbued with powers.

Straitlaced and earnest Eric Henderson always strove for a life of disciplined achievement-in school, in the Army and in his career. His irresponsible yet charming foster brother, Woody, on the other hand, was anything but disciplined-living on the streets, sleeping around and stealing credit cards to get by. After their father Derek was killed in his top-secret experimental energy lab, the guys reconnected for the funeral-which was immediately followed by a fistfight and a quick trip to the slammer.

Distraught, suspected of murder, and determined to bring the real killers to justice, Eric and Woody decided to investigate the crime themselves-despite having zero qualifications for doing so. The pair broke into their father's lab to gather clues, but accidentally set off a mysterious reactor that engulfed them in strange energy before causing a massive explosion. In its wake, the brothers found themselves alive-but imbued with the ability to shoot energy and generate shields of pure power. However, as a side effect of their transformation, they were also each bound by a metal wristband, with they must "klang" together every 24 hours. . . or else watch helplessly as they dissolve into atoms.

Utilizing their fantastic yet unstable energy powers, Eric and Woody narrowly escaped arrest, only to discover that a mysterious group called Edison's Radical Acquisitions had been after Dr. Henderson's research. Woody convince Eric that they could find out more about Derek's secret science by snooping around in superhero equipment stolen from Eric's job at private security contractor Magnum Security-and thus the world's worst superhero team was born.

Newly rechristened as Quantum and Woody, the duo were able to infiltrate the E.R.A. gathering in a Washington, D.C. area high-rise-where-upon Woody was quickly subdued and taken hostage. Meanwhile, Eric, suiting up in full superhero mode, managed to follow the signal from a GPS tracker he has secretly planted on the E.R.A.'s agents to an island base brimming with all of the group's pilfered scientific secrets-mad scientists, 1980s robots, and armies of genetic experiments.

The Decrepit matriarch of the E.R.A.-a geneticist known only as the Crone, who had prolonged her life for decades through the harvesting of parts from clones-began a series of experiments on Woody in an attempt to unlock the secrets of his power. But after Eric located and freed his brother, Quantum and Woody (accidentally) blew up the island, and (barely) made it out alive. . . with a mysteriously powerful goat and a teenage Crone-clone named Sixty-Nine by their side.

Realizing their powerful bands left them no option but to remain in close contact, the formerly estranged brothers made amends . . . and moved into Eric's junior two-bedroom apartment. Soon after, Eric was enlisted by his boss, Mr. Terrence Magnum, to act as Magnum Security's own private superhero. Magnum sent Quantum on a suicide mission to destabilize a white supremacist (and possibly other -ists) movement in Montana, and because the brothers need to "klang" their power bands to stay alive, Woody came along for the ride. Discovering that Magnum was only using Eric as a pawn to start a profitable domestic war, Quantum and Woody teamed up with the separatists to wage a little war of their own.

Since resettling in Washington, D.C., Quantum and Woody have noticed a sizable increase in the amount of robo-crimes reported in the District-a trend that may portend the coming return of the E.R.A.

Characters

The Goat

The Henderson brothers haven't realized it yet, but this curious creature-nicknamed "Vincent Van Goat" by Woody-has a history with their family that goes back many years, back to the days when their father was a humble lab assistant to the bombastic Dr. Platzhalter. Platzhalter's work aimed to develop a device capable of backing up and restoring the full mind and thought patterns of any chosen subject, a possible cure for Alzheimer's or the key to a smarter A.I.. During an impromptu demonstration for the representatives of Edison's Radical Acquisitions, a lab accident resulted in the transfer of a copy of Henderson's mind into the goat. The E.R.A., Unaware of what had truly transpired, took the animal into their care and spent the next several years performing unethical scientific upgrades on the Goat. Over time, these experiments entirely changed the Goat's physiology to the point where the true extent of the animal's abilities-including heat vision, enhanced strength, and limited flight-may never be known. . .

Years later, as Quantum and Woody desperately tried to escape the E.R.A.'s secret island headquarters, the Goat-recognizing the "heroes" as his "own" wayward "sons"-came to the rescue, deploying a truly terrifying array of combat abilities to wreak havoc throughout the E.R.A. compound. In the end, the Goat itself initiated the island's self-destruct sequence, and was taken in by Quantum and Woody to live in Eric's Washington, D.C. Apartment.

Despite repeated and non-subtle attempts to let Quantum and Woody know that he is actually their father (kind of), the Goat has yet to break through to his stubborn-headed progeny, but continues to assist them as the real powerhouse behind the world's worst superhero team.

Original Version

Eric Henderson is a decorated Army tactical officer. Woodrow Van Chelton is a goofy guy with a guitar (but no band). His idea of detective work is hanging a suspect out of a window. They are childhood friends who have lost touch with one another as they entered their teenage years. Now re-united after the deaths of their fathers in a helicopter crash they begin investigating the suspicious deaths, and become victims of a high-tech industrial accident that turns their bodies into pure energy. The metal gauntlets they each wear must be slammed together every 24 hours to reset their energy matrix, or their atoms will break apart and their bodies will fade away. Eric takes the code name "Quantum" to work undercover and find his father’s killer. Woodrow wants to avenge his father’s death too, but declares that as "code names are stupid", people can call him "Woody."

Awards

• 2014 Shortlisted for Excelsior Award for Quantum and Woody vol 1. - World's Worst.^[6]

Nominations

• 2014 Harvey Award Nominations:^[7]
  • Best Writer: James Asmus, QUANTUM AND WOODY, Valiant Entertainment
  • Best Letterer: Dave Lanphear, QUANTUM AND WOODY, Valiant Entertainment
  • Most Promising New Talent: James Asmus, QUANTUM AND WOODY, Valiant Entertainment
  • Best New Series: QUANTUM AND WOODY, Valiant Entertainment
  • Special Award for Humor in Comics: James Asmus, QUANTUM AND WOODY, Valiant Entertainment

Digital Publication

In October 2012 Valiant Entertainment announced it would release every previously published Quantum and Woody issue via Digital Distributor comiXology. The first half would arrive on 10/24/2012 while the second arrives a week later.^[8] After the initial announcement it was leaked to Bleeding Cool News that two unpublished issues existed and that those issues would be released as well.^[9] These issues were not released with the previously published material and no announcement has been made as to their availability.

Notes