Real Name: Adam Warlock
Occupation: Avenger, savior of worlds
Identity: Adam Warlock's existence was unknown to the general public of Earth.
Legal Status: None
Other Aliases: Him, (in an alternate future) the Magus
Place of Creation: The Beehive, Shard Island, Atlantic Ocean
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Group Affiliation: None, (as the Magus) head of Universal Church of Truth in an alternate future
Base of Operations: Counter-Earth, later mobile
First Appearance: FANTASTIC FOUR #66

History: The being one day named Adam Warlock was the genetic creation of four scientists who called themselves the Enclave. Adam Warlock was the prototype for a perfect human life form grown from artificial genetic material, which the Enclave intended to mass produce to form an invincible army to conquer the world. Unfortunately, the scientists miscalculated the strength of their creation, and after leaving his womblike "cocoon," the golden-skinned being known then as Him decimated the Enclave's island base (code-named the Beehive), accidentally killing one of the four scientists. He then harnessed his cosmic power to fly and left Earth to find his destiny in space. However, venturing into a region where meteors were being contained and examined by a member of the race of Watchers, Him spun a protective cocoon around him like the one in which he was originally "born." The Watcher recognized his inadvertent catch as a living being, and returned it to Earth. There the cocoon eventually opened and Him re-emerged. Looking upon the Asgardian goddess Sif, Him naively decided to take her as his mate. This led him into battle with Sif's companion Thor, a battle which aroused the "berserker rage" in Thor. To escape Thor's wraith, Him rewove his protective cocoon and thrust himself back into space.

Some months later, Him's cocoon drifted near the satellite-headquarters of the High Evolutionary, an Earthman who had discovered how to control evolution. The High Evolutionary was in the midst of an experiment to create a replica of Earth upon which evil would not be allowed to exist. After fashioning his artificial world (called "Counter-Earth") and populating it with facsimile human beings, the High Evolutionary took a rest, during which time his renegade creation, the Man-Beast, introduced the concept of evil to the nascent world's populace. When the High Evolutionary saw his experiment was contaminated, he decided to destroy it. However, upon his reemergence from the cocoon, Him interceded and offered to go to the planet and cleanse it of its evil if the High Evolutionary would spare it. The High Evolutionary consented, and placed on his brow a "soulgem." For the next few years, Him, now called Adam Warlock, fought to save the planet from the evil influence of the Man-Beast, who led other human-like animals who had, like himself, been transformed from ordinary animals, in the course of his mission, Warlock was crucified, but after retreating and emerging from his cocoon, he devolved all of his humanoid animal foes back into their original forms. Adam Warlock then left the duplicate world called Counter-Earth to seek and eradicate evil elsewhere in the universe.

While traveling through the Hercules star cluster some time later, Warlock encountered three Grand Inquisitors of the Universal Church of Truth, the armed militia of a rapidly-spreading religious empire. He learned that the Church was a fanatical organization which slew populations of worlds it could not convert. Further, it was headed by a being called the Magus, who Warlock learned was an alternate future version of himself. Aided by a troll-tike alien named Pip, Warlock fought his way through the various minions of the Church, finally confronting the Magus himself. He then learned how he became the Magus and started the Universal Church.

In one alternate future, Warlock encountered the In-Betweener, an agent of the abstract beings Lord Order and Master Chaos, who brought Warlock to his extra dimensional realm. For centuries Warlock was trapped there bombarded by contradictions. Although he spun a protective cocoon about him, Warlock could not shut out the consciousness-altering stimuli. When Warlock emerged, he had gone insane, and had assumed the form of Magus. Due to some quirk in returning to his home reality, the Magus emerged 5,000 years in the past. Possessed with great power, the Magus conquered the army of the planet he was on ("Homeworld") and after seizing control of the whole planet, set up a religion, and began to spread that faith to other solar systems. To avoid becoming the Magus, Warlock determined not to accompany the In-Betweener to his realm. The Magus, hoping to insure his own existence, summoned the In-Betweener and prepared to deliver Warlock to him. However, the mad Titan Thanos decided to aid Warlock, believing the Magus was a threat to his own schemes. Because neither Thanos nor the Magus himself were factors in Warlock's original transformation into the Magus, their presence diverged an alternate path of reality where Warlock could slay the Magus. In the reality where Warlock and Thanos succeeded in thwarting the Magus's creation, someone else founded the Universal Church.

Warlock and Thanos had by then gone their own separate ways, and Warlock soon found himself engaged in battle with the Star-Thief, an Earth being who, like Thanos, sought to extinguish all the stars. He then entered the dimension of the soul-gem that the High Evolutionary had once given him in an attempt to master its soul-stealing tendencies. Returning to Earth's solar system, Warlock encountered the Stranger and Gardener, both of whom possessed a soul-gem themselves. Thanes, unknown to them all, had undertaken the acquisition of the six soul-gems in existence, and had gathered all but the one belonging to Warlock. Thanos feared the soulstealing properties unique to Warlock's gem, so he simply siphoned off the energies he needed from it. He then transferred those energies as well as those of the other gems into a single synthetic soul-gem. With the gem, Thanos intended to destroy the stars as a gift to Death. The Avengers, Captain Mar-Veil, the Thing, SpiderMan, and Warlock united to oppose Thanos's scheme.

In personal combat, Thanes mortally wounded Warlock. As he lay dying, Warlock's temporal counterpart of approximately a year before materialized, having access through time by way of the In-Betweener's realm, and siphoned Warlock's soul (spirit-self) into his own soul-gem. Doing so, the counterpart of about a year before disappeared back into the Betweener's realm. Thus Warlock's soul joined the souls of the enemies he had slain as well as his companions Pip and Gamora. Warlock was briefly summoned from the tranquil pocket dimension inside the gem by Spider-Man. Seething with cosmic power released through his physical death, Warlock transformed Thanos to living, unmoving stone, and then returned to the gem. Although his body is dead, Warlock's soul (astral self) still dwells within the dimension of the soul-gem he once wore.

For many years, Warlock's spirit lived in contentment within the utopia he found inside soul gem. However, discovering that Thanos was alive and in possession of the Infinity Gems, Warlock resurrected himself (and his two companions Pip and Gamora) to confront the Thanos. After the ensuring battle, Warlock himself ended up with the Infinity Gauntlet, becoming the Supreme Being of the Universe. Ordered by the Living Tribunal to divest himself of the Gems, Warlock divided them between six different care-takers, retaining the Soul Gem for himself, thus forming the Infinity Watch to protect the Gems. The Infinity Watch defeated several other attempts to conquer the Universe, including one by a reborn Magus and another by Warlock's feminine counterpart, the Goddess.

Height: 6 ft. 2 in.
Weight: 240 lbs.
Eyes: Red
Hair: Blond
Skin: Gold

Strength Level: Adam Warlock possessed superhuman strength which he could increase even further by enhancing it with cosmic energy. Un-enhanced, Warlock could lift (press) about 4 tons; enhanced, he could achieve ten times that level of strength for brief periods of time (less than one hour), as when he battled Thor.

Known Superhuman Powers: Adam Warlock possessed a number of superhuman properties and powers derived from his artificially determined genetic structure. His bone and muscle tissue was denser than human, endowing him with superhuman strength and resilience. Among his body's special adaptations was an enclave of cells able to tap and transform cosmic energy for personal use. Warlock could use this energy to enhance his physical strength, endurance, and powers of recuperation. He could also employ cosmic energy to negate the force of gravity beneath him, enabling him to fly. In an Earthlike atmosphere, Warlock was able to attain the speed of sound (770 miles per hour). He could use his cosmic energy to locate and enter natural space-warps (discontinuities in the fabric of space) in order to traverse interstellar space. He could also project cosmic energy from his hands as concussive force. The potency of these blasts remains unknown. Warlock's energy manipulating powers waned at the time he was given the soul-gem by the High Evolutionary. No longer could he direct concussive force from his hands or enhance his strength. Whether this power limitation was caused by his symbiotic relationship with the soul-gem or some other factor is not yet known. When Warlock was summoned from the soul-gem to defeat Thanos, he seemed to possess these cosmic powers once more.

Adam Warlock was able to spin a cocoon like object around him at will in a matter of seconds. He did so infrequently during his short life, usually to protect himself from mortal harm, and usually he would emerge from the cocoon at a further level of physical or mental maturity. It is not known where the substance of the cocoon came from, or where it went after he emerged from it.

Paraphernalia: Adam Warlock possessed a green soul-gem which adhered to his forehead. Its precise origin unknown, the soul-gem is one of six of its kind. The soul-gem enabled Warlock to project beams of concussive energy (whether it was his body's own energy focused through the gem or the gem's energy is not known), devolve organisms to more primitive states, and absorb the souls (life forces or consciousnesses) of other beings. The more Warlock employed the gem for the latter, purpose, the more the gem began to influence Warlock's mind to provide it more souls. The soul-gem appeared to possess a consciousness of sorts. The soul-gem contained (or was a portal to) a small dimensional world where the souls absorbed by the gem would have a shared subjective experience of a peaceful, pastoral valley. Warlock's soul-gem is the only one of the six known to have "vampiric" tendencies.