Adam Warlock
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Adam Warlock is a fictional character who is published by Marvel Comics. Although the character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, his most prominent appearances were written and (in some cases) illustrated by Jim Starlin. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #66 (1967).
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Character history
Warlock is an artificially-created human who was "born" in a cocoon at a scientific complex called "The Beehive". The goal of his creators, the Enclave, was to create and subsequently exploit the perfect human. While in the cocoon, he became aware of his creators' plans for him. He awoke from the cocoon and rebelled. Having not had a childhood or parents, Warlock was lacking in maturity and restraint. (At this point, he was also lacking a name; for his first several appearances, Warlock simply went by "Him".) Warlock came into conflict with the Fantastic Four and Thor; during his encounter with the latter, he was killed when he attempted to force Thor's sometime paramour Sif to become his mate.
Warlock was revived and his behavior improved when he met the being known as the High Evolutionary. Under his guidance, Warlock's life was given direction and purpose, though to this day he remains arrogant and aloof. Warlock also came into possession of the Soul Gem at this point. The Soul Gem, one of the Infinity Gems, allowed Warlock to sense the souls of others and draw them into a dimension contained within the gem.
Warlock was then transported to Counter-Earth, an attempt by the High Evolutionary to create a Utopian society out of the framework of the original Earth. Unfortunately, it had fallen under the influence of the nefarious Man-Beast, a wolf that had been genetically modified into humanoid form by the High Evolutionary. In the process of ending the Man-Beast's regime, Warlock's narcissism led him to another death, this time by crucifixion. He was, again, revived later.
The Magus
Shortly, Warlock came into conflict with the Magus, a future incarnation of Warlock himself and leader of the Universal Church of Truth, a quasi-religious militia which conquered and ruled a thousand worlds with an iron fist. The Magus was created by the In-betweener, as a force for 'Life' to offset Thanos' role as a champion of Death. The In-betweener had driven the Magus mad and released him thousands of years in the past on a planet called Sirius X, which he would rename Homeworld. With the aid of Thanos, who was locked in mortal combat with the Magus, Warlock entered Kismet (a dimension whose capabilities have yet to be fully explained), destroyed the timeline where he would become the Magus, and emerged in the future and absorbed his future self's soul in the soul gem, retroactively preventing him from ever existing.
Subsequently, this time came to pass, and after being mortally wounded by Thanos, while assisting the Avengers, Warlock indeed absorbed his own soul into the Soul Gem. Following Thanos' defeat of the Avengers and their subsequent release by Spider-Man, he was unleashed by the heroic actions of Spider-Man as the self-proclaimed Ultimate Avenger, a figure of flaming brilliance, turning Thanos to living stone, before returning to the Gem.
The Infinity Gauntlet
Warlock's soul resided in the Soul Gem for several years, until Thanos was restored to life by Death itself. Thanos, having brought together the Infinity Gems to make the Infinity Gauntlet and become omnipotent, exiled the Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer to the world within the Soul Gem. After sending the pair back to their physical bodies, Warlock's soul left the Soul Gem and inhabited a recently-deceased corpse, which metamorphosed into Warlock's new body. Warlock was instrumental in Thanos' defeat here as well, and in the end obtained the Infinity Gauntlet for himself. Having lived so long in the Soul Gem's strange world and spent so much time with the gem he was able to understand the workings of Thanos and the Gauntlet, giving him an edge over his foe. What made him most ideal in leading Heroes and Cosmic beings against Thanos was the fact he stood outside the realms of Order & Chaos. This was no doubt due to the destruction of his own timeline, making it very hard to predict his fate. This was clearly shown when Gamora wore the Time Gem and got inaccurate visions of Warlock's future, and explains why Lord Chaos and Master Order wished Warlock as their leader against Thanos.
Warlock was soon forced to separate the Infinity Gems among separate bearers, the cosmic powers of the universe having prevented the Gems from functioning as one after Thanos' gross misuse of their power. Warlock kept the Soul Gem for himself, and split the rest of the gems among the members of the Infinity Watch. Warlock's temporary possession of the Gauntlet had had unforeseen consequences; in attempting to control his emotions to better wield the Gauntlet, he had purged all good and evil from his soul. As a result, these aspects took on physical form: the evil half became a new incarnation of the Magus, while the good half became the self-styled Goddess. Both attempted to gain control over the universe, and both were thwarted and exiled to the world of the Soul Gem, where they had no substance and (Warlock assumed) would pose no threat to anyone.
Some months later, Warlock was killed (again) by the alien vampire called Rune; the Infinity Watch disbanded and the Gems disappeared into a parallel universe, the "Ultraverse", where Warlock found himself reborn. Warlock eventually returned to the Marvel Universe, and encountered Thanos and the former members of the Infinity Watch a number of times more. He received a miniseries shortly thereafter, in which he fought the reanimated corpse of Captain Marvel.
Infinity Abyss and further adventures
Warlock's next major appearance was in the Infinity Abyss mini-series. Warlock was found to be living in an intergalactic Insane Asylum, encased in another self-generated cocoon. Warlock was reincarnated with a slight different appearance after a clone of Thanos asked Moondragon to revive him. Warlock assisted in preventing a universal crisis against Thanos' clones, and ended up watching over Atleza, a being posed to keep the cosmos from falling into the Infinity Abyss. He also engaged in a relationship with Gamora. Later, Warlock, being outside the cosmos then was able to convince Thanos to restore the Marvel Universe after he destroyed it after receiving ultimate power, assisted Thanos in his first reformed quest, and most recently assisted She-Hulk.
2004 Warlock Miniseries
In the recent 2004 "Warlock" mini series by Greg Pak, another Warlock (Warlock II) was created by the Enclave. Warlock II was meant to be the savior of the human race. He would be a god among men and 'fix' our world. He had a failsafe device installed in his head (which resembled the placement of the Soul Gem) that prohibited him from questioning his role as god of Earth. Warlock II was befriended by his designer Janie. Janie managed to get through to Warlock II and override his failsafe. Warlock II, confused by all the deception and the contradictory way of the human condition chose to destroy the Earth.
All this, though, turned out to be an elaborate fantasy inside Janie's head. She was being tested by the real Adam Warlock. She was given a chance to see humanity and feel compassion for it in a way Adam Warlock wasn't able to comprehend when he first emerged from the Enclave's labs. Janie, it turns out, was in actuality the new 'Warlock' being created. She emerged from her cocoon at the Enclave and left to rule over Earth in her own way having learned valuable lessons from the original Warlock.
This entire story, it seems, is entirely out of continuity as the Earth depicted in that story is very different from the Earth in other Marvel comics.
Trivia
- Although the character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Jim Starlin is considered to be the definitive Adam Warlock creator.
- Starlin's Warlock was one of the series that got Scott McCloud interested in comics during his high school years.
- The "Starlin Issues" have been reprinted several times by Marvel Comics, while other issues of the Warlock book (The Counter-Earth saga) have to this date not been reprinted.
- Having shared his soul with that of the Silver Surfer during the Infinity Gauntlet, Warlock gained the power to mentally control his board. He also shared a telepathic link with the Soul Gem so could tell if the Gauntlet had a new owner.
- When he went from the Soul World to Earth during the Infinity Gauntlet with Pip and Gamora he enhanced the bodies Pip and Gamora possessed. Pip’s strength level was made equal to that of Spiderman’s while Gamora was in the same league as Iron Man.
- When Warlock gained the full might of the Gauntlet he was able to shut off Drax The Destroyer’s hunger to kill Thanos.
- Warlock's gem made him more powerful than Mephisto in the devil's own realm. It is assumed that Warlock grew in power from the damned souls surrounding him in the realm.
Bibliography
Solo series and features
- Marvel Premiere #1-2 (April – May, 1972)
- The Power of Warlock (retitled Warlock, #9 onward) #1-15 (August, 1972 – November, 1976)
- Strange Tales (1951 series) #178-181 (February – September, 1975)
- Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1-42 (February, 1992 – July, 1997)
- Silver Surfer/Warlock: Resurrection #1-4 (March – June, 1993)
- Warlock Chronicles #1-8 (July, 1993 – February, 1994)
- Warlock #1-4 (November, 1998 – February, 1999)
- Warlock #1-4 (November, 2004 – February, 2005)
Reprints
- Fantasy Masterpieces (1979 series) #8-14 (July, 1980 – January, 1981; reprints Strange Tales (1951 series) #178-181, Warlock (1972 series) #9-11)
- Warlock Special Edition #1-6 (December, 1982 – May, 1983, also collected in trade paperback, 1992; reprints Strange Tales (1951 series) #178-181, Warlock (1972 series) #9-15, Marvel Team-Up #55, Avengers Annual #7, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2)
- Warlock #1-6 (May – October, 1992; reprints Warlock Special Edition #1-6)
External links
- MDP: Adam Warlock - Marvel Database Projectfr:Adam Warlock
