Tuesday, January 8, 2008

1970's Flashback: Warlock





Adam Warlock originally appeared in the two part Fantastic Four #66-67 (1967) as Him; an artificially created being produced by the scientific trio known as The Enclave. Him subsequently appeared as an adversary in Thor #165-166 before he was totally revamped as an allegorical Messiah figure by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane in Marvel Premiere #1 (April 1972).


This version featured Warlock on the genetically engineered planet Counter-Earth (located on the far side of the sun) for two issues before spinning off into its own title, The Power of Warlock, which ran through issue #8 (Aug. 1972 - Oct. 1973). After yet another quest appearance, this time in The Incredible Hulk # 177-178, Warlock received another reprieve under writer-artist Jim Starlin. In the critically acclaimed storyline "The Magus Saga",which began in Strange Tales #178-181 (Feb.-Aug. 1975) and continued into the revived Warlock series for issues #9-15 (Oct. 1975 - Nov. 1976), Starlin wrote, penciled (eventually co-penciling with Steve Leialoha, and initially self-inked an epic arc involving Warlock in war with a corrupt, religious space empire, his demagogue future self, and the cosmic super villain Thanos.

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