I liked Adam Warlock better before he had a name.
Introduced by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in Fantastic Four 66 (Sept. 1967), this paragon known only by a pronoun was the prototype for a perfect lifeform genetically engineered by the mad scientists of the Enclave.
Born in a cocoon, Him was capable of harnessing cosmic energy in a variety of ways — to enhance his already-superhuman strength, to negate gravity and fly at the speed of sound, to locate and travel through space warps, to heal, to project concussive blasts and more.
After wrecking the scientists’ island base and setting forth to explore space, the cocooned Him was eventually returned to his planet of origin by a Watcher (Thor 165, June 1969).
Immediately encountering Thor, Balder and Sif, Him decides that the goddess would make him a suitable mate — a development that naturally ticks off the thunder god (in fact, it drives him into a “berserker rage”).
The super-evolved Him, essentially a “new god,” anticipated Kirby’s move to DC. Kirby was clearly playing with the idea of a perfect being, a beautiful, golden-skinned superman in a swim suit whose advanced evolution gave him seemingly limitless powers. The Forever People’s Infinity Man, also a golden-skinned omnipotent being, was another iteration of the idea.
After Kirby left Marvel for DC, Him became Adam Warlock, the sole superhero on an artificial “Counter-Earth” hidden behind the sun.
As Adam Warlock, “Him” devolved into a heavy-handed Christ metaphor on this parallel Earth — a development made more tedious by the fact that Marvel already had another heavy-handed Christ metaphor knocking around in the person of the Silver Surfer.
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