Superman vs. Adam Warlock: Who’d Win a Comics Battle

When a group of scientists designed Adam Warlock as an artificial human intended to represent the pinnacle of humanity, how close did they come to creating a being like Superman, who has been held up as Earth’s gold standard for decades? And could Marvel’s Adam Warlock beat DC’s Man of Steel in a comics showdown for the ages?

Warlock has been on considerable cosmic adventures since he first gained sentience, acquiring the Soul Stone and having the Infinity Gauntlet for just long enough to purge good and evil from his body. This means Kal-El wouldn’t be matching up against a prototype, but instead a being who has lived through countless epic struggles. This is a hero who even Thanos turns to when the universe needs saving. Whereas Superman is known for his indefatigable moral compass, the ideal version of Warlock exists as a being of pure logic, making this a close matchup physically and less so tactically. That is, so long as the Infinity Gauntlet isn’t involved, in which case it would be no contest for Warlock.

The Enclave’s design of Adam Warlock as human perfection means he started with a powerset notably similar to Superman’s, including prodigious strength and durability, flight, superhuman agility, energy projection, and the ability to miraculously heal in a rest state. He has only grown in power since then, gaining mystical and metaphysical abilities, including bringing himself and others back from the dead, teleportation, faster-than-light travel, and creating black holes. It is Warlock’s mystical abilities that would make him such a formidable opponent, as a glaring weakness to magic already concerns Superman. This is why the magic-based foe Mister Mxyzptlk is such a thorn in the Man in Steel’s side, continually besting him with mischievous magic, and why an untrained Shazam can gain the upper hand in their fights.

Superman’s powerset is well-known; he also has flight, super-speed, heat vision, and a virtually indestructible nature. He has bested the likes of some truly fearsome foes like Doomsday and Darkseid, but tacticians like Batman and Lex Luthor have repeatedly challenged him in ways that show brawn doesn’t always beat brains. In fact, Kal-El’s son and the new Superman, Jonathan Kent, who is still learning on the job, manages to do something his father could never do and refused to try. When the new Superman beats Lex Luthor at chess in Superman: Son of Kal-El Annual #1 by Tom Taylor, Steve Pugh, and Clayton Henry, it isn’t just a way of establishing that this is a new Superman. It also reinforces another one of Kal-El’s few weaknesses.

When it comes to Superman’s attacks against Warlock, these would hardly be different from how villains like Thanos, or even Adam’s dark double Magus, have assailed him in the past. Warlock’s mystical abilities and mastery of the Soul Stone are the wild cards, enabling him to do the unexpected – like when he turns Thanos into stone to prevent him from murdering the universe. His lack of good or evil means that he could employ pure logic when combatting Superman, using every resource at his disposal. Even though Superman could operate on instinct, flying in the face of logic, it’s still unlikely to make much of a difference.

Though it is looking like a new villain is positioned to kill Superman, it isn’t often that a hero seems so perfectly engineered to take on the Man of Steel. Yet Adam Warlock has many of the same powers as well as the ability to exploit all of Superman’s weaknesses, particularly through use of powerful magic. With his pending arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie, Adam Warlock is certain to become more of a household name, like Groot, Star-Lord, Drax and Rocket Raccoon before him. This means that more people will soon see why Adam Warlock has all the necessary tools to best Superman.