From: rich.bellacera@amail.amdahl.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: REALITY GEM, REALITY GEM.  Who's cot the REALITY GEM?
Date: 29 Jul 92 20:05:25 GMT
Return-Path: <amail.amdahl.com!rich.bellacera@juts.ccc.amdahl.com>

I've been reading the related posts with great interest.  I've been mulling
in my mind, too, who it may be that doth possess yon gem.  In considering
this I believe it is important to understand that there are several factors
that may shed light on this decision.

1.  Closeness/friendship with Warlock
2.  Logicalness of choice.
3.  Compatability of holder.

It's obvious to me that Warlock chose from among his buddies and travelling
companions to give the gems.  I believe in INFINITY WATCH #1 or just prior
he gave some lame reasoning for each of his choices.  I can not currently
locate these issues since I'm packing my stuff to ready for a move.  Anyhow
I think the choices had something to do with each of the characters' dis-
position towards the gems' abilities (i.e. Pip was an adventurer hence he got
the space gem...does anyone have a list of each of the gems and the reasons
the characters got them?).  I guess Moondragon was introduced into Warlock
little party for the sole purpose of the author needing a compatable mind-
oriented space-faring character for the mind gem.  Warlock of course has
always been a character searching for a soul (sort of the Tin Woodsman
syndrome...but he eventually got more than he dreamed of.)

Concerning the "logic" issue I would think that a natural choice would be a
character who is already adept or working with "reality" in some facet of their
power.

With no further ado I would like to list the choices that have come before
and add my two cents worth of other possibilities:

WHO's GOT THE REALITY GEM?  Could it be:

THANOS (seems to be the most obvious, but for that very reason he could just
        be a way the authors are trying to mislead us from the "real" owner).

WATCHER ( a major possibility IMHO.  He is involved in alternate realities,
         he's benevolent, and his name coincides with the name of the group).

HER  (on a power scale she is definitely a contender with Warlock.  She is
      supposedly his counterpart, but I do not recall her recieving 'Lock's
      "good half"...so she is NOT the opposite of MAGUS.  But she's defin-
      itely not to be ruled 'out' just yet).

KOSMIC  (As a Cosmic Cube entity she definitely has the power to manipulate
         energies related to reality, but I don't think Warlock gave the
         gem to any cosmic entities, tho if he did I can think of a few others
         that are beeter suited (i.e. NUMINUS a.k.a. Whoopi Goldberg in
         outerspace, the universe's guiding spirit introduced in POWER PACK
         #51, or the IN-BETWEENER, who's job it is to keep reality in balance,
         or even ETERNITY himself for very important reasons).

COLLECTOR (now this is a scarey thought.  Why would Warlock do that?  When did
           Warlock even have any relationship with the Collector that would
           make this a 'logical' action?).

BEYONDER  (He's definitely still around, but why I haven't the slightest
           notion.  Perhaps more will be revealed about all this at some point
           in Infinity Watch or Quasar's book.  Speaking of cosmic beings
           wasn't there some little kid and an old lady cosmic entities that
           were introduced in Quasar's book a while back.  Don't they, together
           control reality?)

TATTLETALE (Franklin Richards.  Hmmmmm.  That's interesting.  And he is going
            through some kind of changes that are parallelling the Infinity
            War storyline.  I don't know what this means at this time).

HIGH EVOLUTIONARY  (Why can't he be the possessor?  Just because he's gone
                    bonkers is no reason to exclude him.  In fact I wanna
                    know exactly what caused his current bout with the looney
                    bin.  Wasn't it something like that which Jean Grey did
                    to Mastermind when she openned his mind to reality and he
                    went looney?  High Evolutionary has recently had an ex
                    perience with mind-expansion.  His mind is currently in
                    a minor shutdown mode.  Maybe he is consciusly blocking
                    out the power of the reality gem?  Maybe this is what
                    Eternity is doing if he's the possessor?)

CAPTAIN ULTRA, FORBUSH MAN, AUNT MAY (I hope you guys aren't serious :)

ORIGINAL THOR (I can't imagine why)

MOLECULE-MAN  (ditto)

now for some of my choices:

AUTOLYCUS (he was/is a close companion of Warlock's.  He's currently missing
           from the storyline - I guess that's because he's still in Warlock's
           soul gem as the guardian of that pocket universe.  While Autolycus
           isn't an obvious choice, I think he is a logical choice.  I think
           this might also explain why the possessor of the reality gem only
           speaks to 'Lock in his mind).

NEBULA  (another character suffering from mental shutdown.  She's suspicious
         but I'm not entirely sure why).

AQAURIAN  (definitely a benevolent character....but I forget where he is these
           days.  I know he too has links to the Cosmic Cubes and the Shaper.
           He is also an extremely powerful being).

ORIGINAL CAPTAIN MARVEL (this would be as lame an excuse as Marvel would need
                         to re-introduce Mar-vell.)

RICK JONES  (i don't know why...just seemed like a good guess).

CAPTAIN UNIVERSE (current holder of that power.  Seemed like another good
                  guess.)

Oh yeah, I forgot about two other guess that came up in past articles:

IMMORTUS  (I hope not)

ENCLAVE (the scientists of the BEEHIVE and creators of HIM & HER.  I think they
         are all deceased.  Besides these guys were nuts...I hope they don't
         come back in any form).

well, I hope this list helps.  Maybe there are other guesses?  Perhaps we could
do a tally of votes.  I know that the longer Warlock waits to tell someone,
anyone, he'll eventually forget who he gave the gem to.  At least that is the
impression I get whenever he starts to bring up the subject (after which he is
always so conveeeeeeniently interupted).

My top votes are for THANOS as the most 'obvious' choice, WATCHER as the most
'logical' choice, and AUTOLYCUS as the most 'unassuming' choice.

Whaddaya think?