Monday, June 08, 2009

Can't Trust Those Space Magicians

So, for those of you reading Guardians of the Galaxy, what do we make of Adam Warlock? More specifically, what do we make of his sudden pigmentation change during the fight with Vulcan? He turned purple, which is the same color as the Magus*.

It happened when, by Warlock's own admission, he had been severely drained of his powers by Vulcan. It persisted through the remainder of his battle, until he returned to Knowhere and Moondragon commented he looked pale. In the very next panel, Adam insists it's nothing, and he's back to his usual golden brown.

Suggests to me that it's a disguise spell that he unable to sustain with Vulcan absorbing his energy, but having stolen the power of the Imperial Guard's magician, he was able to recast it. Additionally, he seemed somewhat colder during the battle than he normally was. Sure, he's usually kind of a pompous jerk, but his 'Boo-hoo. Life hurts sometimes.' line was a bit more callous than I'd expect of him.

Also, this is the first time we've really seen Adam on his own in awhile. He's been with the Guardians, or at least Gamora or Phyla almost constantly since he was awoken back during Conquest. During that time, he seems to have acted in a way consistent with what's expected of him. He used the same sorts of prophetic, vague comments that Gamora mentioned once seriously annoyed her. No one saw anything out of the ordinary about him. Now he was surrounded only by enemies, and all that seemed to be gone. Maybe it was because he was hurting, or because after all the boasting he'd done about stopping this war, he pretty much fell on his face when confronted with Vulcan.

Still, it makes me wonder if the person in the cocoon the Church of Light has is the real Adam Warlock after all, and Phyla and Moondragon unleashed the Magus on the universe. In which case, Phyla might not end up being the betrayer Mantis saw after all.

* Who, as I've mentioned before, is the embodiment of the evil Adam Warlock cast out of his own soul. Thus the Magus is pure evil, powerful, and bad news.

4 comments:

Seangreyson said...

I don't know enough about Adam Warlock/Magus to have spotted the color change as significant. However it sounds like you might be onto something here, as it does explain some of the plot threads that have been floating out there.

The Pretentious Fool said...

I noticed the color change as well,and wondered what the hell was going on with Warlock becoming Magus. I think you may actually be on to something here. That would all make a lot of sense.

My only question is, why didn't someone make mention of the Magus coloration? Shouldn't Moondragon or Gammora be familiar with that aspect of Warlock's past?

CalvinPitt said...

seangreyson: The problem is, now I don't know how that cocoon fits in, and that seems like it has to be important.

the pretentious fool: Well, when he reappeared on the teleport pad, Moondragon mentioned he looked "pale", and in the next panel he was back to his usual color and insisting he was fine.

You're right, she should recognize Magus, so maybe the light from the teleportation spell was bright enough she couldn't discern that he was purple, rather than simply pale, and so he was able to replace the illusion before she could get a better look? Plus, he kind of have his back to her, so she probably didn't get the best look.

That's the best explanation I can come up with.

Christopher said...

I agree, in previous issues adam also mentioned to gamora that he wanted to lead the church universal truth, adam would have never thought or said such things...he hated the church and all it stood for I totally thinks its the magus and the church has the real adam, even when he first reappeard his custome resembaled the magus's.