Somewhere on an unidentified planetoid, a young woman dressed in short-cosmonaut, with 3 chasing after him. She collapsed at the foot of Adam Warlock that grants him protection. Unfortunately one of the minions managed to shoot him. Warlock soul absorbs and learns that she wanted to ask him for help to fight against an entity at the head of an omnipotent and colonial church: the Magus and the Universal Church of Truth. Warlock swears to avenge her and begins to attack a vessel (commanded by General Autolycus) of the church carrying a cargo of creatures with consciousness, considered ungodly and unproductive by the church. This clash is the first of a series of events that lead him to the Magus. Once the issue of set Magus, episode 12 Warlock is devoted to an adventure of Pip the Troll. The episodes 13 and 14 put Adam Warlock facing the thief star (Star thief). Episode 15 allows Warlock to learn more about his jewel of the soul (Soul gem). The two annual issues tell his clash against Thanos, with the help of Avengers and Spider-Man.
The stories included in this volume can be divided into 3 parts. The first part (the longer, the "Strange Tales" 178 to "Warlock" 11, 7 episodes) is entirely devoted to the fate of Adam Warlock. Jim Starlin attaches to the character, his mindset, his questions (he himself said at one point that his destiny is to always ask questions and never get an answer) and become extraordinary.
The first discovery of these episodes immerses the reader in a narrative style now forgotten, perhaps exceeded. For the creators of the time, each comic had to be an opera on paper. There was no limit on the budget: Starlin took the opportunity for a science fiction environment, spaceships, special effects, hundreds of extras, etc. It uses a narrative style common at the time: a mode of expression borrowed from the theater, with a strong romantic impulse. As the opening scene with the beautiful young woman collapsing in front of the hero lost in melancholy thoughts is an archetypal adventure novel, the comic type "Flash Gordon" illustrated by Alex Raymond. Adam Warlock is very talkative, he began hearty soliloquies, exposing his mindset, his angst, his malaise, either aloud or in thought bubbles. This is both an explanatory exposure mode (with summary of the previous episode mandatory before each episode, Captain Marvel intervening time from 3 pages to explain that Thanos is by speaking directly to the reader ), but also a form of introspection written enough (as opposed to spoken language). Warlock (and others) is expressed in a bombastic phrasing tinged with romantic impulse, in Shakespearean postures. This is both the model imposed by Stan Lee, but also (for those episodes) a real vector of philosophical questions. Starlin has enough intellectual equipment for these theatrics and these emphatic postures exceed a ridiculous form of communication, and become a reflection of the transport of the soul of the character, of his torment.
It takes a little time to get used to the full form of emphasis, highly codified, at the opposite of naturalism. Adam Warlock is the product of a genetic experiment, dressed in a superhero costume (without mask), traveling from planet to planet, alongside the strange alien morphologies, who played the role of messiah (with resurrection) on Earth alternative (Counter-Earth), and having discovered that in the future it will become the god of totalitarian and expansionist religion. The actor direction Starlin disconcerting as regularly as Adam Warlock often poses, in postures borrowed from ballet dancers or disco dancers.
Under these artificial outside, Jim Starlin invites the reader into a story out of the ordinary, and on a journey of discovery existential based on sound philosophical precepts. Adam Warlock is facing what he wants to become, as he refuses to become what others want it to become. Faced with prisoners on the ship, he refuses to be their leader, telling them a parable. Faced with an unfair trial, he refused to be silent. Facing the enemy, he refuses to slay. Facing the inevitable fate, he refuses to bend. Adam Warlock is the refusal to comply. This attitude reached its peak in Episode 181 of "Strange Tales". While Warlock undergoes brainwashing through a virtual reality, it distorts the visuals to show his indoctrinators as clowns. It distorts their explanations reducing them to "Like this!". It shows that the lesson donors incentives for people to build mountains of waste that always end up collapsing, and he shows them that the cause of their failure is the presence of diamonds in the trash. There remains still some awkwardness scenario, as Pip Warlock accompanying the church mother planet when he knows that the trolls are slaughtered on site.
The following 4 episodes are less intense, one serving humorous break featuring Pip (with a comic flavor very relative), the following 2 trying to find an opponent up to Warlock and the last made of odds and pitcher to advance various subplots, starting with the true nature of the Jewel of the soul, for which Starlin was inspired by the relationship between Schakal (1961) and his sword Stormbringer. The appearance of Lord Chaos and Master Order in the annual issue of "Marvel two-in-one" also discusses the dichotomy between Order and Chaos exists in the cycle of the Eternal Champion.
The annual numbers are abandoning the philosophical aspect to focus on plot and a satisfactory resolution to the machinations of Thanos. For obvious reasons of visibility (= to attract more readers), Spider-Man Starlin embroiled in these cosmic adventures. Peter Parker feels so foreign to these clashes that prefer to flee rather than fight Thanos (understandably).
Despite the largest share devoted to action and intrigue, Starlin continues to slide some philosophical notions, starting with an original illustration (you can not go home) of the maxim of Heraclitus "if we do bathes never twice in the same river ", or some idea of the state of serenity.
From a graphical perspective, Starlin uses a fairly detailed approach of his drawings, while being strongly influenced by the graphic conventions of superhero comics, starting with the postures to Jack Kirby (but instead of pulling towards abstraction, he prefers figurative). Over the episodes, he has less time to do everything, Steve Leialoha (and Joe Rubinstein for annual 2) coming into support for first inked and then to refine the designs (or embellish). In the first 3 episodes, it loads the scenario, drawings, inking and color layout. By paying attention to it, the reader finds that Starlin experiences from time to time with the layout and with the backgrounds. So page 38, Adam Warlock moves stealthily in the corridors of a spacecraft to neutralize one by one armed guards, in 17 boxes. Page 54, the reader observes that Starlin transformed the building facades in an abstract composition of diamonds on black background, while Warlock steals them. Page 67, he thanked Steve Ditko for his supernatural landscapes Doctor Strange. In the annual, it depicts the Avengers in battle array, as a real strike force) facing hordes of belligerent aliens.
Beyond these qualities, these episodes are memorable decades later for 2 staggering passages. In the Annual Avengers, Starlin holds the promise to the reader, taking verbatim dialogue Warlock Episode 11 of "Warlock", realizing that prophecy in all its horror. In Episode 181 of "Strange Tales" (already mentioned above), Starlin pay the luxury to ridicule Stan Lee (the character called Lenstea, transparent anagram) and John Romita senior (who painted a red nose Warlock) . Then Len Wain and Marv Wolfman to each take a cream pie to have compromised their artistic integrity by accessing the editorial pressure (Marvel) and discovers that the Warlock editorial managers are building towers of garbage creators (industrial comics worthless) by complaining that he sometimes finds a diamond (a true artistic success). All this in a Marvel comics, validated by Len Wein, the editorial manager.
Indeed, these episodes have a narrative that may put a contemporary reader. However, Starlin offers a cosmic adventure, the first part matches an honest existential journey, and the second to a major plot that allows Thanos taking any scope.
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