Everything You Need To Know About Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock In Guardians Of The Galaxy 3

Even though Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 isn’t coming out until 2023, fans are getting excited for the casting of Dopesick’s Will Poulter as Adam Warlock. In typical secretive nature, there is very little information about the plot and what direction James Gunn will take Adam in. Although we can only guess how his version will differ from the graphic novel version, there are some things we can learn from the character arcs of the cosmic superhero in the Marvel Comics. Here’s everything you need to know about Adam Warlock in Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3.

Who is Adam Warlock in the graphic novels?

Originally known as simply Him or Adam, the character first appeared in the Marvel Comics Fantastic Four issues 66 and 67 in the Fall of 1967 and Thor issues 163 through 166 in 1969. However, it wasn’t until 1972, when he underwent a significant retooling by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, that he became the Messiah-type character he became. Thomas was a fan of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and wanted to breathe new life into the story with a superhero twist. That is how the cosmic superhero became a savior with religious undertones.

Scientists calling themselves The Enclave created Adam originally called Him as a perfect being. After rebelling against them and fighting with Thor, he jets off into space, where he first meets the High Evolutionary who convinces him to go to Counter-Earth, a separate planet formed from a chunk of Earth that is in orbit on the opposite side of the sun. The High Revolutionary eventually adopts Adam. He gave him the name Warlock, and a group of teenagers later called him Adam. The High Evolutionary gives him the Soul Gem to defeat the Man-Beast and restore Counter-Earth to peace. His red and gold costume with a large lightning bolt pays homage to Captain Marvel.

Adam’s plight was to drive out the Man-Beast, an AntiChrist of sorts from Counter-Earth. When Warlock wasn’t battling the Man-Beast and the evil New Men, he was trying to stop The High Evolutionary from destroying his planet. Although the High Evolutionary was not always against the superheroes, his maniacal genetic tampering and increasing instability made him a powerful enemy of the Avengers and Adam Warlock. In addition, he had a lot of wacky ideas about forming and unforming Earth-Prime and Counter-Earth and all of their inhabitants through advanced evolution. Those ideas often put him in conflict with the Marvel heroes, but his power and intelligence could sometimes be used as a force for good.

He was very powerful because of his genetic evolution and the addition of the Soul Stone. The Soul Stone allowed the user to control any living or dead soul. It also provides access to a perfect pocket world. If used in conjunction with the Power Stone, all life in the universe could be controlled.

In Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2, Ayesha, the Sovereign’s leader, creates Adam to defeat the Guardians. Ayesha is the Golden High Priestess of the Sovereign. He is intended as their greatest weapon, but he may change sides once he realizes who the Sovereign are.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 theories

The Adam Warlock of the graphic novels will not be the same as the character in Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3. In the novels, Ayesha is the Her to his Him, and the Enclave created him. In GOTG2, we see his birth in a post-credits scene where Ayesha is birthing him from a pod. Additionally, Adam’s most prominent foe was Thanos, who he defeated in the Infinity Gauntlet series, inspiring The Avengers: Infinity War. Not only that but all of his Infinity Stone arcs are impossible in the GOTG3. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some exciting possibilities, though.

The DNA used by the Sovereign to create Adam had to have come from somewhere. This is pure speculation, but since we know Ayesha created Adam in direct response to her hatred of the Guardians, she may have used Star-Lord’s DNA as he has powers because his father was Ego and his mother was a human. Since it looked like Peter Quill lost his powers, there needs to be a way for him to tap into a Celestial brain again. This could be Knowhere as there’s a massive Celestial brain being mined there.

Another option could be Ayesha used that Celestial’s DNA to make Adam. He might be the battery charger Peter needs to power back up. It would also create a nice symmetry between the two characters. This would make Adam Warlock as powerful as Star-Lord. Since the Soul and Power Stones have been destroyed, there is no way for Warlock to use their powers, but maybe an alternative artifact will come into play, giving him the ability to truly do some damage.

One of Adam’s alters a dark being called Magus is an older, evil version of Adam that he destroys and eliminates the timeline of by killing him in the Strange Tales saga. If Gunn borrows from this plot beat we could see both a villainous and heroic form of Adam Warlock in the same movie.

Adam’s character arc in the novels was always full-circle. He was created by dark powers and manipulated into doing bad things. He eventually rebelled against his makers and fought with the superheroes against them, though. Undoubtedly, James Gunn’s Adam in Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 will be similar. Ayesha may have created him to get revenge on the Guardians, but he will probably realize pretty quickly that he is being lied to and join the Guardians. The entire Guardian franchise is famous for redefining who is villainous and who is good. Almost every character has a bit of darkness in them.

The casting of Will Poulter(Midsommar) had many fans scratching their heads. The actor famous for taking character forward roles is a gifted actor, but certainly not from the same physical mold as Chris Evans and Luke Helmsworth. A recent flurry of Twitter activity has shown all of that has changed, though. Poulter has beefed up and grown up into a swoon-worthy addition to the superhero universe.

While we don’t know much about the direction Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 will take, we know there is at least one major character death and enough emotional weightiness packed into the runtime to start stockpiling tissues. But, according to Gunn in an interview with ComicBook, not everyone will be getting out alive. In the same interview, he talks about being fired and later rehired and his affinity, especially for Rocket. We know it is Gunn and Dave Bautista’s last film with the franchise, so it could be the end for so many beloved characters. While I love them all, I couldn’t handle Rockets. Maybe Adam Warlock can save him?