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Marvel Two-In-One #63

May 1980
Mark Gruenwald, Jerry Bingham

Story Name:

Suffer not a Warlock to live


Synopsis

Marvel Two-In-One #63 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4.5 stars
In #61 Her abducted Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters to help her find Him. Starhawk and Moondragon sensed Her's cosmic power and involved themselves. Moondragon told Her that Him became Adam Warlock, but died and is buried on Counter-Earth. So Moondragon flew Her and Alicia to Counter-Earth in her spaceship.
In #62 Thing and Starhawk followed in the Fantastic Four's Skrull saucer. But they all found Counter-Earth missing and only its artificial Moon remained. And inside they discovered the lifeless body of the High Evolutionary (who created the planet and moon). In the middle of all this male Starhawk transformed into his female version Aleta. Her revived HE and he told them how Warlock had turned up 1 day and accused *him* of destroying Counter-Earth, although at that time the Evolutionary could plainly see that the planet was still there. But Adam 'killed' him and left (to meet Thanos and his death in Avengers Annual #7 and our Annual #2). But now it seemed Counter-Earth really has gone, and HE detected the trail of someone taking it away.

In this issue they've used High Evolutionary's moon base to follow the trail across the Galaxy and found Counter-Earth surrounded by linked 'moons' which are the towing ships. HE's sensors detect life in all of the moons. Then Aleta reverts to Starhawk and declares, as the 'One Who Knows', that the moon over the North Pole is the command ship. He also 'recommends' that Evolutionary stay behind as backup while the other 5 go investigate. But Thing won't let Alicia go into more danger, and he's staying with her. So only Her, Moondragon and Starhawk get teleported into the moon.

Inside they run into 3 giant aliens and impulsive Her leaps to the attack, forcing the other 2 to follow because Moondragon's telepathy fails to tell whether or not they are hostile. Her and Starhawk take down 1 each and Moondragon's psionic blast deals with the other, which boosts Heather Douglas' ego a little bit. The haughty Titan priestess has been feeling inferior to Her, which she definitely isn't used to. Her and Starhawk zoom through the rest of the ship blasting more aliens, with Moondragon racing to keep up.

Thing is feeling guilty about not helping the others when it's taken out of his hands as he, Alicia and Herbert George Wyndham are teleported to the same moon. The giant who greets them announces he is Sphinxor, boss of the Prime Movers of Tarkus. HGW expands to the same size to talk to the guy who says he learned his English from transmissions of TV sitcoms. The other 3 finally make it to the control room but Wyndham tells them to stand down.

Sphinxor explains that they were contracted to deliver Counter-Earth to beings called the Beyonders. They detected the planet as High Evolutionary was building it, and sent him to monitor proceedings. When Sphinxor saw Warlock get involved (Marvel Premiere #1) he knew he'd have to get Adam out of the way before they could steal the place. So when  Warlock was killed and resurrected (Hulk #177-178) he took the opportunity to unleash the Adam's Soul Gem's soul-stealing appetite. Warlock left the Solar System and Sphinxor went to bring in his Prime Movers. But when they got here they found Adam was returning, so the alien tweaked the Gem again so that Warlock *thought* he was now larger than the Solar System, and left again (Warlock #14-15). But the effect wore off as Adam returned again (Marvel Team-Up #55) so Sphinxor tried another illusion, that Counter-Earth was already gone (last issue's flashback) which had the bonus effect of Warlock 'killing' Wyndham before leaving again. With both chars out of the way The Prime Movers could start the move.

Sphinxor also claims that he doesn't know what the Beyonders want with the world, but he's not going to cross someone as powerful as they are. At this point HGW says he wants his planet delivered to the Beyonders. He now admits that his creation is flawed and unstable, but maybe these super-powerful guys can fix it. And in addition he wants to go with it to meet these supreme beings, to satisfy his scientific curiosity.

HGW also stipulates that his companions be allowed to beam down to the planet to do what they came for. Sphinxor is reluctant because he'd have to switch off part of the stasis field which keeps all life down there in suspended animation, and that would slow them down. So Ben Grimm persuades him to change his mind. Moondragon provides the coordinates and the 5 are ported down to the graves of Adam and his friends Gamora and Pip the Troll.

Her exerts her power and raises Warlock's body from the grave. He is the only other member of her 'race' (both created by the same process), and she expects him to be her mate. But then she realises he is nothing without his soul, and she returns him to peace. (An editorial comment reminds us that Adam's soul is now inside the Soul Gem, and tells us that the Gardener now has the Gem. This has only just been seen in Hulk #247 out the same month as this issue, and in #248 Gardener will reveal that he took it from Warlock's grave.)

Grieving Her flies off into space, and the others prepare to return home.



 

Review / Commentaries


Marvel Two-In-One #63 Review by (May 15, 2020)
Mark Gruenwald is here doing what he did best - combining diverse characters from all over the Marvel Universe and rationalising loose ends.

Him was created in a cocoon by the scientists of the Enclave in the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four #67. The High Evolutionary is another Lee/Kirby creation from Thor #134. Roy Thomas combined them in Marvel Premiere #1 where HE created Counter-Earth and gave Him his Soul Gem and the name and costume of Adam Warlock to protect his world.

In Hulk Annual #6 the surviving Enclave scientists created another cocoon-born man Paragon. But he retreated into his cocoon and re-emerged 2 issues ago as Her, the female version of Him (same blond hair and golden skin and a red swimsuit to match Him's red trunks).

Starhawk 1st appeared (courtesy of Steve Gerber) joining the Guardians Of The Galaxy of an alternate 31st Century in Defenders #27-29. His body-sharing with his wife Aleta was revealed in Marvel Presents #4, and it will be explained in GOTG#7. Right from the start he made pronouncements as the One Who Knows. This will be explained (but I don't remember where) as being because he's living his life over and over again in a time loop.
Starhawk is currently with the rest of the Guardians in the 20th Century since Avengers #167 where they came back in time seeking Korvac.

Moondragon was invented (as Madame MacEvil) in Iron Man #54 (the issue before Jim Starlin unveiled Thanos). Her Starlin origin in Daredevil #105 revealed that she was the daughter of Arthur Douglas who Thanos killed but was later reborn as his dedicated foe Drax The Destroyer. Young Heather Douglas was rescued by Thanos' father Mentor and raised on their world Titan, moon of Saturn, as a priestess. She has been associated with the Avengers but considers herself too good for them.

We've seen Sphinxor before as the narrator of Warlock's backstory in Strange Tales #178. At that time writer Starlin mentioned nothing of his involvement in Adam's life (because of course Gruenwald hadn't thought of it yet). Mark here sorts out some problems in Warlock's history:- Why did the Soul Gem turn vampiric in Strange Tales? Why did Adam 'really' become impossibly huge in Warlock #14? And what happened between him heading for Counter-Earth at the end of Marvel Team-Up #55 and not mentioning it in Avengers Annual #7?
And as a throwaway bit Mark invents the Beyonders who will go on eventually to destroy the multiverse in the lead-up to Secret Wars III!

Thing and Alicia Masters will continue with more issues of this series.

Adam Warlock will eventually be reborn with his 2 pals in Silver Surfer (1997) #46 just in time to oppose Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet event.

Her will have her own tale in Marvel Comics Presents #35 and aid Alpha Flight in their #97-101. Then she'll seek out the reborn Warlock in Quasar #27, but he still doesn't want to be her mate.

Moondragon will take over an Avengers lineup change in Av#211 and meet up with her 'father' Drax in Thor #314. After other stuff including a long run in Defenders she'll become a supporting char in Quasar, including the visit from Her.

Starhawk will return to the Guardians and be with them in #69 of this series where Vance Astro meets his younger self Vance Astrovik, thus diverging their futures. (In the main 616 timeline young Vance will become Justice of the New Warriors.) Then the Guardians return to their own future.
Eventually (1991) they'll get embroiled in a time-spanning Korvac Quest crossover in Fantastic Four Annual #24, Thor An#16, Silver Surfer An#4 and their own An#1, leading to their own (1990) 1st series set in that future.
Aleta will be involved in the future-based issues.

High Evolutionary will have his mind blown by meeting the Beyonders and return to Earth in Hulk #266 trying to commit suicide-by-Hulk. He'll then run his own Evolutionary War event running through all the 1988 Annuals.

Sphinxor isn't seen again unless he's the Pegasusian in the alien crowd in Stranger's lab in Quasar #16 (also by Mark Gruenwald).

This is probably the end for this version of Counter-Earth. In Warlock & Infinity Watch #4 we learn that Thanos destroyed it while he had the Infinity Gauntlet.
High Evolutionary will have what is probably a new Counter-Earth in 2015's 5-issue Uncanny Avengers, which he has populated completely with his New Men.
In between times the Earth of the Heroes Reborn pocket dimension will be moved by Dr Doom into the 616 universe to occupy the Counter-Earth position in FF(1998)#25.



> Marvel Two-In-One comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Jerry Bingham
Gene Day
Roger Slifer
George Perez (Cover Penciler)
Terry Austin (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Joe Rosen.
Editor: Jim Salicrup. Editor-in-chief: Jim Shooter.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Moondragon
Moondragon

(Heather Douglas)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)

Plus: Aleta (Aleta Ogord), Her, Sphinxor, Starhawk (Stakar Ogord).