Real Name: Pip Gofern
Occupation: Former bearer of the Space Gem, prince of Laxidazia, painter,
lecher, companion
Identity: Known to the populace of Laxidazia and certain individuals
and the authorities on various planets in the galaxy
Legal Status: Expatriate citizen of Laxidazia, wanted for lewd behavior
on countless planets in the galaxy
Other Aliases: None known
Place of Birth: Laxidazia, Dolenz system, Milky Way
Marital Status: Presumed single
Known Relatives: None
Group Affiliation: Ally of Adam Warlock, former member of Infinity
Watch
Base of Operations: Laxidazia, later mobile
First Appearance: STRANGE TALES #179
History:
Pip Gofern was born a prince on the humanoid-populated world of Laxidazia,
and was 260th in line for the throne of the world monarchy. A member of the
idle rich, Pip spent most of his time painting pictures of the night sky.
During one of his many sojourns across the countryside looking for a good
spot to paint, Pip came upon an encampment of trolls, a degenerate sub-species
of the Laxidazian race. Taking an immediate liking to these people, Pip engaged
in food, drink, and dance with the trolls, imbibing vast quantities of their
special ale. When Pip awoke the next day with a hangover, he discovered that
the ale he drank the night before must have had mutagenic properties, for
he had taken on trollish characteristics. His feet had become hoof like,
his fourth and fifth finger had grown together, his ears had become longer,
and his lust for pleasure had grown profoundly. Eventually returning to the
royal court, Pip half-heartedly tried to hide his condition, but his lewd
behavior could not be stifled. Stripped of rank and exiled from the court,
Pip stowed away aboard a merchant starship and began a life of wandering
and debauchery.
Eventually,
missionaries from the Universal Church of Truth came to Laxidazia and began
to convert the natives to the new faith. The agents of the Church found the
tribes of trolls and soon learned that they were resistant to any conversion
process. The Church ordered them exterminated, and the Grand Inquisitors
zealously obliged. It is not known if they succeeded in destroying all of
the trolls on Laxidazia, but the word went out throughout the religious empire
that all trolls were to be executed.
Pip, in the meantime,
had gotten himself into trouble on scores of planets, most of which were
under the Church's jurisdiction. Eventually taken captive by agents of the
Church, Pip was sent aboard the "Death-Ship," a space vessel containing
renegades, atheists, and degenerates who were due to be executed. Aboard
the ship, Pip met Adam Warlock, the artificially created human being from
Earth whose alternate future self would become the founder of the Universal
Church. Seeing Warlock as a means to escape the ship as well as a means to
find adventure, Pip became Warlock's companion in his efforts to thwart his
alternate self, the Magus. When the threat of the Magus was quelled, Pip
and Warlock went drinking together on the humanoid-populated world Sirus
X and then parted company.
Pip became engaged
in a number of misadventures of his own, and then decided to renew his friendship
with Adam Warlock. Locating the starship of Warlock's former ally Thanos,
Pip entered it to see if his friend was aboard. Warlock was not, but Thanos
was. Finding no use for a troll, Thanos used a tiny fraction of his power
to destroy Pip's brain. Warlock eventually found Pip and used his soul-gem
to absorb Pip's spirit into it. (Freed of its body, Pip's consciousness is
intact and undamaged, despite the harm that Thanos had done to his physical
brain.) Pip's spirit now dwells peacefully within the verdant dimension of
the soul-gem alongside the spirit of his friend Adam Warlock.
Warlock later
resurrected himself, Pip the Troll, and Gamora in order to stop Thanos from
using the collected Soul Gems (now known as Infinity Gems) for his own evil
purposes. Pip joined the large assemblage of heroes to fight Thanos, and
Warlock soon liberated the Gems from Thanos. Eventually, he decided to distribute
the Gems so that their collective might may never threaten the universe.
He gave Pip the Space Gem, and with him and their allies formed the Infinity
Watch to guard the Gems.
After his adventures
during the Infinity Gauntlet Saga, Pip become the holder of the space gem
(one of the six Infinity or Soul Gems) and joined the Infinity Watch. Tapping
into the gem's power gave him the ability to teleport anywhere in the universe,
provided he had a clear concept of "where" it was. Eventually the Infinity
Watch lost control of the gems and disbanded.
Pip stayed with
Gamora as she went on drinking spree in the seediest sectors of the galaxy
trying to mend her heartache over Adam's seeming abandonment of her.
The two were
later reunited with Warlock and aided him in tracking down the murderer of
Elysius (Captain Marvel III's Mother), the megalomaniac despot from the negative
zone Syphonn. Pip was last seen in New York City with Warlock and
Gamora.
Height:
4 ft. 4 in.
Weight: 144 lbs.
Eyes: Pink
Hair: Red
Strength
Level: Pip the Troll possessed a level of strength equivalent to that
of a male human midget of the same height, physical age, and build who engaged
in moderate regular exercise.
Known Superhuman
Powers: None
Other
Abilities: Pip was famous for his carnal prowess.