Jim Starlin's Great and Not-So-Great Cosmic Creations at Marvel - Comic Tropes (Episode 65) 

I met Jim Starlin and funny enough I mentioned that about Captain Marvel being one of the rare cases where Marvel Characters stayed dead. He said, "I write them with the intentions of them staying that way"

You know, all of the Mavel Satans should team up.

How did people miss that Thing is Jewish? He's literally a golem.

Jim Starlin is one of my all-time favorites. His best work was clearly his work on Warlock and Captain Marvel... culminating in the Avenger Annual / Marvel Two-In One expanded editions... and the Death Of Captain Marvel. Absolutely beautiful writing and artwork that were a major influence on not only my reading... but my art career, as well. His later Infinity War / Infinity Gauntlet was amazing to start... but they quickly lost me with the constant barrage of crossovers. I hope he is judged for his earlier work where he could build worlds / characters and make you think about things that most comic books wouldn't go near... your existence on this rock we call Earth.

They missed a huge opportunity with Alpha Flight to have them see a glowing maple leaf in the sky because Canada is their religion.

Does anyone remember the Thanoscopter? The bright yellow helicopter with "Thanos" emblazoned on the side that Thanos pilots while on Earth? Classic Starlin. Oh, wait...

Your Sleepwalker vignette literally had me laughing out loud. Looking forward to the hot-air balloon phase of her plan.

God damn, I laughed my ass off at the thought of Vision coming up with his hypothesis and then just immediately having Beast and Johnny Storm challenge it and then instead of Vision questioning his hypothesis he goes "oh Beast you're just not religious enough" and "Reed was probably just abducted by someone else".

33:14 I fell out laughing at the "very unfortunate page layout."

Also for Ben Grimm. Jewish people can also have Christian or Muslim uncles and aunts etc. People change their religious beliefs but that doesn't alter their families ones.

Your videos are real quality, I appreciate all of the effort you put into them and how much I've learned about comics from watching.

The Ebony blade had been made by Merlin and Black did travel back in time in the 1970s to fight in the crusades. Storm spent her early childhood living in Egypt.

Man I still have all his Warlock stuff. Genius. His art reminded me of the art on pinball machines:)

....by far the best of the Thano's miniseries was the prelude to Infinity Guantlet, Thano's Quest (which actually is pretty much the plot of the MCU's Infinity War with the exception of the snap).

Starlin really was the guy that got me into Marvel comics, my brother had some of his 70s run of Adam Warlock and his big event comics and honestly the contrasting between Adam Warlock's existentialism to Thanos' nihilism in regards to his greater themes of Cosmic Existentialism was great to reread after reading existentialist authors and philosophers like Sarte, Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky and Camus (even though he never considered himself an existentialist) and see the arrogance, introspectional monologues and angst of his characters in regards to the events in his comics. I have alot of respect for him despite some of his tropes.

my 3 fave characters in 50 years of reading Marvel have always been Captain Marvel, Warlock and Thanos. thanks Jim

why didn't she abduct nightcrawler?

thank you for lavishing so much attention on our great silver age artists. really some of the most talented to ever appear. they could draw a picture, AND tell a story with a series of pictures, better than most before and after. adams, kirby, starlin, colan, rogers, byrne, kane, perez, wrightson (come on give it up for him everyone), even workhorses like john buscema (NOT SAL), jon romita, ross andru, told great stories a panel at a time.

Fun fact - Magus (μάγος) means warlock/wizard in Greek

HOW the heck is Dr Stange fooled ? He is probably solicited by deities, gods and tricksters on a weekly basis

At the time, David Michaeline was writing Spider-Man and depicted him as having won his first microscope at a Parish raffle. Aunt May's maiden name was "Reilly." Not that odd . . . .

You joked about her recruiting The Punisher, but did you forget that he's Catholic as well

I used to like his Afro Magus character design from the 70s. You could tell he was a student of Ditko.

Starlin autographed all of my Infinity War issues back in 2013.

I love marvels 80's cosmic marvel with silver surfer, adam warlock both philosophical space dudes. I also liked exploring the marvels alien planets, leads to great stories like pip the dwarf slave planet surfer issue. The collector, the inbatweener, sick stuff.

Silhouette was a great part of the New Warriors before later non-Nicieza writers blew it all to hell, and her and her brother's tale and relation to Night Thrasher's story were part of one of the best written comic book arcs in living memory. Those first 50 issues were a masterpiece, weaving stand alone arcs and an overreaching myth arc with character pieces and trope subversion rarely equaled in comics today. If you haven't read them I highly recommend that you do. Do not denigrate the contributions of Silhouette and other C-list heroes if you don't know.

Sersi's vision is a Moebius strip. A symbol of eternity.

Jim Starlin makes kick ass space stories! Infinity Gauntlet was a cosmic trip involving the entitre Marvel comics universe! Not too mention his bizzare Batman comics! Batman the cult! Sorry you had to spend too much money on a holographic comic.

I adore Jim Starlin's work. Probably the only writer/artist at Marvel/DC whose work I enjoy as much as Jack Kirby and Frank Miller. Not as influential an artist as those two titans, but I feel the most consistent writer of the three---I've read a ton of his comics and enjoyed everything. Dreadstar, Warlock, Thanos Quest, Cosmic Odyssey, and Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast are some of my favorites of his...

That's the worst part of some of these big events, characters being out of character. This happens to Spider-man alot, I remember him in an Avengers comic in the 90's where he became a reserver Avenger and said something like it was totally Awesome dude.

Huge, huge fan of Starlin's art. As a kid, I could never get into that whole cosmic theme with Adam Warlock, The Watcher, Inhumans, Captain Marvel, etc. But I loved the art. The fact that I even read the cosmic stuff was because of Starlin and his art. In my mind, Starlin was one of the last of a dying breed.

Out of all the comics channels blowing up its so good to see your gonna hit 100k ,really truly ENJOY your vids brother thank you

I can definitely see Spider-Man as religious, after all he is an everyman and has had interactions with angelic and demonic beings in the past. He most certainly is a man of science, but isn't above admitting there are things beyond his comprehension

The Black Knight looks up... “Who turned on the grail-shaped beacon!?”

16:35 - "Satannish" always makes me think of a low-fat Satan. Not quite the whole demon, just a little bit ... satannish.

His death counts SO much, that in order to keep him alive you have to literally get rid of Mistress Death.

I love this channel, you're the cool history teacher I never had,, I'm happy that you've lived a full life indulged in comic books,, I'd love to live in a time where physical comic book releases were an event,, keep up the good work friend !!

This is exactly what led to the comics collapse of the 90's. Too many tie-ins, too many shoe string characters, not enough character development. I had a subscription service at the local comic book shop. I showed up once a month to get my stack. It was awful. I never got all the issues I wanted. Tie ins I hadn't requested weren't there. Issues I really wanted were stripped away and sold to other people who came in more often. I got fed up and quit collecting. Besides, I was at over 5k in long boxes. I was running out of room!:)

In regards to the Infinity Watch. At the time, The Living Tribunal had overruled against the combined usage of the Infinity Gems to turn someone into a omnipotent being. So even if someone had defeated all the members of the Infinity Watch, they would not be able to obtain godhood as Thanos did. Also, the Reality Gem was not among the Infinity Watch. Adam Warlock gave that to someone who was not part of the Infinity Watch, but I won't spoil who it was, even though I think spoilers would expire after almost 30 years lol.

On the topic of death, Jim’s Metamorphosis Odyssey ends with the death of our entire galaxy... which actually launches the Dreadstar character into his own series.

So, anyone else remember when Adam Warlock encountered a bunch of clowns that were stand-ins for Marvel editors and writers?

Well, about the Infinity Watch. Remember at this point the gems could not be used in unison. The Living Tribunal made sure of that. It still probably isn't a good idea to have them all together (why not give them to more powerful, less emotionally driven beings?), but still. Someone who takes them would be powerful sure, but not quite enough to take over the universe.

For shame, you forgot Ororo was a pickpocket in Cairo, and that Adam Warlock was created by Lee and Kirby.

oh man ... the selection of framed panels on your wall is killing me 😂😂😂😂

Hold up a second. I do remember Silhouette. She was an underrated and underutilized character, in fact I think of her in the same category as characters like Cloak & Dagger. She was one of the highlights of mid-to-late run New Warriors In my opinion.

Just love how you say what I thought about those comics at the time. Thanks.

21:11 I'm sorry to butt in but Starling said on record that he based Thanos on Metron, but his editor told him to get inspiration from Darkseid. Classic misconception, but worth pointing.

15:18 not ovals, mobius strips! Maybe she just worships topology?

Adam Warlock was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but they called Adam HIM. Roy Thomas and Gil Kane actually called him Adam Warlock four/five years later.

One of my favorites!! Love the marvel cosmos stuff!

That was well informed and funny. Thanks! Keep it up!

Thanks. I was actually hoping you'd do this one soon. Can't wait to see you do George Perez or any other surprises you have.

I met Starlin in February 2020 in Detroit at a Comic Convention, I got my Copy of Iron Man #55 signed and graded. What a time.

Adam Warlock is best described as a powerful, cosmically aware being, created via bio-evolution science. Personally, he is very stoic, almost removed (no doubt a result of all that awareness). Adam is hard to reach, but he is good on a cosmic scale, more concerned with cosmic balance and peace, when he can get it. Like the Silver Surfer, he is reluctant but morally drawn to this Reality-welfare duty.

Awww, we're back to this backdrop. I like the better one he had with the iconic moments than the sight gag one.

I love starlins work, especially from the 70s

Looking through this art, I'm surprised how many camera shots are straight on. I realize not every artist is Kirby, and not every Marvel book is "the marvel way" but there's a lot of unremarkable camera angles which I usually associate with DC comics from that time. Marvel art if you take "How to Draw the Marvel Way" as a source of truth, was meant to be at Dutch Angles, and any other odd angel that could keep energy high. But in this book its one straight on shot after another

Informative and entertaining. Great work!

Starlin has said Thanos was more inspired by Metron, not Darkseid.

I just discovered your site! Great, great work. Thank you. I do remember some Avengers comic from the early 70s (I think) where Dane Whitman (the Black Knight) did decide to move to or stay in the 12th century and fight alongside the Crusaders. Which doesn't REALLY explain the Holy Grail image, of course, unless there's some Templar conspiracy theory at work?

Lets hear about Jim Starlins most underrated creation! SHANG CHI! >:(

Starlin was raised in an Irish Catholic home. He may have made an inference that HANK McCOY might have a religious bent. McCoy might also be someone who is a believer based on reason, who would not be a fit for the Goddess.

I'd make an argument that Peter Parker is religious, just not religious enough to be recruited by the Goddess. He has shown that he prays to God, believes in higher beings, but they've kept it vague enough, since he's Marvel's #1 character. There's arguments to be made that he could be Protestant, or that he's Jewish.

I don't know if it was mentioned, but the guy with the purple g'ove that comes across Warlock was not Thanos. It was some character who Jim Starlin created for another comic book company. I want to say his name was something like Dreadstar (I could be completely wrong.) But that story was explored in Warlock Chronicles Number 1.

The very first comic book I ever got was the Captain Marvel issue where he went from silver to gold hair (don't know the number off the top of my head), but I was probably three or four at the time time and just the cover blew my little mind. I spent years just looking at the art before I could really understand the dialog. Jim was and is pretty much my main comic art influence. edit: I would guess that Kirby would have perhaps meant The Thing to be portrayed as a modern day golem (Hebrew clay/rock creature created to do the bidding of it's creator).

Bro, can I just say that I love your sense of humor? I don't know if you do it on purpose, but you're hilarious.

Chris Clairemont established that Storm is from a long line of witch-priestesses with white hair, blue eyes, and a naturally gifted for sorcery. This was put in canon in the late 70's, if I'm not mistaken. The Ankh while originally an Egyptian symbol has also been used as a Vampyre Symbol, in recent times (hence why Goths are often seen wearing one). This is a bit of a stretch but maybe, he thought that the Ankh was basically representing the occult in general or mistaken it for a similar-looking symbol. As for Spider-man, I don't know if him being religious is exactly "Out of character" for him. Generally speaking, he always seems open to the possibilities of things existing and such. Also, you can be a Scientist and still have your own personal beliefs. Also, there are "devoted" religious folks and those who are a bit more "casual". like Matt Murdoch might go to the Church every Sunday but maybe Peter might just pray and go to church every once in a while. It's not as important for his character as Matt (hence why it ain't shown in the books) but he might still have faith. My point is yes, of course, story-wise, it would have made far more sense to show characters that have been established and somewhat characterized by religious beliefs like Nightcrawler for instance, but at the same time that doesn't mean that because a character isn't shown practicing he' or she is an atheist by default.

Love the Space Cats shirt, I've the same one.

I remember not understanding event bloat while first reading Infinity War and I spent so much money on crossover titles.

This was during that period where Marvel would tie EVERYTHING to another comic. Remember all the Annuals that were tied together? Atlantis Attacks. Evolutionary War. Then they had smaller annual tie-ins. Anything to get people to buy more comics.

Fantastic review, and OMG did you give me flashback creeps when you reminded me how they sent the additional "tie-in" stories all over the Marvel titles! It really turned me off of the Crusade. Maybe if I had gotten the Terror Inc., it would have been more palatable.

Ororo Munroe (Storm) grew up as an orphan and pick pocket in Cairo, Egypt. Not sure why she'd see a symbol from a religion (as well as a word from a language) dead for over 2000 years.

I sometimes wonder if I am the only living _Sleepwalker_ fan on the planet...

Good video, very interesting and entertaining, as always. BTW: Love your Kosmic Kitties sweat, Chris!

bit late to the party here, but some input on the Black Knight's vision: The Black Knight title is passed on through an ancestral bloodline. The first ever Black Knight served under King Arthur, and was killed by Mordred. The character also draws some clear design influence from Arthurian stories (the magic sword, the be-titled knight purposed with lifelong quest, the basic idea of a knight as a legendary hero). Though the mythology of Arthur could not be called a religion, it can definitely be considered a standalone mythos that one might believe in, akin to the stories of the life of Jesus in the New Testament, or of the prophets in the Torah. While there is religious mythology in the legends, mostly pulled from various Pagan mythoi, it has served as an independent heroic mythology for the history of Britain. These stories were passed down, and eventually written, to build patriotism and (especially beginning in the 12th/13th centuries) convince men to fight and die for their country. Nearly every country in history has had some sort of patriotic myth, and, for the purposes of what Infinity Crusade is doing, they're not that functionally different from religions. This is especially fair since we're in a universe where most religious myths are actually about real, existing beings, who often come to earth and fight bad guys. The Holy Grail itself is a combination of several mythological concepts from several different religious mythoi. While vaguely associated with the crusades via the Knights Templar's obsession with Christian artifacts, it is associated much more closely with Arthur. Several of the great and central stories of Arthurian knights involve the quest to find the Grail, and the relic is said to rest with Arthur in Avalon. It makes complete sense to use it to represent the Arthurian legend, and it makes complete sense that the Black Knight would be willing to fight for the spirit of Arthurian heroicism, just as Living Lightning would be willing to fight for Jesus.

Hey, c'mon now, what's wrong with USAgent?!?

Great stuff!

Dang, looks like the RU-vid bug caught up with me. Your past few videos aren't showing up in my sub box. Luckily I check your channel anyways.

I think you are a bit offsaying Spider-man wouldn't be religious. He was brought up by his aunt May. And while not observant or religious he probably believed in some spiritual god, especially with his experience as a Super-Hero showing him the wonders of the universe. I don't think being a science geek would alter that. The Goddess was also exaggerating their beliefs for her goals. Same for Sue Storm an the like.

I just picked up Warlock, super excited to read it.

Counting lips was the most funny, especially the last one LOL! Hi from México

I had more fun listening to this than I did reading those comics.

Gave a like for pronouncing Magus correctly.

Jim Starlin made heavyweight title belts a must for cosmic level heroes in the captain marvel neighborhood of the universe

I really enjoy this intelligent channel.

Cosmic Odyssey is one of the best books Jim has ever written.

the thanos copter was used in an issue of spidy super stories. it was sponsored by the then kids show called the electric company. it was a way to simplify it for kids who read the comic. not to have to explain something like a thanos to a 6 year old.

I recently moved into an old house and one of the old tenants left a long box filled with old comics and a bunch infinity crusade stuff is in there including that foil cover issue

How the Hefle dose a guy named PARAGON become a villain? That’s like naming your kid “FireFighter” and he turns out a mortician.

During The Beast's time in The Defenders his entire story arc was about him confronting his faith and its conflict with his lived experience.

A committed comics fan since the slow formation of the Marvel Universe, I can share and recall that Jim Starlin dusted off and wrote and illustrated the Captain Mar-Vell comics and (similar to Barry Smith) he improved with each issue. When he was done with the Captain Marvel run, he dusted off and "re-evolved" he Adam Warlock strip. (He used the same "Cosmic Awareness" trope with Warlock that he did with Mar-Vell.) The Adam Warlock character was created by Jack (King) Kirby (surprise!) in the pages of Fantastic Four. He was a genetically engineered being who was created and gestated in a life-sized cocoon, by a mad scientist group (similar to the A.I.M. organization in SH.I.E.L.D. comics). For the 2-3 story arc, Jack (and Stan) had all the characters refer to the character as "Him". At the end of the story arc, "Him" (or He) emerged from the cocoon and wiped out his "creators" because he somehow "knew" their true mad scientist nature. Then he went back into his cocoon and out into the Universe of unused characters. Kirby used Him again in a Mighty Thor issue and he went back into his cocoon. Finally, Roy Thomas and Gil Kane re-branded "Him" as Adam Warlock. It was a great start, but Kane and Thomas only did 1 or 2 issues and the book died after a few (forgettable) issues and creative teams. Super-finally, Jim Starlin decided to make use of the "sleeping" Adam Warlock character, give him a cape and some explained powers, good writing, and outstanding artwork. My main point is that Mr. Starlin provided an outstanding Warlock piece of writing and art (inked by Al Milgrom) called "1,000 Clowns". One of my all-time favorite pieces of comics work ever made in comics. Starlin was one of the VERY FEW people at Marvel, who enjoyed the gravitas of having writer/artist/ inker freedom to express themselves. (Jim Steranko, Howard Chaykin, Barry Windsor-Smith, Frank Miller .... others I forget now)

This is a 2 year old video almost but it's worth noting that Spiderman has been coded and explicitly jewish constantly throughout history. He comes from a historically jewish area of Queens and the original creators of him very specifically intended for him to be Jewish.

I wonder how much of the themes and plot points will be in the Infinity War films to come out by Marvel Studios. The spiritual themes may be toned down. This has made we want to read Jim Starlin's work.

This stuff is pretty hokey, but it does make me miss comics. This is the kind of story you would only get from a comic book. For better or worse, it was indigenous to the medium. Now, I guess, we're seeing how it translates to movies.

He did hide one gem away from the team.

u always do a great job..............👍

20:00. HER also won the Grammy for best new artist.

I was afraid you were going to skip Pip the Troll--my spirit animal! I still use the expression "more fun than brown-eyeing"!

" The death of captain Marvel " is one of the best comic-book ever made. I love it .

Have you actually read the entire Infinity Gauntlet trilogy through the end of Infinity Watch Volume 2? Starlin clearly had the whole thing planned out. The Infinity Crusade is my favorite part of it.