As regular readers of this blog may recall, I was never a regular buyer of The Incredible Hulk, back in the day. While I always enjoyed the character when he appeared as a guest star, or in a team setting à la the Defenders, for whatever reason his Jekyll & Hyde-cum-Frankenstein premise never had much appeal to me as the basis for a lead character. Or maybe I simply preferred my superheroes to have a little more going on upstairs. In any case, after dipping my toe in the water one time back in 1969, I had since refrained from picking up Hulk except on those occasions when it crossed over with another series I was currently buying, or when it tied up leftover plotlines from a canceled series I had been buying.
My purchasing of Hulk #176-178 in the spring of 1974 fell into the latter category. I had been a faithful reader of the adventures of Adam Warlock ever since Roy Thomas and Gil Kane had reinvented the Stan 
Lee-Jack 
Kirby creation formerly known as Him in Marvel Premiere #1 (Apr., 1972), following the character into a second tryout issue of MP and then through eight issues of his own title. I’d seen the feature evolve from a very obvious Christian allegory told in superhero-genre terms to a series that seemed more interested in playing with the “parallel world” possibilities of its Counter-Earth setting, with alternate versions of Marvel Comics mainstays like Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic dominating the plotlines, before veering back towards more overt religious symbolism in its latter episodes. The eighth and final issue of Warlock had ended on a cliffhanger, as the messianic hero found himself captured by the series’ Satan figure, the Man-Beast — who had been thought destroyed at the end of Warlock #2, but had actually been hiding in plain sight for months in the guise of the President of the United States, Rex Carpenter.
The final caption of Warlock #8 — which came out in July, 1973 — had promised that its incomplete storyline would be concluded “sometime, somewhere in the Marvel Universe, true believers”; and so, I’d been keeping a lookout ever since, scanning Marvel’s house ads as well as the monthly Mighty Marvel Checklists for any sign of Adam Warlock’s return. I honestly would have picked up the wrap-up of the story wherever Marvel decided to run it, from my perspective, Hulk was simply as good a place as any other. As it happened, however, Hulk was in fact the most logical place to continue and conclude the Warlock saga, as ol’ Greenskin had the distinction of having actually been to Counter-Earth on a previous occasion — something that couldn’t be said for any of Marvel’s other headliners.
That occasion had come over a year and a half earlier with Hulk #158 (Dec., 1972), in the pages of which not only the Hulk, but the villainous Rhino, found themselves accidentally marooned on Counter-Earth — which, if you’re coming in late (or have just plain forgotten), is a planet artificially created by the very powerful entity known as the High Evolutionary, that duplicates the “main” Marvel Earth in virtually every way save for its lack of super-people, and that orbits the sun on a trajectory that keeps it ever out of sight of the OG Earth. After some misadventures involving the Counter-Earth versions of the Hulk’s alter ego, Bruce Banner, and several of his friends and acquaintances, the Hulk and Rhino were ultimately able to return home by way of the same wayward spaceship (a craft that belonged to Hulk arch-foe the Leader, I should add) that had brought them there in the first place.
I hadn’t actually bought this comic in 1972 — I suspect that I flipped through it, saw that Warlock only appeared in a couple of panels (and never met the Hulk at all), and put it back on the rack — but I knew it existed, and so, I wasn’t all that surprised when Marvel opted to have the Hulk return to Counter-Earth as a means of finishing off Warlock’s story. Still, how were they going to get him there? His first visit had been, shall we say, unplanned, and though the big green guy was renowned for his tremendous leaps, that ability wasn’t going to be able to get him clear to the other side of the sun all by itself.
Marvel’s solution to this problem, revealed in Hulk #175 (May, 1974), involved the Inhumans. It seemed that Black Bolt and company had managed to discover the existence of Counter-Earth (a pretty neat trick, considering that the High Evolutionary had supposedly placed his science-fair project a micro-second out of sync with the rest of the Marvel Universe, just so that that sort of thing couldn’t happen) and had gone so far as to build a “space ark” for the purpose of relocating their entire society there, should an exploratory mission prove it to be a more hospitable homeland for them. Naturally, that’s when the Hulk blundered his way into the Inhumans’ Great Refuge, eventually raising such a ruckus that the royal family of Attilan has no choice but to shove the big brute onto their space ark and shoot him off into space. Oh, well… as Triton notes near the story’s end, they can always build another ark, right?
This brings us to Hulk #176 (Jun, 1974), which features a story scripted by Gerry Conway, pencilled by Herb Trimpe, inked by Jack Abel, and “conceived and edited by Roy Thomas” — the latter being the person who’d come up with the “Jesus Christ Superhero” take on Lee and Kirby’s Him in the first place — called “Crisis on Counter-Earth!” (a title which playfully evokes the annual summer get-togethers of the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America over at rival DC Comics). The tale opens, naturally enough, with the Hulk’s several-days-long voyage to Counter-Earth; by the time he’s splashed down in one of that world’s oceans, he’s not only lost consciousness, but has reverted to his human form of Bruce Banner. Banner awakes to find himself in U.S. military custody, facing interrogation in regards to someone his questioner calls “the greatest menace this world has ever seen!”
While the High Evolutionary’s “New Men”, as a group, date back to HE’s introduction in Thor #134-135 (Nov. and Dec., 1966), this particular assemblage — with the exception of Man-Beast, of course — are making their first appearance here. Although their names aren’t immediately given in Conway’s script, later dialogue will identify them as (from left to right in the panel above) Snakar, Weezhil, Barachuudar, and Cobrah. (For the record, there was an earlier villainous New Man named Kohbra who appeared in several Warlock stories [as well as in Hulk #158], but he looked completely different, so we’re going to assume he’s not supposed to be the same guy.)
And now we see why our storytellers have gone to the trouble to invent four brand-new high-ranking New Men for these last three chapters of the Warlock story arc; it’s because quite a lot has gone down regarding the “real world” White House in the eight months since Warlock #8 was published, and the time is ripe — overripe, even — to add a touch of political commentary to our already established religious allegory, via the introduction of stand-ins for four high-ranking members of President Richard M. Nixon’s administration.
Unfortunately, whether due to Herb Trimpe’s limitations as a portraitist/caricaturist, or Jack Abel’s, or both, the identification of these real-life figures isn’t quite as easy as one might hope. But the guy on the far left in the last panel above (aka the human guise of Cobrah) is definitely H.R. Haldeman, who resigned his position as White House Chief of Staff on April 30, 1973; and the one on the far right (Weezhil) is surely John Ehrlichman, who resigned his position as White House Domestic Affairs Advisor on the very same day. As for the man to Cobrah’s immediate right (Snakar), my money’s on John Dean, the White House Counsel fired by Nixon on 4/30/1973… though I don’t think we can completely discount the possibility that he’s supposed to be Charles Colson, Nixon’s former Director of the Office of Public Liaison (he resigned in March, 1973), especially if we ignore the blond hair coloring he’s been given.
The man in the foreground — Barachuudar — is the hardest one to match to a Nixon White House figure, due both to the aforementioned limitations of Trimpe and Abel’s rendering, and to the fact that there are several possible candidates. My first thought was Melvin Laird, who served as Secretary of Defense from Jan., 1969 to Jan., 1973, and as White House Domestic Affairs Advisor from May, 1973 to Jan., 1974, despite his time in public office being unmarred by scandal (though his role in prosecuting the Vietnam War still might have qualified him as a “villain” to someone at Marvel), mainly because Barachuudar will identify himself as the Secretary of Defense a couple of pages further on. But other than being bald, Laird’s not a good physical match for our finny friend. Another, and probably stronger, possibility is John N. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General from 1969 to 1972 and afterwards the director of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (aka “CREEP”). But, in the end, I’m going to go with former Vice-President Spiro Agnew, who, though not being attached to the Watergate scandal specifically, did resign in October, 1973 under a cloud of suspicion for acts of corruption during his career in Maryland politics, and who would have been the best known of these three candidates back in March, 1974.
Before moving on, I think it’s worth noting that the three “Warlock” issues of Hulk arrived on stands concurrently with the final chapters of the “Secret Empire” saga in Captain America — a story that, somewhat ironically, is much better remembered for its Watergate allusions than is our present narrative, despite the fact that not a single caricature of an actual Watergate figure appears anywhere in it. (The closest would be a “name-alike” for H.R. Haldeman, i.e., corrupt ad executive Quentin Harderman.) But as 
Captain America writer Steve Englehart explained in the letters column of CA #173 (published one month before Hulk #176, incidentally), he’d first been inspired to write about his star-spangled hero “being attacked by certain unscrupulous politicians” way back in December, 1972, before Watergate was on many Americans’ radar; and Marvel had decided that the bad guys in his story — the ones operating openly, anyway — should be “advertising men” instead. By the time he wrote his lettercol piece, Englehart had decided to finish up his storyline a few issues earlier than initially planned, “in order to move on to other, un-co-opted ideas.” Your humble blogger has previously taken that to mean that Englehart’s plotting had been “co-opted” by reality; but it seems to me now that it’s at least possible that he had in mind this very story (which could well have been in the works when he wrote the CA #173 text piece); or, if not it, then potential stories very much like it.
Landing upon the National Mall, Hulk has a brief set-to with the guards stationed at the Washington Monument, leading him to seek seclusion by smashing an opening in that structure’s base and then ascending (by self-made hand-holds, rather than the stairs) to the observation floor. Naturally, he’s not left there alone for long. The “heli-jet” carrying Barachuudar and company soon arrives on the scene, and then…
The four New Men attempt to jump Hulk all at once. Interestingly, he’s able to see through their human disguises — and he remembers meeting men like the once before…
The Recorder — who was first introduced in Thor #132 (coincidentally just a couple of issues before the High Evolutionary, Man-Beast, et al, made their debuts) — was a late addition to the Warlock storyline, not showing up until the sixth page of the final issue, and not actually encountering that series’ eponymous hero until, well, now. The blue-and-white look he sports here will be very short-lived, as we’ll see him revert to his more familiar green-and-orange color scheme in the very next episode.
Speaking of which: published on April 2, 1974, and produced by the same creative team of Conway, Trimpe, and Abel (Roy Thomas only gets a credit as editor for this one, but he surely must have had at least some input into its plotting), Hulk #177, begins as the Man-Wolf’s four aides haul the unconscious Bruce Banner into the White House. The Man-Beast is in a peevish mood, having just been informed of Adam Warlock’s escape, but he figures he’s still well positioned to come out on top; since, if he can’t break Warlock and subvert him to his will, he can at least utterly destroy him — and this “Hulk” creature will give him the means to do just that. He descends into a sub-level of the White House described as previously being “reserved for meetings of the Chiefs of Staff”, but which has almost certainly had some major renovations done since the last Chief Executive was in residence…
Yeah, this is what happens when you start experimenting on gamma-irradiated rage monsters before reading the manual. Neither the Man-Beast nor any of the other New Men are able to subdue the Hulk, who quickly makes his own exit by smashing a big hole in the floor…
The two folks we meet here, Ben Vincent and June Volper, are brand new characters who hadn’t appeared in a Warlock story before now (and wouldn’t be seen again in any Marvel comic following the completion of this storyline, as best as I’ve been able to determine). Minor as they both are in the greater scheme of things, one might yet wonder if their names and appearances had been devised completely at random… and, indeed, just a couple of months hence, a correspondent named Derek L. Haden would opine in the letters column of Hulk #181 that “Ben Vincent” was based on actor Vince Edwards‘ television portrayal of Dr. Ben Casey. Hey, that works for me. But Mr. Haden didn’t offer a similar guess for “Jane Volper”, and your humble blogger has no ideas on that score, either. Anyone else want to take a shot?
But to return to our story… under a pretext of needing to confer with the President about “judicial affairs“, Ben and June attempt to see Pres. Carpenter at the White House; however, they’re rebuffed at the gate with the excuse that he’s away at Camp David. Yeah, right. The two young public servants retreat to consider their next move…
This is actually a pretty interesting page, as Adam Warlock’s argument that it may be necessary to use deadly force to conquer evil finds its foil in the simple-minded Hulk’s aversion to guns. (For the record, Jesus of Nazareth is not traditionally seen as being an advocate of violent revolution; even so, some might point to such scriptural passages as Matthew 10:34 or Luke 22:36 as indicating that Jesus’ position regarding violence wasn’t quite as clear-cut as his familiar injunction to “turn the other cheek” might suggest.) Of course, despite Warlock’s claim that “there are no simple answers”, in the end, he and his green-skinned companion reach the accord one can’t help but expect when reading a superhero comic book: “Hulk says fight!”
A Marvel superhero comic’s take on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper? Yeah, we’ve been here before — and not all that long ago, either. But while Jim Starlin’s homage in Captain Marvel #31 (Mar., 1971) was probably meant as nothing more than a bit of slightly irreverent fun, Trimpe’s tableau is clearly intended to be taken as literally as possible, allegorically speaking — even if he only manages to get six figures into a composition that’s meant to fit thirteen. (Such simplification makes it somewhat difficult to match Warlock’s “disciples” to their painted equivalents, but it does appear that Hulk is sitting more or less where Judas Iscariot does in Leonardo’s work, while Porcupinus may be taken as a stand-in for either John or Peter, or both.)
Poor Hulk — cast into the Judas role through no fault of his own.
At first, Warlock asks his New Men to use restraint in subduing their suborned comrade, but when Hulk threatens to squash them all like bugs — and it’s clear that he means it — Adam must himself enter the fray (and, in doing so, sort-of justify this issue’s cover’s scene of confrontation, if not its dialogue blurb)…
Well, I think we can all see where this is going (even if you haven’t yet taken a good look at Herb Trimpe and John Romita’s cover for Hulk #178)…
It’s kind of odd — and perhaps a little inconsistent — that Barachuudar and his chums can make themselves pass for human via some undefined illusion-casting tech, while their boss has to discorpoate himself and take over the body of Rex Carpenter to impersonate him. On the other hand, the nature of Man-Beast’s possession of Carpenter had been clearly established in Warlock #8, so…
The parallel between this scene and the one in the Gospels where Pontius Pilate asks the crowd to decide the fate of Jesus is too obvious to need explanation; still, I feel obliged to point out that Conway’s script cuts these contemporary citizens a major break that their New Testament equivalents don’t get by establishing that Man-Beast has “hypnotized them”, thus absolving them from any actual culpability for Warlock’s fate.
Again, I’m sure I don’t need to spell out the parallel between Adam Warlock’s dialogue in the last panel above and the similar words said by Jesus on the Cross (which were themselves quoted from Jewish scripture). But Adam’s plea does raise an interesting question: just where is the High Evolutionary in all of this? While his previous appearances have made it clear he considers Counter-Earth a failure and would just as soon blow it up as not, he has been keeping tabs on his “son”, per his dispatch of the Recorder; so it really would have made sense to have him show up for at least a couple of panels, even if only to tell Warlock that he was on his own. It’s not hard to imagine a scene evoking Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane serving such a narrative purpose; still, I guess our storytellers couldn’t get every bit of the Passion story in and still have room for the requisite scenes of Hulk smashing things. Priorities!
Anyway, that’s that for the Passion of Adam Warlock. Well, almost. I’m not sure if it’s because Marvel had already prepared a cover for Hulk #178 that promised “in this issue — the Death of Warlock” before they realized the story would actually reach that point by the last page of #177, or if they just thought it made for a better opening scene; but #178’s “Triumph on Terra-Two!” starts off with a reprise of the last episode’s finale — i.e., Adam Warlock’s state execution:
We’ll take a moment’s pause here to note that, per the opening page’s credits box, Gerry Conway’s role in the proceedings has been reduced somewhat, as he’s only plotted this final chapter of the three-part storyline, with the actual scripting being done by Tony Isabella. Meanwhile, Roy Thomas’ “story conceived” credit has reappeared, and Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel soldier on as they have for the two previous issues.
The Man-Beast tells his aides not to worry about pursuing the Hulk; their killing machine’s readings indicate that Warlock is most definitely dead, so he’s ready to move on to his next goal: the complete conquest of Counter-Earth. Meanwhile, the Hulk makes landfall in the Virginia countryside, just a few miles out of Washington…
Porcupinus’ dialogue in the last panel above references the passage in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus gives his disciple Simon a new name, Peter, and then states, “On this rock I will build my church.” Your humble blogger finds it a little amusing that Tony Isabella (or whoever) felt that “timber” needed to be substituted for “rock” in Marvel’s allegory, especially considering that most people would consider wood to be a rather inferior material to stone for the purposes of setting a building’s foundation. Sure, we’d seen Adam Warlock die on a literal cross just a few pages earlier, but this was evidently considered to be just a little too much on the nose.*
The Hulk and the New Men bear Adam’s cocoon to a nearby cavern for internment. There, they’re greeted by more of the late hero’s followers…
Warlock’s posse of teenage friends, who originally numbered four (poor Eddie Roberts had met his death at the hands of the evil New Man named Triax in Warlock #4) had debuted in the final panel of Marvel Premiere #1, and had featured prominently in every Warlock story thereafter. When you stop to think about it, it’s more than odd that Jason, Ellie, and Dave been shunted aside up to this point in the present storyline in favor of Porcupinus and his crew, who never appeared even once in Warlock’s own series; seriously, at the very least they should have rated an invite to Adam’s “last supper”. I do realize that they probably weren’t as much fun to draw as the New Men, as well as not being quite as handy in a fight, but still.
“…such subtle symbolism is lost among his followers.” OK, I’ll go with the idea that this splash’s “single shaft of light” could be taken as “subtle”, symbolically speaking… but what about, well, everything else? Since we know that Counter-Earth’s history includes the crucifixion of Jesus, and that Christianity may thus be presumed to exist in the exact same form as on “our” Earth, it’s passing strange that no one in the middle of these events ever stops to muse, “you know, this kinda reminds me of something…”
Early in the morning on the next day, the Man-Beast returns Rex Carpenter’s body to the cell Rex has been sharing with his sister Astrella, saying that he no longer has need of it: “From this day forth, the Man-Beast strikes openly!”
Before we move into our narrative’s final pages, it’s worth noting that Hulk #178 is actually the third Marvel comic released in the month of April, 1974 to feature a climax set at, in, or under 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ve already mentioned Steve Englehart’s “Secret Empire” saga in Captain 
America; that story 
arc’s final installment, in which the Empire’s masked leader, Number One, shot himself dead in what might have been the Oval Office, appeared in CA #175, published on April 9th. Then there was Daredevil #112, featuring the concluding chapter of a complex multi-part storyline by Steve Gerber involving that hero’s struggle against a subversive organization called Black Spectre — a struggle that culminated in a fight scene set at the White House, which Black Spectre’s leader, Mandrill, had taken possession of after threatening to blow up Manhattan with an atomic bomb. That comic — the only one of the three where the shenanigans at the official residence of the POTUS could really be said with certainty not to be an inside job — came out on April 30, the same day as Hulk #178.
As best as I can tell, Marvel’s bringing out these three stories all in the same month was a complete coincidence; that said, all three were obviously informed by the national mood, which was increasingly dominated by public concern over the evident shenanigans at the real-world White House; concerns which wouldn’t really be alleviated for almost another four months, at which time Richard Nixon would resign from the Presidency.
Man-Beast turns the full power of his hate upon the Hulk, but even that’s not enough to stop our emerald protagonist, since “Hulk can hate too!” (Ol’ Greenskin has clearly learned a lot in his brief time as Warlock’s disciple.) So Man-Wolf aims his hate-energy upon the ceiling instead, bringing it crashing down on his foe.
Meanwhile, all of this is making such a ruckus that Ben Casey Vincent and June Volper, standing outside the White House, can hear it. Finding the building completely unguarded, they go inside, and soon come upon Snakar (no longer wearing his human guise). Unseen by him, they overhear him say he’s on his way to fulfill his master’s contingency plan by killing Rex Carpenter…
The poem by Ray Bradbury quoted above is “Christus Apollo”; according to its subtitle, a “cantata celebrating the eighth day of creation and the promise of the ninth”. It was first published in 1969 as part of the author’s collection I Sing the Body Electric, and was set to music by composer Jerry Goldsmith in that same year. If you’re interested, the full text is presently available here.
This made for a pretty tidy ending to our three-issue storyline, as well as to the saga of Adam Warlock — or, at least, it did if you weren’t too concerned about how the heck the Hulk was going to get back home. And, in April, 1974, my sixteen-year-old self really wasn’t. As I’ve already stated, I wasn’t a regular Hulk reader, so I trusted Marvel to do what was needed without my needing to pay attention to it, and skipped picking up the next issue. (As well as the one after that, which featured the first appearance of Wolverine in a last-panel cameo, and also the one after that, which featured… well, you know. “Regrets, I’ve had a few…”) But, just in case you’re more curious now than I was then, be advised that in Hulk #179, the Recorder re-programmed a “lunar-exploration rocket” to take Hulk back to OG Earth, and all was well… or as well as anything ever got in the life of the Hulk back then, anyway.
But to return to Hulk #178… I believe I was fairly well satisfied with how this issue (and the previous two) brought an end to Warlock’s story (at least for the present), despite being largely underwhelmed by the artwork (sorry, Trimpe and/or Abel fans). By and large, that’s still pretty much the case. Yes, the allegorical content — both religious and political** — is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. But, at least as far as the religious symbolism goes, all of that was pretty well baked in to Thomas’ original concept, as presented in the saga’s earliest chapters. If you consider the entire project to be a highly ambitious (if inevitably deeply flawed) attempt to retell the Gospels’ story in a superhero context, as I do, then the wrap-up in Hulk #176-178 is of a piece with the ten installments that preceded it. (I’ve even come to have a bit more appreciation for the artwork, whose simple directness is, in the end, an appropriate complement to the in-your-face bluntless of the plot and script.) Sure, the whole thing’s reach exceeds its grasp by miles, but it’s still fascinating in its own way, even as a failure.
One last matter, before we close: You might figure that the sequence of events presented in these three issues, as Biblically on-the-money as it indisputably was, was one that would never have occurred in the Warlock comic if it had kept selling in high enough numbers to avoid cancellation. But that’s not entirely true. As Roy Thomas writes in his 2006 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — Warlock, Vol. 1:
Actually, this [i.e., Warlock’s death and resurrection] had been part of my original plan for Warlock. I’d intended to have the character cruise through three years’ worth of adventures, then be killed. My idea was that he’d come back to life when his four teenage friends, led by the “Judas” character, Jason, mystically combined to re-create and animate his gold-hued body. From then on, Warlock would be as intertwined with the quartet of youngsters as Rick Jones had been, for a time, with Gil’s and my version of Captain Marvel.
I suppose that one could, if one wanted, see this latter notion as the comic-book superhero genre equivalent of the Holy Spirit descending upon the risen Christ’s disciples to empower them on the Day of Pentecost. Or as Roy Thomas taking a page from Jack Kirby’s 1970-72 series for DC Comics, Forever People. Or both. In any event, this brief synopsis offers us an interesting look at the road not taken.
The road that would be taken in regards to Warlock’s future adventures would be quite a different one. As Thomas goes on to say:
I always intended that Warlock would return soon… but I had no inkling, at that time, that I’d soon put the hero into the capable and talented hands of Jim Starlin. Jim, in turn, would give Adam Warlock yet another rebirth… in another and quite valid direction… and turn Warlock into perhaps the most “cosmic” series in the history of comic books.
It was a new direction, all right — if one that didn’t quite leave the religious angle behind completely. Still, Jim Starlin’s approach to dealing with “church stuff” would prove to be about as far from “Jesus Christ Superhero” as one could imagine… though that’s a topic we’ll need to table for further discussion until a later post, coming some six months from now.
Additional cover art credits, per the Grand Comics Database and Mike’s Amazing World of Comics:
- Marvel Premiere #1 (Apr., 1972) by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins
- Warlock #8 (Oct., 1973) by John Buscema and Frank Giacoia
- Hulk #158 (Dec., 1972) by Herb Trimpe
- Hulk #175 (May, 1974) by Herb Trimpe and John Romita
- Hulk #176 (Jun., 1974) by Herb Trimpe and John Romita
- Captain America #173 (May, 1974) by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia
- Hulk #177 (Jul., 1974) by Herb Trimpe and Frank Giacoia
- Captain America #175 (Jul., 1974) by Sal Buscema and John Romita
- Daredevil #112 (Aug., 1974) by Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, and John Romita
- Hulk #179 (Sep., 1974) by Herb Trimpe and John Romita.
*This is probably as good a place as any to observe that Isabella was (with the notable exception of Archie Comics’ Al Hartley) probably the mainstream comic book creator who was most comfortable in including Christian content in his stories during the 1970s; his ultimately ill-fated attempt to use Jesus Christ (the original one) as an important recurring character in Ghost Rider will be the subject of a future post.
** I should note here that it’s quite likely that most, if not all, of the political stuff went over my head in 1974.
Another excellent overview of this wrap-up of Marvel’s strange adaptation of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Unlike you, I had been regularly collecting the Incredible Hulk, for about a year before this story came out, although I’d missed Hulk’s previous trip to Counter-Earth. Even back then, however, Trimpe’s art often struck me as odd but somewhat appropriate for the Hulk in its primitiveness (but not so much, IMO, on more mainstream superhero titles). Still, seeing these images again 50 years later, so much of Trimpe’s art looks horribly awkward — Trimpe really needed a great inker, like, say, John Severin, to look good.
It was rather amusing, in hindsight, that three ongoing Marvel epics wound down in the same month set at the same real-world setting of the White House, albeit this one on separate planet. At this point, 50 years ago, I only had one issue of Warlock’s series, issue 6 (featuring the Brute), so I wasn’t really aware of how that series had been set up by Roy Thomas for Warlock to play out the Christ story. I suspect that his original long-term plans for Warlock probably wouldn’t have lasted that long in the marketplace, but we’ll never know for sure.
On the other, hand, although Starlin’s take on Warlock didn’t last all that long either, it proved to be a landmark series in comics history (IMO). And it does come to my mind that my poor evaluation of Trimpe’s art is partly due to Starlin’s own stellar depiction of the golden-hued hero being so firmly implanted in my head, despite having seen the earlier versions by Bob Brown and Trimpe, et al. I eventually did get most of the initial run of Warlock, but having read them, haven’t felt particularly compelled to read them or these concluding chapters in the Hulk again. On the other hand, periodically, I do feel inclined to pour over those Jim Starlin issues. But more on those when the time comes.
Back to the story at hand, it does amuse me now how ham-handedly this story was made to more-or-less parallel several of the key events in the life of Christ as detailed in the Gospels. Of course, Hulk didn’t well fit the Judas model — 30 pieces (or, indeed, any amount of gold wouldn’t have meant anything to Hulk! He had to be made into the unwitting pawn of the Man-Beast to “betray” Warlock after they and the gang posed for the Last Supper portrait, everyone conveniently sitting on one side of the table as usual.
Upon Trimpe’s death a few years ago, I recall reading obituaries that noted he was a staunch Christian, so I wonder what his feelings about drawing this story were. The overall story of Him/Warlock took some fascinatingly bizarre turns, including Kirby’s initial intent on skewering Ditko’s Objectivist outlook but then Lee derailing that through his dialogue, to Kirby’s disgust, augmenting “the King’s” growing discontent in collaborating with “the Man”. All before Him was transformed into the Messianic Adam Warlock and later revealed to have, in one aspect, become the despotic emperor-god of galactic-empire. And that gem on his forehead turning out to have a mind of its own and rather nasty, vampiric cravings. But in this story, it’s still just a useful tool.
I discussed the strange & convoluted history of Adam Warlock’s development on my own blog last year when I discussed The Warlock Chronicles #1. As I noted, given all the twists & turns the character took, it’s a prime example of how sometimes assigning accurate credit for the creation of comic book characters is anything but simple.
It Came from the 1990s: The Warlock Chronicles #1 – In My Not So Humble Opinion (wordpress.com)
This is interesting.
I recall reading the first part of this during Holy Week of 1974, The treatment of The Passion comes very clearly out of the Catholic Lectionary for Holy Week, which would have been very familiar to Gerry Conway, who had been raised Catholic.
As the previous poster states Herb Trimpe was very religious and in fact was eventually an Episcopal Deacon (Mike Friedrich is a Methodist Deacon, by the way) and was a Deacon at St. Andrews Episcopal in New Paltz, the next town over. Catholics and Episcopalians have basically the same lectionary, so Mr. Trimpe would have been familiar with the story.
Tony Isabella became very religious a bit later and may not have been as religious at this point. (He was a talented and inventive writer/editor, who never got the credit he should have for things like Black Lightning at DC, War Is Hell (he created the John Kowalsky series)) at Marvel or his short story in Unknown Worlds with George Perez, War Toy. He was also the writer/editor who wrapped up a couple of the Marvel B&W Mags, like Tales of the Zombie.
I have always thought Roy Thomas has some bitterness about Warlock. Thomas has said things like (as I remember), :Starlin’s Warlock is the one the fanboys love, but the only version that ever sold was the one I did with Gil Kane.” Still, but for this three issue arc cleaning up the plot threads from Warlock, Starlin’s version does not happen.
The Hulk was not an “A List” book in 1974 but in about 6 months it laid the groundwork for Starlin’s Warlock and launched Wolverine (as well as giving Len Wein a platform to tell some solid human interest stories) . Not bad . . . .
Seems strange Thomas would be bitter that Starlin’s run is the one that prevails in the memory of fans. Certainly, Starlin expanded on what Thomas & Kane did with Warlock, but Starlin also told a far better story, IMO. Is Thomas also bitter that it was the Claremont & Byrne run that finally put X-Men in the top tier of bestselling comics even over his run with Adams?
“Bitter” might be a bit strong on my part. Maybe better might be “trying to define his and Kane’s niche.” Additionally. although Len Wein is the credited Editor of the early issues of Starlin’s Warlock, I have always thought Thomas had to be involved in :greenlighting” it,
Either he or Neal Adams (or both) have commented about how Chris Claremont now gets credited on X-Men # 59 for the plot point of the #Sentinels going around the Sun to study the ultimate source of mutations. (Claremont was an intern at Marvel at that point.)
“Either he or Neal Adams (or both) have commented about how Chris Claremont now gets credited on X-Men # 59…”
I delved into this topic near the end of my X-Men #58 post back in ’19, if anyone’s interested: https://50yearoldcomics.com/2019/05/26/x-men-58-july-1969/
Knew I heard that somewhere . . . . Thanks!
The early days of The Warlock comic were like catnip for me; the Roy Thomas story, the Gil Kane artwork…but it was the allegory to the life of Christ that really sold me on the series back in the day. As a good church-going, Bible-thumping lad, I loved it anytime the “peanut butter” of my faith became tangled in the “chocolate” of popular culture, whether it was Warlock, Moorcock’s “Behold the Man” or even the old Star Trek episode “Bread and Circuses,” even the most tacit acknowledgement of faith in the SF and comic book stories I loved so much, was a guarantee that I would be a most appreciative fan.
And yet, even though I was such a huge fan of the Jesus Christ Warlock storyline, I did not buy these issues of the Hulk, and didn’t read them until YEARS later. Not that I ignored them; I’m assuming for some reason that I simply never heard that Warlock’s story was being wrapped up in the pages of Old Greenskin, but even if I had, I really disliked the Hulk as a comic and as a character, and would probably have been hard-pressed to buy them.
My reasons for disliking the Hulk as a character are just as vague as yours, Alan. I just disliked him, and that’s all there was to it. On top of that, the artwork here, by Trimpe and Abel, while satisfactory, was in no way on par with the spectacular work Gil Kane did originally, and it shows in every panel. While Kane’s version of the Man-Beast was visceral and alive in it’s lupine fury, Trimpe’s verion of the character was so vague and unformed, it was hard to even remember it had started out as a wolf! As for the characatures of the politicians, that would have gone right over my head in ’74, but today, I can vaguely seen the ghost of Agnew in Barrachuuda’s human shell, but the others look nothing like anyone I should recognize. No offense to Trimpe; he had a long, storied career doing a job I’d only dreamed about, but he was clearly not well-suited to the material and would have been better off working with characters who had not been so previously well-designed. His rendering of the Hulk was pretty on-point for the time, but he wasn’t suited to Warlock. Not at all.
Anyway, a fine wrap-up to what I would have thought at the time was the best Warlock could get. Little did I realize, it wasn’t even close to the glory that was to come. Thanks, Alan.
An interesting review…I have made a few observations. It was noted elsewhere in other blogs (so this is not just my point) that the Man-Beast was constantly drawn differently in his various appearances. He was first called the “Super-Beast” in Thor 135 and then renamed the Man-Beast in MP 1 by Roy Thomas and in his appearances in MP and Warlock he constantly looks different. In fact if you look at the last panel of Warlock 8 and his appearances in Hulk 176-178 he looks completely different. I suddenly realized why…he is supposed to look like a wolf..but Marvel now had a character called Man-Wolf who had just appeared in a brand new comic called Giant-Size Super Stars with Spider-Man ( a one shot) teamed with Morbius in March 1974; and Marvel launched a new Man-Wolf series in April 1974 in Creatures on the Loose 30 (I never bought that series but was aware that it existed). The Man-Wolf looked like what the Man-Beast should have looked like…I don’t know what the Man-Beast was supposed to look like but I didn’t care for the way he was drawn in 176-178 (he was supposed to look like a wolf but I guess they were afraid of confusion?), then or now…. A few other points..for some reason at the end of Hulk 177, the Man-Beast says that he will take over the Counter Earth and then come after our Earth…wait, what? why in the world did he say that? It did not make any sense and was never referenced again in Hulk 178. Also at the end of 178 (and reproduced above), Warlock says, “I see other worlds where the Man-Beast has yet been recognized and exposed.” I believe I should get a 50 year old no-prize…since that should probably say “I see other worlds where the Man-Beast has NOT yet been recognized and exposed.”
I never really cared for the character of the Hulk, but bought this magazine for the writing of first Stan, then Roy, Archie Goodwin and Steve Englehart. It had appeared back in Hulk 173 that Roy Thomas would be returning to writing the book on a regular basis (that was announced in that issue). However although Roy wrote 173-175 and clearly plotted 176-178, he abruptly left after this with no explanation. In retrospect, I suspect his attention was drawn away by Savage Tales/Savage Sword of Conan and possibly other editorial matters. I had read the Warlock series so was very interested to see the Warlock storyline resolved here. It is surprising that since Warlock had not been selling well that Roy would give 3 issues over to Warlock but that was ok with me. I did continue to buy the Hulk for awhile (and yes did get the first Wolverine story) but although Len Wein was a perfectly fine scripter, I finally reached my limit of boredom with the character and I stopped buying the Hulk with #200. It would be a long time before I would look at an issue of Hulk (9 or 10 years). Warlock, of course, was a different story and look forward to your comments about his next series.
Good catch on the Man-Beast vs. Man-Wolf situation. It would be many years before I would read the first story featuring the High Evolutionary and the Super-Beast aka Man-Beast in Thor. Kirby’s rendition of the Super-Beast was so different from that of the Man-Beast that they hardly even seemed to be the same character.
I must admit, I found Lee’s & Kirby’s take on the Super-Beast being evil due to its origins as a wolf very distasteful — wolves are no more evil in nature than humans, maybe even less so. As with all creatures, wolves do what they need to do to survive, which involves having to kill other creatures in order to feed themselves and their young and if that’s evil, then every human who eats meat (from a bovine, pig, chicken, fish, whatever) is also evil. Yeah, it’s just comics, but I hated that the story implied wolves are inherently evil by their very nature, which is ridiculous. I wouldn’t want to encounter a pack of wolves in a forest — after all, they are dangerous wild animals. But then, over the last century, far more people have been killed by domestic dogs than by their wild canine kin.
I saw that story as less inherently “evil” and more “inherently predatory.”
That the fact he had been “overcooked” in the High Evolutionary’s machine made him less susceptible, as the Lions and Tigers previously modified were, to being “socialized” as a “protector: (as Humans have generally done successfully with Canines).
But are right, wolves do get a bad rap in pop culture.
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I am Jewish, and a non-observant one at that (I really consider myself culturally Jewish) so I find the arc of Adam Warlock’s story during the first half of the 1970s to be fascinating without it having any particular personal appeal. I can certainly understand the importance of the more universal themes of peace, love & brotherhood that were being touched on. But, given my skepticism concerning organized religion in general, I have to say that ultimately Jim Starlin’s utilization of Warlock feels more on point to me.
Perhaps both Roy Thomas and Starlin had valid points, though. Thomas and his collaborators were delving into the birth of a message, a philosophy, whereas Starlin was then showing what all too frequently occurs afterwards, when flawed, corruptible mortals are tasked with actually spreading the message, and how instead of putting it into practice they instead end up repeating the sins & failings that prompted the movement in the first place.
Regarding Herb Trimpe, he was one of those good, sold, underrated artists who made up the backbone of the industry for many years. I feel that, like Bob Brown before him on Warlock, he was perfectly well-suited to traditional superhero action, but perhaps the more experimental, esoteric qualities of the Adam Warlock story arc were too far outside his wheelhouse. Sort of a pity that Gil Kane couldn’t draw the entire original Adam Warlock storyline. Starlin, though, he really had the acumen to go cosmic with a character like Warlock, and indeed he would do just that shortly.
The interesting thing is how much Herb Trimpe’s early work reassembled that of Barry Windsor-Smith of the same period. Check out (for example) Hulk #118 reprinted in Stan Lee’s The Origin of Marvel Comics).
If anything, Trimpe’s style appeared more developed than Windsor-Smith’s then (compare, e.g.,, X-Men #53and Daredevil #52).
It might be that Trimpe was better when he inked his own pencils (like Anderson, Ditko or Cockrum) or that it required an inker with a more compatible style (the Severins, for example).
As for Ben Vincent & June Volper , why use Vince Edwards as he was not doing anything notable at the time not his IMDB, no credits in 1974)? The drawing looks like caricatures of Steve Gerber I can’t think of any real world analogue for June Volper.
If Ben Vincent = Steve Gerber, could June Volper = Mary Skenes? (June Volper does not resemble how Mary Skrenes was depicted in Night of the Reaper. over in Batman published in the Fall of 1971 but that is a best guess.
I am surprised at the comment that the Hulk was not an A-lister. At the time I considered Marvel’s big stars as Spidey, Conan, the Hulk and the FF, in that order. And Alan, I am surprised that you had not followed the Hulk more closely,given that this was a comic that was written by Steve Englehart for much of the period covered.
These Hulk comics were not distributed in the UK at the time, due to the Hulk’s headlining in the Mighty World of Marvel weekly. I read these stories a few years later, when reprinted in the afore-mentioned Mighty World of Marvel. I liked them, but had already seen, loved and devoured Starlin’s version by then. I took these tales as an ok finale to the superb set-up that Thomas and Kane has produced in Marvel Premiere. But Starlin’s Warlock was where it was at.
I liked the Trimpe/ Abel combination in the 70s ( not a ‘fan’ though Alan), but looking at the panels reproduced here the art now looks ponderous and flat. I really liked The Trimpe/ Severin combination, and his version of the Son of Satan, but his style didn’t lend itself well to many strips. But Trimpe has his place in the Marvel canon, as a solid contributor from the late 60s on, as well as his longevity on the Hulk strip.
Spirit of 64
Spirit of 64, in regards to ignoring Englehart’s Hulk run, I suspect I wasn’t even aware that he was writing the book through most of that period; in an era when I depended on the Bullpen Bulletins page to keep me abreast of Marvel news, that sort of thing was easy to miss. Actually, come to think of it, through most of that run my younger self might not have even yet reached the conclusion that this Englehart guy was a cut above most other comics writers… which could also account for my ignoring most of his concurrent Hero for Hire run (though I did buy the Dr. Doom issues).
I WAS an avid Hulk reader at the time. I also take issue with the fact that Hulk wasn’t in the top tier of Comics then, an A lister as mentioned above. Heck in 1978 Hulk was one of only 2 Marvel comic strips in the Newspapers! In 1974, according to ComicBookInvest.com anyway, Hulk outsold all Marvel comics except Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Conan and Thor. Why did I like Hulk, actually Trimpe’s simple, solid artwork was a big reason. Consistency for one thing.. If you picked up a Hulk in this era you knew Trimpe was gonna be drawing it. Most of Hulk’s adventures consisted of him smashing through walls and things so Trimpe’s blocky, large figures, in your face style matched this perfectly. As for why I read Hulk in those days I think it had to do with what’s surely the most oft used explanation. I was woefully underweight and watching Hulk pummel and pulverize whoever was wish fulfillment for my undersized physique.
As for this particular run of Hulks, I was a big fan of the Warlock series as well so was thrilled to see it concluded here. I think too that the Hulk’s character, sort of not really understanding what’s going on, lent itself to being a supporting character which he plays here. When he’s not smashing things his non-committal nonchalance lends itself to sort of blending into the background until its time to smash. Since he doesn’t understand he simply observes. This approach was used often as a plot device during this era of Hulk Comics.
Seeing this again 50 years later and of course the plot holes just come at you right and left. Why does the Man Beast have Hulk at the execution so he can break free and cause havoc? How do Warlock’s followers happen upon the Hulk as he and the cocoon are nestled in the Virginia countryside.? But that’s nitpicking. The real fun is the very Agnew Looking Barachuudar. I remember laughing out loud at that even as a teenager. The whole allegory of the Christ story was a pretty ham fisted attempt but welcome nonetheless. As reader DontheArtistformerlyknownasfrodo628 indicated earlier I too loved when my religion seeped into pop culture like this and yeah I dug that Star trek episode as well. Whether you’re Christian or not, Atheist or not, the Passion Play is one of the origin stories of Western Civilization so any retelling does the culture good IMHO.
I was going to vent about the Evil Evil Wolf cliche but someone beat me to it. Of course wolves have been stereotyped as killing machines for so long, it’s not surprising Stan didn’t feel the need to research them. I can forgive him better than Geoff Johns for his treatment of Grodd — by the time he was writing the idea a gorilla supervillain will be 50,000 more aggressive and savage than humans is way stupider.
Names: I kept wondering if Volper was some reference to vulpine, as in fox-like, but it doesn’t fit. Rex Carpenter amounts to naming the president Jesus King which makes me wonder if they conceived him as the antichrist from the first or if it was no different from calling him President Redd Herring.
I agree Hulk is definitely an A-lister for popularity but I wouldn’t say so for quality. In small doses he works fine for me but it’s nigh impossible to keep me intrigued with a character whose personality alternates between sadness and rage, and whose fights consist of Hulk hitting things until they break. I never read Hulk regularly until Joe Fixit.
I do love the “He’s falling” moment. I’m okay with Trimpe’s art – he and Sal Buscema were very much “my” Hulk (to the extent I had one). Marie Severin drew him better though.
I did my own take on Warlock’s early years here: https://atomicjunkshop.com/and-men-shall-call-him-warlock-adam-warlocks-before-jim-starlin/
Ditching Kirby’s “Him as objectivist parody” never struck me as any great loss. Sure, it’s hysterically funny if you know what he’s mocking but I suspect to most readers (including me) it would have read like “superevolved creature thinks humans are garbage like they always do”
That’s a valid point, although I think Kirby’s getting rankled over Lee’s pulling the rug out from under him after the story had already been plotted and pencilled is completely understandable.
Oh absolutely. Especially as he got nothing for the pages he’d already done.
A quick look around online suggests that June Volper’s name may have come from Jill Volner (now Jill Wine-Banks), whom Wikipedia describes as an American lawyer who was one of the prosecutors in the Watergate hearings.
Since my Hulk-reading days only lasted a few more issues, I may as well throw my two cents’ worth in: I’d started reading Hulk with #131 (though the very first issue I saw was #117) and Trimpe’s art was great, especially when inked by Severin. As time went on, especially after the mid #150s, I became less and less enchanted with his work; it looked too rushed, or something, and the inkers assigned did him no favours whatsoever…Jack Abel, I’ve read elsewhere, was a top salt-of-the-earth fellow, but bar P Craig Russell, I never cared for his inks on anyone’s pencils. Sort of ironically, I gave it up when the final panel in the last issue I read had this snarky Canadian with these claws popping out of his hands….
Also, the whole biblical allegory thing annoyed me..one would come across it elsewhere occasionally, and it worked better then because no-one was trying to shoehorn the whole shooting match into one or two issues the way it seemed to be happening here.
Still, great coverage as ever, more power to your keyboard 🙂
I just finished Jill Banks-Wine’s book, The Watergate Girl, and it is indeed her! She mentions how her younger brother called her to say “this is you!” when he saw the comic.
Wow! Thanks for sharing that confirmation, Jeanne.
Not much I feel the need to write about this issue, other than to compliment Alan on his astute commentary. This was a book that I started picking up (don’t judge!) because of the Marvel Value Stamp program and kept it up out of inertia. After learning that Steve Englehart had written a year’s worth of stories, I then went back to pick up those, as well as Archie Goodwin’s run and select earlier issues.
But like you, Alan, this was not really a book that got me excited, despite literate writing and intriguing art by Herb Trimpe, who didn’t draw like anyone else and whose stylized approach I found had an odd appeal.
The rather ham-handed religious analogy here didn’t do all that much for me, though as a Bradbury fan, I was gladdened to see a reference to him in Tony Isabella’s script. (This and a roughly concurrent issue of POWER MAN was an early exposure to Isabella, and though he was no Englehart/Gerber/McGregor, I appreciated the wit and humanity of his writing.)
Found this blog post in a roundabout way during Watergate research, looks like someone already noted that June Volper is Jill Volner. Ben Vincent is Richard Ben-Veniste. They were both Assistant Special Prosecutors who worked together in the grand jury hearings. Just thought you might find this interesting! Great blog post!