|
|
 |
The second volume of Warlock and it really highlights Starlin’s run on the character. Warlock started out as Him in the Fantastic Four before Roy Thomas worked on the character in Marvel Premiere and then his own solo title. Warlock as the messiah character was an interesting idea and he was off on his own Counter World so he wasn’t really involved in the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, Warlock didn’t sell well and the story wouldn’t be finished in his own title but in the pages of Incredible Hulk. The conclusion came in #178 (Aug. 1974). So Starlin came by and had a great run on Captain Marvel. He was given Warlock to work with and started his legendary run with the character in the pages of Strange Tales (starting with #178 in February of 1975) before moving onto Warlock’s solo title (and resuming the original numbering) That too would end prematurely and the story that Starlin wanted to complete wouldn’t come until a few months later in other titles’ annuals.
Jon B. Cooke, who worked on these stories with writer/artist Jim Starlin penned the introduction which just discusses the history of Warlock, how Starlin came to write him, and some cool insights into the creation of these issues. Starlin did all of the writing and art, though many times he would do rough pencils and others would have to finish, including Steve Leialoha and Josef Rubinstein.
Spoilers Ahead
-Strange Tales #178- Strange Tales was a weird title in the 70’s. It started in the Atlas Era but by the dawn of the Marvel Age of comics started as the Human Torch’s solo book. Soon he shared the book with newcomer Dr. Strange. Torch left the title after 35 issues so that Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD could now share the book with Strange with issue #135. Strange would stay in the book until #168 when he then broke off into a solo title. From there Strange Tales was used to showcase new characters (like Brother Voodoo) for a few issues before going to some old reprints from the pre-heroes age before granting Warlock a run of a few issues before giving way to Dr. Strange stories and then getting cancelled in November of 1976. So since Warlock hadn’t been seen for a while we’re treated to a very succinct (and well done) origin of the character taking him through Roy Thomas’ run. This issue sets ups right away the Universal Church story and how they kill non-believers and unwanteds. It’s interesting to see some of the coloring here especially when Warlock gets angry and uses the soul-gem. He looks purple with white hair, like Magus would look. Magus is mentioned as the leader of this church. Warlock has his mission; he’s going to stop Magus.
-Strange Tales #179- Eagle-eyed readers will not the Cosmic Code label at the top. Warlock is off to find the Universal Church but they find him first and capture him. Warlock meets all the prisoners who are to be executed because they aren’t in the image of Magus. Warlock refuses to lead the prisoners (everyone is free) but he does free them by killing Autolycus, the knight on the ship. Warlock is starting to fall under the spell of the soul-gem. We meet Pip the Troll for the first time.
-Strange Tales #180- Warlock (in a new costume) and Pip show up on Homeworld to find Magus. Warlock breaks off on his own and is captured (again) and put on trial. The trial is a complete sham (of course) and even though Warlock fights back he is sent into the reconditioning system. Pip goes to look for Warlock but finds Gamora, the deadliest woman in the universe. Jim Starlin must’ve had fun this issue since the story is written by Sam Jiltern, the inks were by JL Minrats and the colors done by Ms Natjiril. All of those are anagrams of his name.
-Strange Tales #181- This is a very interesting issue. It’s dedicated to Steve Ditko and is very influenced by his trippy Dr. Strange stories. Warlock gets sent to the land of 1,000 clowns so that he can be brainwashed into believing the Church’s nonsense. If that’s not crazy enough, the clowns are called Lenteans (close to an anagram of Stan Lee), there is a crazy painter named Jan Hatroomi (John Romita) and the strings are being pulled by aliens with a striking resemblance to Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. Furthermore, the one dissenting clown looks uncannily like Roy Thomas. As the intro notes, only Roy went to Starlin to voice displeasure with being in the issue even though he was the only one shown in a positive light. Anyway, Warlock breaks the cycle of craziness before meeting Magus at the end of the issue. Looks like a big cliffhanger! Unfortunately, fans had to wait from August, when this came out, until October when Warlock was granted another shot at a solo series that happened to keep the same numbering as when the first one ended.
-Warlock #9- This issue revealed that Magus is actually Warlock’s future self and everything that had been going on was done by Magus in some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy to create Magus. He tells him he will blast him with some radioactive tracking system that will bring the In-Betweener to him. The In-Betweener will bring Warlock into some sort of in-between dimension where his mind is twisted and perverted and Magus is created. Gamora tries to stop this but fails and this brings out Thanos by the end of the issue.
-Warlock #10- Magus sends 25,000 troops to take care of Thanos, Gamora, Pip and Warlock, but the four of them fight through it and escape. There’s a nice intermission here that tells of the origin of Thanos (as narrated by Capt. Marvel) before we begin the second act. Warlock knows what he has to do to stop Magus from being created, he must destroy his own soul.
-Warlock #11- This is the big finale of the Magus arc. Magus shows up on Thanos’ ship Magus and Thanos have an all-out battle as Warlock disappears to another dimension to kill his soul and avoid the In-Betweener. Well, the In-Betweener comes and gives Warlock an extra five minutes. In that time he is able to destroy his soul and stop Magus from being created. Thanos celebrates his victory and promises to one day destroy all. This was a really wild ending to the epic that Starlin had started and even though it may take a couple of read-throughs to get it; it is worth it.
-Warlock #12- This is an issue that focuses on Pip and Pip rescuing a woman enslaved by, well, for lack of a better word, a pimp. The little we see of Adam Warlock is his becoming aware of a cosmic threat.
-Warlock #13- We meet our cosmic threat, The Star-Thief! The Star-Thief is really just a comatose man born without his five senses. He reached another level of being and is using his powers to exterminate the stars to freak out humanity before ending them. Warlock heads off to stop the Star-Thief but not before the Star-Thief finds him and sends some rock creatures after him. Warlock defeats them and heads on his way to Earth.
-Warlock #14- Warlock is still on his way when he must defeat enemies stemming from wind, fire, and water. Warlock takes a black hole to the Earth but his adventures out in deep space has accelerated the atoms in his body and he’s actually bigger than the Earth! He can’t even help them! Luckily one of the men that the Star-Thief enslaves broke free of his will and killed him. Talk about dues ex machina.
-Warlock #15- So Warlock is now without a home and he flies off in a huff. He stops some space-repo-aliens and gets some advice from some other alien shrink. Warlock flies off into space. I don’t know if another issue was supposed to be after this but Pip was on his own and Gamora was attacked by Drax so there were threads that were left open.
-Marvel Team-Up #55- After the end of Warlock in November of 1976 he appeared in this issue of Marvel Team-Up in March 1977. This was the only issue not written by Jim Starlin. This was done by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne instead. This starts with Spidey getting shot into space, Warlock finding him (and shrinking down very quickly) and the two teaming up to stop the Stranger from stealing Warlock’s soul gem. He wasn’t even after Warlock’s gem but the one that the Gardener held. The Gardener eventually intervenes and staves off the Stranger.
-Avengers Annual #7- Both of these next two annuals were from 1977, but I don’t know how soon after Marvel Team-Up these took place. Warlock finds Gamora dying and learns from her that Thanos plans to snuff out Earth. The Avengers feel that something is amiss and all join together. Soon Warlock shows up and tells them that something with Thanos is going down. It seems that Thanos has all the gems (including a copy of Warlock’s soul gem) and is using this to destroy stars. Earth’s star is next. The Avengers learn of a massive invasion and they head to space to stop it but it was all a ruse by Thanos to allow the Avengers to not be where he is so he can destroy the star. Pip falls victim to Thanos and when Warlock takes on his soul he learns of Thanos’ true plans. He and Capt. Marvel head to take on Thanos and with the help of Thor and Iron Man they are able to stop Thanos. Then in a great moment we see the exact time when Warlock went into the future to kill himself, something referenced in the Magus storyline. Warlock finds himself inside the soul gem with all the souls that it has already taken, including Pip and Gamora.
-Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2- Thanos may have lost one battle but the war is not over. He captures all the Avengers and only a telepathic SOS to Spider-Man gives the Earth any chance. Spidey gets the Thing and they head into space and find Thanos is about to destroy the sun. Spidey manages to free the Avengers and we have some huge epic fights. Thanos fights on and only Spider-Man freeing the soul gem and Warlock literally coming out of the flames to imprison Thanos in stone for all eternity. Warlock can now live out his life in the soul gem with his friends.
-The Bottom Line- I didn’t know how into these stories I’d be because I thought the first volume was okay but not great. I was really surprised with how great a story that Jim Starlin told. He really took Warlock and made him his own. The whole Magus storyline led to the Thanos storyline and despite a few puzzling things (especially in #15 with some loose ends) this was all great. It’s always amazing to see a creator like Starlin just meshing with a character and writing definitive stories. I liken it to Stan and Jack on the Fantastic Four or Frank Miller on Daredevil. This is character-defining material and for readers of Warlock in the Infinity Gauntlet and even in today’s Guardians of the Galaxy will totally dig this. If you throw in the extra of the lost Warlock #16 in pencil form and a whole bunch of other great penciled drawings, covers, and other things and you have just an impressive collection. Highly Recommended.
|
|
|
|
|
Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
|
|
|
|