Presumably Jim Starlin's revitalisation of Strange Tales enabled Warlock's title to be re-launched in a "Pulse-Pounding Premiere Issue" (actually issue 9) in October 1975 that carried on the story from the point where Warlock, Gamora and Pip encounter the flesh-and-blood Magus at the end of 1,000 Clowns. Artwork takes another step forward as Steve Leialoha takes on "finishing" tasks and Starlin concentrates on plot and layouts. Issues 9-14 are the best-looking of all the seventies Warlock comics (and it's worth noticing how issue 15 - art completely by Starlin - actually looks thin in comparison with the bold art of the preceding six issues). More significantly - dare I say it - than Warlock is the development of the mad Titan, Thanos, in this part of the run as an emergent major villain in the Marvel universe.
Thanos now stands with you, Adam Warlock: Warlock #9
Real Magus is a silver-skinned version of Adam Warlock who seems to have reverted to the earlier costume design and looks a great deal happier. Warlock, unfortunately is caught in a paradox where every thought and action has been already experienced by Magus. In fact, Magus claims to have manipulated events to bring Warlock to this point - and summons a being called The Inbetweener who will take Warlock to a place between reality and fantasy where he will become completely insane. Warlock - typically - feels pretty sorry for himself and mopes around declaring: "I've become a spiritual vampire! From saviour to vampire and soon to be a mad monarch of a thousand worlds... that's me!" Gamorra, however, is an element in Magus' plans that clearly didn't take place before. On the last page of this issue the mysterious master who has been guiding Gamorra reveals himself to be Thanos - who declares he will ally himself with Warlock.
Adam Warlock is now prepared... to destroy his own soul: Warlock #10
Warlock, Gamora and Thanos battle 25,000 of Magus' warriors. Upon witnessing the death of the cruel Matriarch, Warlock becomes (simplistically) philosophical, asking: "Why must life be so cruel? Why must there be so much mystery... so much pain?" In an odd couple of pages, Starlin has Captain Marvel break through the fourth wall and directly address the reader - informing them about Thanos' origins. We're given a little back story about Gamora, too. Warlock realises (courtesy of Thanos) that, in order to defeat Magus, he has to commit suicide.
No one really. Just a memory: Warlock #11
The conclusion of the Magus story-arc becomes more complicated. As Thanos fights Magus it's revealed that this is a conflict of cosmic proportions: Magus represents the forces of Life itself, while Thanos is the embodiment of Death (this was pretty obvious as he goes around talking about stellar genocide). Warlock slips into his own time stream in order to commit "cosmic suicide" (a rather grand term) and encounters The Inbetweener, who turns out to be a neutral force (with a typically Warlock-ian penchant for talking about himself in the third person) and complicates Warlock's suicidal mission by the revelation that Magus is in fact Life's champion. Warlock ends up in a situation where he has not one... but five different paths to choose. Finally, amidst some epic panelling that emphasises the tension of this moment, Warlock travels a few months into the future (Starlin isn't clear about how long: a year, two... a couple of months?) and encounters a future self who is even more depressed than "our" Warlock. Despite this story having taken a very long time to get to this point, Warlock doesn't engage with his future self and simply sets his vampiric soul gem on him.
The future is changed: Magus is removed from reality (plus no Universal Church of Truth) and the universe is re-made. Warlock and Pip go for a drink while Thanos stands chewing up the cosmos in Shakesperian villainous-style ("Am I not the dark side? Am I not death?") before wandering off.
Despite the fact that when you remove all the supposed plot complexities of this issue, it's really about Thanos fighting Magus and Warlock going on a mission to kill a future version of himself - it's about the best of this entire Warlock run in terms of the artwork. Panelling is stunning: there are pages where long, horizontal panels give widescreen-like impressions of the epic battle between Titan and god, next to pages where there's a stream of smaller panels that create pace and tension. Plus, Starlin's background texturing absolutely adds to the tone of scenes: it's definitely Kirby-esque with it's use of stars to signify moments of cosmic significance and great, gleaming metallic machines to emphasise the raw power of modern-mythic characters. The rich texturing is evident even in the realisation of small elements: Gamora's outfit has a web-like pattern that suggests how she will weave herself (later) into Warlock's narrative Thanos, when he's not standing in front of starscapes is often presented with the backdrop of crazily-flashing computerised equipment, indicating the non-natural source of his power as well as emphasising it's calculatingly cold, non-life. It's a terrific issue.
Say, I wonder what's inside this hookah?: Warlock #12
After the epic conclusion to the Magus storyline, this issue is a light-hearted romp involving Pip the Troll attempting to free a prostitute from a galactic pimp. There's a "tall-tale" Pip tells the prostitute (called Heater!) about his past - supposedly he was Prince Gofern of Laxidazia who was a painter that hung out with trolls eating "dark stew" until he was transformed into a troll himself. It's thinly-veiled commentary (and I wonder at this point if Pip is a version of Starlin himself in the comic - although in the letters column in #14 a reader challenges the editors to deny that Pip is based on Jack Kirby which gets a reply that only draws parallels between Pip and the artist). We additionally have the introduction of Eros (his connection with Thanos to be later revealed) but this is an interlude before another intense arc. Warlock, as he's done before, flies off into space to agonise over his dilemma: he's changed the future - but, in the process, gone mad and murdered with his soul gem. Often the best moments of these comics are when Warlock is sitting on a rock in the emptiness of space pondering - adolescently - over his existence. There's a great sequence in this issue as well as a superb full page portrayal of the angst-filled Warlock which begins to graphically suggest his fractured personality:
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| Warlock has "problems" |
Telling you how it is and signing off before the big sign-off: Warlock #13
Star-thief is a great two-parter that demonstrates the peak in Starlin's storytelling and artwork on this title in the 1970s. Warlock - who seems less anguished than in his last appearance - ponders what to do with his life considering he now has what he describes as a "multi-compartmental brain" (which, I guess, means splintered personality disorder) and a vampiric soul gem. There's a glimpse of Warlock's difficulties when, after seeing parts of the galaxy disappearing, he is compelled by the soul gem to investigate - despite the "sensible and self-preserving" part of his personality encouraging him to leave the inhabited universe behind. We also see another aspect of the soul gem's powers: it's able to send out "an exploratory beam of force" that investigates phenomena.
Warlock discovers that the source of the "theft" of stars is an Earthman called Barry Bauman, who has lived for 24 years in a vegetative state after being born with no connection between his brain and nerves (perhaps a version of The Who's
Tommy?). There's a couple of fantastic pages where Starlin depicts Barry's self-narrated origins from darkness to becoming a being of "pure intellect" - although cruelly twisted by his loneliness into desire for revenge against an uncaring cosmos. Warlock's first action is to use his soul gem to kill the Star Thief - which he does without his usual hand-wringing. When the Star Thief makes himself known and, in a friendly way, suggests that he and Warlock share a lonely kinship ("We are both perverted creations of Earthmen who fear us..."), Warlock simply insists he is Life and that Star Thief is Anti-Life and they must fight. It's almost as if Warlock wants to re-enact the epic battle between Magus and Thanos a few issues ago. Star Thief animates rocks into giant man-like forms and battles Warlock. There are some great sound effects depicting the blows they trade: KARRUNT, ZAARK, KA-TUNK, KA-ROOOM, KER-RRAANK. Eventually, Warlock survives the attack and causes Star Thief to be amazed at his foe's powers. Modestly, Warlock gives an explanation - though it doesn't really make much sense - of his powers that echoes his earlier (re)creation by the High Evolutionary.
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| "A true Warlock" |
Both agree a challenge: Warlock must fly to Earth and survive only physical assaults by Star Thief. Meanwhile the issue ends with a sardonic apocalyptic panel illustrating humanity's "most usual" reaction to the news that something is destroying stars:
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| "The human race goes berserk!" |
Yet the golden one took revenge: Fantastic Four #172
A talking golden ape called Gorr tells the FF about the existence of Counter Earth and warns that Galactus plans to destroy it. Warlock appears in a falshback sequence where Gorr explains how the High Evolutionary created Counter Earth and how the Man-Beast corrupted the planet with evil. The religious aspects of the original tale are played down considerably. Probably the best thing about this issue is that it's drawn by a young George Perez and there's some interesting layouts - particularly on pages 15-16 where the panels are flanked by the faces of the FF as they listen to Gorr's story.
I lost a home: Warlock #14
Homecoming is an unsatisfactory issue considering the premise of the previous issue. It transforms what was potentially a tremendous conflict into a series of silly challenges and the issue's resolution is sudden and unsatisfactory. It may be that Starlin knew the title was going to be cancelled (supposedly due to paper shortages) and needed to hurriedly resolve this story in order to resolve Thanos' involvement.
Warlock undertakes Star Thief's challenge in this issue. Each of the challenges is elemental and - unfortunately - one is a gigantic shark that attacks Warlock in space! Crazily, it turns out to be one of Warlock's most dangerous opponents. Over the course of three pages Warlock battles the shark until he lures it into colliding with a comet. Feigning unconsciousness, Warlock then uses his soul gem to steal - and revitalise himself - a piece of the Star Thief's soul. After an ordeal by fire, Warlock travels through a black hole to the milky way where he discovers that - in the time he has spent in another part of the universe - he has grown in size to dwarf the solar system. He's also become insubstantial and seems to have no power to influence the reality of this part of the universe. Star Thief explains this by saying he has been affected by the "expanding universe theory" where his molecules have drifted apart - consequently making him bigger (though the size of the solar system seems a little too weird).
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| Warlock returns to Earth a bigger man |
While Warlock is in shock at his increased stature, Star Thief is killed in his hospital bed by his nurse. (Surely, as a being of "pure intellect" Star Thief would have been able to exist independently of his body - plus, how would he have destroyed Earth without killing himself?)
That is why, good or bad, I shall always be Adam Warlock: Warlock #15
Warlock's own title ends with #15 in November 1976 and, although the character appears at points in other titles, there's not another
Warlock-centred title for over 15 years. Starlin undoubtedly had longer term plans for it to have developed:
"I had a bit of a Destroyer-Warlock battle half-drawn, a few pages of it drawn. I was going to start going down a darker line with him. Some of the ideas I actually remembered and sort of worked in as he came back in the Infinity Gauntlet books and what you had in his own [title], Warlock and the Infinity Watch." (Back Issue #34, p.12)
There's something intense about this final issue, Just a Series of Events! Starlin finishes the artwork himself, so Warlock looks slightly different - more human - than the preceding issues. Filled with rage, Warlock bemoans his state as a "nebulous giant" and reflects on his friends and experiences right back to his adventures on Counter-Earth. Apart from being a device to prevent his involvement in other Marvel comics, I can't see why Starlin decided to make Warlock galaxy-sized - unless just for the visual effect of having the planets of the solar system float around his legs. He decides that he should search out a new home.
Meanwhile, a bored Gamora is sent by Thanos to act as Warlock's bodyguard. Some internal monologuing by Thanos reveals that Gamora is ignorant of her master's plans for "TOTAL STELLAR GENOCIDE" and enables her to be presented less as a villain and more a potential love-interest for Warlock. As she hunts for him in space her craft is attacked and destroyed by a caped character who is known to her. It's the last we'll see of Gamora until
Avengers Annual #7 a year later. There's also a short comic scene showing Pip's activities: he's working as a thief on the planet Degenera and manages to give a policeman the slip.
Warlock, however, has a tough time throughout the issue. In a series of incidents that lead to his domination of the soul gem, Warlock seems to overcome the personality issues that have plagued him. He firstly becomes involved in stopping the repossession of a spacecraft by a team of loan sharks. He is sickened by the knowledge that greed exists throughout the universe and seeks solace on a dead planet that has come adrift from its orbit. He begins to drown in apathy before meeting an ancient mystic who attempts to show Warlock the value of his existence in the universe (a vibration intersecting with other vibrations). The mystic looks into the future and tells Warlock that he will witness the death of his friends and become the most hated person in the universe. Finally, Warlock travels to an uninhabited planet in order to finally comprehend the nature of the soul gem. It turns into a life or death struggle for Warlock as the gem attempts to suck him in. Warlock eventually defeats the gem and flies away having derived some sense of victory. The only piece of information he seems to have gained is that the soul gem is one of six - these will become the infinity gems and play a greater role in the Marvel Universe much later.
It's a shame that poor sales stopped Warlock as an on-going title at this point. Looking back over the run - interrupted as it was - there is a very definite line of development from a simplistic character and straightforward plots into something richer and nuanced that seemed to better reflect its age. It is Thanos, however, who - arguably - enables Warlock to continue his adventures...
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