Adam Warlock vs. Superman: Who Would Win & Why?

Every comic book universe has powerhouse superheroes and villains on the roster that can obliterate almost any competition at any given moment. Marvel’s Adam Warlock and DC’s Superman are two such characters that aren’t some primordial cosmic entities but are incredibly powerful. So, if Adam Warlock and Superman ever fought, who would win, and why?

Adam Warlock would win most fights against Superman. Although Supes is much stronger physically, Warlock is more versatile and has powers that match up perfectly against Superman’s weaknesses. Even if Superman kills him, Adam Warlock would always come back.

Adam Warlock has cosmic-level powers, including teleportation, cosmic awareness, and super-powerful magic. As strong as Superman is, I’m not sure how he could cope with that. Now, that doesn’t mean Kal-El would have no chance against Warlock. Let’s explore this fictional matchup a bit further.

Physiology

The physiology of Adam Warlock and Superman is not even similar, although they are both humanoid beings. Kal-El is an extraterrestrial being from the planet of Krypton, whereas Adam Warlock is a genetically engineered being designed to be the perfect human specimen.

Now, Superman was a baby when his planet was destroyed, and his parents sent him to Earth in a pod to save his life. Krypton is a planet revolving around a red sun. So, when Kal-El arrived on Earth, which revolves around a yellow sun, his Kryptonian physiology started absorbing the solar energy, eventually granting him the superpowers we know Supes to have.

The longer he is on Earth, and the more solar energy his cells absorb, the more powerful he gets. Now, if you take him away from a yellow sun, there’s no energy he can absorb. Hence, he’d grow weaker and weaker unless he gets around a yellow sun instead.

That being said, there are virtually no limits to how powerful Superman can get. One time, he got supercharged by sitting at the center of the sun for around 15 000 years, emerging so powerful that his strength was unmeasurable. Normal Supes can move buildings and mountains. It’s believed that Spernam Prime One Million could easily move planets with one arm.

Now, Adam Warlock is a genetically engineered being created by the Enclave to be the perfect human specimen in every way imaginable. Their “project” worked better than they ever thought. He immediately knew they had evil plans, so Adam (at the time known only as Him) attacked the Enclave and escaped.

Even then, his physiology and the powers it brought were incredibly strong. However, they only grew with time. First, the High Evolutionary created a symbiotic bond between Adam Warlock and the Soul Stone. 

Then, Adam realized that after every time he gets hurt, he encloses his life essence into a cocoon, where his body regenerates, grows in power, and gets perfected with new abilities. It came to a point where there’s virtually nothing Adam couldn’t do – even after he lost the Soul Stone.

As for his physical strength, it is amplified to superhuman levels. However, it’s nowhere near Superman. Also, Adam gets tired from physical exertion, whereas Superman does not. Also, Supes can fly at or above light speed, while Adam Warlock flies fast, but not that fast. He can teleport, though, so that kind of cancels out.

Still, Adam’s powers lie in other aspects of his character. When it comes to pure physiological attributes, such as strength, stamina, speed, and physical durability (ability to take physical damage), Superman beats Adam Warlock with ease.

Point: Superman (1:0) Adam Warlock

Intelligence

Strength goes beyond just brute force. The strength of muscle is highly important, but the strength of mind is just as important, if not even more so.

Now, Superman is a highly intelligent individual. He’s a great investigator, and an amazing journalist, living under a strict moral code that always strives to do good. However, while he is highly intelligent, one wouldn’t call him a genius. He’s a good planner, but if Supes is on a team, he’s usually the muscle, not the brain.

As for Adam Warlock, one might say that his brain is stronger than his body. He has a genius-level intellect as an elemental power, seeing that he’s genetically created as the perfect human. Since he first gained consciousness, Adam instantly figured out that his “fathers” were up to no good.

Sure, he lacked the experience and knowledge initially, but Warlock’s mental capacity allowed him to grow with each experience. Ultimately, he developed into a phenomenal tactician and strategist, a universal multilinguist, and a meticulous manipulator, capable of avoiding altercations simply by manipulating the opponents.

Point: Adam Warlock (1:1) Superman

Mental Powers

This category somewhat connects to the previous. Although intelligence and mental powers go hand-in-hand, they aren’t the same thing. Under mental powers, I’m not talking about problem-solving, strategy, or intellect. I’m talking about stuff like telepathy, telekinesis, cosmic awareness, etc. And, in that regard, Superman is yet again inferior.

Kal-El isn’t really known for having such abilities. He has tons of powers that usually manifest physically, not mentally. He has no mind control powers, telepathy, or telekinesis. Having great mental resistance to incoming telepathic or psychic attacks is as far as Superman goes.

Now, with Adam Warlock, things are completely different. His mental powers are just as strong- if not stronger – than his physical powers. In the beginning, when Adam Warlock was only known as Him, his telepathic and mind control powers were much stronger.

Then they gradually grew weaker, to the point where we don’t really know their magnitude, but other powers grew exponentially. As I’ve mentioned, Adam was bonded with the Soul Stone for a long time. During that period, he could steal other people’s souls and absorb their skills, and it also granted him precognition and a certain degree of telepathy.

Later, though, the guy developed such a powerful cosmic awareness that he could detect even the slightest disturbances anywhere in the universe, especially bigger stuff like dark holes, time manipulations, etc.

There’s a whole lot more to Adam Warlock in this regard, but I think this alone is enough to give him the point over Supes.

Point: Adam Warlock (2:1) Superman

Additional Powers

We’ve been through the physical and the mental. Now, what else can they do? Well, both Superman and Adam Warlock are incredibly versatile, but in different ways.

Superman can fly at incredible speeds and has almost unbreakable durability. Virtually no amount of damage can harm him, be it high-caliber weapons, lasers, energy beams, or entire mountain ranges falling on top of him. Superman has certain weaknesses, but durability isn’t one of them.

Also, Clark Kent has numerous ocular abilities, including powerful heat/laser vision, infrared vision, X-Ray vision, microscopic/macroscopic vision, etc. His powers also include hurricane breath, as well as freeze breath, strong enough to freeze the Great Lakes. Supes is also telepathically resistant.

When it comes to Adam Warlock, though, there’s not much he can’t do. First of all, he’s virtually immortal. Even if Adam dies, his soul is said to be too powerful even for Death herself to claim it. So, he comes back to life. Also, as mentioned earlier, Adam can regenerate and improve by entering a cocoon state, where his body recoups and powers exponentially grow.

That’s only the start. Warlock has matter & energy manipulation, projection, absorption, and control, down to the molecular level. He also has thermal vision, pyrokinesis, time manipulation, teleportation, cosmic awareness, and incredibly powerful magic, which he is incredibly skilled at.

As powerful and versatile as Superman is, he couldn’t even dream of doing some stuff that comes to Adam Warlock like breathing. When it comes to additional powers, Warlock trumps Supes, and it’s not even close.

Point: Adam Warlock (3:1) Superman

Weaknesses

Finally, almost every character has weaknesses, and so do these two. However, one has more of them – or ones that are easier to exploit, at least. I’ll start with Adam.

Adam Warlock can withstand serious amounts of damage – like getting smacked with Thor’s hammer Mjolnir without harm. However, he can get hurt, tired, and even die. However, no matter how hurt he gets, Adam can regenerate. No matter if he dies, he always resurrects. That means that, whatever you do, no matter how many times you beat Adam, he’ll come back.

His biggest weakness, though, is Magus – an evil alter-ego he holds within. At first, Magus was Adam Warlock from a distant future, who grew in power exponentially and got corrupted, killing billions across the universe. Now, Warlock keeps Magus in check, but if he goes weak enough, there’s always a risk that Magus will take over, and all hell will break loose.

It’s really not something you can exploit, though – if it happens, it happens. Superman, on the other hand, has some serious weaknesses that Warlock could exploit.

First of all, Superman has a weakness to Kryptonite, a material that could be found on his former planet Krypton. However, seeing that Krypton was shattered into pieces, there’s not a lot of Kryptonite left. Well, Lex Luthor – a regular human – found and even produced some to battle Supes. If he could do it, then a cosmically-aware guy like Adam Warlock could, too.

Another Superman weakness is magic. Over the years, Supes has shown that magical and mystical attacks affect him unlike any other type of damage. While he couldn’t die from it, per se, he was obviously hurt with magic countless times. That strongly plays into Warlock’s strengths, seeing that magic is probably his strongest suit.

Finally, if you remove Kal-El from a yellow sun, his cells stop charging, and he eventually grows weaker, to a point where he loses all his powers. Seeing that Warlock can teleport and is cosmically aware, he could take Supes to a point in the universe the farthest away from a yellow sun possible and just hold on while Superman’s powers diminish.

Point: Adam Warlock (4:1) Superman

Adam Warlock Vs. Superman: Who Wins?

In the end, the answer is obvious; Adam Warlock wins against Superman almost every time. He’s more versatile and has powers that directly hit Superman’s major weaknesses. Now, that doesn’t mean Superman is completely powerless against Adam.

His physical dominance is above and beyond Warlock, even at his strongest. And, we know that, as durable as Adam is, he can get hurt. Therefore, if Superman can hurt Warlock physically before Warlock hurts him, he has a great chance of winning because Adam’s cocoon regeneration takes a while. It’s easier said than done but possible.

In the end, if I had to choose, I’d give Adam Warlock at least 7/10 fights, if not more.

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