Shadowforce - Fictional History

Fictional History

Qward was created when Krona, an Oan scientist from the planet Maltus, performed a forbidden experiment to try to see the origin of the universe. Somehow, this disrupted the process of cosmic creation, resulting in an additional, opposite universe. Qward is that universe's counterpart to Oa.

Qward was ruled by their universe's version of the Monitor (that would come to be called the Anti-Monitor by Earth's heroes). It was this entity that created the organization of warriors known as The Weaponers of Qward within the race known as Qwardians. The Qwardians are antimatter universe's version to the Guardians of the Universe. Although the Anti-Monitor was defeated and imprisoned by his counterpart from the positive universe, the Weaponers themselves continued to rule their world. In one of the earliest JLA/JSA crossovers a being from the antimatter Universe, called Anti-Matter Man, appeared, who was an explorer who was travelling through warp-space towards Earth-1 and 2, apparently not aware that contact with them would make them blow up. This being was tens of metres high with blue skin and had some resistance to magic, along with strange powers which could warp positive-matter. He was sent back to his Universe using shock-waves caused by the Spectre and Atom.

In Superman vol 1 #233 (Jan. 1971), an explosion turned all Kryptonite on Earth-1 into harmless k-iron, and a hole was opened between the Quarrm dimension (a possible reference to Qward) and Earth-1. An entity seeped from the Quarrm dimension into the sand imprint that Superman's body made in the desert. The sand of Superman's imprint became a "Sand Superman" creature which slowly sapped half of Superman's abilities, later another creature came through and inhabited a Chinatown statue, stealing the remaining two-thirds of Superman's power until he was forced back, until in Superman vol1 #242; Superman chose to allow a portion of his powers to permanently remain with the "Sand Superman". Superman's decision to allow his power-levels to be permanently lessened was mainly due to Superman's code against killing and Superman's belief he would remain sufficiently powerful to remain a hero. Therefore Superman instructed Wonder Woman's mentor at the time, I-Ching, not to transfer Superman's stolen powers from the "Sand Superman" back into Superman, which essentially would have been "killing" the "Sand Superman" in order to restore Superman's power levels to 100%. To provide closure, I-Ching returns the "Sand Superman" creature to its "home" in the Quarrm dimension, permanently taking a portion of the Earth-1 Superman's power with it.

Qward's universe has been described as a "universe of evil". However, this might just be a wrong impression on the part of those heroes from the positive universe that have clashed with them. Qwardian society seems indeed to be dominated by a philosophy of selfishness and greed. This could be the effects of millennia of inescapable rule by the tyrannical Weaponers. There do exist Qwardians who rebel against their society's morality, however. In the first appearance of Qward, Green Lantern met a Qwardian who had escaped to the Positive-Matter Universe, as he was part of a group that wanted to escape the Society of evil. They identify themselves with the Pilgrims fleeing to America to escape oppression. The Qwardian was killed when he pushed Green Lantern out of the way of a yellow weapon thrown by a Weaponer that wounded him. Green Lantern was able to travel to Qward and helped the other members of the group, who the Qwardians were attacking, escape to the Positive-Matter Universe, leaving them on an asteroid from where they can build their lives.