The early history of Quagmire is unknown. It is known that Quagmire began his career fighting Doctor Spectrum. Quagmire became part of the Institute of Evil that was formed by the Scarlet Centurion. The Quagmire and the rest of the Institute kidnapped the Golden Archer and used him to get information about the Squadron Supreme. Using the Archer's information Ape-X sent the Institute members to kidnap various family members of the Squadron with Quagmire himself kidnapping the children and wife of Whizzer. Successful in their individual missions the Institute then attacked the Squadron headquarters ambushing and behavior modifying Tom Thumb while the rest of the team were out on various missions. The Institute ambushed and behavior modified the Squadron members as they returned. Only the Whizzer was able to escape, but he too was eventually captured. After the Institute returned to their base the Squadron eventually revealed that they could not be behavior modified and were pretending in order to learn the location of the kidnap victims The Institute members were then quickly defeated.

After their defeat, the Institute members were all behavior modified to be well-behaved citizens and follow the commands of all Squadron members and all of the Institute members were inducted into the Squadron Supreme. Quagmire helped with the construction of Squadron City and became a valuable asset to the team including going on a mission to recover asteroid remains with Tom Thumb. On an assignment to upgrade the safety of a factory with Ape-X and the Blue Eagle Quagmire was reprimanded by the Eagle for flirting with one of the female factory workers. Eagle punched Quagmire telling him he wasn't making a good impression because of his appearance and his attitude and then the Eagle flew off. After the Eagle left there was an accident at the factory and highly concentrated tranquilizer gas leaked out in lethal doses. Quagmire pulled thirty factory workers out of the facility by himself before falling into a coma due to his exposure to the gas. His comatose body was placed on life support under the care of Doctor Decibel at a hospital in Squadron City, and he was watched over by a guilt-ridden Blue Eagle. Eventually his comatose mind began subconsciously creating apertures into the Darkforce Dimension causing the hospital to fill with Darkforce material and drowning Doctor Decibel. Eventually the Squadron came to stop the flooding and Hyperion was forced to pull the plug connecting Quagmire's body to the machine's that were supposedly keeping him alive. The Darkforce material immediately disappeared as did Quagmire's body and he was believed to be dead.

On Earth-616 Quasar was alerted to a disturbance at the Nexus of Realities and went to investigate. Quasar discovered Jennifer Kale and an apparently pregnant Man-Thing who were surrounded by a "mud-storm". What appeared to be pregnancy was in fact a dimensional aperture that had been absorbed into the belly of the Man-Thing and was beginning to open. Quasar used his Quantum Bands to cut open the Man-Thing and Quasar and Jennifer removed the body of Quagmire from the Man-Thing's open "womb." Quagmire immediately awoke and acted in a manner consistent with the attitude he exhibited prior to his behavior modification, his coma and subsequent trans-dimensional journey apparently having reversed the process. Quagmire attacked Quasar and accosted Jennifer Kale when Quasar re-engaged him in battle and managed to knock Quagmire unconscious. The "mud-storm" (which was really just free floating Darkforce material that had been summoned by Quagmire) stopped instantaneously, and Quasar transported Quagmire to the Vault.

Later, the Chief Examiner contacted Quagmire at the Vault and helped him escape. Quagmire then approached Kayla Ballantine and forced her through the Chief Examiner's black teleportal. Quagmire then battled a tiny antibody (one of the many that belonged to Antibody), which had snuck into the 616 reality from the New Universe. The tiny antibody then secretly sought refuge in Quagmire's body.

After the Antibody broke free of Quagmire's body, Quagmire and other Darkforce users (including Cloak, the Shroud, Darkstar, and Silhouette) were controlled by the Darkling into attacking the New Warriors, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. Eventually the Darkling was defeated by a combined assault from Doctor Strange, Nova, and Dagger. All of the Darklings Darkforce puppets were released and it is presumed that Quagmire was sent to a superhuman holding facility.