Superhero Media: Warlock by Jim Starlin

In case you're new around here, I love Marvel Comics' Cosmic elements and characters. Although I do enjoy the newer versions of say, The Guardians of the Galaxy, my real faves are all from the 1970s and almost all written by Jim Starlin. Now, I'm not saying that Starlin was on a lot of drugs or anything, but comics like Warlock really do seem to have been written whilst under the influence of a great deal of drugs. For those who don't know, Adam Warlock was created by a science wizard to be the messiah of Counter-Earth, where he died to save a race of animal-people from Dog-Hitler and was later reborn when Starlin needed a new project. Thankfully, all that Counter-Earth nonsense is background to the story being told in this run, but it's still pretty crazy in the best ways, as classic comics tend to be. So strap yourself in for time travel, space gods, New-Age spiritualism, evil churches and buckets of "WTF". This is Adam Warlock, the best Marvel Comic you've never read.

Ok, maybe that's overselling it, but Warlock is really nothing like almost anything you would have ever read. Almost as dense in philosophy as it is in Space Opera, Warlock is has little to do with the rest of the Marvel universe at first glance, with his foes being the Magus and the Star Thief, one can forget that these comics also mark the first appearance of Gamora and form an important moment for The Avengers, with their second encounter with Thanos. The style of Starlin's writing and art can be jarring for those who have only read newer comics, with huge, sprawling walls of text punctuated with psychedelic artwork and splash-pages worthy of Jack Kirby. As Adam Warlock flies through space, the endless void is a beautiful cascade of stars, planets, nebulae and spacecraft so fanciful, they belong on a Prog Rock album cover. In the cold light of the 21st Century, the philosophy and ethics of Warlock can seem backwards and lacking intersectionality, but a lot of this was pretty out-there stuff to have in a Superhero comic back in the 1970s.

What may actually be one of the most amazing facts about the Warlock series is just how relevant it remains fifty-odd years later. The Infinity Gems, Gamora and Thanos are pretty obvious, but it's shocking how often The Universal Church of Truth, The Magus and even Kray-Tor show up or are at least referenced in current Marvel titles. Starlin remains a controversial figure in comics history, though for my money, usually seemed to be doing what he thought was right in his dealings with Marvel and Image, Warlock is an astounding legacy for any creator to have at a major publisher, and that doesn't even factor in his work on other books, Captain Marvel especially. I've been talking with one of my regular gaming groups lately about getting into some Science Fiction skirmish wargames in our own setting, and I've leapt back into my Jim Starlin to get some inspiration. As much as I love my "Hard" Sci-Fi, there is a part of me that wants some out-there fantasy in my space empire, or whatever I choose to go with. If you want to read something different, but still oddly relevant to the rest of the Marvel Universe, Warlock is hard to beat.