Getting the Band Back Together:

A Review of Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody #1

When Valiant was reborn back in 2012 and returned to comic book store shelves everywhere, one question kept being asked at every convention the company made an appearance at: when were Quantum and Woody coming back? Of all the old Valiant titles, Q&W was the one fans wanted to see the most and just couldn’t wait for the duos return.

And when the new Quantum and Woody premiered in 2013, fans were happy, but not as overjoyed as you would expect. This was because, while the re-imagined Q&W, by James Asmus and Tom Fowler, was very good, it wasn’t the Quantum and Woody, and it wasn’t done by the original creative team of Christopher Priest and M.D. Bright.

Published sporadically from 1997 to 2000, Priest and Bright’s Quantum and Woody was easily one of the funniest, most irreverent, silly and just all around entertaining series ever published. The story of Eric Henderson, his childhood friend Woodrow Van Chelton and their misadventures as the World’s Worst Superhero Team never set the sales charts on fire but over the years since has become a cult classic in every sense and still holds up almost 15 years later.

And now, finally, the gang is all back together.

Q2: The Return Of Quantum And Woody sees the return of Priest and Bright to their most famous creations with an all-new five issue miniseries. Picking up 20 years after the last published issue, Quantum is back fighting crime with a new teenage partner and Woody wants to know what exactly is going on. Hilarity ensues as the two try to find a way to reconcile and once again save the world.

If you have read the original series, then you are going to feel right at home. It’s like Priest and Bright never stopped working on the book and everything just seems to click right back into place. Quantum and Woody has lost none of its edge or humor in the years since it was last published. And for those that have never had a chance to read the back issues, worry not. Everything is explained for you so you don’t have to be concerned about being late to the party.

Even though both Priest and Bright haven’t done much comic book work recently, Q2 shows that neither have lost their touch. The script moves seamlessly from panel to panel and page to page, an effortless read that will have you laughing out loud in more than one place. Similarly the art perfectly complements the plot and while Bright keeps the style simple, it is so full of energy and zip it’s hard not to think “why isn’t this guy on a monthly book for someone?”.

But one of the best parts of this new Quantum and Woody miniseries are the variant covers, specifically the throwback variants by Bright that keep the original numbering as if the book never went away. Seeing a cover for Q2: The Return Of Quantum And Woody with a big #213 on it made this old fanboy’s heart skip a beat and truly appreciate just how much I’ve missed this book.

If you are a regular reader of Valiant’s regular Quantum and Woody book then you need to buy this series, no excuses. But even if you never read the original version but were always curious, this is a perfect place to start.

It’s very, very rare that a book comes along that is just pure, unadulterated fun between two covers. No crossovers, no gimmicks, no “big deaths” or reboots.  Q2: The Return Of Quantum And Woody is just a perfect example of everything that comics are capable of when they don’t take themselves too seriously.

Go buy this book. You’ll thank me for it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Goodman has been an ardent lover of comic books since he was 8 years old when his mother bought him his first Star Wars comic from the local pharmacy spinner rack. Since then, he has devoured literally thousands of pages of graphic literature, finding something to enjoy in almost every comic he reads. David is the creator and original writer of The Comic Roundup, Geekadelphia's weekly comic book review column, as well as an occasional contributor to the Zenescope Entertainment blog. In addition to comics, David also loves the Philadelphia 76ers and runs the website The Sixers Cave, his ode to all things Sixers, in what little spare time he has.

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