Strange Tales #179 (April 1975)

Way back in September 2023, I took a look at Strange Tales #178 (February 1975), which was the beginning of a cosmic journey for the artificial Earthman known originally as Him, but you may know as Adam Warlock. First appearing in Fantastic Four #66-67 (September-October 1967), he was one of the many products of the iconic collaboration between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Yeah, he was a Lee-Kirby joint. Pretty amazing, huh? Roy Thomas and Gil Kane would go on to revamp him as Adam Warlock in the 1970s, Thomas drawing inspiration from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and his look being redesigned to homage the Billy Batson Captain Marvel. It's why his 1970s look had the lightning bolt chest emblem.

In fact, the 1970s were a good time for our man Adam. Especially when writer/artist Jim Starlin got his hands on the former Him. Starlin would tie Adam to the emerging cosmic side of the Marvel Universe in what would become known as "The Magus Saga". We saw how it started, how Adam Warlock became aware of the Universal Church of Truth, led by his evil future self: the Magus. Where do we go from here? Let's find out in Strange Tales #179!

The cover is a Jim Starlin piece. It's really good, showing our man Warlock being surrounded by monstrous-looking alien beings, the cover claiming that he is trapped and helpless on the "Death Ship"! Should've taken the Life Ship, buddy. It had a buffet, an arcade, and a theme park.

"Death Ship!"
Writer: Jim Starlin
Penciler: Jim Starlin
Inker: Jim Starlin
Colorist: Glynis Oliver-Wein
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Len Wein
Editor-in-Chief: Marv Wolfman

The story begins with our man encountering a ship. But this is not a ship in distress. This is a ship that wants to wage a bit of war. And their target? Well...Adam Warlock, of course.

Seeing the ship's markings, Adam is not surprised they're after him. The Universal Church of Truth was your standard dictatorial intergalactic theocracy, marching throughout the universe forcing world after world under its heel. During that issue, he encountered the Church's head: the Magus...who is also a possible future version of Warlock himself. 

Yeah. This has left Adam in a bit of a quandry. He knows the Church's evil must be stopped, but this quest could end up creating a stable time loop, causing himself to become the Magus. Warlock then decides to take the risk. After all, if the Magus is who he'll become, then as far as he's concerned, he's responsible for this madness, and he must take responsibility. 

Inside the ship, the captain notes that yup, the man they've sent to capture has arrived.

"...man, I look pretty."

The captain, Autolycus by name, orders the firing of all weapons, enough to knock Adam into dreamland. When Adam wakes up, he finds himself a prisoner of Autolycus. Adam proclaims himself to be an enemy of darkness and a destroyer of false gods like the Magus. Autolycus then tosses him into the ship's brig with other prisoners on board.

"Whoof, you guys got beaten by every ugly stick out there, huh?"

Adam realizes these "prisoners" are not monsters, they're intelligent beings like him. Problem is, there is a bit of an intergalactic language barrier. Luckily, Adam has that little Soul Gem on his forehead that scans their minds and downloads their languages into his head. Man, if he could duplicate that and sell it, he'd make a mint. Imagine instantly learning a language with a thought.

These prisoners come from worlds that were conquered by the Universal Church of Truth. They remark the Church has a "matriarch" (presumably this matriarch serves as a public face of leadership, with the Magus behind the scenes). After worlds are conquered, the people of those planets are enslaved, forced to work the mines, the factories, the fields, and also likely the space lemonade stands. However, those that refuse to work and/or try to fight back are taken to have their bodies recycled into raw materials. 

Also, on Church-conquered worlds, bipedal humanoid beings are preferred as the Magus claimed to have been a man once. Which makes sense, as Magus was the future version of Warlock, and Warlock was originally created to be the "perfect man". However, despite this, there are some humanoid beings the Church dislikes. And that includes...trolls.

"I also happened to call their mothers 'fat'. They couldn't handle the truth."

Everyone, say hello to future Infinity Watch member Pip the Troll. This comic is his debut. Pip informs Adam that this ship is pretty easy to escape with a bit of brains and cunning. However, most of the other prisoners are too clumsy, slow, or shut-in by nature to escape. Adam thinks that Pip wanting to stay with his fellow prisoners is noble. In actuality, Pip doesn't try to escape because, well, an entire space ark of prisoners would attract a lot of attention.

Elsewhere, the Matriarch of the Church gets a message about Warlock's capture.

"When I take over, there will be free ice cream for everyone."

She recalls that the Magus ordered her to capture Warlock alive...but it turns out that she plans to have Warlock suffer an...accident. Now, you may be thinking, "Hey lady, you are aware that if you take out Warlock, you take out your boss, right? Warlock is your boss's past self!" Thing is, she is aware of that. She wants that to happen because she wants to lead the Church herself. 

She gives the order, and Autolycus is outraged. After all, what she is ordering is outright treason...but he intends to obey the order anyway. Hey, Autolycus, you are aware she's ordering you to take out your leader's past self, right? Why not just call him and say "Hey boss, the Matriarch wants me to take out your past self." I 'mean, he's the Big Cheese 

The prisoners want Adam to lead a revolt to take over the ship. Adam refuses. He's walked the path of leadership, and knows where it leads. To illustrate his point, he tells the tale of a caveman called Grak.

Grak was not the smartest of cavemen, but he wasn't exactly the dumbest of them either. He was skilled in hunting. One day, he realized something: he was bigger and stronger than the rest of his tribe. It led him to wonder why he had to do all the hunting. Gee, I don't know. Maybe it was because you're big, strong, and good at it? I mean, if you have a job, and you're good at doing said job, people expect you do not only do the job, but do it well.

Anyway, Grak first felt the lust for power. He gathered up some friends and formed the first government. He ruled with an iron fist. He would have ruled with an iron club, but those weren't invented yet. Another caveman, Bak, didn't like this. He gathered up some fellow cavemen and fermented the first rebellion. It was bloody, but quick. Bak deposed and killed Grak, and then he fell into the same tyrannical habits Grak did. 

That is why Adam refuses. He doesn't want to rule anyone, so no one will rule him. It also makes sense when you keep in mind that he's still shaken up from learning Magus is his future self. In a way, it can be surmised that he fears that leading this rebellion will be the moment that brings him down the path to becoming the Magus. 

The prisoners are angry, but they'll fight back without him. Thing was, Adam sympathizes with them. He will fight with them but not lead them. Which he demonstrates by helping take down laser batteries that would have turned this rebellion into Swiss cheese. Autolycus's crew are capable fighters, but they still are no match for Warlock. He mainly uses surprise and ambush tactics to take down the crew. Eventually, it comes down to Warlock versus Autolycus himself.

Some men would rather fight to the death than get therapy.

Autolycus isn't some preening martinet. He's a master combatant, and a physical powerhouse, potentially capable of matching Warlock himself in straight-up hand-to-hand. As shown in the panel, Warlock asks why Autolycus is serving the Church, considering what monsters they are. Autolycus sees himself as a knight, and as such, he's bound by his sense of duty.

Warlock laments this, as he serves a god that laughs at his loyalty and exploits his honorable nature. The two continue their fight.

Autolycus is loving this fight. That's because Warlock is the first truly worthy foe he faced. As such, he wants to give the man a quick clean death. Warlock doesn't believe in such a thing, as for him, dying would mean he failed to stop the Magus. The universe needs him right now. The fight ends with Autolycus having a pistol ready to blast some holes in our hero. The Soul Gem erupts and blasts the alien captain. 

"MY GAWD! MY BRAIN IS FULL OF STARS!"

Warlock sees Autolycus's whole life, from his birth to now. And the man's body is left neither living nor dead. Warlock realizes that the Gem absorbed Autolycus's soul into itself, and Warlock fears that this may be the reason why he will become the Magus. He's found by Pip the Troll and the other prisoners. They wonder how he brought down the whole ship by himself. The how doesn't matter. All that matters is that it's brought down. He also helped them because they needed help, not out of a desire to lead. He tells them that wise men lead themselves, and only fools allow themselves to be led.

He implores them to find a new world and start over. Learn from the mistakes of the old rulers and rule themselves. As for Warlock himself, he's still on a mission. He prepares to leave on a ship, when he finds Pip waiting for him. Pip offers to help him out on his mission, despite the dangers. The two fly off quietly, knowing that if Warlock destroys the Magus, he may end up destroying himself.

This comic is pretty good. It's a story focused on Warlock helping a bunch of rebels get some freedom from an oppressive theocracy. We also get a bit of intrigue with the Matriarch plotting against her boss, because naturally an oppressive government is going to attract the power-drunk and power-hungry. We also get some further hints that the Soul Gem is vampiric in nature and capable of some independent action outside of Adam Warlock. Keep in mind, this is early on in Warlock's saga, and the Infinity Gems as a concept have not been "locked in" quite yet. It's a fun little bit of what would be called Early Installment Weirdness. 

The story about the cavemen may seem odd, but it does have a purpose. It shows that not only is Warlock cynical about the intentions of people that get power, but it also helps illustrate his mindset and fears about becoming the Magus. That story is basically Warlock saying that will be his future if he leads the rebels. At least, he thinks this will happen.

I do wish we got to see Pip demonstrate some of that cunning he claims to have. He'll go on to be one of Warlock's closest allies, if not outright friends, and as time goes on, he'll be shown to be more of a foil to the artificial man. I also was left scratching my head at Warlock telling the captured aliens to start over and rule themselves. Shouldn't he have encouraged them to keep fighting to free themselves from the Church? After all, what's to stop the Church from finding their new world and starting this all over again? I get what Starlin is going for, and it does fit Adam's mindset considering his fears of power making him the Magus, I just found it strange. 

As for Starlin's artwork, I think he is honestly one of the more underrated artists of the 1970s. People talk about the likes of Kirby and Adams (not to mention the 70s saw the rise of one of my favorite artists of all time: George Perez), but I think Starlin's art deserves to be held alongside them. It's incredibly well-done. It's detailed, and he does some really cool stuff with panel layouts, almost like an early version of the "cinematic" comics like the original Ultimates title. A detail I love is that the aliens that Warlock encounters outside of the story, outside of Pip of course, are not all strictly humanoid. It makes sense that the Marvel Universe would have forms of intelligent life that don't necessarily look like people with funny flesh tones and just additional things on their faces you'd see in a Star Trek episode. Makes the MU look much richer. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2014 trade paperback Warlock by Jim Starlin. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you like what I write and want to give my blog some additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-fi! See you next time!