Marvel 1975.02 - Strange Tales #178

Strange Tales #178

Title(s): Who is Adam Warlock?

Enter the Magus

The Secret of the Magus

Writer: Jim Starlin

Artist: Jim Starlin

Villain: Magus

Flashbacks: Thor, Hulk, High Evolutionary, Man-Beast

You know that a comic is truly great if you can remember buying it. I remember the day I bought Strange Tales #178. I can't remember the exact date, but it was a Saturday. I was checking the comics at a small kiosk at the top of Walsall Bus Station in St. Paul's Street. The whole area has been rebuilt since then, but I can point at the exact spot where the kiosk used to stand. At the time I'd stopped reading Strange Tales because it had turned into a horror magazine. I remember seeing Strange Tales #178 hanging in a rack, and the cover (shown above) was so amazing that I had to take a closer look. I opened it up, and the artwork inside the comic was just as good, so I bought it, even though I'd never been a fan of the original Warlock series.

From this day on, Strange Tales and Warlock's subsequent solo comic became one of my favourite series. I was dazzled not just by the artwork, but also by the epic stories. Jim Starlin became my favourite artist and one of my favourite writers.

The comic is divided into three chapters. The first chapter, "Who is Adam Warlock", is a recap of his past history, from his first appearance in Fantastic Four #66, continuing through his own series and his guest appearances in other comics.

In the second chapter, "Enter the Magus", Warlock is standing alone on a small moon, when a woman falls at his feet and begs for his help. She's fleeing from agents of the Universal Church of Truth. She's considered a heretic and needs to be killed. Warlock kills the agents, but not before they succeed in murdering her.

In Warlock's first solo adventure, Marvel Premiere #1, the High Evolutionary gave Warlock a stone called the soul gem to wear on his forehead. In the following stories it was merely used for firing power blasts. That's probably all Roy Thomas intended at the time. It was just a weapon. In this story Jim Starlin develops it further.

Warlock says, "I've long realised that there is more power in this soul gem than I've ever dared utilise. For this dark jewel draws its strength from the sinister chaotic ends of infinity, and such power is to be feared".

He uses the soul gem to raise the woman from the dead to ask her about the Universal Church of Truth. She resents being brought back to life, but she gives Warlock the information he wants. The church was founded by someone called the Magus 5000 years ago. It preaches peace and love, but anyone who denies that Magus is God is killed. Whole planets have been destroyed if the population refused to believe. The church's leader, the Matriarch, is cruel beyond words.

In the third chapter, "The Secret of the Magus", the Magus himself appears to speak to Warlock. Over the following few pages Warlock battles countless creatures, but then stops, realising that he's only fighting his own inner demons. The Magus tells Warlock that they're one and the same being. Magus is the Latin word for Warlock.

The Magus disappears, and Warlock realises he has to battle himself.