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Has self ever looked at the stars and wondered if there is life out there? In comics, it’s a fact that we are not alone in the universe. Heroes from different species and planets reside with humanity on Earth. Warlock is one such being, a mutant of his own kind, finding a connection with mutants of Earth. How did he get here and what exactly is Warlock? Let’s find out!

Far away on the planet Kvch, there is a techno-organic species, the Technarch. The shapeshifting species survives by feeding off the life force of others and the young must fight their parent to the death for the right to survive. That is, until a mutation occured in one Technarch named Warlock, he felt sympathy and empathy, a mutation that made him realize he had no desire to kill his father, the Magus. Fleeing from Kvch, Warlock found his way to Earth, specifically the X-Mansion where he’d sensed exotic technology in Shi’ar alien technology.

Warlock would be found by the mutant Cypher, Doug Ramsey, of the New Mutants team, his ability being able to speak and understand any language allowing g the two to communicate. The New Mutants would take Warlock in and soon he was adventuring with them and they’d even help defend him when his father would come around, ready to battle as was tradition. Doug and Warlock would become very good friends to the point where Warlock would transform into a suit of armor for Doug to keep him safe on several occasions.

His friendship with Doug would become that of a best friend which made what happen next all the worse. Witnessing the death of his friend Doug to a gunshot, Warlock would struggle to understand what death meant and the loss of his friend. Thinking that zombies were the norm after watching Night of the Living Dead with his teammates, Warlock would attempt to use zombification on Doug’s remains until his friends could help him cope and put him back.

While fighting an enemy on the mutant colony of Genosha, Warlock would be killed in a villain’s pursuit to making cyborgs himself. Reduced to ash, his friends would place his ashes on the grave of Doug Ramsey. Warlock’s death didn’t last long but his return to life wasn’t so quick either. The man who killed Warlock had developed a techno-organic virus based off what he’d taken form Warlock to create the Phalanx, a dangerous new species. This would attempt to infect what remained of Warlock but instead fused him with Doug, forming Douglock, a Warlock body with Doug’s memories.

Continue to adventure with friends from the New Mutants and even beginning to have feelings for Wolfsbane, teammate and former partner to Doug, Douglock spent time understanding who he really was. Eventually it was to be that Doug’s memories were just implants to help Warlock’s own memories recover until he was finally Warlock again. Soon, he’d meet a young girl with the ability to spread the techno-organic virus but remain uninfected herself, Warlock decided he’d try and help her find a cure. Hope would help him rewrite his won biocode so they could then infect his father with it so he’d cease chasing his son down.

Now freed from his family tradition, Warlock would return to Kvch and help another child, Tyro deal with a similar set up. Here, he’d also meet the only Nova Corps member alive at the time, Richard Ryder who would ask Warlock to assist him in fighting off the Phalanx, which had expanded to be an intergalactic threat. It would take sacrificing his own life and Tyro working with Richard Ryder to take on Tyro’s father to save Ryder’s life from Phalanx sickness and able to resurrect Warlock. Revived and seeing that Tyro no longer needed his help, the two would join Ryder in fighting the Phalanx and proving vital in stopping them.

Returning to Earth, Warlock would find Doug’s grave to be empty because he had been revived and mind-controlled by an enemy. The reunited New Mutants would fight to get Doug back and free him of being controled, wholly alive once more. His excitement for the return of his friend would be cut short by the sensation he felt when he fed life force from a person and killed them for it. He found the experience traumatic and took a while to recover.

There you have it! Warlock is visually one of the more interesting mutants to exist. His speech pattern is even unique as a character in general. A New Mutants movie is in the works so hopefully we’ll see Warlock come to techno-organic life on the big screen. See you next time!

Suggested Reading
New Mutants #18
Warlock
New Mutants
Nova

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net