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Infinity War

Adam Warlock – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

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 February 2023 with titles scheduled for release through July 2023.

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

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Book Club: Introduction & Syllabus

March 29, 2018 by krisis

It’s a new month, and FanGirl and I are bringing you another comic book reading club! This month, we’re diving right into the heart of the Marvel Universe with Jonathan Hickman’s 2013-2015 run on Avengers and New Avengers. Some of the elements of this run are reflected in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War film, including Thanos’s Black Order.

Learn more about our book club, including the material and schedule, in our video syllabus.

The Schedule

  • 3 April: Avengers #1-13 & New Avengers #1-6
  • 10 April: “Infinity” – Infinity #1-6, Avengers #14-23, New Avengers #7-12
  • 17 April: Avengers #24-34 & New Avengers #13-23
  • 24 April: “Time Runs Out” – Avengers #35-44 & New Avengers #24-33
  • 1 May: Secret Wars #0-9

Visit The Guide to Avengers Flagships, 2010 -Present for collection information for this run.

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: Avengers, Avengers by Hickman Book Club, Infinity War, Jonathan Hickman

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

Collecting Marvel Universe Events as graphic novels

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 November 2018 with titles scheduled for release through February 2019.

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 Collecting Marvel Universe Events as graphic novels

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