Hulk: Heart Of The Atom

Reprints Incredible Hulk #140, 148, 156, 202-203, 205-207, 246-248 and What If #23
Written by Harlan Ellison, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo and Peter Gillis.
Penciled by Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema.
Inked by John Severin, Joe Staton, Mike Esposito, Sal Trapani, Sam Grainger.

Variant cover.

Note from J.A. Morris:
I was in the process of reading Hulk: Heart Of The Atom when I learned of the death of longtime Marvel artist Herb Trimpe earlier this month. His artwork has meant a lot to me since I discovered it in Godzilla # 12. Shortly thereafter, I began buying back issues of Incredible Hulk, the series that most comic fans think of when they hear Trimpe's name. The book that's reviewed here today features some of Trimpe's finest work. This post is dedicated to the life and work of Herb Trimpe. I send my condolences to his family and friends.  

The Hulk has been shrunk down to a microscopic height by the villain Psyklop! He finds himself in a subatomic world called K'ai.

Hulk stumbles on a city that's is being attacked by giant pig-dogs called warthos and intervenes and saves the city. The people are grateful to Hulk and praise his heroics. Hulk is fascinated to see that this world is populated by people who are "green like hulk."

Warthos attack Hulk and pay the price!

A woman named Jarella is monarch of this realm and is immediately attracted to Hulk when she meets him. Jarella's sorcerers cast a spell on the Hulk that allows him retain Bruce Banner's intellect. Hulk and Jarella quickly fall in love. For the first time in quite a while, Bruce and the Hulk are happy.

Hulk smiles when he realizes the crowd is cheering for him and is made up of greenskinned people. 

Jarella's kingdom is threatened by a member of the royal family named Visis. He and his followers attempt a coup, but the Hulk foils their plans. Visis is put on trial for his actions. The Hulk spares his life but Visis is forced into permanent exile. After the trial, Hulk announces that he and Jarella will marry the next day.  

But this bliss is short-lived when Psyklop arrives, turns Hulk back to his normal size and captures him back into our world. Hulk battles Psyklop and is enraged that he was ripped away from Jarella. Hulk easily beats Psyklop and the villain is punished by the dark gods he works for. Hulk quickly forgets about his adventures in K'ai.

Psyklop frisks Hulk away from K'ai.

Some time after that, Physicist Dr. Peter Corbeau, an old friend of Bruce Banner, invents a device called the Starcore. It orbits the sun and Corbeau believes it can cure Banner of the Hulk through solar energy. The military captures Hulk and Corbeau successfully cures him with Starcore.

At the same time, Jarella is having trouble in K'ai. Visis has returned and is once again seeking to overthrow Jarella. She wishes Bruce Banner was there to protect her kingdom. So Jarella asks her sorcerers to send her to Earth so that she may contact Hulk. Visis is aware of this and sends an assassin named Fialan after Jarella. Fialan kills Jarella, which prompts Hulk to summarily execute Fialan.

Thankfully, Fialan killed a Life Model Decoy of Jarella, not the real one. But Jarella's entry into our world has caused solar flares which threaten to destroy Earth. Jarella selflessly returns to K'ai, knowing that it is the only way to save the planet.

Hulk later returns to Jarella's world and is shocked at what he discovers. Jarella has been overthrown and imprisoned by Visis, who tells Jarella he will spare the lives of her people if she agrees to marry him. Jarella reluctantly caves to his demands.

The Hulk arrives just in time to break up the ceremony. But Visis has a secret weapon. His chief assassin Krylar has a device that makes anyone's greatest fear materialize in front of them. Krylar turns this device on the Hulk and Ol' Greenskin is forced to confront his greatest fear...himself!

Hulk realizes that it's a hoax and defeats Krylar and Visis. Jarella regains her throne, but once again, Hulk grows back to his proper height and leaves K'ai.

The next time Hulk visits K'ai, he finds Jarella and her kingdom attacked by a new foe. K'ai has been hit by a series of earthquakes, caused by "the god of the mountain." Jarella's people are sacrificing her to the god in hopes that he will cease the earthquakes. Hulk saves her and decides to confront the god of the mountain.

Jarella & Hulk meet the "god of the mountain."

It turns out the god is a green giant. But the giant is no match for Hulk, who pummels it and discovers the god is actually a robot. It was all part of a scheme of Psyklop who has returned to K'ai for revenge.  Psyklop hypnotizes Hulk and makes him his slave. All of K'ai is endangered when the hypnosis makes Hulk believe everyone around him is Psyklop and attacks them. Thankfully, Jarella's wizards intervene with a spell that combats this effect, which saves K'ai.

After Psyklop is defeated, Hulk reverts back to his normal size, but this time Jarella travels to Earth with him. The portal back to K'ai is broken and Jarella finds herself trapped in Hulk's world, but Banner and Jarella are happy to be together.

Subsequently, Banner and Jarella are spending a pleasant day walking around Santa Fe, New Mexico.  But their happiness is short-lived. A mysterious scientist reactivates the robot known as Crypto-Man, who previously battled Thor, and sends it to rob a bank. Crypto-Man sees Jarella and attacks her, prompting Banner to Hulk-up. When Crypto-Man hurls a car into a building, it sends rubble flying in the direction of a little boy. Jarella pushes the boy out of the way but is buried under rubble.

Hulk finishes off Crypto-Man but is overcome with grief when he finds Jarella. He takes her to the Gamma Base to get medical attention from Doc Samson, but Jarella dies.

A grieving Hulk believes that if anyone can save Jarella, it's his friend Doctor Strange. He sets out for New York City, only to be attacked by jet fighters. This sets Hulk raging like never before. Every step he makes towards New York, he is attacked by planes or police. Finally, Strange arrives with Hulk's Defenders teammates in tow. This leads to a direct confrontation between Hulk and the Defenders. 

Thankfully, the Defenders convince Hulk they want to help him and the Hulk calms down. But he is heartbroken when Doctor Strange says his mystic powers cannot restore Jarella's life.

After he accepts Jarella's death, Hulk takes her back to K'ai to give her a proper burial. But this brings him into conflict with two very powerful beings:

Mar-Vell, the Kree warrior better known as Captain Marvel!

And the god-like Gardener, one of the Elders of the Universe!

Plus, a tale from an alternate reality where Jarella survived and married Hulk!

Review:
Hulk: Heart of the Atom contains some of the most memorable Hulk stories of the Bronze Age penciled by the two greatest Hulk artists of all time.

Story:
The major problem I have with this book is that it begins with a reprint of Incredible Hulk #140. This issue was the second part of a two-parter that began in Avengers #88. Why was this Avengers story not included? But what's in the book is very good. 

Hulk's first journey to K'ai, plotted by Roy Thomas and scripted by Harlan Ellison is excellent. I don't know which writer deserves more credit, but it's a great story. I've read it many times now and I still hope for it to end happily for the Hulk.  

The follow-up is credited to Archie Goodwin and Chris Claremont. It's a solid sequel to the first Jarella story, with the Hulk and his love once again being separated at the end. I was surprised to see Hulk kill Fialan in this story. It's worth noting that this story (cover dated February 1972) is Claremont's first writing credit at Marvel. It introduces Dr. Peter Corbeau, a character Claremont would bring back while writing Uncanny X-Men.

Len Wein wrote the next part of the book and his stories are also good. He gives us several nice scenes that show how much Hulk and Jarella love each other. Jarella's death is sad and well-written by Wein. I think her death is more sad because she's killed by a by a Z-list villain like Crypto-Man. If she was killed by one of the Hulk's top foes like Abomination or the Leader out for revenge, it would not have been as tragically random. We never even learn the identity of the scientist who controls Crypto-Man behind the scenes. Jarella selflessly gives her life to protect a child from flying rubble.

Wein makes a point of showing that the Hulk just wants to be left alone, especially when he's seeking help from Doctor Strange. But the Hulk responds to the police and fighter planes that hound him with perhaps his greatest rampage of all time. 

Bill Mantlo takes over as writer for the stories that deal with the burial of Jarella. I enjoyed Hulk's duels with Captain Marvel and Gardener. It's fun to watch Hulk pit his savage strength against cosmically powered beings and come out on top.

   
The final story in the book from What If #23 was written by Peter Gillis. We get to see what would've happened if Hulk and Jarella married and settled down in K'ai. More often than not "What If" stories in the Bronze Age had sad endings, but this one ends the book on a happy note (even if it's just an "imaginary" story).

Art:
The art in Hulk: Heart Of The Atom is excellent from beginning to end.

Herb Trimpe pencils the first part and does a great job visualizing Jarella's world.  When I think of Trimpe, the first thing that comes to mind is how great he was at drawing military vehicles and weapons.  But Trimpe's depiction of K'ai shows he was just as good when it came to drawing "fantasy and sorcery" environs.

Trimpe's pencils are embellished by several different inkers. They're all good, but I thought Sam Grainger's complimented Trimpe's work a bit more than the others.

Trimpe also penciled the What If? story that closes out the book.  

Sal Buscema was synonymous with the Hulk from 1975 to '85 and this book shows why. This is some of his best work on the series, especially the portion that deals with Jarella's death and the Hulk's reaction to her passing. Joe Staton, a great penciler in his own right, serves as inker for Buscema and they make a great art team.  

This scene below is one of the saddest and most powerful moments you'll ever see in a comic book. 

The first four panels are absolutely heartbreaking. But Buscema and Staton are also great at depicting the Hulk during the one the greatest rages of his long history. This scene, where the Hulk tries to rest on top of the Statue of Liberty is a good example:

Hulk hurls the Liberty Torch at fighter planes!

Great work by Buscema and Staton.

Buscema and Trimpe also do a nice job drawing warthos and other monstrous creatures that inhabit K'ai.

An unfortunate dragon learns (the hard way) that "Hulk is the strongest one there is!"

Extras:
The book contains entries for Jarella and the Gardener from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Hulk: Heart Of The Atom is a very good collection of stories that features some great art from Trimpe and Buscema. But the exclusion of Avengers #88 prevents it from getting a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

3.5 Sals.

The Avengers Versus Thanos

Reprints Iron Man (1968) #55, Captain Marvel (1968) #25-33, Marvel Feature (1971) #12, Daredevil (1964) #105-107, Avengers (1963) #125, Warlock (1972) #9-11, #15; Avengers Annual (1967) #7, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, material from Logan 's Run #6.
Written by Jim Starlin, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Scott Edelman and Mike Friederich.
Penciled by Jim Starlin, John Buscema, Mike Zeck, Bob Brown,Don Heck.
Inked by Jim Starlin, Mike Esposito, Chic Stone, Dave Cockrum, Pablo Marcos, Dan Green, Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, Don Perlin, Sal Trapani, Sal Buscema, Klaus Janson, Steve Leialoha, Josef Rubenstein and Mike Zeck.

Every Bronze Age adventure that featured Thanos, the mad Titan...and more!

A green-skined alien named Drax the Destroyer sends out a call for help. It's received by none other than Tony Stark, AKA the invincible Iron Man. Drax communicates with Stark telepathically, telling him about life on Titan, a moon of Saturn.

Titan is ruled by Mentor, who had two sons, Eros and Thanos. After Thanos attempted to take over Titan with weapons (which are banned on Titan), Drax was created to destroy Thanos. Drax warns Iron Man that Thanos and his minions, the Blood Brothers, are attacking Earth.

Iron Man answers Drax's call and flies off to rescue him, but he's attacked by the Blood Brothers. Iron Man is knocked out after a brief fight and taken to Thanos.

The Blood Brothers capture Iron Man & deliver him to Thanos.

Thanos introduces himself to Iron Man, telling the golden Avenger he has nearly conquered Titan and will soon conquer Earth. The heroes are imprisoned by Thanos and the Blood Brothers and all hope appears lost. But Titan's supercomputer, known as Isaac, comes to their rescue and frees Drax, who helps Iron Man defeat the Blood Brothers. Thanos' scheme is thwarted, but the villain escapes.

Iron Man meets Thanos.

Sometime later, Captain Marvel (AKA Mar-Vell of the Kree) is accused of murder. In reality, the killer was Super-Skrull, who used his shape-shifting power to disguise himself as Mar-Vell.

But Super-Skrull is merely a pawn of Thanos. This time, the Titan has a new ally: the personification of Death herself. He is on Earth to find the Cosmic Cube, a weapon which make him deadlier than ever.

Thanos recruits the Controller to act as his regent on Earth. The Controller has discs that he places on people which allow him to control their minds, as well as giving him the strength of everyone he controls. Some of his discs have been placed on powerful government officials.

While Controller takes over, Captain Marvel has been transported to another dimension, where he encounters a being named Eon. Captain Marvel undergoes a transformation. Eon makes him "Cosmically Aware." This makes him one with the universe and gives him the ability to uncover an adversary's weakness simply by thinking about it.

Mar-Vell's Cosmic Awareness helps him in his confrontation with the Controller. During their battle, Thanos observes them and tells Controller that he has failed. Thanos punishes the Controller by taking his life. Captain Marvel has won the round, but Thanos has succeeded in acquiring the Cosmic Cube.

Iron Man visits the site of his previous duel with Thanos and the Blood Brothers, in the Mohave Desert. The Blood Brothers are there as well and attack Stark. Thankfully for Iron Man, and the world itself, Ben Grimm, the Thing, arrives to help the Avenger. The Blood Brothers learn the meaning of "Clobberin' Time" when they wind up at the business end of Ben's fists.

In San Francisco, Daredevil stumbles on the secret hideout of Moondragon, who is Drax's daughter.  She tells DD that she fled Titan when Thanos took over and killed everyone. Moondragon says that she has come because San Francisco is under the control of Thanos. She used her psionic powers and genius intellect to create villains named Ramrod, Dark Messiah and Angar the Screamer to defend the city from Thanos.

When Daredevil tells her of their villainy, she realizes it was a mistake. But it's too late, as they are attacked by DD's corrupt law partner, Kerwin J. Broderick. He shoots Moondragon and then releases a giant named Terrex to attack San Francisco. Terrex was created by Titan scientists to be a doomsday device. Daredevil is out of his league dealing with a cosmic menace. Thankfully, Captain Marvel arrives to even up the odds agains Terrex.

With the Cosmic Cube under his control, Thanos attacks Earth once again. He sends a fleet of ships to the planet as well. But Thanos shows he is truly insane when he uses the Cube to become a god, disembodied and one with the universe.

Drax goes after Thanos, after the mad Titan has become a mad god.

The Avengers are chipping in against Thanos as well. Vision, Scarlet Witch, Mantis and Swordsman attack Thanos' fleet.

At this time, Captain Marvel wore nega-bands on his wrists. When he brought the bands together, he was sent to the Negative Zone and replaced by Rick Jones. Playing to Thanos' vanity, Rick says the mad Titan doesn't have the courage to fight Mar-Vell "man-to-man." Thanos takes corporeal form and duels Captain Marvel on Earth

This allows Mar-Vell to defeat Thanos. He destroys the Cosmic Cube, which destroys Thanos as well.

But Thanos returns, showing up on the same world as Adam Warlock. Thanos has sent his agent Gamora to keep tabs on Warlock, who is battling a genocidal deity known as the Magus. Thanos sees the Magus as the only threat to him and his goals and believes that only Warlock can take out the Magus.

Later, Thanos captures gems that will make him the most powerful being in the universe and sets out to destroy Earth once again. He will be met on the field of battle by the Avengers, Captain Marvel, Warlock, Spider-Man and the Thing!

The Avengers attack Thanos' fleet and are met by various aliens minions.

Plus, Drax defends the last flower on a planet from Thanos!

And if that's not enough, there's also a brief appearance by Spider-Man's old foe Kraven The Hunter!

Review:
There are so many pages in this book (453), so many characters, and so much going on that it's tough to review Avengers Versus Thanos without getting bogged down in every detail. I'll just cut to the chase and say it contains some of the Bronze Age's strongest stories and excellent art.

Mentor & Thanos introduce themselves to Rick Jones.

Story:
Jim Starlin created Thanos, his family, Titan, and wrote most of the stories here. Revisiting these stories,  I was impressed at how much of it was right there at the beginning. In the first story, we're told all about Titan, Thanos' origin, the creation of Drax. These were things Starlin wrote at the beginning, not retcons.

Thanos communicates to the Blood Brothers through the Cosmic Cube.

Of course what makes Thanos "special" is his worship of and love for Death. It's truly sick and creepy, perhaps even creepier when Death herself won't embrace him. He's not quite evil enough for her!
  
In addition to Starlin, the stories reprinted in Avengers Versus Thanos also contain contributions from several other Bronze Age heavy hitters.

Mike Friedrich wrote and/or scripted several tales in the tpb. Super-Skrull is one of my favorite villains, Friedrich makes good use of him here. Steve Englehart, the best Bronze Age Avengers writer, gives us a good action story from Avengers #125.

Prior to this tpb, I had never read the Daredevil stories written by Steve Gerber. I'm a big Gerber fan, but they're a step down in quality from the other chapters of the book. But it's not bad. Gerber brought his trademark zaniness to the stories and they serve as a bit of a breather from the cosmic level life and death drama found in the rest of Avengers Versus Thanos. This was an interesting time for DD's series, since it was set in San Francisco rather than New York.

Angar turns on Terrex, Matt Murdock prepares to attack without changing to Daredevil!

Lastly, Scott Edelman's contribution, "The Final Flower" was short (five pages) but very good.

Art:
Starlin's art evolves throughout the book. It's always good, but in the first story, you can see he's still figuring out how Thanos will look. Starlin also gives us some unconventional page layouts, like this one, there are more than 30 panels on the left side of the image!

And I love the way Starlin depicts the mind war between Moondragon and Thanos:

The story from Avengers #125 features pencils by John Buscema with inks by Dave Cockrum. Of course, Cockrum was a great penciler, so we see a nice combination of his and Buscema's art on display here.

Mike Zeck delivers some great pencils and inks too. He only contributed five pages of artwork, but Zeck leaves you wanting more.

The weakest art in the book is found in the Daredevil portion. Don Heck pencils it, with inks by Don Perlin and Sal Trapani. It looks like something from the Silver Age. The last of the Daredevil three-parter was penciled by Bob Brown with inks by Sal Buscema, and it's an improvement.

Black Widow, Daredevil & Moondragon tangle with Dark Messiah & Ramrod.

But the art is generally as great as the writing in Avengers Versus Thanos.

How Does It Look?:
Here's a scan from Captain Marvel #26:

And here's how it appears in Avengers Versus Thanos:

Extras:
A gallery of covers from previous reprints, all drawn by Starlin.

Spider-Man seeks the Thing's help in defending Earth & saving the Avengers from Thanos.

Avengers Versus Thanos contains stories that feature one of the greatest villains of all time in any medium. Jim Starlin was at the height of his storytelling powers and these tales are still as exciting today as they were 1970s.  Highly recommended.

4 Sals!

Marvel Masterworks: Warlock Volume 2

Reprints: Strange Tales #178-181, Warlock #9-15, Marvel Team-Up #55, Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2
Written by Jim Starlin and Bill Mantlo.
Penciled by Jim Starlin and John Byrne.
Inked by Al Milgrom, Steve Leialoha, Joe Rubenstein and Dave Hunt.

Adam Warlock is flying through space when he sees a woman fleeing in terror. He tries to defend her, but she is shot down by her pursuers. Warlock uses his Soul Gem on the men and takes their souls away. He uses the gem to resurrect the woman long enough to hear her story.

Adam Warlock discovers the Magus.

She was fleeing the Universal Church Of Truth, a religion that worships a being called the Magus, a genocidal madman who has destroyed worlds while preaching peace and love. Her crime was heresy. Warlock recalls that in Latin, Magus means magician...or Warlock! The Magus is his future self!

Warlock knows that he must destroy the Magus.  At the same time, he has grown fearful of the power of the Soul Gem. Each time he uses it in self-defense, it takes in the soul of its victims, and Warlock carries their souls with him.

He sets out to the Magus' Homeworld, but Adam is taken captured and imprisoned. He meets other prisoners and participates in a revolt. Among the prisoners is Pip the Troll, a vile self-centered individual. Pip becomes Warlock's travelling sidekick (and a source of comic relief for the reader). This leads Warlock into hand-to-hand combat with Autolycus, the general in charge of the prison. During their battle, the Soul Gem comes to life on its own and takes Autolycus' soul. This frightens Warlock. When Adam departs, he is accompanied by Pip.

When they arrive on Homeworld, Warlock is arrested and placed on trial for paganism. He meets the Matriarch, whose power in the Church is second only to the Magus himself. Matriarch has designs on overthrowing the Magus and taking over the church. She thinks killing Warlock will help her achieve this goal.

Warlock is put on trial. Check out the officers of the court.

During Warlock's trial, Pip meets a green-skinned woman named Gamora. She calls herself the most dangerous woman in the universe. Gamora is interested in Warlock because she believes only he can destroy the Magus. If Adam fails, Gamora tells Pip, she will kill Warlock. From time to time, Gamora contacts someone she calls "Master" and keeps him informed of Warlock's activities.

Warlock's trial is presided over by the bizarre Kray-Tor. The trial is a farce. Adam is convicted and sentenced to death. Then he uses the Soul Gem to take Kray-Tor's soul, but is overwhelmed by this process and passes out.

Matriarch then captures Warlock and throws him in pit where he will be brainwashed. But her attempts at brainwashing are unsuccessful and Warlock finally comes face to face with the Magus.

The Magus bears a striking similarity to Adam Warlock.

They battle, but since Warlock is his younger self, the Magus has Warlock's plan of attack memorized.  When it's obvious that Magus will win, Gamora summons her master, who turns out to be Thanos, the mad Titan! Thanos previously conquered his home on Titan and attempted to take over Earth as well.  His mission in life is to please the personification of Death herself.

Thanos arrives!

Thanos has foreseen that the Magus is the only being who can stop Thanos' plans of stellar genocide.

After dealing with the Magus, Warlock doesn't have much time to catch his breath. He's attacked by another godlike being who calls himself the Star Thief, who plans to remove every star from the sky!

Warlock protects the cosmos from Star Thief.

Sometime later, Spider-Man is launched into space in a rocket. He's in grave danger until the rocket is stopped by Adam Warlock. The rocket lands on the blue area of the moon, where Earthlings can breathe and walk around safely.

But as soon as they introduce themselves, Spidey and Warlock are attacked by the alien giant known as the Stranger! He wants Warlock's gem and will kill the heroes if that's what it takes to obtain it. Stranger throws Spider-Man into a tree miles away. The webhead is rescued by the Gardener, one of the Elders of the Universe. The Gardener also has a gem, but he uses it to cultivate his garden, not as a weapon.  But when the Gardener sees Warlock in trouble, he aids Adam in his battle against the Stranger.

Lastly, Warlock finds Gamoroa near death. She holds on long enough to tell him that Thanos has long wanted to wipe out everyone in the universe and that he now has the power to do so. Gamora says that Warlock is the only person Thanos fears.

Marvel, Moondragon, & the Avengers prepare to attack Thanos' armada.

 

Moondragon and Captain Marvel arrive at Avengers Mansion and warn the heroes that Earth is in great danger. Warlock then appears and tells the Avengers that Thanos is planning to commit stellar genocide. The mad Titan has gathered 5 gems like the one Warlock possesses. The gems will make Thanos more dangerous than ever.

Thor & Warlock battle Thanos.

To make matters worse, Thanos is accompanied by a space armada consisting of thousands of ships. Warlock will go into battle with the Avengers, Mar-Vell, Moondragon, Spider-Man and the Thing! But will that be enough to stop Thanos!

Review:
It's hard to summarize the stories contained in this hardcover without giving a blow-by-blow and revealing every plot detail.

Story:
Jim Starlin writes a fantastic story in this book. Warlock and others give lots of philosophical speeches about religion, peace, death, hypocrisy, but it never feels pretentious or melodramatic.

It also has plenty of humor in between the monologues about religion. The book opens with an alien named Sphinxor telling the reader that "Uncle Stan" asked him to get us caught up on Warlock's history:

In a similar page, Captain Marvel appears to explain Thanos' backstory to the readers:

It's a nice way of adding levity to a very serious story.

Pip the Troll also provides some humor, chiming in with some down to earth comments on the serious proceedings that surround him.  Pip takes center stage during "A Trollish Tale", which tells Pip's backstory.  

The villains here are as evil as it gets. Magus and Thanos are both cosmic genocidal madmen who want wipe out planets for different reasons. But neither ever comes off as a cartoonish bad guy.  

Starlin pokes fun and offers some criticism of Marvel in the story titled "1000 Clowns", which depicts clowns who act like and resemble Marvel bigwigs Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. The tale is dedicated to Steve Ditko and the art is reminiscent of his work.

Warlock meets Lentean, the "Head Clown."

The two-part Star Thief story could have been a letdown, coming after the Magus saga. But it's also excellent, as Starlin puts a god-level entity into a body that can't access the five senses. Plus, Star Thief creates a space shark and sends it after Warlock!

A space shark!  How cool is that!

As great as the Warlock solo stories are, the highlight of the book is the last part, featuring Warlock teaming up with the Avengers, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and Ben Grimm. This portion was originally published in Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2,  two of the best annuals ever published by Marvel. I liked the way Starlin wrote Spider-Man, too, knowing he was outclassed, but never giving up. In fact, Spidey's actions directly end the threat of Thanos.

Spidey & The Thing find Thanos' huge spaceship.

Bill Mantlo wrote the Spider-Man/Warlock Team-Up and it's also fun. It's another "Spidey in space" story and the battle between the cosmic heavy hitters is very exciting.

Art:
Starlin's pencils, embellished by several inkers, is absolutely gorgeous from start to finish. He creates many different cosmic settings here. Lots of bizarre aliens on display, all of them interesting to look at.

Starlin does some interesting things here with page layouts too. Check out this page, with text on the left side of the page.

 

And this "text-free" page here, when the Avengers attack Thanos' space ark:

Check out all those cool looking aliens!

In addition to Starlin's great art, the Marvel Team-Up story was penciled by John Byrne, another one of the Bronze Age's best artists. Byrne, with good inks by Dave Hunt, draws a great fight between Warlock, the Stranger and the Gardner, with Spider-Man caught in the middle.

How Does It Look?:
Fantastic. I don't own copies of all the original issues, but I found as scan from of them to compare with this reprint. Here's a page scanned from Strange Tales #178:

Thanks to Diversions Of The Groovy Kind for posting this scanned page.

Here's how it looks in Marvel Masterworks: Warlock Volume 2:

Looks pretty good to me.

Extras:
Marvel Masterworks: Warlock Volume 2 contains a good selection of bonus features.

Comics historian Jon B. Cooke, editor of Comic Book Artist magazine, writes a nice introduction. We get 21 pages of original art, 16 pages of  them from a "lost" Warlock story that was never published. It closes out with a gallery of covers drawn by Starlin.
  
Marvel Masterworks: Warlock Volume 2 features some of the best art and stories of the Bronze Age and is highly recommended. This collection proves that Jim Starlin was one of the greatest comic book storytellers of the 1970s.

Did I mention it also contains a Space Shark?!

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!