Appearing in "Death Watch!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Avengers (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Beast (Hank McCoy) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Scarlet Witch (Wanda Frank) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Thor ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Iron Man (Tony Stark) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Captain America (Steve Rogers) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Vision ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Warlock ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Moondragon (Heather Douglas) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) ⏵ (Main story and recap)
Antagonists:
- Thanos-Thralls (Main story and recap)
- ⏴ Thanos ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- God (Yahweh) (Invoked)
- Death (Referenced)
- Master Order ⏵ (First appearance)
- Lord Chaos ⏵ (First appearance)
- Fantastic Four (Mentioned)
- Reed Richards (Mentioned)
- ⏴ Gamora ⏵ (Trapped in the soul gem)
- ⏴ Pip the Troll ⏵ (Trapped in the soul gem)
- Kray-Tor (Cameo; trapped in the soul gem)
- Autolycus (Cameo; trapped in the soul gem)
- Black Knights (Cameo; trapped in the soul gem)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Mutants (Main story and flashback)
- Asgardians (Main story and flashback)
- Synthezoids (Main story and flashback)
- Kree (Main story and flashback)
- Unidentified alien species (Main story and flashback)
- Titanians (Main story and recap)
- Abstract Entities
- Insects (Mentioned)
- Flies (Referenced)
- Vampires (Referenced)
- Hujah
- Zen-Whoberis
- Laxidazians
- Sarks
- Judans
- Cows (Invoked)
- Fish (Referenced)
Locations:
- Prime Marvel Universe (Main story and flashback)
Items:
- Mjolnir (Main story and flashback)
- Iron Man Armor Model 4 (Main story and flashback)
- Captain America's Shield (Main story and flashback)
- Spider-Man's Suit and Web-Shooters
- Soul Gem (Main story and flashback)
- Captain Marvel's Suit and Nega-Bands (Main story and recap)
- Giant Synthetic Soul Gem (Destruction) (Only in recap)
- Salem's Lot (Name only) (Topical Reference)
- Cosmic Cube (Mentioned)
Vehicles:
- Fantastic Four space shuttle craft
- Sanctuary II (Only in flashback)
- Sanctuary III (Main story and flashback)
Synopsis for "Death Watch!"
This story continues from Avengers Annual #7
Plagued by dreams, sent as a telepathic call for aid from Moondragon, that showed him the battle between Thanos, Captain Marvel, and the Avengers over the fate of the galaxy, Spider-Man seeks out the Thing for help. The two heroes decide to check out those dreams by taking a shuttle craft out into space.
There, they find Thanos' giant space ark and are pulled into it by a tractor beam. Once aboard, they are attacked by the hordes of Thanos but manage to hold their own until Thanos has the artificial gravity cut off, giving his thralls an advantage which quickly leads to the defeat and capture of the two heroes. Meanwhile, deep within the Soul Gem, Adam Warlock's soul meets with Gamora and Pip.
Back in the real world, Spider-Man and the Thing regain consciousness and find that they have been brought to the room where the Avengers and Captain Marvel are being held in stasis. When the Thing attacks Thanos and is immediately knocked out again, Spider-Man briefly panics and flees but, as foreseen by Master Order, his strong heart wins out and he returns to free the Avengers, leading to an all out assault on Thanos.
Overpowered, the heroes prove unable to defeat Thanos until Spider-Man, guided by his spider-sense, manages to free the Soul Gem, enabling the soul of Adam Warlock to appear from it and turn Thanos into stone. After rejoicing over their victory, the heroes have a funeral and bury Adam Warlock and his two friends on an asteroid in space. While Adam's soul finds peace within the Soul Gem, Thanos finds himself trapped within the petrified form of his own corruption.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- This issue follows the events of Avengers Annual #7. The dream Peter Parker has is a recap of the events of that story.
- After being turned to stone in this issue, the body of Thanos is next seen in Captain Marvel #58 (when it is found in the drifting space ark by Drax the Destroyer) and then in Death of Captain Marvel #1 (when Mentor has it moved from the space ark to the Royal Crypt on Titan). The spirit of Thanos helped Mar-Vell's spirit accept Death in that graphic novel, and Death eventually returned Thanos to life in a duplicate of his organic body in Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #34. Immediately before the Infinity Gauntlet Affair, Thanos reanimated the stone husk that was his original body in Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #49 and controlled it remotely during an encounter with the Silver Surfer that ended when the Surfer destroyed the husk by reducing it to atomic ash in Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #50.
- The souls of Adam Warlock, Gamora and Pip were transferred into the Soul Gem in Avengers Annual #7. They are reborn into new bodies in Infinity Gauntlet #1.
- The dates on Adam Warlock's tombstone read 1967-1977. The years on this tombstone should be considered a Topical Reference relative to the date of publication per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Although the dates state that Warlock had been alive for 10 years, this is more reflective of the numbers of years of publications between his birth in Fantastic Four #66 (published in 1967) and his "death" in Avengers Annual #7 (published in 1977). As the Timescale is measured the actual period of time that has passed is two years of Marvel time. Publications released in 1967 fall under "year two" of the modern age and those published in 1977 fall under "year four".
- Although this story shows that Adam Warlock, Gamora and Pip were buried on a small asteroid, Marvel Two-In-One #63 instead shows that they were all buried on Counter-Earth. No explanation for this discrepancy has been provided.
Trivia
- The Thing is reading Salem's Lot by Stephen King.