Issue(s): Warlock #3, Warlock #4, Warlock #5, Warlock #6, Warlock #7, Warlock #8
Cover Date: Dec 72 - Oct 73
Title: "The Apollo eclipse!" / "Come sing a searing song of vengeance!" / "The day of the death birds!" / "The Brute!" / Doom-- at the Earth's core!" / "Confrontation!"
Credits:
Mike Friedrich / Ron Goulart / Mike Friedrich, Ron Goulart, & Roy Thomas - Writer
Gil Kane / Bob Brown - Penciler
Tom Sutton - Inker

Review/plot:
As with previous issues of Warlock, i'm not going to go into a detailed synopsis here. Suffice it to say that Warlock is still on Counter-Earth with a messiah complex and fighting Ani-Men.

(Since Michael notes that Triax, the warthog guy in the first scan above, appears again, i'll just note that he originally poses as the god Apollo and then a little later is responsible for the death of one of Warlock's followers. And he's embarrassed to admit that he's really a warthog. He seemingly falls to his death in this story.)

We saw in Hulk #157-158 that the denizens of Counter-Earth are literal counterparts to people on "True-Earth", except there are no super-powers (with one exception). So we've got a good-guy Dr. Doom.

The exception is this world's Reed Richards, who turns into a monster called the Brute.

Counter-Earth Doom, potentially an interesting or maybe problematic character (certainly one who could have eventually found his way off Counter-Earth), is killed in this series.

The Brute will make his way over to True-Earth, so call that the Historical Significance for this series. Plus the mere existence of Counter-Earth, and Adam Warlock's soul gem, but those were introduced in earlier issues. And of course just a general usage of Warlock, who, it should be said, learns about the world of man through his experiences on Counter-Earth. Prior to this whole series, he didn't know much about the world, having been grown in a lab.

After the death of a supporting character, Warlock retreats to his cocoon for a while.

As we get deeper into the series, the story backs off from the religious metaphors from earlier issues, but you can see from the lettercol that people were upset about that (calling it sacrilege).

In fact, the later stories have more of a What If? quality: Dr. Doom is a good guy! And he dies fighting an evil Reed Richards!

Appearance by the Rigellian Recorder in issue #8, summoned by the High Evolutionary to observe his project (and note that the Evolutionary wants to rename him Memorax).

Even though the initial reception to Warlock seemed to be positive (i'm basing that on Marvel's own spin, although the fact that he graduated to his own series after 2 issues in Premiere seems to confirm it), the book is cancelled after issue #8, which ends in mid-story with Warlock confronting the Man-Beast. The story will be concluded in Hulk #176, which starts up some time later and begins with Warlock having been defeated. At the time of issue #8's ending, it's just said that the story will be continued "sometime, somewhere", but the Hulk's book is a logical place since he and the Rhino were the only True-Earth characters to set foot on Counter-Earth.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Brute

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Hulk and the Rhino's visit to Counter-Earth in Hulk #157-158 is referenced in issue #3.
  
• It was shown in Marvel Premiere #2 that the Man-Beast stifled all super-powers.
  
• Warlock recognizes Reed Richards from having met his True-Earth counterpart in Fantastic Four #66-67.
  
• The Rigellian Recorder was last seen in Thor #162.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

An earlier issue also stated that Counter-Earth Tony Stark had no heart problems, and Peter Parker died of radiation poisoning.

Triax the Terrible actually appears again in later stories as a lackey of the Man-Beast.

Thanks Michael. I've added him as a Character Appearing and put in a brief description.

And on True-Earth, Memorax became Memorex and was primarily known for shattering otherwise useful champagne glasses.

It sure looks like that Victor von doom statue is a tribute to his bowling skills.