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"... I Welcome Its End."

The Cosmic Tragedy of Jim Starlin's WARLOCK
(PART TWO)
By J. Kevin Carrier

Episode Three ("The Judgement!", STRANGE TALES #180) finds Warlock and Pip strolling blithely into the lion's den: "Homeworld: The birthplace and control center of the galactic Universal Church of Truth".

As you might expect, it's a grim, shadowy place, jam-packed with crowds of Starlin's imaginatively designed aliens.

It doesn't take long before our intrepid duo is spotted by a group of the Magus' Black Knights. Adam makes short work of them, but his problems are only beginning; he can feel his Soul Gem trying to break free so it can devour the soldiers' souls, as it did Autolycus'.

He successfully restrains the Gem, but Adam realizes that it is becoming too dangerous for him to keep. But the evil intelligence inside the Gem is one step ahead: it has been secretly siphoning off Adam's own soul, making Warlock dependent on it for his very existence. "Separated from the gem, I am like a puppet with its strings cut! In other words, that gem has become my lifeforce and I... its prisoner!"

As if that news wasn't bad enough, Warlock and Pip are suddenly confronted by the image of the Matriarch on a monitor screen. She taunts Adam with the fact that she already knew about the Soul Gem's evil ways, and dares him to meet her at the Sacred Palace in order to learn more.

What follows is a good example of Starlin's knack for dialogue and pacing, as well as his ability to make the text and pictures compliment each other:

PIP (ranting at monitor screen): "Stuff it, Slink! What does she think we are? Idiots? What an obvious trap!"

ADAM (standing back and pondering): "Yes. Obvious..."

PIP (standing with hands on hips, looking smug): "True, the bait was quite tempting, but... say, how do you suppose she learned about your gem?"

ADAM (beginning to retreat into the shadows): "I've no idea!"

PIP: "Well, we'll find out, but not by walking into a death trap! Right, Adam? Adam?!" (He turns to find Adam already long gone)

With his talent for stealth (and due to the fact that most of the Palace's staff are lobotomized drones), Warlock easily slips into the Sacred Palace, and is soon confronting the ever-arrogant Matriarch. She has no fear of the golden-skinned warrior, and continues to taunt him with her intimate knowledge of his past and present.

Finally, she drops her big bombshell: "The Magus is not part of you... he is you... the YOU of the FUTURE!"

Adam's having none of it. "No! This can't be true! I could never become this evil! You seek to trick me!"

"Look at yourself, Warlock!" the Matriarch counters coolly. "You've always been a creature of passion and excess! You either love dearly or hate viciously! You've no middle ground for your emotions! That's your own special brand of madness, and the reason you'll someday become the Magus yourself!"

She goes on to say that she no longer wishes to kill Warlock, because that might cause the Magus to never exist, and she wouldn't enjoy her current position of power. Instead, she wants to control Adam, thinking that will likewise allow her to control the Magus. With that, she drops Warlock down a convenient trap door and into another one of Starlin's not-exactly-subtle metaphors...

Our hero finds himself at the non-existent mercy of a twisted courtroom. A gigantic ambulatory head called Kray-Tor serves as the judge.

Kray-Tor has no doubts as to Adam's guilt, and freely admits that the trial is a mere formality; a show for the benefit of the unwashed masses. To drive the point home, we see that the prosecutor is an enormous mouth; while Warlock's defense attorney is a rather sleepy-looking eye, which can't even speak. The jury is nothing but a collection of faceless statues. A succession of witnesses are paraded out to give false testimony against Adam; when one of them tries to speak the truth, he is summarily executed. When Warlock tries to object, he is gagged.

Soon the mockery of a trial reaches its preordained conclusion: Guilty!

Elsewhere, we see that Pip -- annoyed at having been left out of the action -- has gone to a local tavern to drown his sorrows. There he is accosted by a lovely but rather foul-tempered lady named Gamora.

She knows all about the Warlock-Magus connection (sheesh, is there anyone besides Adam who didn't know?), and she's decided to either help Adam defeat the Magus... or kill Adam, so that the Magus is never born. More on this interesting little complication later...

Back at the courthouse, Adam is pretty well fed up with the Church's idea of "justice". He breaks his restraints and begins plowing through the Magus' forces with self-righteous vigor (taking special satisfaction in smashing up the mechanical "jury" that convicted him). Finally, he confronts Kray-Tor himself.

What follows is another good example of Starlin's use of counterpoint: Warlock makes a high-minded speech about opposing injustice ("I realize that this accursed gem upon my brow was sent to me by some power, beyond my comprehension, for a purpose! That purpose... to destroy evil such as yourself!"), while simultaneously, we hear the seductive voice of the vampire gem itself ("Yes, release me! It will be good! Yes, so good!").

This time, Adam not only allows the Soul Gem to steal his enemy's soul...

... he actively commands it!

As the gem absorbs Kray-Tor's soul, Adam is suddenly flooded with the Inquisitor's mind and memories; and gains a startling new perspective on things, as a result.

("He truly believed... what he did... was just! I threatened his beliefs! In his mind... I was a villain! Even worse yet... by stealing his soul... I proved him right...")

Warlock is overcome with the power of Kray-Tor's memories, commingled with his own guilt, and passes out. Re-enter the Matriarch, who gloats that she arranged this entire scenario as a way to render Warlock helpless.

Now comes the next stage of her plan: Adam's indoctrination.

The fourth chapter, "1000 Clowns!" (STRANGE TALES #181) is dedicated to legendary Marvel artist Steve Ditko. And sure enough, the story opens with Adam stranded in a psychedelic landscape that looks like it was pulled straight from one of Ditko's Doctor Strange epics.

Likewise, the title does not lie: Warlock is soon confronted by a horde of colorfully-garbed clowns, who welcome him to "The Land of the Way It Is!"

We soon learn that "The Land of the Way It Is" doesn't exist at all, except within Adam's own mind. He's actually still trapped in the Sacred Palace, having been plugged into a brainwashing machine by the Matriarch's scientists. It's Warlock's own strength of will that is twisting the programming; causing his captors to appear as clowns in his mind's eye.

I've already noted Jim Starlin's technique of couching scathing commentary within fairly obvious metaphors. Here, his targets are the voices of authority and conformity; those in power who want the masses to follow their agendas instead of thinking for themselves. The clowns try to convince Adam that his life will be much easier if he just follows the crowd instead of being such a rebel.

Needless to say: Warlock doesn't buy it.

One can't help but suspect that there's a personal element to this particular broadside, however. The head clown/scientist, "Prof. Teans", speaks in the familiar slang of Marvel head honcho Stan Lee. The other technicians also appear to be caricatures of real people; one looks an awful lot like the late Archie Goodwin, as a matter of fact.

It's certainly possible, of course, that Starlin just drew some of his colleagues into the story as a joke; he wouldn't be the first cartoonist to do so...

... but: there are other elements in the story that hint that even at this early stage, Starlin was becoming disenchanted with Marvel. (He would eventually leave the company and not come back until years later, when Marvel became more amenable to publishing work where the creator could keep the copyright).

[UNCA CHEEKS' ASIDE: I'll see JK's canny observation, and raise fifty. The head "clown" -- as JK has already noted -- goes by the full name of "Len Teans"; the letters of which re-scramble easily into S-t-a-n L-e-e. Another clown -- an "artistic" one -- is later introduced as "Jan Hartoomi"; a none-too-terribly-subtle anagram for J-o-h-n R-o-m-i-t-a.

[I mean: what are the freakin' odds, here...?]

In one telling sequence, we see an army of clowns building a gigantic, Babel-like tower out of trash. ("But it's a great tower of trash!" Teans assures us).

Finally, the tower collapses, killing the builders. Adam examines the wreckage, and is surprised to find a precious gem buried among the trash. "Oh, that stuff!" Teans snorts derisively. "We can't seem to keep it out of our refuse! Someone keeps putting it in while we're not looking!"

I don't think you have to strain very hard to interpret this as a swipe at the comics industry, in general; and Marvel, in particular -- cranking out huge piles of garbage, while the occasional quality "gems" (and the freelancers who create them) are cavalierly tossed aside.

Finally, Warlock is good and fed up, and demands to be shown to the exit. But Prof. Teans informs him that there's only one way out of The Land of the Way It Is...

... namely, the (Da Da Dum) Doorway to Madness!

Adam eagerly smashes down the door ("Better the freedom of madness than the imprisonment of this insane world!"), only to be confronted by a grinning purple beast that calls itself the Madness Monster.

Adam is uncharacteristically horrified and repulsed by the Monster, and immediately uncorks the Soul Gem to destroy it.

But the Madness Monster is unaffected, and Warlock realizes that it is not some alien creature, but in fact a portion of his own being, "the black section of my soul that... created the Magus!" And -- that being the case -- the only way to understand (and thuss defeat) the Magus is for Adam to accept the madness and evil in his soul.

"Fear me, and I'll destroy you," the Madness Monster declares. "Come to terms with me, and you shall be invincible!"

So Adam stops struggling. "You've always been with me, yet I've denied you! The gossamer veil of false morality has been lifted from my eyes! I now see you clearly! You're neither demon nor angel! You're merely a different point of view... no more than a different... reality!"

Warlock's epiphany causes the brainwashing apparatus to shatter, and he is back in the real world (or what passes for it)... just as Pip and Gamora break into the laboratory to "rescue" him. Adam informs them that he now understands the Magus... and that in the process, he has become "quite insane!"

Right on cue, the voice and image of the Magus fills the chamber, taunting Adam with his foreknowledge of events. "You still refuse to accept me as your future... just as I remember!" But Warlock is no longer fooled by this projected image, and we finally get a good look at the Magus' true form.

The Magus is, in fact, a near duplicate of Adam himself; except that his skin is purple instead of golden. (And -- oh, yes -- he sports a shocking white Afro that might've been the height of fashion in 1975, but looks more than a little silly now.)

And our sartorially challenged antagonist assures Adam that all his struggles have actually been a part of his master plan. "You've lost, Warlock! There is absolutely nothing you can do to change what is about to occur!"

Which seems as good a place as any to take a break, no?

J. Kevin Carrier -- world-class writer of independent funnybooks -- can be reached at JKCarrier@aol.com, where he fritters away entirely too much of his free time doing things other than additional columns for this site. The bastard.

WARLOCK (Page One)

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