QUOI

Real Name: Sequoia

Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial (Cotati) / human hybrid

Occupation: Celestial Messiah

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Avengers (Mantis, Scarlet Witch, Silverclaw, Thor, Vision), Cotati, Cotati elder , Haywire, Mantis, Priests of Pama, Raptra

Enemies: Primo, Reptyl, Rot, Thanos

Known Relatives: Mantis (Mother), Cotati Elder (Father), Libra (Gustav Brandt, maternal grandfather)

Aliases: The Celestial Messiah, Q, One Who Would Change the Universe

Base of Operations: Mobile;
    formerly Tamal;
    formerly Connecticut

Education: Equivalent of Earth high school

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#325 (April, 1989)
    (As Quoi) Avengers: Celestial Quest#3 (January, 2002)

Powers/Abilities: Quoi had enhanced abilities of a plant and a human. He could breath oxygen like a human, or photosynthesize, and thus did not require food or oxygen to survive. He could survive in the vacuum of space, possessed super human strength, and could manipulate the oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. He also could absorb power from other beings, even powerful beings such as Thanos. He has limited ability, which will presumably grow as he matures, to control the power cosmic.

Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Green (compound)
Hair: Green

History: (Giant-Size Avengers#4 (fb)) - There was a prophesy that one day, the perfect human, the Celestial Madonna, would have a union with the perfect plant, and from their union would spring the perfect child, the Celestial Messiah, who was destined to change the universe. As it ended up, Mantis was the Celestial Madonna, and the perfect plant was none other than the eldest Cotati on Earth. Their offspring, the Celestial Messiah, was Quoi.

(Silver Surfer III#4 (fb) / Fantastic Four I#325 (fb) - BTS / Avengers: Celestial Quest#2 (fb)) - Mantis gave birth to the offspring of the perfect union with the Elder Cotati. She spent a year or so raising her son in Connecticut.

(Fantastic Four I#323 (fb) - BTS) -

The Cotati decided that only they were fit to raise the Celestial Messiah. The Elder Cotati removed the powers Mantis had gained as the Celestial Madonna and stole away the pod that was their offspring.

(Fantastic Four I#325) - The High Cotati traveled within a pyramid to Earth, standing beside Kang and revealing the pod that would become the Celestial Messiah. They asked Mantis to cease her vendetta to reclaim her son. She refused, and a battle involving Mantis and the Fantastic Four against the Priests of Pama and Kang ensued. Eventually, the Cotati were unable to stand up to Mantis' mental assault, fueled by her burning desire to be reunited with her son, and the High Cotati fled with the pod to their chosen realm, a realm of pure thought. Mantis sent her psychic essence after them, leaving her physical form behind.

 

 

 
(Avengers: Celestial Quest#2 (fb)) - The Cotati, including the Elder, took Quoi to Tamal.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#2 /#3 (fb)) - Quoi grew up on Tamal with the Cotati until he was at the age of 18 earth years. He grew up without his mother, and was an individual mind amidst the communal mind of the Cotati. He was supposed to go back and forth between Earth and Tamal, but Mantis' essence had been temporarily dispersed, so Quoi grew up without the teachings he was supposed to receive on Earth.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#1) - A new star appeared in the sky, signaling the coming of the Celestial Messiah.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#3) - The Avengers and Mantis went to Tamal to protect Quoi from Thanos. When Mantis approached Quoi, he spurned her, expressing how hard it was to grow up being so unique and different, and thus so alone. Quoi rejected the Avengers' offer of help against Thanos and told Mantis to go away.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#4) - Mantis approached Quoi again and was spurned again. Quoi told her how he did not learn what he was supposed to from Mantis because she left him and now he did not believe he could be the Celestial Messiah.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#5) - Raptra jumped Quoi, knocked him out, and kidnapped him from Tamal, and brought him aboard her ship. She tried to hand over the unconscious Quoi to Thanos in order to gain his favor and avoid his wrath, but Thanos refused. Later on, when Quoi regained consciousness and had no idea where he was, Raptra lied to him, telling him that Thanos had been coming to kill him and that she rescued him. Quoi and Raptra headed for the area of space known as the Rot in order to hide from Thanos, unaware that the Rot was actually a cancer in the fabric of existence.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#6) - As Quoi and Raptra fled toward the Rot, telling her that he believed that his mother and the Avengers would defeat Thanos. They also discussed the nature of Quoi being the Celestial Messiah, and how he was not sure exactly what that meant. Raptra and Quoi got into some friendly sparring, followed by some unexpected romance.

Later on, Primo and Reptyl, working on behalf of Thanos, caught up to Quoi and Raptra, and attempted to apprehend them. Quoi was pumped up and excited to fight the two villains. Quoi fought with Primo and easily neutralized Primo's powers of fire and extinguished his fiery body by manipulating the carbon dioxide and oxygen around them. However, soon after defeating Primo, Quoi was knocked unconscious by Reptyl. Before long, Thanos arrived and offered to spare Raptra if she would hand over Quoi to him. Raptra was quick to agree, and handed over the barely conscious Quoi to Thanos. However, Thanos, staying true to himself, had been lying, and captured both Quoi and Raptra.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#7) - Thanos took the captive Quoi and Raptra to his ship and put them in separate special holding cells next to the Vision and Mantis, who were also Thanos' prisoners. Mantis promised Quoi that she and the Avengers would save him, and Quoi told her that he believed her, but wanted to leave Raptra there when they escaped, infuriated at her for selling him out. Thanos first took Mantis to try and kill her, and using his special mental bond with Mantis, Quoi was able to learn of the ways in which Thanos was planning to kill him. Later, Thanos took Quoi and strapped him to a table, telling Quoi that he was going to kill him quickly and horribly. Thanos touched Quoi and transported their essences to the "realm of all gods," where Thanos prepared to kill Quoi, but found that Quoi was ready for him and he was unable to harm Quoi. In addition, Quoi was able to absorb half of Thanos' power from him. Thanos retreated back into reality, and Quoi, though still strapped to the table, emerged from the realm of all gods completely unscathed. Before Thanos could come up with another way to kill Quoi, Vision and Raptra burst into the room and freed Quoi, who ducked past Thanos' blows and freed his mother. Quoi apologized for his harsh treatment of her. Before long, Quoi, Mantis, and the Avengers had surrounded Thanos and his minions, but then, everybody realized that the entire ship they were in had been encompassed by the Rot.

(Avengers: Celestial Quest#8) - Quoi and Mantis created a bubble of energy around Thanos' ship to temporarily defend themselves from the Rot. While Quoi concentrated on keeping the bubble intact, Raptra explained that she had sold him out to Thanos because she needed to teach him the lessons that he didn't learn on Earth, such as how bad the universe could be (See comments). Quoi believed and forgave Raptra. Before long, Quoi was needed to fly into the Rot and look for a weakness in it because only he, with his nature as a human/plant hybrid and since he was the Celestial Messiah, only he could survive a plunge into the Rot. Quoi flew into the Rot and tried to absorb and transmute it, but found it was far too large and powerful for him, and in fact the Rot had absorbed Quoi's attack and grown stronger. Quoi quickly gave up and flew back to the ship, claiming that they needed a different plan. Thanos and Death devised a way to destroy the Rot and in order to carry out that plan, Quoi returned the power he had stolen from Thanos. 

After Thanos and Death had destroyed Rot and Thanos had fled, and the Avengers prepared to go home, Quoi decided to stay behind and work at healing the wound left in space by the Rot. Raptra stayed by his side, and Mantis gave them her blessing.

Comments: Created by Steven Englehart, Jorge Santamaria, and Scott Hanna.

    My opinion: Raptra was lying to Quoi. She sold him out to save herself. Her explanation is incredibly illogical, as it makes no sense to save someone's life by handing them to somebody who is ready and willing to kill them.  Of course, as Snood has pointed out before, although Englehard can write some great stuff, he also sometimes pushes willing suspension of disbelief too far in order to have a situation unfold as he wants it to.

I'm usually a very open minded person, but a relationship between a reptile and a half human/half plant....now that's just weird!

I'm really not quite sure

In Captain Marvel I#39 it was revealed that Uatu sent the star of the Celestial Madonna.
--Per Degaton

Profile by Stunner

Clarifications: has no known connections to

images:
Avengers: Celestial Quest#4 page 10, panel 4
Avengers: Celestial Quest#3 page 21, panel 17
Avengers: Celestial Quest#8 page 20, panel 1

Avengers: Celestial Quest#3-8 (January-June 2002) - by Steve Englehart (writer), Jorge Santamaria (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

Last updated: 02/27/05

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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