Battle of the week results: Adam Warlock vs Darkseid

I think my difficulty in thinking about this battle is that if Warlock wins, from my perspective it would essentially be a win for the Soul Gem, not Adam Warlock. I just don't see him at that power level. I generally speaking see Darkseid as being more or less equivalent to Thanos (and check out the great Thanos vs Darkseid CAV if you haven't before), and I don't see Warlock as powerful as Thanos. His cosmic rival, sure, but more from fate than power. Honestly I think of High Evolutionary--Warlock's clear superior, in my mind--as a better match for Darkseid. The Soul Gem might be equal to him, but I just don't want a battle to rely so heavily on "gear," no matter how much it is identified with its owner. Which is perhaps another way of saying, yes, Warlock with the Soul Gem is equivalent to Darkseid, but it's annoying to me that so much of Warlock's side of that equivalency is due to the Gem, even if it's a standard feature for him.

But as I said in my earlier post, I think this actual battle is mostly about who uses their one-shot win-move first: Soul-sucking or Omega Effect (which could be BFR as easily as killing). Let's just assume the Soul-sucking can work; I think the arguments that Darkseid has no soul to suck are interesting, but let's just say for a second that he can. So: who would do this action first, Darkseid or Warlock? For me, it's Darkseid by a mile here. Warlock doesn't suck souls into himself casually. While Darkseid throws out the Omega Effect reasonably often. So while they may get into a fight for a while, blasting each other and absorbing energy and whatnot, I see Darkseid going for the Omega Effect, which I personally don't believe Warlock can counter, well before Warlock tries to suck his soul. So, it doesn't matter if he actually can suck his soul, because he won't do it in time.

Also, regarding Warlock and inconsistency: I think the issue is not so much that this current incarnation of Warlock is inconsistent, although writers do tend to approach him as a plot device which renders him capable of doing whatever he needs to do, it's that he's inconsistent over the decades. And sure, most characters are different now than they were in the 70s. But with Warlock, he keeps regenerating, and each new form has different power levels and even different powers, to the degree that I'm not sure that old Warlock feats are even attributable to the current form.

This one is tough. Adam has been beaten by a non holding back Thor and thanks in the past. While I see Adam having the damage output to win here what I question is his ability to tank the omega beams. Sure Adam can manipulate cosmic energy, but I don't see his control being greater then that of darksieds in regards to the beams. Also will Adam actually have a chance to manipulate the beams before he's hit by them?? If he can tank the first blast will he be in shape coherent enough to manipulate them the next time? Durability for me is the key to who wins here. Again Adam has the power to do so IF he can tank those beams. I'm as of yet undecided. Nice fight BTW

Adam Warlock gets horribly underrated. He's not just one of the single greatest energy manipulators (I'd vouch for him matching Quasar in his own game) but as a physical powerhouse he's a beast too - post-evolution he's throwing down with Ikon (who dispatched the Annihilator's, bar Norrin, in close quarters) & coming out on top. However he's not in a position to take on Darkseid - the same guy who in many post-crisis incarnations could dominate Superman with little difficulty and whitewashed the Justice League in the New-52. Adam one-shotting Norrin while incredibly impressive was a cheep shot whereas Darkseid's Omega Beams have proven consistently viable against S-class opponents. Adam's capable of staggering Uxas with his physicals and energy projection however Darkseid's boasting both comparable/superior physical capabilities & capable of exceeding his energy output.

I will not vote as I have next to no firsthand knowledge of Warlock, but I skimmed the thread and the Darkseid comments don't surprise me at all.

He is not a one trick pony with a trick that doesn't work. If you forget about Superman, you could focus on the Darkstars whom Darkseid toyed with, or Young Justice who had a member corrupted into almost destroying the Earth, or Goldstar who survived an exploding planet with just amnesia and a knockout and went toe to toe with Lobo but admitted he was no match for Darkseid, or Blasfemy (Etrigan villain) who had his head pulped by a Darkseid avatar, or Agogg who trounced Orion and Lightray but was slain by Darkseid, or Kalibak who is every bit as strong physically as his half-brother but was disintegrated and resurrected by his father...

If we focus on Superman, we've got him failing to stop Apokoliptian missiles that Darkseid vaporized, we've got one of his rogues by the name of Hank Henshaw getting two-shotted by Darkseid who needed time to recharge (which was established under Kirby) and we do not have a single instance of him being hit by the Omega Effect set to kill, not even in the much loved "Apokolips Now" issue or in Superman/Batman. Superman has survived and even resisted the Omega Beams it is true, but there was context behind every. single. instance. I can go more in detail if you wish but this isn't about Superman.

I'm not even talking pre-Crisis or New 52.

I honestly thought the Warlock side debated far better.

Whats annoying is that the two people who were debating for Darkseid stopped half way through and didn't reply to half of my posts. which is really aggravating to say the least