Quincy Durant is a mechanically augmented mercenary appearing in the Deus Ex: Human Revolution comics series. The reader may not know it at first, but he makes an appearance in some form in every issue.
| "You should've let me die, Adam" | ||||
History[]
Early life[]
Quincy and a young Adam.
At some point in his life, Durant joined the Detroit Police Department and climbed the ranks to eventually become the commander of SWAT Team Two. During this time, a young Adam Jensen was accepted into the ranks of Team Two, and Durant became a mentor, and a eventually a close friend, to Jensen. During this time, Durant shares many sentiments, including a 'take no prisoners' mentality along with a general aversion to augmentations.
In 2020, Durant and Jensen are sent into the Detroit Motor City Scrapyard Park to capture Tyrell "Tiger" Banks, an Iraq War Veteran and former contender for the Augmented Combat Challenge, a special martial arts competition for augmented people. Tyrell is wanted for the murder of Kery Ryder, a call-girl. Tyrell ambushes the two of them, briefly separating them using an avalanche of junked cars. By the time Jensen finds his squad leader, he has been gravely wounded, including his right arm being completely severed, and at the mercy of Tyrell. During the ensuing fight, Jensen luckily gets the upper hand and is able to dispatch of Tyrell, and immediately starts first aid on Durant. Later, at the Detroit Receiving Hospital, the doctors told him the full extent of his injuries: a shattered spine, broken neck, fractured skull, loss of sight in left eye, and complete disfiguration of the right arm. Even though the doctor praised Jensen for likely saving Durant's life due to the first aid work performed in the field, Durant is less than pleased, saying "You should've let me die, Adam." This is because, despite Durant's opposition to being augmented, he would need to have some work done in order to sustain anything comparable to a normal life.
A newly augmented Durant kills several gangsters.
In 2021, an intense gunfight breaks out in the El Diablo Lapdancing Club, between SWAT agents and the Kowalski Brothers gang. A newly augmented Durant shows up on the scene surprising everyone, and, after a brief consideration of protocol, decides to kill every remaining member of the gang, much to Adam's surprise. Between the new augmentations, and being briefly under the rule of Jensen - his old pupil, Durant became psychologically warped. Eventually, he was put in charge of a new SWAT team, but he quickly became corrupted, along with his entire squad. Within the next two years, Durant and his squad eradicate half of Detroit's organized crime population, and seat themselves as the ruling class of the underworld.
However, in 2025, a riot in Mexicantown sprung up surrounding the controversial killing of an augmented fifteen-year-old boy by a police marksman. It is unknown precisely how Durant was involved in this, though it seems clear that he was somehow the cause, not to mention he was in the area and well informed of the situation. After the riots subside, Durant is confronted by Jensen inside a nearby old church, where Durant mocks his pupil for not personally taking the shot that killed the aforementioned boy. Despite not being as powerful or skilled as Durant, Jensen surprises him with an EMP grenade. Durant is able to get a shot off, wounding Jensen in the shoulder, but then falls victim to the grenade which renders his augmentations inoperative. Jensen, while falling backwards from being shot, wildly fires back and hits Quincy in the head, supposedly killing him. However, unknown by Jensen, Durant was still alive and was recovered by double agent Jake Dredger. A medical team stabilized him in the church and he was later moved to a secret location where they rebuilt him, making Durant even more powerful.
2027[]
Durant reappears in 2027, disguised while wandering through a Humanity Front rally in central Detroit, eventually killing a large number of demonstrators with a recently developed augmentation - the Typhoon Explosive System.
Later, he and a group of augmented mercenaries attack Katrina Sutherland and Adam Jensen, who resigned from SWAT and now works for Sarif Industries, in Katrina's apartment at the Intercontinental Hotel in Montreal. After Jensen and Katrina make short work of Durant's mercs, his disguised self takes the two by surprise, nearly killing Jensen with his blade augmentation. Katrina, however, manages to shoot Durant, twice in the chest and once in the head, unmasking him. After a brief conversation between the three of them, Durant activates his Typhoon augmentation, wounding Jensen who covers Katrina. Durant attempts yet again to kill Adam, this time with a Zenith 10mm pistol, but Faridah Malik arrives in time, and Durant flees as Malik's VTOL barrages the area with its mounted weapons.
A short time later, Durant is connected to the murders of Arkady Vransky - Artificial Intelligence Developer, Michael Griffin - Director of Nano-Processing, and Anna Perez - Cyber-Systems Analyst; scientists who were in protective custody due to surviving the Sarif Industries attack. Durant's next target is Dr. Vera Marcovic, a specialist in Biological Modification for LIMB International. He arrives at the LIMB clinic in Detroit, shortly after Dr. Marcovic finishes an operation, killing two security guards and abducting the good doctor, while preparing to move and hold her in an abandoned Delaney car plant.
Jensen sneaks into the plant to find and free Dr. Marcovic, but he is hit with an electromagnetic pulse from an even more powerful Durant, augmented further by a threatened Dr. Marcovic. With his imposing status, Durant confronts Jensen, speaking on the subject of the augmented vs. organic people, believing that the "human revolution begins here." Just before Durant's mercenaries could kill Jensen, Katrina kills them from afar with a Longsword Whisperhead sniper rifle, yet a group of unmarked gunships happen upon the scene and destroy the plant. Jensen and Dr. Marcovic barely escape, while Durant is caught in the blast, yet is able to survive.
The next day, Durant attacks Faridah's VTOL with a gunship, while she's carrying David Sarif - CEO of Sarif Industries, and Adam Jensen, who are returning from a meeting with Bill Taggart - Humanity Front leader, and Zhao Yun Ru - CEO of Tai Yong Medical. The VTOL being damaged, Jensen jumps onto Durant's gunship, eventually setting off his own Typhoon augmentation which destroys the gunship, while both Durant and Jensen fall to their safety. Durant seeks shelter in a nearby abandoned power plant, where Jensen follows him. After a short confrontation in which Durant is wounded, he reveals to Jensen that he has taken Katrina hostage and attached explosives to her that he controls. After nearly convincing Jensen to kill himself to save Katrina, Durant is blown up by Katrina jumping on him, only to survive long enough for Jensen to finish him off.
Notable Quotes[]
| "The flesh is weak. We are the Future. Deus Ex." | ||||
| — After attack the humanity front rally. | ||||
| "Two in the chest. One in the head. Shoot to kill. Just the way I like it. Course, some people are harder to kill than others..." | ||||
| — After Jensen had shoot him. | ||||
| "Rebuilt you well, didn't they? A blast like that should've torn to you shreds. Let's see how you handle things at point black range..." | ||||
| — To Jensen, after he survived a Typhoon attack. | ||||
| "You should've let me die, Adam" | ||||
| — To Jensen in the hospital, after being mutilated. | ||||
| "He's insane, Adam… he made me operate on him, upgrade his enhancements… He's like a living weapon… He says it's a ware, that there's a revolution coming… a human revolution...." | ||||
| — Dr. Vera Markovic, to Jensen, after operate Quincy. | ||||
| "You just don't understand what you've become, do you, Adam? Either that or you've too scared to accept reality. You're not human anymore. You're like me. Deus ex Machina. God from the machine." | ||||
| "Seven years ago, Quincy Durant stared up at me from a hospital bed, a broken man. The doctors said he was lucky. The first aid I administered at the crime scene kept him alive. He said I should've let him die. If i'd know what he'd become, I would have." | ||||
| — Jensen's thinking during last fight against Durant. | ||||
Notes[]
- In the Deus Ex: Human Revolution game, there are many sources who claim that Jensen left SWAT due to the controversial shooting of the augmented teenager, including Jensen himself. However, Jensen is still wearing a SWAT jacket during the duel with Durant in the church. This could mean that the killing of Durant was the real cause for Jensen's resignation.
Trivia[]
- Durant would chant the phrase "Deus Ex" and "Deus Ex Machina". Interestingly enough, Durant is the only character in the Deus Ex franchise to proclaim the name of said franchise.
Gallery[]
