Warlock altered almost beyond recognition as soon as Jim Starlin took over the title in 1974. Counter-Earth, Man-Beast and the superhero-messiah elements are played down. There's a deeply metaphysical problem introduced, Warlock gets a serious adversary and a change of costume - but it's the cosmic setting with its a rich detail that is most engaging. While the aliens and monsters often have a comedic function they never attain the childishly simple New-Men from the Counter-Earth stories. Starlin was clear that he wanted to develop Warlock as a very different title:
"I made a conscious effort to avoid going down that avenue because I had basically taken Captain Marvel, a warrior, and turned him into sort of a messiah-type character. So when I got to Warlock, I said to myself, 'I got a messiah right here to start off with, where do I go from there?' And I decided a paranoid schizophrenic was the route to take." (Back Issue #36, p.6)
From the second issue of Starlin's run, Strange Tales #178, Warlock gets some blurb - presumably to enable a casual or first time reader to get to grips with the weird stuff happening in the issue:
It's also during this short run that Gamora, a character who recurs in cosmic stories and even looks likely to be in upcoming The Guardians of the Galaxy movie makes her first appearance.
Madness shall surely prevail: Strange Tales #178
From the first page it's clear that the title is going to be tremendously different. It's qualitatively better in every aspect. The layouts are complex and dynamic (no traditional panelling here), the tone radically different - it feels far more modern than than the series so far (which, at times, had an almost early-sixties artistic feel). At first the reader is confronted by a lizard-in-a-spacehelmet character called Sphinxor who relates Warlock's history through friendly, colloquial banter. [This type of narrative framing device reminded me a lot of the way Tharg was used in
2000AD.] After this recount, the issue shifts to the present with a dynamic sequence of a space-suited woman running across a cosmic scene chased by brutish-looking aliens. She stumbles across a beefy-looking Warlock and, draped around his ankles, tells him that "I've crossed a dozen galaxies to find you! A thousand worlds, a billion people seek your aid!" The aliens chasing the woman tell Warlock that they are Grand Inquisitors of the Universal Church of Truth and that they have marked the woman for termination. Warlock becomes involved - offering protection - but, during the skirmish, the woman is killed. In order to discover why this has happened, there's a disturbing sequence where Warlock uses his soul gem ("Thus dark jewel draws its strength from the sinister chaotic ends of infinity...") to reanimate the woman's corpse. The dead woman - in a superbly-drawn sequence - explains how the Universal Church of Truth worship a being called the Magus and that planets can find peace only by joining the Church. Anyone outside the Church is a heretic and attacked. At this point the Magus manifests itself and attempts to "Enlighten" Warlock by transporting him to a nightmarish place (reminiscent of the weird dimensions drawn by Steve Ditko in
Doctor Strange) - that turns out to be inside his own soul gem.
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| Warlock's fractured personality is first presented as the secret of the Magus. |
Magus tells Warlock that there his secret is buried within Warlock's soul gem and taunts him by telling him that his actions are only what Warlock fears to do (the implication is that true universal harmony can only be attained through totalitarian control). Warlock quickly realises that Magus is actually... himself: he understands that his soul is split in two and that one part of him is ravaging the universe.
It was going to be a long journey: Strange Tales #179
Death Ship adds another new element: narration by Warlock himself. Floating in space, Warlock is captured by a warship belonging to the Universal Church and held as a prisoner among a number of non-humanoid aliens - including a giant floating eye. Another power of the soul gem is demonstrated: Warlock scans the minds of all the aliens and enables him to understand their languages. They explain to him that they come from worlds that refused to join the Universal Church and due for termination. Warlock also meets a cigar-smoking troll named Pip (who will become his companion for a time). The aliens call on Warlock to lead them to their freedom but he declines and there's a Kirby-esque tale recounted of Grak and Brak the cavemen - the purpose to illustrate Warlock's belief that "The strong must always lead and exploit the weak!" He does help the aliens revolt and ends up fighting Autolycus, the ship's captain. Autolycus nearly defeats Warlock - but the soul gem sucks the life out of him and Warlock describes the gem as humming "in glutinous satisfaction".
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| The vampiric soul gem takes its first victim. |
He suggests that the gem is responsible for the Magus. At the end of the issue Warlock is accompanied by Pip in a small space shuttle to search out the Magus. There's a little more about the Universal Church presented. Although the Magus is the head of the Church (literally) there is a temporal Matriarch who exerts a tremendous degree of control.
We're all heroes in our own minds: Strange Tales #180
June 1975's Strange Tales has Warlock - in upgraded costume: high-collared cape held together by skull clasp and the lightning bolt insignia removed - visiting Homeworld: "The birthplace and control centre of the galactic Universal Church of Truth". Almost immediately, Warlock is involved in a fight with four "black knights" of the Church. Afterwards, he struggles to keep the vampiric soul gem under control and fails in his attempt to remove it from his head. Warlock realises that he does not exist without the soul gem:
"So all the years I've worn this gem, it's been slowly and subtly sucking my soul into itself... until I am nothing but a hollow shell dependent upon it for life itself! Separated from the gem, I am like a puppet with its strings cut. In other words, that gem has become my lifeforce and I... its prisoner!"
He visits the Matriarch who tells him that the Magus is not part of a fractured soul or personality - the Magus is Warlock's future self! Shortly afterwards Warlock finds himself in a sham inquisition presided over by a four-armed bobble-headed creature called Kray-tor. After a trial, Warlock is found guilty. While this is happening, Pip meets up with Gamora who explains she is either going to join Adam Warlock's fight against Magus or kill him. Warlock escapes his restraints and - using the soul gem - attacks the court and sucks Kray-tor's soul. Eventually, it is revealed that everything that has happened has been orchestrated by the Matriarch in order to brainwash Warlock in "The Pit".
According to Karen Walker's article in
Back Issue #34,
1000 Clowns wasn't well-received in the Bullpen. Roy Thomas is quoted as saying: "I don't recall the story well, but I do know that what I objected to was not Jim's treatment of me, but the rest of Marvel's staff. I appreciated his kind feelings to toward me, and I share them back... but I don't like to see personal laundry of this type aired in a Marvel comic" (p.9).
I'm now quite insane: Strange Tales #181
1000 Clowns, issue 181, is a thinly-veiled satire of Marvel itself. "The Pit" where Warlock is brainwashed is the Marvel Bullpen and many of the clowns well-known Marvel staff: Len Wein, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin and Marv Wolfman. Readers would have guessed this at the time when the lead clown, Lentean calls Warlock a "True Believer" - the famous Stan Lee catch phrase - and the operators at "The Pit" obviously cariactures of Marvel staff. The purpose of the satire is obvious, too: Warlock is given a clown's make-up so that he "look like everyone else", he's shown a renegade clown crucified and pelted with custard pies, he witnesses the daily collapse of a tower of rubbish (that contains diamonds). The operators discuss the difficulties they have in re-progamming Warlock and complain about the strength of his free will. The Matriarch explains that Warlock should be convinced that he should join the Church in order to struggle against cosmic anarchy. In order to escape the world of his brainwashing, Warlock has to go through the door of madness. Through assuming an insane view of reality, Warlock realises his altered consciousness will enable him to provide him with the means of defeating Magus. At the end of the issue, in a "Wizard of Oz" moment, Magus reveals himself: he looks like an older, thinner version of Warlock - with an afro.
He is a Watcher: Captain Marvel #39
July 1975's issue of
Captain Marvel involves the trial of Uatu the Watcher for becoming involved in - rather than simply observing - events. Flashbacks of the Watcher's appearances in
Fantastic Four and
The Avengers are shown. One of these is to show the Watcher causing Him's cocoon to return to Earth from space which led to the battle with Thor.
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