The MCU is made up of numerous films and TV series, each one of them filled with a variety of heroes, villains, and supporting characters. Each time a new property hits screens, fans start wondering who is going to debut. Sometimes they know well in advance while others are a surprise. A big one that has been on everyone’s radar for a long time is Adam Warlock who we now know will be played by Will Poulter.
There are few characters in Marvel Comics more closely tied to Thanos than this man. He has consistently been the foil to many of the Mad Titan’s greatest plans. That includes his original adventures with the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos might be gone from the MCU at this point but Adam Warlock is finally ready to make his debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. And fans who don’t follow the comics might have some catching up to do.
Who is Adam Warlock?
A group of researchers called the Enclave set out to create the perfect human. The result of their endeavors was Him, the being who would eventually be known as Adam Warlock. When he was “born,” he immediately sensed that his creators had evil intentions and detroyed them. The High Evolutionary took Him under his wing, named him Adam Warlock, and helped Adam become more savvy and aware of the universe.
From then on, Warlock became a promnient intergalactic hero. His earliest nemesis was the Man-Beast, an anthropomorphic wolf created by the High Evolutionary. The same experiments that gave him heightened intelligence and other abilities also increased his ambition and ego. The Man-Beast used these abilities for a variety of evil endeavours that Adam Warlock was often at the forefront of shutting down.
After that time, Adam’s existence was very much tied to Thanos, the Magus, and the Infinity Stones. Not surprisingly, Thanos has attempted a wide array of plans over the years that Adam Warlock played a huge role in ending. That included organizing the defense against the Mad Titan when he assembled the Infinity Gauntlet for the first time. He marshalled the surviving heroes to fight against him.
Magus is a very different story. He is essentially a villanous version of Adam Warlock who has made appearances in a variety of ways. Originally, Magus was an evil version of Warlock from a future timeline. When Warlock eliminated that entire timeline, Magus was lost. Eventually, Adam took posession of the Infinity Gauntlet and subconciously used it to give life to Magus once again. He’s essentially a bad penny that keeps turning up.
Joining the Guardians of the Galaxy
In more recent years, Adam Warlock has been closely associated with the Guardians of the Galaxy. As is often the case with Warlock, he was reborn with new abilities and a new mission. This time was a bit different as Warlock claimed the universe had been damaged by recent cosmic shenanigans involving Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave. In some ways, joining this team was like coming home for him.
The membership of this team included both Drax the Destroyer and Gamora, two beings he was quite familiar with. Both of them had helped Warlock in his previous battles against Thanos. On top of that, they were even on a previous team together called the Infinity Watch. After defeating Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet was broken up and each gem was entrusted to one of the five members of the Watch. Secretly, the sixth gem was given to Thanos to protect it.
Given his deep connections to Thanos, Drax, Gamora, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and even the Infinity Stones, fans expected Adam Warlock to appear in the MCU a lot sooner. For anyone familiar with his history in the comics, it was strange to see Warlock exlcuded from these events on the big screen. What made the situation even worse was the fact that his arrival kept being teased.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, a cocoon that looked a lot like the one Adam Warlock gestates in was in the Collector’s collection. A post-credits scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also featured another cocoon in the care of Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race. They were quite reminiscent of the Church of Universal Truth from the comics, which Adam Warlock once led. Ayesha also referred to the being inside the cocoon as Adam.
How powerful is Adam Warlock?
Every time Adam Warlock makes a return in Marvel Comics, he often has very different powersets. And when he’s in posession of the Soul Gem, a whole new set of abilities come into the mix. At his core, it is Adam’s unique biology that gives him amazing abilities. He has greately enhanced strength, speed, agility, and more as well as cosmic senses and the ability to fly. But even all of that isn’t consistent depending on the rebirth.
His connection to the Soul Gem is also a game changer. Being that Adam Warlock has literally lived inside the stone on more than one occasion, he has formed a deeply symbiotic bond with it. The gems are actually believed to be sentient meaning that it has likely chosen to forge that bond with him. Warlock used this connection to defeat Nebula when she took the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos.
If all of that isn’t enough, the man has the ability to maniuplate various forms of energy to an extreme degree. His most recent incarnation has also seen Adam Warlcok become a master of Quantum Magic. This allows him to manipulate time and reality in unbelievable ways. It also has also greatly enhanced his existing cosmic awareness, telepathy, and abilitiy to see into the future.
Just in case you didn’t think the guy was weird enough, he’s also considered to be a cosmic outsider. This means that he exists outside of the regular ebb and flow of the universe, which may be why he’s essentially immortal. That being said, it isn’t all wine and roses as his abilities have limits. And Warlock is always plagued by the knowledge that the Magus, who may also make his MCU debut soon, his lurking in his own soul.
