Pip the Troll is an adventurer with cosmic teleportation abilities. While he can be lewd and mischievous, he’s a steadfast companion to Adam Warlock, and has held royal titles such as Prince and King.
A Tale of Ale
“A superior product of selective inbreeding,” Prince Pip Gofern was born 260th in line for Laxidazia’s throne. During one of his painting odysseys, Prince Gofern stumbled across a band of trolls (actually a degenerate “sub-species” of the Laxidazian race), and was invited to join their revels. Feeling an immediate affinity for the trolls, Prince Gofern threw himself into their partying, devouring their gourmet dark stews and great quantities of their special ale — and dancing wildly until he passed out.
The next morning Pip found the ale not only gave him a hangover, but apparently also mutated him into a troll-ish form, giving him hairy feet, a merged fourth and fifth finger, longer ears, and a vastly increased lust for pleasure. Returning to court, Pip half-heartedly tried to conceal the changes, but was unable to stifle his lewd behavior. Banished from the court for degenerate conduct, Pip left Laxidazia for a life of wandering and debauchery among the stars.
Superhuman Strength & Teleportation
Pip originally possesses no superhuman powers beyond an extremely high tolerance for various mood-altering substances. However, Pip's new body has superhuman strength (Class 10), though he rarely resorts to force given his knack for avoiding actual combat. The hair around his feet hardens after growing to full length, giving them a cloven-hooved appearance.
Mutated by the Space Gem’s radiation, Pip can teleport anywhere without leaving a detectable energy trail. He can teleport large objects of both mass and weight.
He carries various explosives (and possibly other devices) in the pockets of his vest, belt, and “shoes.” While in possession of the Space Gem, Pip could teleport himself or anyone touching him to any place he could picture mentally, or anyplace someone else touching him could picture, even to other dimensions. It is unrevealed if he can still do so without the Gem.
Frenemies
Pip’s relationship with the Mad Titan Thanos is a tenuous one. During one encounter, Thanos destroys Pip’s mind; in another, Pip keeps the Infinity Gems safe from him. However, Pip allies with Thanos when it serves him, and the greater good of the universe against the extra-dimensional entity Hunger.
Space-Faring Friends
Pip helps Adam Warlock avert a terrible future which would result in him becoming the Magus, an evil version of himself. He also allies with Gamora in helping Warlock against Thanos, who desires the Infinity Gems to become the Supreme Being. Warlock trusts Pip, adding him to his Infinity Watch, and even gives him a gem to safeguard.
Teleportation Station
Getting into trouble on scores of planets, Pip was eventually imprisoned on the Universal Church of Truth spaceship Great Divide and slated for execution along with the other renegades and non-humanoid species the UCT had deemed “unproductive” and fit only to be chemically recycled into their basic elements. There, Pip met artificial human Adam Warlock, a fellow UCT captive being transported to the UCT’s Homeworld for questioning. After helping the other prisoners revolt against the spaceship’s crew, Pip joined Warlock’s quest to stop the Magus, Warlock’s evil alternate future self. The duo piloted a stolen shuttlecraft to Homeworld and Warlock left Pip in the city to confront the Church’s temporal leader, the Matriarch, seeking the truth of Magus' origins. Miffed at being abandoned right when things were getting interesting, Pip entered a local tavern where he met Gamora, the so-called deadliest woman in the galaxy, who offered to help Pip free Warlock from the Sacred Palace and aid them in defeating the Magus. They found Warlock right after he freed himself from a brainwashing session, and the trio confronted the Magus, who knocked Pip out.
Pip awoke minutes later, unable to help either Warlock or Gamora stop the Magus from summoning the In-Betweener to start the process that would change Warlock into Magus. Rescued by Gamora’s master, Thanos the Mad Titan, the trio eventually found themselves on Thanos’ ship, Sanctuary I. Pip decided that following Warlock into a time portal set to change his future was safer than observing a fight between Magus and Thanos. Pip witnessed Warlock finally finding the key to prevent himself from turning into the Magus, removing much of his influence from Reality-616’s timeline and diverging it from the Magus’ Reality-7528 timeline, re-inventing the Universal Church as a more benign entity in the process.
Returned to Sirus X (the renamed Homeworld), Warlock and Pip indulged themselves at a local tavern until Warlock left to find answers to his new riddles among the stars. Left to his own devices, Pip found new adventures in saving the concubine Heater Delight from her master Pro-Boscis the Procurer, and later in a rash of petty thefts to pay for his various vices. Pip then decided to see what Warlock and Gamora had been up to lately; searching Sanctuary I, he instead found Thanos, who destroyed Pip’s mind. When Warlock finally found what was left of Pip, he absorbed Pip’s soul with his Soul Gem, sending it to the peaceful Soulworld. While there, Pip was eventually reunited with the souls of Warlock and Gamora, both victims of Thanos.
Years later, Silver Surfer warned Warlock (now Soulworld’s leader) of the resurrected Thanos’ plans to become the universe’s Supreme Being using the Infinity Gauntlet. Pip and Gamora were resurrected with Warlock in the dead bodies of three petty criminals (Pip possessed the late Ralph Bunker). Warlock transmuted these husks into exact duplicates of his, Pip’s, and Gamora’s original bodies, with their original powers enhanced. While Warlock and other Earth heroes and cosmic entities sought to strip Thanos of his Infinity Gauntlet, Pip kept sorcerer Doctor Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, company until Warlock won the Gauntlet.
Pip, Strange, and Gamora then convinced Warlock not to use the Gauntlet to eliminate all “evil impulses” like competitiveness and ambition from all sentient beings, which would have led to despair and apathy. When the Living Tribunal ruled Warlock was not fit to be a Supreme Being, Warlock dispersed the Gauntlet’s Infinity Gems to his Infinity Watch—Gamora, Pip, Thanos (the secret “silent partner” of the team), Heather Douglas, AKA Moondragon, and Drax the Destroyer—those whom he deemed best able to safeguard the Gems from malicious adventurers. He gave the Space Gem to Pip, since his roguish nature would enable him to keep the gem safe from potential thieves. While Warlock left to restore his spirit after divesting himself of divinity, the others dispersed, with Pip teleporting to Earth to go joyriding in the Fantastic Four’s Fantasticar and an Avengers Quinjet until he was captured by the Omega (a disguised Man-Beast), who also captured Gamora, Drax, and Moondragon. Man-Beast used their Gems’ powers to create the energy creature Infinity Thrall, which nearly killed Warlock before he tricked it into destroying the starship engines used to create it. A revived Pip teleported the Watch onto Monster Island, where Harvey Elder, AKA Mole Man, talked the now-organized team into using the island as their base.
When Thanos contacted the Watch about the plans of the reborn Magus, Pip teleported them to the Infinity Well in Death’s other-dimensional palace to further learn Magus’ plans, but they were forced to flee before they could learn anything useful. Regrouping in another dimension, the Watch battled a group of Earth’s heroes whom the Magus had tricked into believing Thanos and Warlock were responsible for the plague of doppelgängers assaulting Earth.
Eventually, Galactus teleported everyone onto his ship and linked everyone’s minds to quickly resolve the misunderstanding. Warlock reassembled the Infinity Gauntlet, only to have the Magus kidnap him and steal the Gauntlet’s power. After Warlock defeated the Magus, the Watch regained their respective Gems and returned to Monster Island to recuperate and watch over a now-catatonic Warlock. Pip made a half-hearted attempt to become the Watch’s new leader, but decided Gamora was better suited to the role than he was.
Revived by Eternity, Warlock led the Watch in helping the Silver Surfer rescue the soul of Surfer’s lover Shalla Bal from the demonic Mephisto and restoring her to life. After fending off an attack by Reality-93112's time-traveling amnesiac strongman Maxam, the Watch fell prey to the schemes of Warlock’s “good half,” the Goddess, who banished Warlock to a far distant dimension and convinced Gamora, Moondragon and others to join her crusade to cleanse the universe of sin.
Pip then decided to become the Watch’s new leader as Pipman and kidnapped Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, to help find Warlock, only to have Drax and Maxam decide Mister Fantastic made a better leader than Pip. Joining the remaining heroes at Avengers Mansion, Pipman was forcibly bathed by some of them to reduce his personal stench to bearable levels. Getting a reading off Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X (via his temporary mindlink with Moondragon) of the Goddess’ location, Pip teleported himself to her and used her newly-created Cosmic Egg (a merging of numerous extra-dimensional Cosmic Cube-like objects) to turn her into a salt statue, leaving Pip in control of the Egg.
“King Pip” mulled over several possible uses of his newfound power, ranging from endless creature comforts to becoming a Supreme Being himself, until he decided all he truly wanted was to be liked by the other heroes enough for them to throw him a birthday party. Before he could implement that wish, the Goddess’ hidden protector Silhouette Chord, AKA Silhouette, knocked him out and restored the Goddess to her former state. After Warlock defeated and imprisoned the Goddess in his Soul Gem, the freed Pip teleported him and the rest of the Watch away from the restored heroes before they vented their frustration over the Goddess’ actions on Warlock.
Warlock had Pip teleport him to the insane Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, so he could cure his madness and place the thunder god in his debt. Thor was cured after a series of conflicts during which Pip rescued the group from Asgardian trolls, brought Thanos into the matter, and fought Odin Borson, AKA Odin, and the other Asgardians. Pip and the Watch then aided Princess Maya Teraxtola, AKA Maya, of the Egolix-7 dimension and the mystic Darklore in overthrowing the evil demi-godlike Count Abyss. After freeing hundreds of souls from the alien Lord Domitian’s clutches, the Watch were robbed of their respective Gems by the Earth-93060 (“Ultraverse”) vampire Rune, leading to the Watch’s dissolution.
Months later, Pip and Gamora reunited with Warlock and Drax to stop Negative Zone ruler Lord Syphonn from destroying their dimension. More recently, Pip teleported Warlock from an alien mental ward and helped him bring the toddler Atleza Langunn to dying reality-anchor Atlez before the nihilist Thanosi (rogue creations of Thanos) could kill her. Pip has since aided both Warlock and Thanos against Hunger, and helped stop the power-mad Champion of the Universe from destroying the alien Skards in his quest for worthy opponents to fight. He later testified as a character witness for Eros, AKA Starfox, when he was accused of inappropriate use of his love powers on unwilling women. Since then, Pip returned to his partying ways, waiting until the next time his buddy Warlock would call on him to help save the universe.
Pip then became indebted to Hela, goddess of death. Going on the run, he disguised himself using a pendant given to him by Hela’s brother Agamemnon in return for infiltrating detective agency X-Factor Investigations. His purpose there was to keep tabs on the pregnancy of Rahne Sinclair, AKA Wolfsbane. Though X-Factor Investigations members Jamie Madrox, AKA Multiple Man, and Sean Cassidy, AKA Banshee, ultimately discovered the hidden Pip, and thus fulfilling their contract with Hela who had hired them. This led to his capture, but Pip soon found himself saved by Madrox and the others who felt bad about inadvertently leading her to their teammate.
