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!

Wolverine: First Cuts

Reprints X-Men Origins: Wolverine #1, Uncanny X-Men #118-119, Wolverine (1982) #1-2, Marvel Team-Up #83-85 and material from the Best Of Marvel Comics hc.
Written by Chris Yost, Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Penciled by Mark Texeira, John Byrne, Marshall Rogers Frank Miller and Sal Buscema.
Inked by Terry Austin, Steve Leialoha, Mark Texeira, Josef Rubenstein, Ricardo Villamonte and Randy Emberlin.

Three Bronze Age tales that introduce people who would be important in the life of Wolverine!

The X-Men sail into the Japanese port city Agarashima. The city is on fire and an earthquake has recently occured. Team leader Cyclops says they must visit Sunfire, a former X-Man so that they can remain in Japan legally.

Wolverine meets Mariko for the first time.

When they arrive at Sunfire's compound, Wolverine meets Sunfire's cousin Mariko Yashida. They are instantly attracted to one another. Wolverine and Mariko are having a pleasant conversation, when suddenly another earthquake hits. Wolverine saves Mariko while the house around them is reduced to rubble. Storm says the quake was likely man-made. 

The X-Men battle the Mandroids.

In the midst of this, the X-Men are attacked by Mandroids. They're easily defeated, but the real brains behind the threat has arrived: Moses Magnum, a criminal arms dealer who previously battled Spider-Man and Luke Cage. Magnum demands that he be appointed ruler of Japan. If his request is denied, he will sink the island nation. Can the X-Men stop Magnum before he destroys Japan?   

Next, Wolverine takes a leave of absence from the X-Men to visit Mariko in Tokyo. He has not heard from Mariko in months.  All his letters to her have been returned unopened and she will not take his phone calls.

Wolverine learns that Mariko is married and that her husband is abusive.

Upon arrival in Japan, Logan learns that Mariko has been forced to marry a man she does not love. Her father, Lord Shingen Harada has returned and arranged this marriage to a man named Noboru-Hideki, to settle a family debt.

Wolverine visits Mariko and finds that Noboru is abusing her. He's determined to exact revenge, but is attacked by ninjas who drug him with poisoned shurikens. 

When he wakes up, Wolverine is brought before Shingen. He says Wolverine is unworthy of his daughter's love and challenges him to a duel, with wooden bokan swords. Wolverine is still suffering from the effects of the poison, and Shingen is a master swordsman. The battle is brief and Shingen wins easily. He has succeeded in humiliating Wolverine in front of Mariko, who turns her back on Logan.

The Hand attacks Wolverine & Yukio.

Wolverine is dumped in an alley. A street gang finds the drugged, beaten-down Logan and attacks him.  But he's saved by a woman named Yukio, who takes down the gang with knives and martial arts. She claims to be a ronin, a samurai who serves no master. Wolverine is grateful to Yukio for saving his life and he feels they are very similar. Yukio is falling in love with Logan, but his heart is set on Mariko.  He will need Yukio's help if he wants to take down Shingen and win back Mariko's love. But can Yukio be trusted?

Viper's recent history is recounted.

Lastly,we get the first ever team-up of Viper and Silver Samurai! Viper has hypnotized SHIELD agents and has taken over their Helicarrier base. She plans to crash it into the United States Capitol while Pres. Carter is giving a speech. Viper believes it will encourage the smaller nations of the world to rise up and destroy the U.S..

Silver Samurai & Boomerang battle the heroes and teleport away.

But all hope is not lost. Spider-Man, Black Widow, Shang Chi (Master Of Kung Fu) and SHIELD chief Nick Fury have teamed up to thwart Viper's scheme. If they want to stop her, they'll have to get through Silver Samurai and Boomerang first!

Shang Chi takes on Boomerang on the Hellicarrier.

Review:
As the cover image would indicate, Wolverine: First Cuts features stories that introduce characters featured in the 2013 movie The Wolverine. It's an odd hodgepodge of stories (see the "Extras" section below for specifics) from all over Wolverine's history. As per usual, this review focuses on the Bronze Age stories contained in this tpb.

Story:
The two-part X-men story is pretty good. It's from a long-ish arc from X-men that ran from 114 through 125. The X-men are presumed dead and go on a "World Tour" that will eventually take them home.  Mariko's introduction is a small part of this story. But it's an important step in Wolverine's growth from animalistic killing machine to complicated hero. Chris Claremont and John Byrne give us a solid story here that features plenty of action.

The X-men attack Moses Magnum, Wolverine gets slapped around.

Moses Magnum is hardly an A-list villain, but he works okay here. These stories have been reprinted several times in Masterworks and Omnibuses, but the non-completists will appreciate their inclusion. I hadn't read it in 20+ years and it holds up pretty well. It's not exactly essential, but it's a good "battle" issue, and it includes Banshee's finest moment as a superhero.  

I've always been a sucker for stories that take place at Christmas time, so that was a nice touch.

Banshee is released from the hospital, just in time to celebrate Christmas.

The second portion comes from the 1982 Wolverine miniseries, but we only get reprints of the first two issues. I recently reviewed the book that reprints the whole series here, so I won't go into detail about the content. At the end of the reprint from #2, we get an ad that directs the reader to buy the book that reprints the whole series. You'd think Marvel could have reprinted the whole miniseries here (and included the follow-up story) and just raised the price by a buck or two, but no. Feels sort of like making readers buy the same material twice.

The highlight of the book is a story that does not feature Wolverine at all. The reprints from Marvel Team-Up #83-85 are here because they feature the first time Viper worked with Silver Samurai. It's a three-part epic, with heroes taking on three villains. Claremont writes this as well, though we get a much different dynamic between the Viper & the Samurai than we're used to. She treats him like a hired thug, whereas they treat each other more less equally when they later battle the X-Men and the New Mutants.

Another nice part of this is story is that it mentions John Belushi...twice! In the Silver Samurai's previous appearance (Marvel Team-Up #74), he attacked Belushi on the set of Saturday Night Live.  This is discussed in two separate flashbacks. As a big fan of the original SNL cast, I think Belushi would get a kick out of being referenced twice in a reprint book published 30+ years after his passing.   

Art:
The X-Men story features pencils by John Byrne inked by Terry Austin. They're one of the all-time great art teams and they were hitting their stride here.  Simply gorgeous.

The Wolverine portion contains art by Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein that I gushed over in my earlier review.

Lastly, the Marvel Team-Up story simply credits Sal Buscema and Steve Leialoha as "artists". I don't see a lot of Buscema here. Perhaps Sal drew some rough breakdowns, because all the faces certainly look like they're drawn by Leialoha. I'm geneally not a big fan of his penciling, but Leiloha does a nice job here. They make a good art team.

How does it look?:

Looks fine to me, and here's another scan:

Extras:

We get stories published after the Bronze Age, plus entries from The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe for several characters. 

Wolverine:First Cuts would be a better book if it included the whole miniseries. The X-Men story can be found elsewhere. The inclusion of the Marvel Team-Up story makes it worth reading, but it shouldn't be at the top of your Bronze Age Reprint reading list. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Sals.