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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).

Contents

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. Warlock used his powers to resurrect himself. Warlock, in recreating the resurrection of Christ on Counter-Earth, lead to the creation of an organized religion planet wide; this also was the first step toward Warlock’s “God Complex”.

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, attempted to kill the Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer with the Soul Gem. Unknowingly, Thanos exiled them to the world within the Soul Gem. While in Soul World, Drax became disoriented and confused; wanting only to get back to fighting Thanos. Drax began destroying the Soul World. Warlock, who while living in the Soul World had taken to the life of a monk and had not fought since entering the Soul Gem, now had to take up the fight and defeat Drax to save the Soul World. 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 Warlock most ideal in leading the 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 Gauntlet's gems to separate bearers after the cosmic beings of the universe and the Living Tribunal deemed Warlock unworthy to carry the Infinity Gauntlet. When Warlock asked why Thanos was allowed to wield the power, Warlock was told that it was because he was a being of existence and Warlock was a created being. 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 unforeseen consequences; in attempting to control his emotions to better wield the Gauntlet, Warlock purged all good and evil from his being. As a result, these aspects took on physical forms: 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

Interior art from Thanos #6 2004. Art by Jim Starlin
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Interior art from Thanos #6 2004. Art by Jim Starlin

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 recently assisted She-Hulk.

2004 Warlock miniseries

In the recent 2004 Warlock mini series by Greg Pak, another Warlock was created by the Enclave. This new Warlock 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. The new Warlock was befriended by his designer Janie. Janie managed to get through to this Warlock and override his failsafe. The new Warlock, 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

Bibliography

Solo series and features

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