Production is underway on Avengers: Infinity, the epic culmination of everything that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building towards since the release of Iron Man in 2008.
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Avengers: Infinity War is Loosely inspired by the events of the 1990s Marvel Comics Infinity Gauntlet event and its sequels, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade. Avengers: Infinity War will see the Avengers teaming up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to battle Thanos, who has been on a quest to assemble the Infinity Stones, six powerful cosmic artifacts that, when in the possession of a single being, could reshape the world.
Marvel Comics fans who are familiar with the film’s source material are looking forward to seeing one of the largest-scale Marvel events ever brought to life in live-action. Avengers: Infinity War currently has a 4.3 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating, making it the second most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com readers.
However, many are also noting that a key character from those events is still missing from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That character is Adam Warlock.
Why is Adam Warlock so important to the story of Avengers: Infinity War? Click through the article slides and we’ll fill you in.
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Avengers: Infinity War is set for theatrical release on May 4, 2018.
Origin
Let’s begin at the beginning. Adam Warlock was originally simply known as Him and was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in the pages of Fantastic Four.
Him was created at a research facility called the Beehive. Him’s creators wanted to design and exploit the perfect human being. The Beehive grew Him in a cocoon (eagle-eyed Marvel fans may have noticed that cocoon was part of the Collector’s collection, as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy).
What his creators didn’t know was that Him could sense their plans and intentions while he was still in the cocoon. When Him finally emerged, he lacked any semblance of maturity or restraint and lashed out and killed his creators.
Him left the Beehive, but he was unable to properly assimilate into human society. He eventually tries to force Lady Sif to become his mate, which leads to a conflict with Thor. After being defeated, and believed dead, Him left Earth to travel the stars.
The Soul Gem
Him remained a one-off villain until Roy Thomas and Gil Kane rebirthed the concept in Strange Tales
Thomas and Kane renamed Him as Warlock, and later gave him a first name, Adam.
Within the Marvel Universe, Warlock’s rebirth came after encountering the High Evolutionary. The High Evolutionary took Warlock under his wing and taught him proper behavior.
The High Evolutionary also gifted Soul Gem, one of the powerful Infinity Gems that are the equivalents of the Infinity Stones of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Soul Gem granted Warlock the ability to sense the souls of other living beings. In addition, the Soul Gem allowed Warlock to transport the souls of other beings into Soul-World, a dimension of contentment located within the Soul Gem itself.
Warlock’s tie to the Soul Gem is important because the Soul Stone is the one Infinity Stone still missing. Some of speculated that one of the Asgardians, perhaps Odin or Heimdall or even Hela, possesses the Soul Stone. We’ve theorized that it could be hidden in Wakanda.
However, maybe the Soul Stone is hidden inside that cocoon inside the Collector’s gallery, where its possessor is resting.
Thanos’s Rival
One of the things Marvel fans are so excited for in Avengers: Infinity War is for Thanos, the Mad Titan, to finally come out of the shadows and take action against the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or as Thanos put it himself in the post-credits scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron, he’s going to “do it himself.”
This is another reason that Adam Warlock is so important because Warlock is one of the Thanos’ greatest rivals.
Thanos’s enmity towards Adam Warlock is partly due to the existence of Magus, a version of Warlock from a divergent timeline that was driven insane by Lord Chaos, Master Order, and the In-Betweener in a misguided attempted to create a Champion of Life to oppose Thanos.
The Magus was sent back 5000 years in time, where he began the fanatical religious organization called the Universal Church of Truth. Thanos learned that Magus and his Church would come to oppose his plans in the future, and so he decided to have Warlock eliminated. This purpose is why Thanos “adopted” Gamora and trained in to become the most dangerous woman in the galaxy.
Warlock would come to be a constant thorn in Thanos’s side, rallying other cosmic heroes to foil Thanos’s plot to snuff out all of the stars as a gift to Mistress Death.
Infinity Gauntlet
The main event in the rivalry between Warlock and Thanos came in the events of Infinity Gauntlet.
Just as is the plan in Avengers: Infinity War, Infinity Gauntlet saw all of the Marvel heroes come together to oppose Thanos’s plans, and at the lead was Adam Warlock.
With the Infinity Gauntlet on his hand, Thanos was all-powerful. Warlock devised a plan: to have the Marvel heroes launch a coordinated attack against Thanos as a distraction against Thanos as a distraction while the Silver Surfer races from the other side of the cosmos in an attempt to snatch the Infinity Gauntlet right off of Thanos’s hand.
The plan fails, but the Infinity Gauntlet eventually changes hands through a series of events. It passes briefly to Nebula, in a moment that we hope to see brought to life on screen by Karen Gillan, before finally falling into the hands of Adam Warlock himself, which is where the conflict begins to end.
Infinity Watch
Adam Warlock is also vital to establishing a new status quo after the conflict over the Infinity Gauntlet is ended.
When Warlock takes possession of the Infinity Gauntlet, he becomes too powerful. The Living Tribunal helps Warlock to realize this, and Warlock agrees to separate the Infinity Gems.
Warlock forms the Infinity Watch, a group of individuals whose mission is to safeguard the single Infinity Gem left in their possession and prevent them from ever being used together again.
Warlock himself takes maintains possession of the Soul Gem. He trusts the Mind Gem to Moondragon, the Time Gem to Gamora, the Power Gem to Drax, and the Space Gem to his old friend and traveling companion Pip the Troll, who Peter Dinklage is rumored to be playing in Avengers: Infinity War.
The Reality Gem was left in the custody of a secret sixth member of the Infinity Watch whose identity was kept secret from the other members of the Watch. his sixth member was Thanos, who had been humbled by experience gaining and losing infinite power.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe will have to deal with the known existence of the Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet. The idea that the Stones are too powerful to be kept together has already been introduced. The Infinity Watch is the natural next step in that idea, and Warlock is the perfect character to facilitate moving the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a new era.
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Image Credit: Marvel Studios
