Welcome back everybody to Marvel Snapshot! I hope you’re enjoying the new format because I know I am. Dusting off old issues and reconnecting with a character is pure excitement for me. This week we will be staying with a cosmic scene and talking about Him. Who you say? Well, before he was known as Adam Warlock, he was simply known as Him. Yeah, kind of weird, but when you have Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to thank for your birth (FF #66, 1967), well, just say thanks at whatever name they give you. This character is really making some rumblings right now in Marvel’s cosmic landscape, so get ready to hear about that and his origin right now!
Adam Warlock’s beginning is as crazy as they come. He was basically cooked up in a laboratory by four scientists calling themselves The Enclave. They had a secret base where they hoped to mass produce a race of super-beings like Warlock to take over the world. While nearing his “birth,” Him overhears these quacks talking about world domination. When he hatches out of his cocoon (see above cover pic), he turns on his creators, even killing one of them, then heads out to space to enjoy the cosmos. He doesn’t 
make it too far though, when he arrives in a meteor shower. He cocoons himself, but is seen by a Watcher and tossed back to Earth. He emerges and tries to jump Sif’s (the Asgardian who loves Thor) bones, but Thor is there and the two have it out. Once again, Him heads back out to space, but eventually runs into The High Evolutionary. At this point, Him becomes Adam Warlock and tells the High Evolutionary that he will go to his newest creation, Counter-Earth, and cleanse it of the evil brought there by Man-Beast. He succeeds, and heads beyond the stars for some more intergalactic adventure.
Next, we see the groundwork that is being used right now in the current issues of Guardians of the Galaxy. If you have been reading Guardians (and shame on you if you haven’t because it’s easily Marvel’s best book), you’ll know all about The Universal Church of Truth. It is also noteworthy that Warlock met his good friend Pip the Troll during this adventure. The Church seeks to convert people to their beliefs or kill them if they won’t. Warlock decides to stop this religious genocide, but is stunned to find out that the man leading the Church is an alternate universe version of himself called The Magus! After some alternate reality and time jumping adventure, Warlock is aided by Thanos, who believes that The Magus is a threat to his conquests. Thanos eventually turns on Warlock and mortally wounds him. Warlock retreats into the Soul Gem, and later reappears to help stop Thanos from using the Infinity Gems to annihilate everything in the universe (Infinity Gauntlet).
After the Infinity Gauntlet story wound down, we saw Warlock start a group of his own, The Infinity Watch, to keep the gems safe from any threat. The team consisted of Warlock, Pip, Drax, Gamora, and Moondragon. They 
faced off with The Magus and The Goddess, but soon lost control of the gems, and then Warlock decided to disband the team. We didn’t see a lot of Warlock until Annihilation came along. In this story, we saw how Warlock was knocked for a loop by all the souls in the universe that were destroyed in Annihilation. He then went into hibernation, but was awoken by Quasar and Moondragon. Because he was awoken before his time, he was subsequently possessed by The Phalanx, but it was later purged by the cybernetic Warlock of The New Mutants. His soul was stored in Quasar’s Quantum Bands, and then restored to his own body. Warlock, along with Star-Lord (Peter Quill), founded The Guardians of the Galaxy to stop any intergalactic threat from here on out. Currently, Warlock’s now evil persona The Magus, has his minions growing a cocoon similar to his own, to hatch someone or something that will be their ultimate weapon.
As I said earlier, if you aren’t reading Guardians of the Galaxy, you’re really missing out on some of the best writing in comics. This is definitely Marvel’s best book. Period. I hope you enjoyed this look into Warlock’s past and present as much as I did. Before I sign off though, I’ll leave you with some fantastic Warlock/Guardians pics to wet your appetite. See you next week!
Recommended reading list:
Warlock 1972
Marvel Premiere 1972
Strange Tales 1975
Infinity Gauntlet 1991
Warlock and the Infinty Watch 1992
Silver Surfer/ Warlock: Resurrection 1993
Guardians of the Galaxy 2008-present
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
My first introduction to Warlock was Infinity Guantlet and various Silver Surfer books. I thought he was pretty cool but I think it was the Infinity Watch books that turned me off in the end.
Oh and I finally added GOTG to my pull list!
Billy, you’re awesome! First Thanos, now Warlock, two of my all time favorite characters in a row man, keep it up. I love Warlock, and like Speech, my intro to the character came in Infinity Gauntlet. How can you not love a guy who manipulates the cosmic beings, outwits Thanos, who for all intents and purposes is god, and saves the universe??
This new art looks pretty good. One problem I’ve had with Warlock since the early 90s was how he was drawn. In my opinion, the way he looked in the Infinity Gauntlet is the best he ever has, thank you George Perez. I do like the new look, especially the Magus, he looks nice and evil, just the way he should.
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@Speech-Infinity Gauntlet was awesome and yeah, definitely some of the aftermath was a little forgettable but Warlock is the man in Guardians of the Galaxy.
@Eli-I think Paul Pelletier is even better than Perez with his cosmic artwork. He was the fellow on Guardians until fairly recently and also did War of Kings which was spectaculor.