Review: Warlock & the Infinity Watch #7

Warlock & the Infinity Watch #7, "The Island!" Cover Date August, 1992
Written by Jim Starlin, Penciled by Tom Raney, Inked by Terry Austin

Proving that time is a flat circle, the early 90’s saw a revival of several failed “cosmic” heroes from the 70’s, including Adam Warlock, a Lee/Kirby creation that hadn’t been seen since his psychedelic Jim Starlin series was canceled in the late 70’s. In the wake of the Infinity Gauntlet series of 1991, Warlock returned, and was given a series that teamed him up with a few cosmic oddball characters, including Gamorra, an assassin raised by Thanos, Drax, a hulking muscle-dude created to kill Thanos, Pip, a wise-cracking troll creature, and Moondragon, a bald psychic known for being extremely abrasive. Sounds pretty familiar in 2015, doesn’t it?

The Hudson family is pretty dysfunctional.

The team is on an island, having recently dealt with Warlock’s old enemy the Man-Beast. Warlock has a nightmare of the Magus, while Moondragon tries to re-connect with Drax, a man who had her father’s brainwaves that she apparently killed once. For her, “re-connecting” means dropping a big rock on him for fun. The group’s reverie is interrupted by giant monsters, as the team realizes they’re on “Monster Island,” the home of some of Marvel’s old monster comics characters, including “Vandroom” and “Tricephalous” (sometimes it’s incredible the lengths Marvel’s editorial went through to fold these crazy stories into continuity, but Groot is one of those old monsters, so I guess it all worked out).

To be fair to Moondragon, she is appropriately dressed for the beach.

They quickly realize the giant monsters aren't there to fight them, but to lead them to a spooky castle, where they find Pip, who collapses over a goblet of wine. The Mole Man appears, and explains that he offered some wine to the troll, who proceeded to down four bottles. Mole Man invites the team to a feast, where he sells them on the idea of using Monster Island as a permanent base. Moondragon tells Warlock that Mole Man has a reputation as a loser, causing the Mole Man to brag about his underground achievements, and explain that he’s made powerful enemies and could use friends. He offers the team Monster Island as a sort of headquarters, complete with monster guards. Warlock seems intrigued, while Gamorra opposes the idea. The group agrees in principle to work with Mole Man, when Warlock senses an intruder. In comes Thanos, who says he’s come for Warlock’s help. TO BE CONTINUED!

"I wish we were going to Candy Apple Island!"
"Why, whatta they got there?"
"Monsters. But they're not so big."

Review:

Pip gets alcohol poisoning.

I hadn’t read much Warlock beyond the 70’s series and the Infinity Gauntlet, in part because I find him to be extremely dull as a protagonist. I guess I hadn’t counted on how entertaining his team is. In just this issue, we get that Drax is a dangerous but loveable goof; Pip is the funny guy, Moondragon is a conflicted but pretty irritating powerhouse; and Gamorra is… also pretty boring, but three out of five ain’t bad. Starlin has always had a soft-spot for these characters, and does a solid job getting the humor across throughout, from Moondragon and Drax’s interactions to Pip’s fake-out being poisoned, to Mole Man’s delusions of grandeur (he says that Warlock and he would be “fellow potentates”), the book is consistently funny.

Where is the Mole Man getting his coffee?

The art is maybe a bit too cartoonish. There’s a lot of facial expressions, but there’s also a lot of ridiculous anatomy, and Moondragon’s costume is just beyond bizarre. I don’t have a problem with Namorita fighting evil in a swimsuit, but why is a character with only mental powers wearing a swimsuit that someone cut pieces out of? Tom Raney does a nice job doing a version of some classic Kirby monsters, and some of the panels have nice detail. Then again, quite a few panels have no backgrounds at all, while a few have the trendy-at-the-time “colored lines” in the background. The close-up of Thanos’s ugly mug that ends the issue is pretty memorable though, and feels like something Starlin set up in design if not execution.

Thanos shows up late and doesn't bring anything to Mole Man's BBQ.

All in all, it turns out WatIW is a fun little comic. Its art hasn’t aged particularly well, but the writing is sharp and the characters are interesting.