Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #61, Marvel Two-In-One #62, Marvel Two-In-One #63
Published Date: Mar-May 1980
Title: "The coming of Her!" / "The taking of Counter-Earth!" / "Suffer not a Warlock to live!"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Jerry Bingham - Penciler
Gene Day - Inker

Review/plot:
A cocoon is dragged out of the East River.

It looks like the cocoon that the Enclave created Adam Warlock in. But this time, it's a female that emerges. And she heads straight to Alicia Masters, easily fighting off the Thing. She is in fact Paragon, the second creature that the Enclave created. She's further evolved herself to become Adam Warlock's mate.

She's sought out Alicia because the Enclaves' computers showed that Alicia was the last person to see him. Of course, their computers were out of date. Adam's been all over the universe, and he's currently dead.

Starhawk shows up to help the Thing.

Meanwhile, Moondragon joins Alica and "Her". She's been monitoring cosmic occurrences and this has attracted her attention.

Even with Starhawk's help, the Thing isn't able to beat Her in the rematch and the three ladies fly off into space. The Thing and Starhawk follow in the FF's Skrull saucer. They eventually catch up with Alicia and crew and come to terms with Her. After the Thing gives Moondragon a spanking, of course.

Seems to be a fetish for him.

Together, they are headed to Counter-Earth to visit the grave of Adam Warlock. When they get there, they find the planet gone, and the High Evolutionary in a coma in his space station. Her revives him and finds out he was attacked by a maddened Adam Warlock some time ago (somewhere around the time of Warlock #14).

The High Evolutionary doesn't know what happened to Counter-Earth, and they start tracing it.

They find some giant space aliens who were contracted by a group of beings called the Beyonders (no relation to the Secret Wars guy) to acquire Counter-Earth. Their captain is named Sphinxor.

As Mark notes in the comments, we've actually seen Sphinxor before. He narrates the recap in Strange Tales #178.

It turns out they are the reason Warlock thought he was so much bigger than the solar system in Warlock #15. They're also the ones who made him crazy so that he attacked the High Evolutionary. It's a little silly, with these working class aliens stealing a planet for this race that is said to be more powerful than Galactus, Thanos, or the Watcher.

But the Evolutionary decides to let them keep the planet, but only if they let Her visit Warlock's grave.

She tries to revive him, but his soul is in the soul gem, currently held by the Elder Gardener.

Kind of a weird story. Interesting, but a little ruined by the planet-stealing aliens. Like a lot of Gruenwald stories, it's more about making sense of disparate events in the Marvel Universe than actually telling a story, but that's ok with me.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Her as Her (i.e., not as Paragon)

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Her previously appeared as Paragon in Hulk annual #6.
  
• Alicia Masters was the first to encounter Adam Warlock, then known as Him, in Fantastic Four #66.
  
• Moondragon has been monitoring cosmic events since Defenders #76.
  
• Moondragon met Adam Warlock in Avengers Annual #7 and saw him die in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2.
  
• Moondragon met Starhawk in Avengers #176.
  
• The Thing met Starhawk's companions, the Guardians of the Galaxy, in Marvel Two-In-One #5.
  
• The FF acquired their Skrull saucer in Fantastic Four #2.
  
• Warlock's adventures on Counter-Earth were chronicled beginning in Marvel Premiere #1 and ended in Hulk #176-178.
  
• The Thing last saw the High Evolutionary in Fantastic Four #175
  
• Adam Warlock returned to our solar system after some deep space wandering in Warlock #14.
  
• The High Evolutionary survived Warlock's attack by ascending to a higher state of being, as he did in Tales To Astonish #96.
  
• The Gardner stole Warlock's Soul Gem from his grave, as shown in Hulk #248.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A

Alicia is really the female rick jones of the MU. she has more encounters with heroes than any normal person could bear.

Sphinxor, or somebody who looked and sounded a lot like him, appeared in the first Strange Tales Warlock issue.

This story was announced to begin in MTIO #57, but got pushed back due to fill-ins and the Impossible Man story(or maybe Jerry Bingham was just slow).

The Warlock flashback would seem to take place between Marvel Team-Up #55 and Avengers Annual #7. In Warlock #15 he is told that he'll kill the High Evolutionary in his future, and at the end of MTU #55 he says he's going to Counter-Earth.