The Magus
Real Name: Adam Warlock
AKA: The Madness Monster. God.
First Appearance: Strange Tales 178
Erased From Existence In: Warlock 11
Popped Back Into Existence In: He taunted Adam with his rebirth during a dream in Infinity Watch 7, although technically he came back into being off-panel at some point either during or just after the Infinity Gauntlet mini-series. This latter incarnation was the "evil, masculine" side of Warlock's personality rather than Warlock's future self; none-the-less, the reborn shade of the Magus had the memories and many of the abilities of the original.
What's His Problem? Okay, this involves the space-time continuum and alternate realities, so hang in there: the Magus is the future Adam Warlock, turned unrepentantly villainous who is none-the-less the chosen champion of Life itself. The way the time-loop played out originally, the Magus met and defeated his younger self, then handed Warlock over to the In-Betweener for a few centuries of conditioning at the "hands" of Chaos and Order, at the end of which his view of reality would become so altered he would become the Magus, an agent of Life who dealt death to a thousand worlds, wiping out any that refused to accept him as God. Still with me? Okay, then: This time around, Death's lover Thanos caught wind of what was happening and convinced Warlock that, to prevent the Magus from ever coming into being, Adam had to commit cosmic suicide. Adam did this by erasing the time-line of the Magus as the Magus and Thanos were (literally!) locked in a Life or Death struggle, fading the Magus out of existance and ensuring that the day (and the universe) belonged to the champion of Death. When Warlock exiled the Good and Evil aspects of his personality while in possession of the Infinity Gauntlet, the Magus was reborn, kinda. Now removed from Reality in all its forms, and no longer an agent of Life, the Magus set about obtaining the powerful Infinity Gems in order to reshape the universe in his own image. He was defeated by Adam, the Silver Surfer, and most of the heroes of Earth, and subsequently absorbed back into Adam (or at least back into Adam's Soul Gem).
Powers: Even when not wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, the Magus was a tough cookie. Like Adam, he controlled the Soul Gem and channeled the Power Cosmic. While just a shade of his former self after splitting from Adam, he could still create powerful "dopplegangers," all the better to confuse the heroes of Earth. When the Infinity Gauntlet did cover his merciless fist -- well, let's just admit the Universe had a darn close escape that time. All that said, there doesn't seem to be enough Cosmic Mousse in the Universe to keep the Magus' hair from a constant state of the frizzies (which may be why he kept it ruthlessly slicked back whilst pursuing the Infinity Gauntlet...)
Favorite Quote: "The HELL you say!" (Warlock 11; after Adam tries to apologize for sucking the life force out of a few dozen of the Magus' Black Knights by saying he didn't really mean to, it was that fershlugging Soul Gem acting on its own).
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: His constantly-soliloquizing better half, Adam Warlock. And there's something about the Magus that even brings out the good guy in -- shudder -- Thanos.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: Warlock has come to reluctantly --very reluctantly -- accept the Magus as a necessary part of his own psyche, one that he must retain in order to be in harmony with himself. (Warlock's very into himself; probably the most introspective, self-examining of all the angst-ridden super-heroes in the Marvel Universe. He makes the Silver Surfer look like the life of the party. But I digress...) Apart from that, and although the Magus had followers and dopplegangers who followed his doctrine slavishly, none loved or even trusted the Magus himself. Heck, even the Matriarch of his own Church tried to do him in.
Most Despicable Act: While leading the Universal Church of Truth the Magus forcibly enslaved all he came into contact with. He could (and did) order his minions to commit global genocide without batting an eyelash, inexorably exterminating those "non-productives" that refused to work toward the expansion of the Church's truth. This forced expansion came to encompass a thousand worlds; worlds liberated from all knowledge that they had ever been under the yoke of a Universal Church when the time-line was erased by Adam Warlock -- although as Adam came to learn, there are more false gods out there than can be toppled by one determined man...
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