Warlock and the Infinity Watch #3: Review

Apr 1992

Jim Starlin, Rick Leonardi

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

High Evolutionary

Review & Comments

Rating:

Warlock and the Infinity Watch #3 Review by Rob Johnson (July 17, 2021)

Adam Warlock claims he won't be able to do the death and resurrection trick with his cocoon again, that enabled him to defeat the Man-Beast on Counter-Earth. But actually he'll do it at least once more in the future, during his stay in the Ultraverse. And there are plenty of times when he'll retreat into his cocoon to recover from near-death.

The High Evolutionary was introduced in Thor #134-135 on Mount Wundagore with his New Men, but he's since been given loads of pre-history. His conversion to a cosmic being that Warlock knows about would be in Tales To Astonish (Hulk) #94-96. But he returned from that state before he met Adam in Marvel Premiere #1.
After many other adventures, including another stint of cosmic-ness, he created Nobilus from Thor's DNA (Thor #422). It was after then that he witnessed the birth of a Celestial out of the living Black Galaxy (#424) and lost his mind. He and Nobilus made a cameo farewell to Thor in #425 and then came to this issue.

In #5 we'll discover that the 2 armoured chars capturing Drax and Pip are the Man-Beast, sworn enemy of Warlock and the Evolutionary, and his right-hand flunky Triax.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Warlock and the Infinity Watch #3 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

In #1 Adam Warlock agreed to give up the Infinity Gauntlet and the god-like status it entailed. But he was allowed to distribute the 6 Infinity Gems between himself and 5 others. Last issue he formed the Infinity Watch. He kept his Soul Gem but gave the Power Gem to Drax The Destroyer, the Time Gem to Gamora, the Mind Gem to Moondragon and the Space Gem to Pip The Troll. The recipient of the Reality Gem is so far unrevealed. Then the members of the Watch split up.

Adam has come seeking his old mentor the High Evolutionary but he is attacked by HE's upright beasts the New Men and 1 human-seeming man. As he defeats them with his staff the human recognises him but believed him dead. Then Warlock enters a cave where he expects to find his friend. (He recently had godlike omniscience so he knew where everyone was.) Descending he remembers Herbert Edgar Wyndham giving him a purpose in life, to defend his creation Counter-Earth against corruption by the evil Man-Beast. He also recalls some HEW history (for our benefit) - how he uplifted animals to humanoid New Men (including unfortunately the Man-Beast) and turned himself into a cosmic being (and back).

Now Adam reaches a hidden laboratory where he sees the Evolutionary at work. He calls out to his friend whose monitoring of cosmic doings will undoubtedly have kept him informed of Warlock's own recent rise to godhood and back. He wants his advice on readjusting to fleshly life, and avoiding the suicidal tendencies he had long ago (in Jim Starlin's 1st Warlock run). He tells HE that he had found peace on Soul World within the Soul Gem but he gave that up to stop Thanos using the Infinity Gems. But Wyndham doesn't answer him. Adam removes the faceplate of his mentor's armour and uncovers a blank-eyed face babbling nonsense rhymes.

On Earth the Human Torch and Mr Fantastic have found their Fantasti-Car embedded in the side of an apartment block. They can't understand how it got there from Four Freedoms Plaza, nor how someone has apparently managed to steal an Avengers quinjet. We see that the guilty party (in both incidents) is Pip enjoying using the Space Gem to teleport into places and steal stuff. Then an armoured being plummets through the plane, destroying it and flying off with unconscious Pip - reporting success.

Back in HEW's lab the human has introduced himself as Nobilus and explained that Herbert's mind was shattered when he witnessed the birth of a Celestial (Thor #424). Getting him to medical help has been impossible because they've been on the run from an unknown gang of cyborg warriors seeking the Evolutionary's death. Their spaceship just managed to limp to this abandoned lab and here they'll have to make their last stand.

Time for an interlude near Saturn where a spaceship has tracked down Drax and his Power Gem. They hail him pretending to be in trouble. The dim-witted but good-hearted Destroyer would like to help but he's on the way back to Titan to watch Alf cartoons. But then the spaceship's occupants offer him a complete Alf video collection as a reward. He enters and a different armoured figure greets him with some flowers to smell - which put him to sleep.

Back in the lab the Evolutionary demonstrates his latest invention, a machine that will self-destruct as soon as you switch it on. He touts it as the ultimate in planned obsolescence which companies have been searching for. Then an alarm goes off to alert them that a load of cyborg warriors have just teleported to the cave entrance. Warlock coldly tells Nobilus to send the New Men out (to their deaths) to fight the foes so he can study their capabilities. The loyal New Men do it for the good of their creator. Adam watches them get slaughtered and deduces that he probably can't stand against the foe. As the warriors enter the cave Nobilus turns to find Warlock gone.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::