Six months after having his own title cancelled, Adam Warlock returns in 1974 in three issues of The Incredible Hulk written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. Using the pretext of Hulk returning to Counter-Earth, Marvel ties up the super-hero Christ narrative. As this is a Hulk comic, the persecutive shifts from Adam Warlock and we get a slightly different character presented. Warlock is less uncertain and the Christ-parallels are deliberately played up. We see superhero versions of the Last Supper, the abandonment on the cross and the Resurrection. At last, there's a sense of closure to the Man-Beast/Counter-Earth storyline. Through death Warlock attains a sense of cosmic awareness that causes him to leave Counter-Earth.

...And Adam Warlock Will Live Again: The Incredible Hulk #176

In June 1974’s The Incredible Hulk, Trapped in a rocket, Hulk crashes once more on Counter-Earth where a less wolf-like President Man-Beast has Warlock prisoner in a stasis capsule. The New-Men have particularly awful names like Snakar, Weezil and Lizhardus. Warlock isn't actually in the issue except for the end, rescued by The Recorder (the name Memorax seems to have been dropped). Somehow President Man-Beast has captured him and some serious torture has been taking place. The art - especially of Man-Beast and his New-Men - is simplistic and awful (it's by the usually respectable Herb Trimpe - though Hulk is classically drawn here).

It's done. Warlock is dead...: The Incredible Hulk #177

After a great double page recap, President Man-Beast (just for readers unable to remember the symbolism, we're told by Jerry Conway: "Look at him... the Satan of this Counter-Earth... the Lucifer of the fallen New-Men") is told that Warlock has escaped. For some reason this is a great blow to Man-Beast's revenge on the High Evolutionary, so he tags Hulk with a microtransmitter and allows him to escape in order to find Warlock. When Hulk does find Warlock, he's become a revolutionary leading the good New-Men from a base in an abandoned power terminal.

Hulk plays the part of Judas at Adam Warlock's last supper.

Weirdly, there's even a panel that recreates Christ's last supper - this time with Hulk cast in the Judas role. As Warlock tells his followers: "Please promise: if anything happens to me... you'll gather like this... in my memory" Man-Beast initiates "Operation: Betrayal" and activates the transmitter causing Hulk to go crazy with pain. Man-Beast himself turns up and there is a fight which results in Hulk transformed back into Bruce Banner and Warlock is captured. At the end of the issue, Warlock is placed on a machine resembling a cross and executed. Before the execution, Man-Beast, in the guise of President Carpenter, asks the American people if they want Warlock freed or killed. There's another Christ-like echo when Warlock cries out: "High Evolutionary -- Why have you abandoned me?"

Warlock abandoned on the cross.

With his death, Warlock becomes the cocoon - which we're told is "life's end". There's an odd sequence where a couple of civil servants - Ben Vincent and June Volper - become suspicious about what's happening inside the White House. Although they play an important part in the eventual defeat of Man-Beast, they seem too realised for characters that never appear again.

This is Warlock's time of passing: The Incredible Hulk #178

Following Warlock's execution, Hulk takes the cocoon and the New-Men plus the human disciples mourn his death. While Hulk seeks revenge on Man-Beast, Warlock is resurrected. Just as Hulk is about to kill Man-Beast Warlock turns up and devolves Man-Beast to a wolf. Warlock has been altered by his resurrection and appears more cosmically aware: he sees other worlds where he has to fight the Man-Beast. After he launches himself into space the narrative voice asks:

"He leaves the gathered with an unvoiced question... A question once asked by Ray Bradbury in a poem too few people know... "Are there mangers on far worlds?""

Even the Hulk is left to peacefully ponder this contemplatively. Thus, the first tale of Adam Warlock ends. It's odd that the High Evolutionary plays no part in the Hulk comics: it's almost that as soon as he sent Memorax (The Recorder) to observe Warlock, he takes no further interest in what happens to his "son".

It's quite possible that Warlock could have ended here as a weird comic with a small cult following (like Steve Gerber's Omega the Unknown). Forty years later it's clear that the Adam Warlock presented up to this point is only a start. Jim Starlin's involvement, six months later crystalises the definition of the character...