User:Ditch Fisher/sandbox/Soul World (comics)

Soul World is a fictional place portrayed in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first appearance of Soul World was in Strange Tales #179 (1975), written and illustrated by Jim Starlin. Soul World has appeared in subsequent story-lines written by Starlin, as well as other stories influenced by his cosmic-based tales. Soul World is illustrated as an idyllic alien landscape, and commonly serves the narrative as a place of exile, refuge, or purgatory.

Fictional Depiction
Soul World is featured most often in the Marvel Comics cosmic-based tales Jim Starlin helped revitalize in the 1970s with the re-purposing of the 1960s Stan Lee created character, Him, which Starlin re-named as Adam Warlock. Soul World is depicted as being housed entirely within the Soul Gem, an enchanted amulet possessed by Warlock, and later retconned as one of six magical gemstones that comprise the totemic Infinity Gauntlet. The world contained within the gem is depicted as a pastoral alien landscape, The inhabitants of Soul World are drawn as varying alien-type beings. These depictions have remained consistent throughout the years, with little variation.

Narrative Function
Starlin initially used Soul World in his stories to serve as a place of exile and purgatory for a supporting cast of characters most commonly affiliated with his protagonist, Adam Warlock. Warlock is portrayed as being the possessor of the Soul Gem, thereby the de facto god of Soul World. Starlin used Soul World as a place of self-exile for Warlock in that character's death and resurrection storyline. In the 1990s Infinity Gauntlet trilogy- a Starlin created mini-series- the stories show Warlock using Soul World as a place of exile for the defeated antagonists. Other characters, such as Judge Kray-Tor and Captain Autolycus, inhabit Soul World in a type of purgatory for souls that Warlock deems righteous.

Publication History
Additional gems have appeared in crossover media and alternate universes outside the Marvel Universe.

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