Issue(s): Warlock and the Infinity Watch #11
Cover Date: Dec 92
Title: "The appeal"
Credits:
Jim Starlin - Writer
Steve Carr & Deryl Skelton - Penciler
Bob Almond - Inker
Lynaire Brust - Assistant Editor
Craig Anderson - Editor

Review/plot:
Angel Medina is the regular artist on this title, and Tom Raney is the sort of relief artist, the guy that fills in because Medina couldn't do a monthly schedule. But the artists on this issue are true fill-in artists, and even though the regular writer Jim Starlin is here, i'd call this a fill-in issue, full stop. It seems to be just everyone taking a break after Infinity War. The actual Infinity Watch characters don't appear, except in origin flashbacks. The story is Eternity going to Living Tribunal to appeal the ruling that allowed Adam Warlock to distribute the Infinity Gems as he saw fit.

As evidence, Eternity talks about the origins of each of the Watch characters (except the unnamed bearer of the Reality gem, who both Eternity and Living Tribunal agree is a dangerous choice).

There may be little bits of new information slipped in (like, it's said that Gamora's people were wiped out by the Badoon, whereas the original story said it was done by agents of the Universal Church of Truth), but for the most part this is recapping things that we already know.

I can see the value of this sort of thing in the days before the internet, but it's not like the Marvel handbooks didn't have all this information, and Starlin has been recapping this stuff all along through this series anyway. On top of that, there are no footnotes, so if any of the information here did make you want to track down the original issues, you were out of luck.

In the end, the Living Tribunal rules against Eternity, and gets him to admit that he's been making these appeals based on personal desires.

The Tribunal advises him to embrace the unpredictability that comes with not being completely in control.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Eternity is appealing the ruling made in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1.
  
• Gamora's origin is from Warlock #10 and Pip's is from Warlock #12 (same entry, and they died and went to the Soul World in stories from that entry too. A lot of references to that overall story, actually.).
  
• Gamora and Pip were resurrected in Infinity Gauntlet #1.
  
• Drax's origin is from Iron Man #55.
  
• Drax was subsequently killed by Moondragon in Avengers #220.
  
• And Drax was resurrected in Silver Surfer #34-35. Thanos was also resurrected in that story.
  
• Moondragon's origin is from Avengers #135.
  
• Moondragon fought Iron Man in Iron Man #54 and teamed up with Captain Mar-vell in Captain Marvel #31-33.
  
• Moondragon was put in captivity in Asgard after she killed Drax, but she eventually "joined" the Defenders in Defenders #123.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"so if any of the information here did make you want to track down the original issues, you were out of luck."

Well, thank goodness we have now have FNORD.:)

It's curious that Starlin is now saying the Tribunal's three faces are knowledge, review, and judgement. That differs from, and is less interesting than, the original idea that they were equity, vengeance, and necessity.

Starlin also uses this as an excuse to retell continuity from his stupid self-serving perspective.

Like, among other things, he claims Moondragon only joins the Avengers as a reward for having helped them in the battle where Thanos was killed.

Now that I think about it, it was weird that Gamora didn't refer to Magus destroying her people during Infinity War. I wonder if Starlin actually just forgot his original origin for her or something, hence the Badoon explanation. (Alternately, it could be a side effect of Magus being erased from history but Adam and Pip should still remember how things went down the first time.)