Warlock: Second Coming by author Greg Pak, Illustrations Charlie Adlard
Warlock: Second Coming is a Marvel 4 issue miniseries by Greg Pak about Adam Warlock. Kind of.
I picked this up after finishing Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet. Adam Warlock plays a huge role in those story lines and I thought it would be interesting to read more of his stuff.
I sometimes enjoy Greg Pak’s writing and figured this would be an absolute win!
Here’s the thing, it’s not really about Adam Warlock, not exactly.
It’s about a young woman named Janie who has taken an internship with what she thinks is a movie about Warlock. She’s tasked with upgrading his design for a new generation. This is a strange meta plot that occasionally happens it comic books. Where heroes that are real in that universe are also celebrities and have media made about them.
However, this ain’t a movie, this is the real deal. She’s actually designing a new Warlock, being created by scientists mad with power! I guess kind of like one of the unmanned Iron Man drones but Warlock themed.
Warlock is supposed to be the new hero of the world, the messiah basically. But these scientists are a bit too kill happy and Warlock’s programming doesn’t seem to be the most wholly moral.
Janie has a pretty good head on her shoulders and tries to combat this situation without having mass casualties on her conscious.
I like the concept enough but the execution feels both rushed and unfinished. The ending really seems to set it up for a whole new series but as far as I can tell it was never continued. When a series is cancelled it’s a good indicator that it didn’t sell well. In this case I realize why.
I also always must take issue when an author uses general “scientists” as the villains.
One, scientists are never generalized. They have specialties, no one ever calls themselves a “scientist” without qualifying it in someway (at least if they actually are one).
Two, the type of engineers who would be creating this ultra high tech Warlock would probably not think that genocide is the answer to the world’s problems. With that kind of tech you can be far more creative than that! This is just the Thanos problem all over again!
It simply puts people of high intellect in a bad light and I can never condone that.
I really liked Janie’s character though and I wish I could see more of her but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon so I guess we’ll all just have to make due with these four short issues.
3/5 power gems 🔶🔶🔶
If you like Adam Warlock you might also like The Sentry.
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Buy it here: Warlock: Second Coming
Yeah, this sounds like one of those TV episodes where they try to set up a spin-off series, but nothing ever comes of it. Did the scientists have names, or were they just completely generic? The original Adam Warlock was created by four scientists (Hamilton, Zota, Shinski, and Morlak) calling themselves the Enclave, so I just wondered if these were the same guys.
Oh interesting. I don’t recall. They seemed just very generic.