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| Quantum and Woody | |
|---|---|
 Textless cover ofQuantum and Woody (volume 2) #1, art by Ryan Sook. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Valiant Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | (Valiant Comics) June1997 – January2000 (Valiant Entertainment) July 2013 |
| No. of issues | 50 |
| Main character | Eric Percy Henderson / Quantum Woodrow "Woody" Henderson / Woody Vincent Van Goat |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Christopher Priest M. D. Bright |
Quantum and Woody is a superhero duo from theValiantcomic book series created by writerChristopher Priest and illustratorM. D. Bright.
EditorFabian Nicieza called Priest because he wanted a buddy super-hero book similar toPower Man and Iron Fist. Priest then suggested they use the artist of that series, 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 byWoody Harrelson andWesley Snipes inWhite Men Can't Jump, they createdQuantum & Woody.[1]
In 2013,Valiant Comics began publishing a re-imagined version of the characters.
The first volume ofQuantum and Woody was published by Acclaim Comics for 17 issues beginning in June 1997 and ending in October 1998. It returned for five issues released between September 1999 and January 2000.[2]
In March 2013, Valiant Entertainment released a teaser signaling the return ofQuantum and Woody, stating "The World's Greatest Comic Company Presents...The World's Worst Superhero Team".[3]
On March 26, a new series written byJames Asmus with art byTom Fowler was announced, later receiving July release date. The characters in the new series are re-imagined and do not continue the story line of the previous series.[4] The series lasted 13 issues. Priest and Bright returned to produce a five-issue miniseries featuring the original Quantum and Woody, set 20 years after the last issue of the original series.[5] The series was released on November 12, 2014. The duo were later teamed up with Archer & Armstrong for a 4 issue miniseries calledThe Delinquents.
After a couple of years inactive, the duo were brought back for a new series written byDaniel Kibblesmith, starting in late 2017 and ending after 12 issues.
A new miniseries was launched in 2020, written byChristopher Hastings with art byRyan Browne.
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In the version of Quantum and Woody published by the 2010s incarnation of Valiant Entertainment, Eric Henderson and Woodrow ("Woody") 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. In contrast, Woody, has been irresponsible and undisciplined, living on the streets, gregarious but promiscuous, and leading a life of petty crime. When their father Derek is killed at his top-secret experimental energy lab, the brothers reconnect at the funeral which leads to a fistfight and resultant jailtime.
Distraught, suspected of murder, and determined to bring the real killers to justice, Eric and Woody decide to investigate the crime themselves, despite having no qualifications for doing so. They break into Derek's lab to gather clues, but they accidentally activate a machine which emits strange energy to which they are exposed before causing a massive explosion. Miraculously, they survive and moreover, they possess the ability to shoot energy and generate shields of pure power. However, another result requires them to slam their metal wristbands to each other's every 24 hours to avoid being dissolved.
Utilizing their unstable energy powers, Eric and Woody learn of a mysterious group, Edison's Radical Acquisitions (ERA), which was seeking Dr. Henderson's research. Woody convinces 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. Calling themselves Quantum and Woody, the duo infiltrate an ERA gathering in Washington, DC, but Woody is subdued and taken hostage. As Quantum, Eric tracks ERA to an island base brimming with pilfered scientific secrets,mad scientists, robots, and genetic experiments.
ERA's decrepit matriarch is a geneticist known only as the Crone. She has prolonged her life for decades by harvesting parts fromclones. She conducts experiments on Woody in an attempt to unlock the secrets of his power. Eric frees Woody, but they accidentally destroy the island, barely surviving and accompanied by a mysteriously powerful goat and a teenage Crone-clone named Sixty-Nine.
Because their wristband limitation requires them to remain in close contact, the brothers reconcile, and Woody moves into Eric's apartment. Soon after, Eric is enlisted by his boss, Terrence Magnum, to act as Magnum Security's private superhero. Magnum sends Quantum on a suicide mission to destabilize a white supremacist (and possibly other -ists) movement inMontana, and because the brothers need to remain in close proximity, Woody accompanies him. Discovering that Magnum is only using Eric as a pawn to start a profitable domestic war, Quantum and Woody ally with the separatists to defeat Magnum's goal.
Resettling in Washington, DC, Quantum and Woody notice a sizable increase in the number of robo-crimes reported there, which may be an indication of a return of the ERA.
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The Henderson brothers have not realized it yet, but this curious creature, named 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 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 forAlzheimer's disease or the key to a smarterartificial intelligence. 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. Unaware of what had truly transpired, ERA 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, when Quantum and Woody desperately try to escape the ERA's island headquarters, the Goat recognizes the "heroes" as his "own" wayward sons and rescues them, deploying a terrifying array of combat abilities to wreak havoc throughout the ERA compound. The Goat initiates the island's self-destruct sequence. It goes to live with Eric and Woody to live in Eric's Washington, DC apartment.
Despite the Goat's repeated and non-subtle attempts to let Quantum and Woody know that he is somewhat their father, the duo has yet to realize this. Regardless, the Goat continues to assist them as a significant powerhouse.
Eric Henderson is a decorated Army tactical officer. Woodrow Van Chelton is a goofy man 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. Reunited after the deaths of their fathers in a suspicious helicopter crash, they begin investigating the fathers' 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 adopts a 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.
A television series developed byAnthony and Joe Russo andTBS was announced in 2017.[6]
Valiant Entertainment released every previously published Quantum and Woody issue via Digital DistributorcomiXology. The first half arrived on 10/24/2012 while the second arrived a week later.[9]After the initial announcement it was leaked toBleeding Cool News that two unpublished issues existed and that those issues would be released as well.[10] These issues were not released with the previously published material and no announcement has been made as to their availability.
| Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acclaim Comics | |||
| Quantum and Woody by Priest & Bright Vol. 1:Klang | Quantum and Woody (vol. 1) #0–7 | September 2015 | 978-1939346780 |
| Quantum and Woody by Priest & Bright Vol. 2:Switch | Quantum and Woody (vol. 1) #8–13,The Goat: H.A.E.D.U.S. #1 | October 2015 | 978-1939346803 |
| Quantum and Woody by Priest & Bright Vol. 3:And So… | Quantum and Woody (vol. 1) #14–21, 32 | November 2015 | 978-1939346865 |
| Quantum and Woody by Priest & Bright Vol. 4:Q2 – The Return | Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody #1–5 | May 2016 | 978-1682151099 |
| Complete Quantum and Woody Classic Omnibus | Quantum and Woody (vol. 1) #0–21, 32,The Goat: H.A.E.D.U.S. #1,X-O Manowar (vol. 1) #16 | November 2014 | 978-1939346360 |
| Valiant Entertainment | |||
| Quantum and Woody Vol. 1:The World's Worst Superhero Team | Quantum and Woody (vol. 2) #1–4 | November 2013 | 978-1939346186 |
| Quantum and Woody Vol. 2:In Security | Quantum and Woody (vol. 2) #5–8 | March 2014 | 978-1939346230 |
| Quantum and Woody Vol. 3:Crooked Pasts, Present Tense | Quantum and Woody (vol. 2) #9–12,Quantum and Woody: The Goat #0 | September 2014 | 978-1939346391 |
| Quantum and Woody Vol. 4:Quantum and Woody Must Die! | Quantum and Woody Must Die! #1–4,Valiant Sized Quantum and Woody #1 | August 2015 | 978-1939346629 |
| The Delinquents | The Delinquents #1–4 | February 2015 | 978-1939346513 |
| Quantum and Woody Deluxe Edition Book 1 | Quantum and Woody (vol. 2) #1–12,Quantum and Woody: The Goat #0 | January 2018 | 978-1939346681 |
| Quantum and Woody Deluxe Edition Book 2 | Quantum and Woody Must Die! #1–4,Valiant Sized Quantum and Woody #1,The Delinquents #1–4,Unity #25 | June 2018 | 978-1682152676 |
| Quantum and Woody! Vol. 1:Kiss Kiss, Klang Klang | Quantum and Woody (vol. 3) #1–5 | July 2018 | 978-1682152690 |
| Quantum and Woody! Vol. 2:Separation Anxiety | Quantum and Woody (vol. 3) #6–12 | May 2019 | 978-1682152959 |
| Quantum and Woody: Earth's Last Choice | Quantum and Woody (vol. 4) #1–4 | November 2020 | 978-1682153628 |