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Infinity Gauntlet

Adam Warlock – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Mar 19, 2025! The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Marvel’s Adam Warlock (and his counterpart Magus) in omnibus, hardcover, trade paperback, and digital. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2054.

Adam Warlock is Marvel’s cosmic savior and destroyer all rolled up into one. He’s also one of the keys to the formation of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy as we know them from the MCU.Adam Warlock on the cover of Infinity Wars (2018) Infinity

You would never be able to guess that from his first appearance as a gross, throbbing cocoon incubating the lab-grown progeny of a group of intellectual supremacists. The cocoon opens to reveal a naive golden-skinned god with cosmic power, whose early instincts are to flee Earth (though he returns to find himself a mate).

On one of his early flights from Earth, Warlock encounters the man who he would come to think of as a father – The High Evolutionary. Evolutionary had just created his Counter-Earth with its sped up evolution creating a dark mirror of our own history. In an on-the-nose biblical allegory, one from High Evolutionary’s twisted creations, Man-Beast, had descended on the planet with plans to corrupt it. In response, he sent his newly adopted Space Jesus down to defeat Man-Beast – but not before imparting some important philosophy as well as pressing the Soul Gem into Warlock’s forehead.

That is the peculiar status quo of the first half of Warlock’s 1972 series. It is set entirely on Counter-Earth, away from Marvel’s familiar heroes and the potential sales boosts that come from their team-ups (although Hulk manages to drop by twice). Unsurprisingly, the title didn’t last long and was shuffled off into cancellation before it could finish its story, which was later completed in Incredible Hulk.

A year later, Jim Starlin brought Warlock back via Strange Tales, an anthology book on its death bed after the departure of its anchor Nick Fury into his own title. Starlin immediately broke Warlock out of his earthly confines to make him an intergalactic hero waging war on the Universal Church of Truth – inexplicably led by his own dark mirror, Magus.

Each of Starlin’s early issue is a powerful act of imagination and creation as he introduces Pip the Troll and Gamora in quick succession before bringing in his creation Thanos to launch Warlock back into his own series. Yet, once Starlin resolved his initial Church plot, the series meandered and was quickly cancelled for a second time. Starlin bid farewell to the trio of Warlock, Gamora, & Pip the Troll in a pair of Avengers and Marvel Two-in-One Annuals, after which they sat unused (and rarely-referenced) for nearly 15 years.

It was Starlin would would bring Warlock back to the limelight for Infinity Gauntlet, which served as the explosive reintroduction of Thanos to the Marvel Universe after a year of simmering plots in Silver Surfer. With the original Captain Marvel still dead, this solidified Warlock as Thanos’s signature opponent… and, sometimes, friend. Warlock regained his own title spinning out of the event, Warlock & The Infinity Watch, which is recognizable as a sort of proto-Guardians of the Galaxy thanks to includin Gamora & Drax amongst its members.

After the conclusion of Starlin’s Infinity Trilogy and the Infinity Watch series, Warlock once again lost his purpose at Marvel. He returned briefly in 1998, and Starlin used him to support Thanos again in 2002-2004, but there was a sense that Warlock’s character was too power and too unstable to use alongside any other Marvel heroes (though Dan Slott made a valiant effort in his She-Hulk).

That all changed in the wake of 2007’s Annihilation: Conquest. Hot of their second smash hit cosmic event in a row, writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning gathered together a squad of Marvel’s Bronze Age space heroes – including Warlock and Gamora – and dubbed them as the new Guardians of the Galaxy. Warlock was central to this team, and it was the first time he had been written at length by someone other than Starlin in over 30 years. Yet, once again he was shuffled off-stage as being too powerful and too mercurial for heroes to trust.

Warlock has made some occasional returns since 2010, including in a line of Thanos OGNs by Starlin and in the 2018 event Infinity Countdown & Infinity Wars. With renewed focus on the Infinity Stones thanks to the MCU Infinity Saga, event author Gerry Duggan brought back the Infinity Watch concept of Warlock as the shepherd of all six gems (though they may not want him). [Read more…] about Adam Warlock – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Crushing Comics, S01E03 – The Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus

November 3, 2017 by krisis

It’s my second random unwrapping of a brick of book from my hardcovers shelf, and today’s selection is a doozy – it’s Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet!

Watch as I recap the cosmic history of Jim Starlin and Silver Surfer, plus debate on if I’m going to remove the book from its plastic wrap.

Episode 3 features The Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus (Amazon / eBay) as covered by the Guide to Thanos and the Marvel Events Guide.

For an even more in depth look at this awesome book, check out this classic video from friend-of-CK Ryley Moore AKA “The Omnibus Collector.”

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Collected Editions, Crushing Comics, Infinity Gauntlet, Jim Starlin, Silver Surfer, Thanos

New Collecting Guide: Thanos, Marvel’s Mad Titan

September 13, 2016 by krisis

I’m happy to announce my first villainous comic guide – The Definitive Thanos Collecting Guide and Reading Order!

thanos-INFINITY2013004_GenThis guide isn’t only unique in focusing on a villain – it provides context for every one of Thanos’s significant comic appearances, so you can build your own ideal collection of Marvel’s Mad Titan.

Thanos made his cinematic debut in the post-credits scene in 2012’s The Avengers. From the explosion of fan fervor you’d never know that the multi-chinned purple villain had fewer than 200 in-continuity comic book appearances to his name at the time and had only once appeared in a monthly Avengers ongoing, over 35 years prior.

Originally a one-off 70s Iron Man villain, Thanos’s original notoriety came from his adoption by Jim Starlin, the creator behind the psychedelic space sagas of Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock. Thanos was the arch-nemesis of them both, but when Starlin’s initial run with Marvel wound down Thanos was shuttered along with Warlock and some of his supporting characters, revived only to usher Captain Marvel from this mortal coil in the classic Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel.

It was Starlin who again revived Thanos in the 90s during his run on Silver Surfer, this time as the only villain epic enough to assemble the entirety of Marvel’s heroes to fight him. Infinity Gauntlet was Marvel’s first linewide event with a featured mini-series plus tons of tie-ins that was centered on a singular foe. It was so successful that it spawned a pair of sequels in the following years.

After 1993, Thanos was finally unleashed on the Marvel Universe at large, but he was still used sparingly. Aside from an atypical run as a villain for Ka-Zar, Thanos stayed far away from the scrum of most of Marvel’s earthbound heroes for another 20 years! In that time he anchored another mini-series event, his own ongoing title, and was one of the main antagonists in Annihilation – the cosmic event that kicked off the line of stories that birthed Guardians of the Galaxy.

It wasn’t until Thanos’s cinematic debut that he entered the mainstream of Marvel, harassing the entire planet of heroes in Infinity while the Avengers were far afield in space. The result brought Thanos closer to the heart of Marvel’s storytelling than ever, with Jonathan Hickman using him as a central character in the run-up to Secret Wars.

Here’s the breakdown of all of Thanos’s major, most-essential appearances – each one is covered in the guide! [Read more…] about New Collecting Guide: Thanos, Marvel’s Mad Titan

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Infinity, Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #15, 14, and 13

June 13, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on ShelfWelcome to week two of my journey through the Top 50 Most-Wanted Omnibuses from Marvel, per an annual secret ballot conducted by major fan TigerEyes. I covered #20-16 in the last installment.

The books ranked from 15 to 1 are some of the most-consistently demanded Marvel material, although two thirds of it is already readily available in color. Particularly, this group of books shows how important cinematic depictions of the Marvel Universe have become even to long-time fans – every book corresponds to a specific screen property.

If you have any extra intelligence to add about the probable runs or opinions about the comics therein, please leave a comment! Even when it comes to X-Men, I’m far from a prohibitive expert on these books. I’d love to hear your perspective.

Want to learn more about the Marvel Omnibus editions that already exist and the issues they cover? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features every book, plus release dates, contents, and even breakdowns of $/page and what movies the books were released to support. [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #15, 14, and 13

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Adam Warlock, Apocalypse, Aunt May, Bob Layton, Brian Bendis, Collected Editions, Dazzler, Fall of the Mutants, Garth Ennis, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Jackson Guice, Jean Grey, Louise Simonson, Mark Bagley, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, MAX, Netflix, Omnibus, Punisher, Secret Wars, Spider-Man, Thanos, Ultimate Comics, Walter Simonson, X-Factor

Marvel Universe Events, Collecting Guide & Reading Order

Updated Apr 16, 2025. A comprehensive guide to line-wide Marvel Events – including story overviews, characters, issue lists, and how they can be read via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperbacks. Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

Marvel Events HandbookSecret Wars. Inferno. Age of Apocalypse. Civil War. Secret Invasion. Avengers vs. X-Men. When it comes to epic-sized comic book events, Marvel Comics is the all-time champion.

These line-wide Marvel Events are overarching stories that can involve dozens of Marvel heroes – if not all of them, all at once! Events occur as either or both of  direct crossovers between ongoing titles and special limited-series.

That can make them hard to keep track of, especially at the current rate of one or more events each year. It’s also hard to track down every issue or graphic novel. It’s easy to miss issues or buy the same comic in overlapping collections.

That’s why I created this page – it includes summaries, issue lists, and collection info for every major Marvel event, ever.

Click the links below to leap down the page to the corresponding section. I have omitted most line-specific crossovers with only one or two cross-line spinoffs, such as X-Men’s Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Hulks. [Read more…] about Marvel Universe Events, Collecting Guide & Reading Order

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