Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #37 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
On the planet Luarei a young lad is practising with a fighting staff he's found. His parents make him lead them to where he found a 'sleeping' man, who we might recognise as Firelord. (His staff is usually flaming at both ends, but then he's usually on fire as well.)
In his chamber in a castle on Monster Island on Earth, Adam Warlock continues to mope over his lost love Maya. He stops himself from using the Orb Of Eternity to see again how she's doing married to Darklore, and tells himself to get a grip on reality. But at that point his sanity is threatened by the return of the spectre that haunts him (in #34-35), again pleading for help but this time declaring itself to be Firelord. Still doubting himself Adam uses the light of truth from his Soul Gem to settle the matter.
It is indeed Pyreus Kril and he tells Adam of his recent history. In Silver Surfer Annual #7 he lost his lifelong friend Gabriel Lan (strictly speaking only a robot replica of him). He wandered the universe in sadness, eventually landing on Luarei where he met a human-looking stranger who promised to assuage his pain. But instead he stole his lifeforce. However Firelord's soul survived and followed the man here to Earth.
Meanwhile Gamora and Maxam are arguing as usual. He believes that Warlock has abandoned leadership due to his lovesick
brooding over Maya. She of course defends the man *she* loves with a
promise of violence. Drax the Destroyer steps between them because in-fighting is bad for team morale. Moondragon wonders (fearfully) if Drax is evolving out of his simple innocence. Pip the Troll jokingly suggests that Drax would make a better leader those 2 (or Adam?). Adam joins them to say that they have a new mission. But his apparent decisiveness is undercut when he admits he doesn't know where they need to go.
The mystery man is in Pittsburgh (where we saw him stealing a lifeforce in #35). He's regaling a bar's clientele with a long-winded and long-worded tale of how he defeated someone in a fight. Some bikers are privately of the opinion the wimp couldn't defeat anybody, but as long as he's buying the beers they'll listen. Then the Infinity Watch arrive, transported by Pip's Space Gem but guided by Warlock's Soul Gem. Adam accuses the man of murder. A biker asks if the victim was a woman or a child. When Warlock tells them it was a mighty warrior they figure that's OK, and they'll fight to defend him. A melee ensues with Adam ordering his team not to kill anyone.
Meanwhile we see that Firelord's soul is in Soul World inside Warlock's Soul Gem. It seems to him not to be quite the tranquil place he'd heard about. And we see that Kray-Tor has been corrupted by his exposure to the villainous Abyss (#33) and he intends to escape from Soul World.
On Luarei the inhabitants see that dead Firelord doesn't look like them. They wonder if he is 1 of the mythical Stargods. Finally they decide to give him a fitting funeral.
In the bar the fight has ended with the drinkers unconscious but, as Gamora points out, none of them dead. However the stranger they sought is missing. We see him fleeing and thinking of our heroes as blasphemous heathens. But Drax catches up with him and tells him off for being a bad man. However the stranger turns on the charm we've seen before and reminds him of his brain-damaged forgetful state. Drax protests that he's getting better but the villain offers to cure him quickly if they shake hands.
But Warlock interrupts the deal because he's seen what happened to Firelord. The man transforms into super-villain garb and names himself Zakaius. He declares Warlock a sinner and hurls a fireball at him, which Adam easily deflects with his staff. They start to fight and a man hastily abandons his nearby petrol tanker. The rest of the Watch turn up and prove equally immune to fireballs or adept at avoiding them. But 1 of course strikes the tanker which explodes. And Zakaius seems immediately to repent the devastation he's caused.