Marvel Read-Through: The Magus Saga
Jim Starlin. No, I don’t think you get it: JIM STARLIN! I have yet to read something of his I did not absolutely love. From Infinity Gauntlet being one of my all-time favorites to raving about the Thanos War arc, Jim Starlin has a 100% success rate with me. But, I never really cared for Adam Warlock. It’s not that I don’t like the character, I’m just indifferent. I’ve never read anything with him that made him stand out to me and I’ve never felt compelled to seek out more of his books. So going into this one, I was preparing for Starlin to disappoint me for the first time. And he did not! The Magus Saga is once again one of the best cosmic stories I’ve read. Starring a character I didn’t care about, his arch-nemesis I didn’t even know, and spanning time, space, and reality in a mind-warping adventure, this could have been an easy miss. But Jim Starlin’s writing and art are just so exquisite. This whole arc was nothing but a joy to read.
Finally having Warlock actually matter in the Marvel universe after his superhero stint on Counter-Earth was a nice advancement. Quick summary for those of you who don’t know the story of The Magus Saga: Adam Warlock encounters the Church of Universal Truth who are basically religious fanatics converting or killing everyone in the galaxy all in the name of their god, Magus, who is after Warlock. Eventually, Warlock learns that the Magus is an evil version of himself from the future who is manipulating him into becoming the evil Magus version of himself. Teaming up with Pip the Troll and Gamora, Warlock is unable to stop the Magus until Thanos intervenes. Using Thanos’ time-travel technology, Warlock erases the Magus and the Church from existence. Along the way, Warlock learns about the soul gem in his forehead and discovers that Thanos is the Champion of Death. It’s quite convoluted and there’s a whole bunch of time travel and reality mumbo jumbo but Starlin explains his concepts very well and it’s easy to follow. Honestly, I can’t find one negative thing to say about Starlin’s writing.
Actually, there’s maybe one thing I can nitpick about the writing of this arc. There are a lot of words. A lot. A couple of pages were almost entirely text. Comic book art is supposed to help tell the story, requiring less straight-up text. There are times I think Starlin could’ve put some of it into a thought bubble rather than saying it’s what the character is thinking. This is a small complaint. It’s not the first story I’ve read with a lot of text, and I enjoyed it that time anyway. I do think Don McGregor has better technical writing skills than Starlin and it makes for a better read when he uses large amounts of text, but it would be wrong to say Starlin’s prose was bad. It was really good. Despite the large walls of text, it was a good read.
Not knowing the story going into this, there were some nice surprises for me in there. The first appearances of Pip and Gamora were two very welcome surprises specifically. I also loved having Thanos as an ally in this story. I didn’t know he was in it and I really never would have expected him to be on Warlock’s side. Although reluctant to work with a known villain, Warlock has no choice but to temporarily align himself with Thanos, who only wants to stop the Magus so that his plans for genocide in the near-future aren’t disrupted. Basically deal with one problem now and the other problem later. There’s so many hints to Thanos’ evil plans and it makes it interesting to root for him to defeat the Magus while also seeing him become the Champion of Death. It’s a fun moral dilemma in an era of black-and-white good-vs-evil superhero comics.
Exploring Warlock’s soul gem was neat too. I know it becomes THE Soul Gem as part of the Infinity Gems but its humble beginnings as a power Warlock is afraid to use was cool. Seeing him suck the souls out of a few foes sets up some of the stuff that comes into play in the 90s, I think. I always like seeing where comic book ideas got their starts
I also have to mention the art. I think most of it was drawn entirely by Starlin, with maybe a few issues with different artists and colorists but everyone working on this did a great job. The art is cosmic at its finest. Everyone and everything looks beautiful, the landscapes are unique, and the reality-bending abstract stuff is Ditko-levels of good. Here are some examples:
And that’s it for now. A solid 10/10 from me. Can’t wait for the follow up story with the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the Thing!
Next time: Spider-Clones!
Issues read:
Strange Tales #178–181
Warlock #9–11
Favorite issue: Warlock #9: Action! The Magus explains who he is! We find out the Magus has been manipulating Adam the whole time! The Thanos reveal on the last page!
