Each week, we use our super sleuth skills to dig into the histories of the characters fighting on both sides of Secret Empire!

Sometimes heroes rise from the most unexpected places. Anyone who read this week’s SECRET EMPIRE #8 will know that, as multiple plans of attack failed by more well known heroes, including Sam Wilson and Doctor Strange, a relatively new one hopped out of a hospital bed and saved the day!

Of course, we’re talking about Avril Kincaid, the current protector of the universe known as Quasar. But where did she come from and how did she get here? Let’s get into it!

Kincaid first appeared as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in CAPTAIN AMERICA: SAM WILSON #7. As part of Maria Hill’s Pleasant Hill operation she not only acted as head of  Plainclothes Surveillance, but also kept special watch over the school that Kobik – the living Cosmic Cube – attended.

Sam and Bucky Barnes arrived in the secret super villain prison after Baron Zemo started his revolt. They jumped in to save Kincaid from the Blood Brothers, but she revealed a secret armory and took care of the villains herself!

In that same issue, Agent Kincaid laid out a plan to get into the Pleasant Hill Museum and nab a weapon she thought could change the tide of the whole mess. The next issue saw her meet up with the Curator, but she didn’t actually achieve her goal until ASSAULT ON PLEASANT HILL OMEGA.

That tale not only revealed that Wendell Vaughn acted as the Curator, but also that Kincaid sought and received the Quantum Bands, turning her into the new Quasar in the process. She immediately jumped in to help knock out Graviton’s seemingly impenetrable shield so the Avengers could take on the villains.

From there, Avril trained with Wendell in the mysterious ways of the Quantum Bands and their awesome powers. She even tested the Planetary Defense Shield at the request of Steve Rogers back before he revealed his Hydra leanings.

In SECRET EMPIRE #0, Quasar stepped up to take on the invading Chitauri along with Captain Marvel, Alpha Flight, the Guardians of the Galaxy and other heroes. After Hyperion fell to the invading forces, Carol Danvers called Avril up to the plate. She tried, but wound up a tasty snack for a Leviathan.

The team recovered Kincaid, but she remained in a coma until the critical moment in SECRET EMPIRE #8 when she stood up, focused all of her energy and took out the Planetary Defense Shield which gave Captain Marvel the opportunity to destroy the Chitauri eggs, thus demolishing one of Hydra’s major fronts.

The Empire Strikes Back

As you surely remember, Steve Rogers’ plan to take over the Earth revolved around a three pronged attack. He hid Chitauri eggs on Earth to draw them to the planet, but also threw up the Planetary Defense Shield to trap the space-bound heroes up above. Meanwhile, he had Blackout and Baron Zemo throw up a Darkforce Dimension force field around New York City. Finally, he gamed the system so that he would become the head of the United States in case of an emergency that he himself orchestrated. Two of those prongs broke off in SECRET EMPIRE #8. We already talked about how Quasar saved the space heroes, but Mariah Hill also did her part in this issue by tracking down Blackout and shooting him in the head, thus dropping the Darkforce bubble around the Big Apple.