Captain Qwark

"Qwark" redirects here. Not to be confused with Quark.

Captain Qwark
Ratchet & Clank character
File:Captain Qwark.png Captain Qwark as he appears in Tools of Destruction
First appearance	Ratchet & Clank (2002)
Voiced by	Jim Ward (2002-2021)
In-universe information
Full name	Copernicus Leslie Qwark
Species	Alien
Gender	Male

Captain Qwark (Copernicus Leslie Qwark) is a fictional character from Insomniac Games' Ratchet & Clank video game series. He first appeared in the 2002 video game Ratchet & Clank as the secondary antagonist. He then became the main antagonist of the second game. However, starting with the third game onward, he reforms and now assists the protagonists.

In the series, Qwark is a selfish, deluded coward willing to do daring acts in order to gain money and publicity. He also has been known to temporarily side with the villains and betray his allies in order to save himself. However, as of the end of the third game, he has become much more moral, though he still remains a coward. Video game commentators have provided different opinions regarding the character; some criticized his personality calling him an "idiot" and "coward", while others praised his role as a villain.

Appearances

Captain Copernicus Leslie Qwark was a renowned superhero and celebrity throughout the Solana Galaxy at the time of the first game. At the same time, Qwark was also egocentric and materially-driven to the point he made a deal with Chairman Drek to be the spokesperson for the new artificial planet Drek was building. After Ratchet and Clank started interfering with Drek's plan, Qwark attempted to kill them by forcing them to battle a Blargian Snagglebeast; after the duo defeated the Snagglebeast, Qwark travelled to the Gemlik Moonbase and used Drek's starfighter in an attempt to shoot Ratchet down, only to be shot down himself. Having crash-landed on Planet Oltanis, Qwark adopted the alias "Steve McQwark" and began selling gadgets which he claimed were genuine Gadgetron products, such as the PDA (Personal Delivery Assistant), and later the Gadgetron Personal Hygenator.

Following the discovery of key defects in one of his bogus Gadgetron products, the Personal Hygenator, Qwark was revealed to be a fraud and a disgrace to Solana for previously working with Drek. Due to his illegal sales of his product, the galactic court ordered Qwark to pay 6 billion bolts to those of suffering from Personal Hygenator Syndrome. Qwark refused to pay for the damages and he attempted to flee to Pokitaru two days later but was immediately arrested and placed in prison awaiting his trial. After escaping from prison by flushing himself during the events of the second game, Qwark hasn't been seen for six weeks and re-adopted his alias as Steve McQwark before continuing to sell more of his Personal Hygenator which he used to finance his comeback. Determined to restore his reputation, Qwark travelled to the Bogon Galaxy where he kidnapped Megacorp founder/CEO Abercrombie Fizzwidget, locked him in a supply closet and disguised himself as Fizzwidget in order to hire Ratchet and Clank to recover the Protopet, which had been stolen by Angela Cross posing as the Thief so she could destroy it. After recovering the Protopet, Qwark then intended to use the Protopet to mass-produce clones to unleash galaxy wide crisis throughout Bogon and attempted to have Ratchet, Clank and Angela Cross responsible for the disaster on a broadcast event. He tries to neutralize the original Protopet's destructive tendencies with Angela's invention the Helix-o-morph, rendering the copied Protopets harmless and thus saving Bogon posing himself as a hero to redeem himself; his plan failed after having the batteries in backwards, the Helix-o-morph mutated the original Protopet, causing it to grow and devour Qwark. After Ratchet defeated the giant mutant Protopet, Angela fixed the Helixamorph and used it to neutralize the Protopets; as punishment, Qwark joined Megacorp as a test subject including on a new product, the "Crotchitizer".

Some time later, Qwark fled the Megacorp testing facility and returned to the Solana Galaxy to live in exile on Planet Florana to protect the endangered species. During his stay in the jungles of Florana, Qwark was then raised and lived with the cycloptic monkeys where he had a companion named Skrunch. Over time, he soon endured long-term amnesia, Qwark had forgotten his previous life and gone insane thinking himself as a monkey and became the Florona Tree Beast. Until Ratchet and Clank arrived to Florona find him and escorted him - along with Skrunch - back to the Starship Phoenix, where Ratchet and Clank helped restore Qwark's memory of who he was by playing a Captain Qwark vid-comic. Now in charge of the fight to take down Dr. Nefarious by President Phyronix, Qwark found and assembled the Q-Force (consisting of Skrunch, Big Al, Skidd McMarx, Helga, Sasha Phyronix, Ratchet and Clank) and had both Ratchet and Clank to carry out any dangerous field missions, while claiming credit for the success of these missions. Qwark only entered the field after Clank, who was actually his evil clone Klunk, revealed that Nefarious' star cruiser, the Leviathan was docked at the Zeldrin Starport; Nefarious instead used it as a trap and activated the self-destruct sequence. Qwark remained behind claiming to have seen something important and was presumed dead after the cruiser self-destructed; in reality Qwark escaped and returned to his secret base in the Thran Asteroid Belt. Ratchet and Clank later confronted him over his secret vid-comic, Ratchet and Skunch both berated and shamed Qwark for his cowardice and selfishness while Clank appealed to him with encouragement that he has a chance to truly redeem himself for the citizens of Solana and become the hero he always wanted to be. This lead him to aid the duo in their final battle against Nefarious and his new Biobliterator, eventually saving their lives with his star cruiser. After defeating Nefarious, Qwark attended the premiere of Secret Agent Clank Holo-Film with Skrunch.

During the events of Ratchet: Deadlocked, Qwark remained at home in Metropolis on Planet Kerwan and only appeared in-game as a voiceover at the end of the game. Qwark claimed that there was no "hero-kidnapping business" as Dreadzone hadn't tried to kidnap him. It can be assumed that Gleeman Vox didn't consider Qwark to be enough of a "hero" to warrant abducting him, instead preferring to kidnap Ratchet who did count as a hero.

Several years later, Qwark sent a distress call to Ratchet and Clank after he was attacked by Emperor Tachyon's forces at the Planetary Defense Center. In order to save himself, Qwark allied himself with Tachyon but instead worked as a double agent in order to occasionally assist Ratchet and Clank. He later attempted to destroy the Dimensionator but instead ended up delivering it to Tachyon on the ruined Cragmite homeworld of Planet Reepor. Qwark later ended up shut in a cupboard in Meridian City on Planet Igliak and remained behind to help rebuild the city after Tachyon's army ravaged it. He was later present at the Apogee Space Station when the Zoni abducted Clank.

Two years later, Qwark returned to being a "hero" after a stint in acting for his film “My Blaster runs Hot” and joined Ratchet in his search for Clank. Qwark proved to be of some use during their traversal of Planet Quantos; after later being captured by Lord Vorselon and rescued by Ratchet, Qwark helped the Fongoid residents of Quantos to escape. He later travelled to the Agorian Battleplex where he ended up fighting in the area; after being saved again by Ratchet, Qwark adopted the Agorian's war grok and named it Snowball. He then used his high-school drama skills to go undercover as "Nurse Shannon" on the Nefarious Space Station. Despite being captured when helping Ratchet and Clank to destroy Nefarious' fleet, Qwark escaped and with the company of his wark grok Snowball, held Nefarious' troops off so that Ratchet could reach Nefarious.

In the Ratchet & Clank comic book series, Qwark had become Galactic President of Polaris at some point, leading to retribution against him by former presidential candidate Artemis Zogg. Qwark was able to provide information on Zogg's Helios Project but played very little part in any actual heroics, instead preferring to call on Ratchet and Clank again after they were rescued from prison. Qwark was still president during the events of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One but relinquished this role at an unknown point afterwards. Six months later, the now-retired Qwark joined forces with Ratchet and Clank to defeat one of his former fans, Stuart Zurgo.

Qwark played a minor role in Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus by towing Ratchet's ship Aphelion to Planet Yerek, and later by assisting Neftin Prog and Pollyx to repair the Lombax Dimensionator.

Qwark returns for the upcoming sequel, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Spin-off material

In Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Qwark was noticed by Clank on Pokitaru and asked if he has a family to be with. This upset Qwark that he never knew his mother and father, only to be raised by monkeys. Qwark caught up with Ratchet and Clank after they gotten a Technomite Artifact and began following the duo to see what they were doing in hopes of joining them in their next adventure. Ratchet and Clank agreed to let Qwark use their ship's computer to research his family history in return for him leaving them alone. Qwark was then fooled Emperor Otto Destruct of the Technomites, who pretended to be his biological father was planning to make himself big and begin getting credit for all the work he did with. After Ratchet and Clank defeated Otto, Skrunch came with newspaper and a picture of Qwark's real parents and discovered that they were killed by defective Technomite technology. After hearing the revelation, Qwark was enraged with Otto that he knew the truth of what happened his parents and used it against him to get what he wanted. He then strapped Otto in his own Intelligence Machine, intended to trade his low, ignorant intelligence with Otto's. Ratchet and Clank attempted to reason with Qwark, Otto used Ratchet's shrink ray to shrink Qwark before it happened, but because of that, was given the intelligence of Skrunch the monkey instead. A shrunken sized Qwark was taken to Ratchet and Clank's apartment where he tells his heroic deeds to Ratchet's clones. In the following games, Qwark has somehow returned to normal size.

In Secret Agent Clank, Qwark was anonymously paid to write his autobiography, led him to travel with a biographer, B.A.R.N.E.Y. (Biographical Analysis Robot Neo Eight Yellow) while making up false stories about his heroism for his biography. He made up a vast array of stories, from saving a city from a giant mechanical monster to matching wits with the Jack of All Trades, singing in an opera house, rescuing space nuns and orphans and fighting wild western Cactus Beasts. After Clank defeated Klunk, Qwark showed up with just his swimming trunks startled to see that Clank was in there. Attempting to take a teleporter back to the surface, Qwark accidentally teleported onto the satellite; at the instruction of Clank, he removed the Eye of Infinity just before the laser activated, destroying the satellite, although Qwark teleported out just in the nick of time.

It was revealed in the final report that Qwark was in fact, like Ratchet and Clank, caught up in Klunk's schemes. Klunk anonymously paid Qwark a large sum of currency to write his autobiography, correctly intuiting that Qwark would follow Clank around using a tracking device, allowing Clank's doppelganger to keep tabs on the secret agent without employing a lackey. When B.A.R.N.E.Y. told Qwark his true plan, the enraged captain then tried to destroy the robot, only to accidentally transform him into an Ultra-Mech; as it turned out, B.A.R.N.E.Y. was programmed to kill Qwark if anything were to happen to Klunk, presumably to eliminate all witnesses. However, Clank showed up just in time to save him and destroyed B.A.R.N.E.Y..

Qwark makes a cameo appearance in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as part of the Metropolis stage, where he is attacked and swallowed by the Hydra from God of War before narrowly escaping. Qwark also appears in the game as an unlockable minion.

Reimagined series

To be added.

Conception and creation

Captain Qwark was a late addition in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando; halfway through production of the game, the development team, having missed the character, shoehorned him into the game with a series of vignettes before making him the main villain of the game.

Reception

In his review of Ratchet & Clank, Gavin Frankle of Allgame stated that Captain Qwark's scenes (along with Chairman Drek's) proved to be more entertaining than those of the main characters. His comical trait was also commended by several reviewers, including CraveOnline, GamesRadar, and GameSpot, with the latter adding he is "useless and unwanted as expected". He was included in GameSpot's "All Time Greatest Video Game Villain" contest and reached the "Round 2" before losing to General RAAM. Qwark was included on "10 Best Dressed Gaming Characters" by CraveOnline as "Qwark is bombastic, over-the-top, and comically worthless…just like his spandex". GamesRadar listed Qwark as one of the "Bestest Frenemies", "cowards in gaming", and "Villains that need their own spin-off games". IGN ranked him 54th on their list of "The Top 100 Videogame Villains", saying Qwark's "biggest fault, [...], is his cowardice". Reviewing Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, Hardcore Gamer stated Qwark "mean a lot to fans of the franchise", noting its disappointment as he should "get more screen time".