Adam Warlock - Part Two: Marvel Premiere
Him, the character first introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four, gets rebooted into Adam Warlock in the early 1970s. At the time Roy Thomas, who was editor-in-chief at Marvel wanted to produce a Jesus in space-type superhero comic (he'd been listening to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack). Warlock is placed on Counter Earth, another Earth found on the opposite side of the sun. It enabled the character to be within the regular Marvel universe - but isolated from the existing characters and continuities initially. Warlock features in two issues of Marvel Premiere before being given his own ongoing title.
The Sheer, Awful Agony: Marvel Premier Featuring The Power of Warlock #1
Subtitled "Tomorrow's hero today!" it's a couple more years until Him returns - this time written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane in the 27-page Marvel Premier #1. It's a creation myth: a god-like creator, a perfect world corrupted by an adversary and the creator's son who falls to Earth, sacrificing himself for humanity. Thomas introduces Counter Earth, the doppleganger of Earth that enables Warlock to be separated from (what we'd now call the 616 Marvel) Earth with its communities of super-heroes. In a later comic it is further placed out of synchronicity with Earth to prevent any cross-overs occurring.On an artificial planetoid near Mars, a robot-like character, the High Evolutionary, records his electronic journals. He recounts how, in Thor 134-135, he'd created the Man-Beast, a wolf-like creature of hatred who was defeated by Thor and sent into exile in the Dromisana Galaxy. He then recounts an encounter with the Hulk, in Tales to Astonish 94-96, where the High Evolutionary transformed himself into The Ultimate ("the be-all and end-all of all human evolution") who became one with the cosmos before returning to his metal shell after almost going insane. One of the High Evolutionary's crew, Sir Raam (a man with a ram's head!), has discovered Him's cocoon floating in space. The High Evolutionary communicates with Him (via some sort of video screen) and declares that "The one within is like the ultimate ultra-human New-Man I always desired to create". Him recounts his past to the High Evolutionary (and, this time, remembers to include the FF).
The High Evolutionary prepares Project Alpha, an attempt to transform a piece of rock from Earth into a mirror image of the planet but seeks to prevent humans on the planet from acquiring the quality of aggression. High Evolutionary names the planet Counter Earth which is located on the far side of the sun so it's not visible from Earth. As Counter Earth and its population is created a wolf-headed character appears called the Man-Beast who boards the High Evolutionary's craft and kills poor old Sir Raam. The Man-Beast takes his revenge on the High Evolutionary but introducing aggression and murder into humans on Counter Earth. At this point Him decides to emerge from his cocoon - all dressed in a superhero costume with Shazaam symbol across his chest and an upside-down CND logo as a belt buckle.
Although Counter Earth has been corrupted by Man-Beast (who flees to the planet) the logical thing would be to destroy the project - which is exactly what the High Evolutionary intends. He is stopped, however, by Him who offers to serve humanity and nurturing the spark of goodness in them. Transported to Counter Earth and given an emerald gem, the High Evolutionary declares - for no apparent reason - "For uncanny your sacred mission - - unearthly your weirdling powers - - and, beholding them - - Men shall call you Warlock!"
Despite the hokey plot there's lots to admire in this issue - particularly Gil Kane's art. There's a couple of wonderful splash pages: Him scrapping with Thor and the High Evolutionary creating Counter Earth. The robot-like design of the High Evolutionary is great, too.
"He's -- flying! No -- he's not!": Marvel Premier featuring The Power of Warlock #2
The second issue of Marvel Premiere, The Hounds of Helios, introduces the group of hipster teens who effectively become Warlock's disciples on Counter-Earth. It's been a couple of months since the first issue (April 1972) and the July 1972 date means that there necessarily has to be a re-cap at some point for those readers that would have forgotten what happened. It's surprising that Warlock was picked up as an ongoing series after this issue. A pretty awful comic, it's difficult to read with any seriousness. Warlock battles a giant rat and educates members of the Establishment in understanding how their values are damaging societies across the world. The social conscience is worn boldly on Warlock's sleeve (though his tunic is actually sleeveless). Unfortunately, it's a ragged, jumbled issue that's only really redeemed by Gil Kane's artwork.
At the start, Warlock's literally fallen through the atmosphere and lies unconscious and burning hot in a desert. The group of teens are living on some sort of ranch in the desert (later in the issue we find out that they've turned their backs on their parents' values and are seeking a hippy-ish different way of life - the philosophy of their "drop out"-culture is pretty vague). The teens' parents turn up later in the issue and are revealed to be important people: a general, senator and "black capitalist". The parents obviously freak out when they see that their kids are hanging out with a gold-skinned dude dressed in a pimped-out Shazam outfit. It's surprising that more isn't made of the clear danger of Warlock being a Manson-like character. I love the leftover 60s street talk the teens use: "far-freakin' out", "vibes", "you dig" and so on). It reads like a parody of the sixties.
After contemplating praying for Warlock, the teens don't seem that surprised when he tells them that he's suffering amnesia and only remembers his name ("Warlock? Hey a male witch! That's a groove!" declares one of the teens - for the benefit of the readers) so is christened Adam (A bit random - why would he need a forename?). Reading this 40 years later, the earnest, humourless writing lacks subtlety of any kind.
Meanwhile, the High Evolutionary provides a flashback giving a little more background on Counter-Earth: Man-Beast's corruption of the planet ensured that there are no super-heroes or villains (Reed Richards and Dr Doom work together). As we'll see in future issues, there do seem to be an awful lot of super-villains (admittedly working with Man-Beast). The flashback pages are impressively drawn and do really stand out in this issue.
Man-Beast has a lair on the planet - along with some ridiculous minions: Kohbra, a snake-headed baddie and Rhodan, a giant rat who rides a flying chariot pulled by winged dogs (these are the Hounds of Helios created "amid the solar storms of the star-sun Helios" - it's a detail that, like a lot of Warlock, probably sounded cool at the time (especially if you'd just smoked a joint) but makes very little sense in the context of the issue). Rhodan is sent off to kill Adam Warlock (screaming "Kill, my pretty!" as if he'd been watching The Wizard of Oz). Warlock ends up battling Rhodan in the sky (it's made clear he's levitating, not flying - just to emphasise the spirituality of the scrap). Using the soul-gem Warlock de-evolves Rhodan into a rat rather than killed - we're told that Warlock refuses to take life ("I do not kill, Ellie. I but made him once again... what always he truly was.") - however, he has no problem with a cat immediately killing the rat.
Warlock is shown to have redemptive powers. The parents of the kids are affected by Warlock by staring into his eyes. Warlock seems to have some cosmic power that causes these people to see the true nature of the world they live in: a soldier blinded in war, starving Biafran children and the effect of urban pollution.
The issue ends "Finish?" but it's only three months later that Warlock gets his own ongoing title...
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