Last November, we took a look at Strange Tales #178, featuring the premiere installment of Marvel Comics’ revived “Warlock” feature, now written and drawn by Jim Starlin. In the first episode of a new multi-part storyline, the one-time savior of Counter-Earth learned for the first time of the galactic-level threat represented by the Universal Church of Truth — a militant religious organization determined to bring the entire universe under its tyrannical control, led by an entity called the Magus; an entity who, somehow, was the very same being as Adam Warlock himself.
But while I’m sure we’re all eager to proceed with this issue’s continuation of Starlin’s saga, your humble blogger feels he would be remiss not to first encourage you all to take a closer look at the book’s cover — more specifically, at the upper right-hand corner of said cover, where we would normally expect to see the Comics Code Authority’s seal of approval on the contents of this comic book — because in this particular case, approval has evidently been granted by the Cosmic Code Authority.
Responsibility for this amusing aberration has been ascribed to more than one individual over the years. In his 397th “Comic Book Legends Revealed” column at CBR.com (originally posted in 2012), Brian Cronin reported how Jim Shooter (who was an editorial staffer at Marvel in 1975) had asserted in 2011 via his blog that Jim Starlin himself was the culprit, only to be contradicted by Tony Isabella (also on Marvel’s staff at that time), who said, no, it was Starlin’s friend and frequent collaborator Al Milgrom who’d done the deed. But then, in 2017, Tom Orzechowski dropped a note to the Grand Comics Database to explain that it had all been his idea, not Starlin or Milgrom’s, and that he’d committed this dastardly act of vandalism at the time he’d lettered the cover.
One thing all accounts appear to agree on: the good folks at the CCA never caught on to the prank… or, if they did, they never said anything.
And now that we’ve covered that, let’s get on with our story…
A couple of notes about this opening splash page. First, note the addition of the explanatory header text up at the top? It’s the sort of basic series primer that was standard in the Marvel comics of this era, and was undoubtedly useful for orienting new readers. In this one instance, however, it might have been prudent to wait until the feature’s third installment before introducing the primer, since that bit towards the end about “the curse of a vampire soul gem” kind of gives the game away in regards to a major plot development in this issue. Oops.
Second, we’ll briefly observe, via the credits box (if that’s the right word to use for the side of a floating space rock), that while Jim Starlin has given up one creative task since the last issue — the coloring is now handled by Glynis Wein — he’s still very much the comic-book auteur here, serving as the story’s writer, penciller, and inker. (For the record, he also drew the issue’s cover.)
The remainder of this page, as well as the next one, is given over to a recap of the events of Strange Tales #178, which we’ll skip… rejoining our hero as he concludes his recollections with the rumination: “The Magus’ evil still flourishes and must be stopped! Yet, can even I put an end to it… for is not the Magus’ evil also my own?”
A number of Adam’s fellow prisoners, or “non-productives“, remind me of the “Un-Men” delineated by artist Bernie Wrightson in DC Comics’ Swamp Thing #2 and #10. That’s especially true of the black-haired, black-eyed head that gets around on what look like fingers, who could be a close cousin of the Un-Men’s Cranius (see panel detail from Swamp Thing #2 [Dec., 1972] at right).
I can distinctly recall my seventeen-year-old self being somewhat flummoxed by the debut of Pip the Troll, mainly because I thought of the Marvel Universe’s trolls as being from the mythological realm, à la Ulik and his ilk in Thor. To my tidy mind, they didn’t seem to belong in an outer space context; yet, here’s Adam making a sarcastic crack about trolls’ “usual ‘high moral standards‘”, as though the galaxy was rife with these pointy-eared little reprobates. Thankfully, my younger self managed to get over my discomfiture pretty quickly — and without having to wait for the eventual explanation offered by Starlin a year later, when Warlock #12 revealed that Pip’s particular breed of troll originated on the planet Laxidazia, and had nothing to do with the Asgard-adjacent variety.
But while Pip might not have had much in common with Ulik and the other Norse-type trolls in Marvel’s comics, he did owe his inspiration to the artist who’d visually designed those characters for Thor back in the day — at least in part. As Starlin told Newsarama‘s Zack Smith in 2014:
Jack Kirby, c1940s.
He was based on Jack Kirby – the cigar jutting out of his mouth, the little guy non-stop talking…he was my tribute to Jack.
And I don’t want to give anyone the idea Jack was anywhere near a degenerate as Pip became. (laughs) That aspect of the character kind of got out of control. He started out as my tribute to Jack Kirby, and then kind of took on a life of his own. Jack never lived a life nearly as debauched as Pip’s!
More recently, in a 2024 interview conducted by Comic Book Historians‘ Alex Grand, Starlin admitted to another inspiration for Pip’s character — especially in regards to its “debauched” aspect:
Pip was sort of a conglomeration of Jack, visually, and, I hate to admit it, but me personally, at that particular point in my life… it was the, you know, it was ingesting a lot of things I shouldn’t have had at that point…
And now you know.
Moral fables of the sort seen on these last two pages — i.e., mini-narratives that stand apart from the main storyline, but help illuminate one or more of its themes — were having something of a moment at Marvel Comics around this time; another recent example was Steve Gerber’s tale of “Ipsis and his Chariot”, as presented in Giant-Size Man-Thing #3 (Feb., 1975).
The last time we readers had seen Adam Warlock prior to his return in Strange Tales #178, he’d actually seemed pretty comfortable in the role of leader. Perhaps it would be wise to assume that Adam has been traveling amongst the stars for somewhat longer than might be implied by the seven-month real-world gap between the publication dates of Hulk #178 and ST #178, having a variety of experiences during that time that would never be chronicled by Marvel’s storytellers (like learning about the trolls of Laxidazia, for example) — experiences which would ultimately leave him not quite the same man as the Adam Warlock who’d left a band of faithful followers behind when he departed Counter-Earth for the far reaches of space.
Um, I think that Jim Starlin may have gotten his warlocks and his ninjas mixed up, here. But, whatever…
The page above is a sterling example of Starlin’s gift for innovative page design. Following the introductory caption and “Warlock!” blurb, it’s a collection of 17 mostly-wordless (excluding sound effects) panels, organized into 8 discrete sets (6 that are comprised of 2 panels, 1 that’s comprised of 4, and 1 that’s just a single panel — that one being the not-quite-centrally located close-up of our hero), which can be read in virtually any order one chooses — and which Starlin subtly guides the reader to comprehend as sets by the subtle device of having each set’s panel borders aligned on a slightly different grid than those adjacent to it. It’s great stuff.
On the page above, as well as the one following, Starlin continues to vary his layouts to add further visual appeal to a fight scene that’s already pretty engaging on its own terms.
In the 2014 Newsarama interview we quoted from earlier, Zack Smith asked Jim Starlin about the influence of certain science fiction/fantasy writers, including Michael Moorcock, on his “Warlock” work, and received this reply:
I was reading some Moorcock at that point, yes – mainly Elric. I think I read it after doing the Warlock stories, though.
Cover to the 1973 Lancer Books edition of The Stealer of Souls and Other Stories by Michael Moorcock. Art by Jeffrey Catherine Jones.
Perhaps Starlin didn’t get around to actually reading Moorcock’s sword-and-sorcery fiction about Elric of Melniboné until after he’d finished his first run on the “Warlock” feature, but it’s hard to believe that he didn’t have at least some basic knowledge of those stories’ content at this point, given the extent of the parallels between Elric’s soul-stealing black sword, Stormbringer, and the take on Warlock’s Soul Gem that Starlin introduces in this story.* If nothing else, it seems probable that the creator had perused Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #14 and #15, in which that series’ titular hero had teamed up with Moorcock’s doomed albino sorcerer-prince (and in which Stormbringer’s vampiric properties were fully on display).
Cover to the 1973 Lancer Books edition of The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock. Art by Gray Morrow.
Rather less discussed than Warlock’s debt to Elric, but still worthy of note, are the correspondences between Adam and another incarnation of Moorcock’s “Eternal Champion”: Dorian Hawkmoon, who, through most of the 1967 novel in which he makes his debut, has to deal with a sinister Black Jewel which his enemies have implanted in his forehead to control him. Granted, it was Roy Thomas and Gil Kane who slapped a mysterious gemstone upon the brow of Him back in Marvel Premiere #1 (Apr., 1972), not Starlin; but seeing as how the Soul Gem was treated as essentially benign up until Starlin’s treatment, it’s not hard to imagine how Hawkmoon’s Black Jewel and Elric’s black blade may have become associated in the creator’s mind, leading to the retroactive darkening-up of the Jehovah-like High Evolutionary’s gift to his Jesus-like “son”, which would have made little sense in its original allegorical context. (For the record, Moorcock himself would eventually identify the Black Jewel and Stormbringer as aspects of the same demonic entity in his novel The Quest for Tanelorn, which was published in February, 1975 in the UK, but didn’t have an American edition available until December, 1976).
Getting back to our story, Adam’s ruminations over his “damned gem” are interrupted by the arrival of the newly-freed prisoners — who, their deep gratitude not withstanding, wonder why he was willing to aid them, even after theyturned on him him. When he explains that he could do nothing else in response to their need, one asks, “But why would you not lead us before?”
“For the same reason I’ll not lead you now!” Adam replies. “Each of you is a leader within himself. Fools allow others to rule them. Wise men rule themselves.”
In recommending that his listeners disavow all leaders — presumably, that includes even elected ones — Adam Warlock seems to be proposing that they found a social order that goes beyond Western-style representative government to a considerably more direct form of democracy — perhaps even as far as anarchy. Which, whatever else one might think about it, is hardly the kind of idea you’d expect to see coming from an American comic-book superhero — at least, not prior to the 1970s.
And that brings us to the end of the second, very eventful chapter of Jim Starlin’s “Warlock” saga. I hope you’ll join me in March for the next installment, when we’ll see our hero adopt a new look, and also witness the debut of a new character whose fame will, arguably, eventually eclipse that of Adam Warlock himself… at least as far as the greater popular culture is concerned.
*Elric and Stormbringer had already influenced another pairing of comic-book superhero and weapon: –the Black Knight and his cursed Ebony Blade — although Dane Whitman’s Merlin-forged weapon didn’t actually suck the souls of its victims. For more details, see our post about Avengers #84 (Jan., 1971).
I’d like to say a general thank you to all of you and especially to Alan for this space.
In this day and age it seems that every opinion has been monetised and commercialised, every emotion blown out of proportions to get your time & attention, where every person whores their hobby for money, where morons sell you their expertise, hell, even using the apps make you feel a little grubby knowing who’s pocket your padding…against all of that, this site is so refreshing.
Once or twice a week I get to log on and read about a comic – honestly, that Cosmic Code Authority had me riveted and put a smile across my face – and the next day I log right back on just to read the comments. It’s a pleasure, you’re all wonderful.
No algorithms, no subscribe or like buttons, no pictures of Alan all mad with his eyes bulging out (with fire behind him of course), no talk of ‘return on investment’ or ‘hot books of the week’ or ‘the latest hellish chapter of CGC quality control’…just books, blessed books.
This world seems to have gotten a little colder and darker lately and you all add a little colour and warmth to the world. It’s a great little place we got here, thank you…and now it’s time I go look at something drawn by Adams, Kirby or Perez.
I think the emphasis on spelling out the message left me dissatisfied with this one when I reread it a few years back. Still good, just not as good as most of the run.
God, I loved this book. Starlin’s problems with inkers has been solved and great art became exemplary. Captain Marvel never excited me as much despite one of the first crossovers I’d been exposed to as a young teenager. That could have been Capo being such a D level hero despite Starlin’s efforts and me having read everything that had starred Warlock once he got renamed. The pseudo depth of philosophy he was able to inject was a good part of it as well. It’s a shame Starlin stopped his Warlock OGNs because other writers were using Thanos too. It’s not like they were in continuity to begin with.
Oh, and does the Matriarch feel modeled after a real-life actress? I can’t quite put my finger on who though.
Despite my reservations, the philosophical side was actually interesting. Very few comics writers pull that off.
I believe that Starlin based her on Marlene Dietrich, but I can’t identify where I may have read that.
I missed this when it was new on the racks but got a reprint in an issue of Fantasy Masterpieces (vol. 2) a few years later, paired with a Lee/Buscema Silver Surfer, issue 2 of that run, I think. Anyhow, I love this mag, mostly for the art but also a very good story that gives some indication of where Starlin’s head was at the time. It didn’t occur to me at the time I first read it, but it does seem likely to me that having Warlock refuse to become a leader of the rebellion and then exhorting the rebels to “rule themselves” reflected Starlin’s disgust with the U.S. government over the Watergate scandal and during the Vietnam War, as well as with the Catholic Church bled into this story. I can understand Fraser’s discomfort with all the philosophizing getting in the way of the main story, although I didn’t mind it much myself.
And also despite my not agreeing with the anarchist philosophy, which to my thinking usually degenerates into tyranny sooner or later as the toughest guy with the most brutal henchmen usually winds up taking control. But then, as written by Starlin, Warlock can come off as incredibly wise-sounding but also very naive. For all his experiences, he’s also still relatively a child, much as was the Silver Surfer as conceived by Kirby and often even as written by Lee even after revealing that Surfy had previously been a regular humanoid, albeit from another planet, and not a pure construct of Galactus. Warlock, on the other hand, was a construct of weird Earthly science, and seems was Kirby’s echo of his earlier creation and perhaps apt that they were of “silver and gold”. Very amusing then that Starlin has a sort of meshing of Kirby and himself in the form of Pip the Troll take on the role of a Jiminy Cricket to Warlock’s Pinnochio. A bit of comic relief during the mostly dark proceedings of this epic, and very welcome IMHO! Pip may have been mostly if not entirely useless in fights but he did lighten things up a bit.
As always, enjoyed your overview, Alan!
I don’t think the philosophizing bothered as much when I first read it, as the ideas were much more novel to me.
Anarchy isn’t a great solution but I do think it raises valid criticisms (well, some of it — it’s not like there’s a single, unified POV among anarchists).
And I have a soft spot for Anarky because while he pontificates he takes on the kind of nominally legit villains working within the system that most superheroes aren’t going to touch.
Starlin never stopped ragging on organized religion though. I have a deep faith in God but share this opinion of organized religion with him.
Oh I loved this run. I’ll let others expound more, but for me, this was a perfect issue. There is so much in the comic that could have filled another two issues. Starlin’s writing, his artwork was absolutely at the top of his game. Pip the troll was a bit taller & lankier in his debut, lol.
Asking for a friend: As a prisoner held for Magus knows how long on The Great Divide, how do you think Pip got his supply of cigars replenished? He seemed to be the only one who smoked them, so it’s unlikely they’d be used as currency like cigarettes in modern Terran prisons. Were they a reward for good behavior? I can’t imagine Pip had all that much good behavior to reward, quite frankly. It’s not important in the over-all design of things, but points out to a common issue with comic book characters–that the creator decides they need some accessory or identifying item (like a cigar) and has it magically available to him as required by the character/story. No big deal. Just a thought.
To the issue at hand, while I still own this original run in the tattered, mildewed remains left behind by what we now refer to as The Great Basement Flood of 1980, I recently bought Starlin’s Warlock omnibus on Amazon and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. As good as Englehart and Gerber were as story-tellers, nobody in the 70’s did the Big Idea Cosmic stuff like Starlin. While I thought his idea of a “leaderless society” was a bit radical, I liked his ideas about personal freedom and responsibility.
I also enjoyed how Marvel allowed Starlin’s artwork to develop and grow at it’s own pace and in it’s own way. Marvel and DC both very much had a “house style” for artists back in the seventies and eighties, and you really had to be popular to be allowed to do anything different. Starlin’s character design may have been a bit repetitive, but his page layouts and his handling of the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe was right up there with Ditko and Kirby in terms of scale and imagination.
All in all, a highlight of Marvel’s 70’s output. I’ll enjoy reading it again with all of you, as much as I enjoyed reading the omnibus a month ago. Thanks, Alan!
I have similar thoughts about the Beast’s upcoming (so to speak) debut in Avengers. At one point he baffles the Stranger (really the Toad) by dressing up and latex-masking as Edward G. Robinson. Where the hell did he hide all the clothes and the mask?
Exactly. Comics-based slight-of-hand that would never work in the real world (much like wearing your costume under your street clothes) that we forgive because it makes the story work…or the joke funny…or whatever.
I also wondered where Pip got his cigars from and where he kept them — it’s not like he could have kept a stash in his furry briefs. Of course, he could have one of those magic little pockets that could contain multitudes of items in a space that could barely contain a small comb which would routinely fall out of any normal little pocket. Like the Green Goblin’s pouch, that could magically contain far more pumpkin bombs and other weapons than could feasibly fit in it and also somehow never fall off his shoulder while he was riding his flying contraption as well as keep the contents from ever unintentionally falling out. Old Norman could have made a fortune just selling his bat-flyers and magic pouches (or purses), but that wouldn’t have been as much fun as taking over the gangs, etc.
But what was the Troll tech and how long did the cigar burn in that environment?
More thoughts: When I first read this story, I hadn’t yet read any of Wein & Wrightson’s Swamp Thing and so wouldn’t have noticed any similarity between the creatures set for destruction herein and Arcane’s collection of unmen from S.T. #2 and later tales. Some of the creatures also somewhat resemble the denizens of the 1932 Tod Browning film Freaks, most of whom were actual people with a variety of deformities or unusual physical conditions. Reading Starlin’s tale, I was left wondering how could these sort of beings if left entirely to their own devices survive or create a viable society with their various physical limitations? For an armless being, just putting on clothes would be difficult, never mind fabricating clothes. I’d think they’d have to live in a society wherein other people help them.
Also, Starlin clearly intended Autolycus as a counter-example to Warlock. Starlin writes Autolycus as a “good soldier” doing abominable things because that is what he has been ordered to do and believes is his moral duty to his church and state. He is upset when the Matriarch orders him to contravene standard procedures in handling a particular enemy of the state whom he has captured and subdued – that is to kill Warlock before he can be brought to judicial proceedings and convicted, although he is apparently relieved when Warlock breaks the “rules” by escaping and thwarting attempts to recapture him, thus absolving Autolycus of any moral qualms in carrying out the order to kill Warlock
In Autolycus’ outlook, morality is obeying the rules given by proper authorities and as per the biblical story of Abraham when God orders him to sacrifice his son. Nevermind if the order itself is evil and serves no legitimate good purpose. On the other hand, Warlock’s outlook is that freedom is the greatest good and that all tyranny must be resisted and overthrown.
Of course, this sort of moral conflict has been played out over and over again throughout human history to the present and is part of the overall topic of a book I’ve been reading of late for a book group, The Invention of Good and Evil by Hanno Sauer. Sauer has his own follow-up to the sort of rise of Bak – eventually, when enough of the tribe gets fed up with him, they will band up to kill him. Most tribal societies would not long put up with a petty tyrant like Bak who dictated but did not provide any legitimate services to his people. The problems really began in much larger and far more complex societies when it became much more difficult, but never entirely impossible, to overthrow such tyrants.
Couple of thoughts:
—Phasers? It is not Marvel IP . . . .
—Pip as Moonglum (or Dorien Harkmoon’s aide)?
—Moorcock was very nice not to sue (although he had a degree of relationship with Marvel who used Elric in 1972 in a story he plotted and would adopt one of his SF stories in a few months)..
—Starlin’s inks have a Murphy Anderson influence, either from working with Anderson assistants Milgrom and Cockrum or being a Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space fan back in the day.
—Starlin does not seem like an Anarcho-capitalist (in the Murray Rothbard tradition . . . .
I think proving plagiarism would be a stretch.
Like defamation, never easy to prove.
Never made the connection between Jim Starlin’s Warlock and Michael Moorcock’s novels, but I immediately noticed the resemblance Stormbringer had to the Black Knight’s sword. Anyway, Moorcock was a hugely groundbreaking author, so I’m not surprised he influenced both Starlin and Roy Thomas.
Speaking of influences, I’ve seen it suggested on several occasions that Jim Starlin modeled the Matriarch of the Universal Church on actress Marlene Dietrich. I can certainly see a resemblance.
That’s who I was trying to remember! Whether consciously modeled after her or not, that’s the look Starlin gave her.
Agree with Ben re Dietrich, great similarity, but why? Does anyone have any ideas?
I have yet to re-read this issue, but looking at the post Starlin’s art and layouts are just so amazing, especially the stealth and fight sequences, with the fight choreography being close to what Kirby achieved at his 60s peak. Otherwise I don’t see any Murphy Anderson influence in the inking. What am I missing?
After he mentioned it, I can see it in the faces most of all.
Possibly, because Diedrich was a very well-known Catholic convert, who embraced the faith but continued to live her life in her own way, which is sort of what the Matriarch does.
If memory serves me correctly, it was letterer Tom Orzechowski who came up with and executed the “Cosmic Code” stamp. As a kid in Berkeley at the time, I knew Tom as well as the other Bay Area Marvel crew.
Alan,
You’ve stolen my thunder! Someday I intended writing a piece like yours (exploring connections between Moorcock & Marvel, not only including Warlock & Elric, but “Jewels in the Skull”, & comparing the Black Knight’s Ebony Blade with Stormbringer), on SDC. Your piece is an absolutely sterling job, anyway – bravo!
To me, Starlin’s words & phrases indicate he’s read Moorcock’s books, not just Conan & Elric. In Warlock # 13 (the issue with Star-Thief), Warlock declares: “I am a true Warlock. I am the wind, earth, water and fire. That is the only explanation I can give.” ( p.26). This reminds me of Moorcock’s ‘The Vanishing Tower’, in which the narrator comments: “Elric’s skill in sorcery lay chiefly in his command over the various elementals of air, fire, earth, water and ether.”…etc – ( p.25).
If this is tenuous, Starlin’s events in Warlock suggest he’s read Moorcock, too. The scene where Adam Warlock brings a girl back from the dead to interrogate her ( Strange Tales # 178 ), is similar to the scene at the start of ‘Stormbringer’, when Elric brings a demon back from the dead, to discover where Zarozinia has been taken.
In ‘The Weird of the White Wolf ‘, when Elric meets Balo, the cosmic jester, Balo turns Elric into an enormous figure, of cosmic proportions, who is so large others pass through him. Warlock tranforms into this kind of form too, in the Star-thief story, after Adam goes through a white-hole.
Of course, Moorcock echoes through Marvel in other ways, too. The Topaz Throne in Kull’s clearly inspired by Melnibone’s Ruby Throne. I’m sure we can all think of other examples!
Phillip
Phillip, I’m glad you enjoyed the post, and I appreciate your adding your notes.
In regards to Moorcock’s influence on comics in general, Feb. 1975 saw the debut of DC’s Claw the Unconquered — a S&S series that looked like a Conan clone on the surface but actually owed at least as much, if not more, to Elric, as well as at least one other MM character. You can read about it here next month. 😉
Why yes, it did, didn’t it? I look forward to talking about it, my favorite of DC’s sword and sorcery titles from the Bronze Age.
Sort started with Keith Giffen taking over and Micheline running with it . . . .
I’d say that David Michelinie got most of the way there on his own, while Ernie Chan was still drawing the book — although Giffen’s coming on board mid-run might have encouraged the writer to lean more into the “cosmic” aspects of Moorcock’s ideas. Anyway, we can all get into this more next month!
Alan – Regarding Claw the Unconquered, I know exactly the Michael Moorcock character of whom you’re thinking. I’ll keep it under my hat ( or, rather, my hand & eye! ) Here’s looking forward to next month’s piece!
Phillip