Adam Warlock Omnibus

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Illustrations), Gil Kane (Contributor)

Created by the utopian scientists of the Enclave and hatched from the imaginations of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, there came a being known only as…Him! And when this perfect being encountered the High Evolutionary, he gained a purpose, a Soul Gem and a Adam Warlock! His adventures will rock your world - and Counter-Earth too! Now, Warlock's complete original 1970s saga is collected in one volume. Featuring the first life (and death) of Adam Warlock, the debut of the Infinity Gems, the Magus saga, the all-time classic war against Thanos, the debut of Her, the resurrection of Adam Warlock and a massive treasure trove of bonus material! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #66-67, THOR (1966) #165-166, MARVEL PREMIERE #1-2, WARLOCK (1972) #1-15, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) #176-178 and ANNUAL #6, STRANGE TALES (1951) #178-181, MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #55, AVENGERS ANNUAL #7 and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1972) #61-63 and ANNUAL #2.

Genres: Comics, Fiction, Adventure, Graphic Novels

904 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2023

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Gary Sassaman]

As I’ve mentioned in the past (probably too much), I’m not much of a fan of the Omnibus format, but I’m slowly being converted. This latest acquisition—the Adam Warlock Omnibus—is the kind that really appeals to me: An almost-complete reprinting of a character’s run, in this case Adam Warlock. It starts in Fantastic Four and moves on to Thor, when Warlock was still called “Him,” then moves into the short-lived Roy Thomas/Gil Kane series (two issues of Marvel Premiere and eight of Warlock). Thomas and Kane didn’t last long, but Kane’s beautiful design of Warlock’s costume did, and Jim Starlin brought the character back in his usual cosmic fashion for a spectacular run in Strange Tales, continuing with Warlock issue #9. It’s all here, including various Marvel Team-up issues and the classic Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, which wraps up—fr the most part—the Warlock saga. There’s also a ton of original art and special features, like the Marvel Handbook Warlock-related pages and various covers from Warlock reprints. It’s a great package, and a pretty complete compilation of the character’s 1960s-1970s incarnation, pre-Infinity Gauntlet.

[Ramón S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best: Jim Starlin
The worst: a character with lack of constancy. A madman or better a mad Adam with tendency towards insanity

[Peter De Kinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read if you wonder about this character, and how it came to be. But the stories now feel very uncomplicated and dated.

[R E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember seeing Adam Warlock covers in the mid-to-late 70’s and being interested, but for whatever reason I didn’t pick one up. That’s ok because having the whole story here is likely a better experience. That’s especially true now that I have several decades behind me as an artist and can appreciate Jim Starlin’s accomplishments. When he brought the series back, Starlin was the writer, penciler, inker and colorist - and that total creative control shows in the astonishingly masterful, symphonic coordination of narrative, pacing, layout, composition, use of light and dark, “camera” angle, anatomical and linear perspective, and exquisite use of color. It’s a jaw-dropping accomplishment, veined through with sly wordplay (there’s a reference to a character called Sphinxor from the Pegasus star cluster (e.g. a horse’s ass)), as well as visual homages to Ditko and Kirby.

There’s also the origin of Adam in Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four #66/67, then more of Adam in their Thor #165/166. There’s also the Roy Thomas/Gil Kane Adam in Marvel Premier #1-2 and then in Warlock’s own series. Kane’s art is nothing to sneeze at and has its own masterful qualities (even if it doesn’t quite hit the same mark as Starlin’s) and there’s some gorgeous black and white photostats reproduced in the final pages of his, Kirby’s and Starlin’s art. There’s also photocopies of the “lost” Warlock issue penciled by Alan Weiss, showing off his beautiful and masterful drawing style - something that doesn’t always come through in the finished product.

More than anything, this is a story that - having been made up on the fly (as so many comics were in the 60’s) - ends up having an thoroughly satisfying narrative arc (even through the trauma and pain experienced by the title character). Absolutely wonderful.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good stuff outnumbered by plenty that is not so good. And unfortunately, I didn't think the good stuff was really great. Unless you grew up with this, it's hard to recommend this. These books were before my time; I didn't get into Marvel Comics until Adam Warlock's return in the 90s.

It was nice to see some of the first appearances of some of the big players in the Infinity Watch era, like Magus, Pip, Gamora. I also enjoyed seeing the appearances from Kray-Tor, a distinctly recognizable character with no dialogue in some of those 90s comics. But in a lot of these appearances, I was underwhelmed. Gamora as comic relief sometimes-ditz was especially disappointing, with some especially bad lines like: "Well, Gamora, it appears you got your buxom young self out of that section of the space arc just in time!"

Thanos is here as well, in some of his early appearances, but not the earliest (look up Captain Marvel instead). Some of Thanos's key canonical events that are mentioned in the 90s series are here, so it's decent background for Infinity Gauntlet. But again, these are not really great works most of the time. They were better in my imagination. Kind of like the experience of watching the Star Wars prequels: yeah, it's great that it's Star Wars, but it's kind of bad, and oh no, does that mean the original Star Wars material was also bad?

[Ernie Pelletier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific stories that were the basis for many of the best elements of the Marvel movies. And now the character himself has been introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy.

This oversize volume contains the origin and early appearances of Adam Warlock, including the Counter Earth stories. But the real highlight are the deeply personal cosmic tales told by writer/artist Jim Starlin. I was reading these individual issues as they appeared on neighborhood spinner racks, and the Starlin issues were like nothing else on the stands. Next level storytelling. Highly recommended!