Fictional Obituary: Warlock, Marvel Comics (Comic spoilers: X-Tinction Agenda)

Fictional Obituary: Warlock, Marvel Comics (Comic spoilers: X-Tinction Agenda) Warlock, the extraterrestrial member of the New Mutants who found a home at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, died in captivity in Genosha after Cameron Hodge attempted to take his techno-organic abilities. His body was reduced to ashes. He had been abducted with several of his friends during the Genoshan attack on their home. Warlock came to Earth as a fugitive from his father, the Magus. Among his people, children were expected to fight their parents in a contest that could end in death. He fled that expectation and the violence that accompanied it, arriving in a world whose inhabitants and customs he did not understand. His first encounter with the New Mutants was confused and frightening. Warlock was exhausted and needed energy to survive. The students did not know what he was trying to do, and he did not immediately recognize them as beings with whom he could communicate. Doug Ramsey helped change that. Using his gift for languages, Doug established a way for Warlock and the others to understand one another. What began as an alarming intrusion became an introduction. Warlock and Doug both found places on the team, and their friendship became one of the central relationships of their lives. Warlock's body was unlike those of his classmates. He could stretch, reshape himself, interact with machinery and form structures that sheltered or carried other people. His appearance could shift with his intentions and emotions. A face, a hand or an entire body might change as he tried to explain himself or help someone nearby. His friends learned to recognize him through those changes. They came to know his distinctive speech, his curiosity about unfamiliar experiences and his willingness to act when someone he cared about was in trouble. The word “selffriend” became a familiar expression of his attachment to them. His abilities also placed difficult responsibilities on him. Warlock needed energy, and the way his species consumed life could be dangerous to others. Living among people he valued required him to learn limits that his father had never taught him. His compassion mattered in the ordinary decisions surrounding how he would survive. Doug occupied a particularly close place in that life. The two worked together and protected one another, sometimes joining their abilities in ways no other members of the team could. Warlock called him his “selfsoulfriend.” When Doug was killed, Warlock's grief exposed how little his understanding of human death had prepared him for losing a particular person. His friends helped him face that loss. He continued with the New Mutants afterward. His final captivity placed him under the control of people who regarded mutants and other unusual beings as resources to exploit. Hodge wanted what Warlock's body could do. The attempt to seize those abilities killed the person who possessed them. Warlock is mourned by the surviving New Mutants and the wider household that welcomed him to Earth. His remains were recovered after the conflict. At Rahne Sinclair's request, his ashes were scattered over Doug Ramsey's grave. The place chosen for his remains reflected the life he had made here. He had arrived alone, running from his father. By the time of his death, there were people who understood his words, recognized his face in all its changing forms and counted him among their closest friends.