Death's Head
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Death's Head is a fictional character, a cyborg bounty hunter appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior for the company's Marvel UK imprint. Furman decided to use Death's Head in his Transformers stories, but before these were published the character also appeard in a one-page strip (High Noon Tex) that ran in many comics to confirm Marvel's ownership of the character (if he had appeared in the Transformers comics first, Hasbro would have owned him), and then in the Transformers comic itself.
The character was later redesigned and relaunched as Death's Head II, acting as one of the flagship characters for Marvel UK's 1990s expansion. This version of Death's Head also inspired two spin-off characters, Death Wreck and Death Metal, each of which starred in its own limited series.
Later, in 2005, fans used a poll on Marvel's website to vote for the character's return. This led to a third version of Death's Head, Death's Head 3.0, created by original Death's Head writer Simon Furman.
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[edit] Publication history
Death's Head was originally created as a "throwaway character" for use in the UK Transformers comic, a bounty hunter who would feature in a single story-arc and then, according to writer Simon Furman, would "be discarded down the line (probably at the end of the first story arc)"[1].
Geoff Senior then showed Furman the initial character designs, at which point they decided that the character had potential beyond his planned appearance as a "generic, stock mech-with-an-attitude". As a result of this, Simon Furman also rewrote the Transformers scripts to change Death's Head's dialogue in line with the revised character concept.[1]
To avoid Hasbro claiming ownership of the character as a consequence of the Transformers copyright terms they had agreed with Marvel, Death's Head had to make his debut in another Marvel comic before appearing in Transformers (this situation had also applied to another Marvel character created for use in Transformers, Circuit Breaker).[1] Accordingly, Furman wrote a single-page strip ("High Noon Tex", illustrated by Bryan Hitch) that was published in a number of Marvel UK titles before Death's Head first appeared in Transformers.
Furman has stated that he chose the name Death's Head for the character while unaware of the "Nazi-connotations of the name".[1]
[edit] Death's Head 3.0
A third version of Death's Head was introduced in 2005, the result of an online poll on the www.marvel.com site[2]. Fans were given the chance to choose between four existing Marvel characters - Death's Head, Woodgod, The Aquarian and Texas Twister. The winning character was to be revamped and would then receive their own storyline in Marvel's Amazing Fantasy title. Death's Head won, receiving 49% of the vote.[2].
Death's Head creator Simon Furman has stated[3] that he contacted Marvel as soon as he became aware of the poll. Amazing Fantasy editor Mark Paniccia had already intended to contact Furman to ask him some questions about the character[2], and their conversation also led to Furman writing the initial Death's Head 3.0 story.
The initial Death's Head 3.0 story also includes a number of elements which tie it into previous Amazing Fantasy stories - Death's Head sentience and power source comes from AIM's attempts to replicate the power that created Captain Universe, and the scientist behind this is Carmilla Black, the new Scorpion, as well as being Patricia Goddard's grandmother. While the Minion project is mentioned as the reason for Death's Head being given his name, no other ties to the previous Death's Heads were included. However, Simon Furman has stated that if the character returns he will "work in a little retroactive back story to create a kind of unified Death's Head-verse."[3]
Since the conclusion of the Amazing Fantasy storyline, other Death's Head cyborgs have appeared in the Incredible Hulk storyline, Planet Hulk such as #92.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Death's Head
Death's Head's first appearance after High Noon Tex, was in the Transformers (comic), seeing him attempt to claim the bounty that Rodimus Prime had placed on Galvatron's head, travelling back in time to the 1980s in pursuit of his quarry. Realising the error he had made in placing the bounty, Rodimus followed him back, and stopped him from destroying Galvatron, forcibly returning him to the future. Subsequently, Death's Head was contracted by the Decepticons to take out Rodimus Prime, a piece of business that Death's Head considered a pleasure. However, Rodimus outsmarted him, and instead paid him to terminate Cyclonus and Scourge. Over the course of the next year, Death's Head pursued them, eventually confronting them on the Planet of Junk, where they all fell under the mental control of Unicron.
Death's Head tried to resist the control, but was manipulated into killing Shockwave, only to eventually help Rodimus Prime seal Unicron within the Matrix. Finally, prevented from escaping the scene by the explosions wracking the area, Death's Head forced himself, Cyclonus and Scourge through Unicron's time portal, vowing to kill them "another time". However, in the course of the time travel they became separated, and while Cyclonus and Scourge wound up on Cybertron in the past, eventually joining with Scorponok and becoming Targetmasters, Death's Head instead encountered the Time Lord known as the Doctor. The Doctor shrank him to human size and shot him off through time, leading him into an encounter with the future government's troubleshooting team, the Dragon's Claws.
Subsequently, Death's Head was finally granted a comic book of his own, originally set in the year 8162 but later travelling to the present and then to the year 2020. During this series, Spratt, a young gang member rebuilt Death's Head after he was destroyed by Dragon's Claws, leading to a redesign of Death's Head body, and his becoming the cyborg's unwanted partner. The series was ended abruptly with a cliffhanger at issue 10 due to the closure of Marvel UK's own creative team.
In 1990, the ongoing storyline was resolved in the Marvel UK graphic novel, Death's Head: The Body in Question, which was serialized in the magazine Strip before being reprinted in the Marvel Graphic Novel format. In this story, Death's Head's origins were revealed to him for the first time.
His mechanoid body had originally been constructed to host the life energy of the techno-mage Lupex. However, a woman named Pyra, who wished to steal Lupex's secrets, ultimately decided to use the mechanoid body against him. She gave it a cold and calculating business-like mind, but before it could be used against Lupex, the body was stolen by an unknown party (later revealed to be the Doctor), enlarged to the size of the Cybertronians, and catapulted through time.
At this time, 6 issues of the original series were also collected in the graphics novel The Life and Times of Death's Head, together with the High Noon Tex strip and some words from writer Simon Furman and concept art for the character's original design. The article makes mention of a new limited series entering production, with a new, gothic, redesign of the character. However, this series was never published.
Around this time, Death's Head's increasing 'cult status' meant that he also made a few appearances in some US Marvel comics, most notably the Fantastic Four (issue 338), She-Hulk (Sensational She-Hulk issue 24) and Marvel Comics Presents (issue 76).
[edit] Death's Head II
Eventually, after many undocumented adventures, Death's Head was beheaded and his personality "assimilated" into the mind of the cyborg Minion. Minion was a cyborg created by Dr. Evelyn Necker, an employee of AIM in the year 2020. Death's Head's personality overwhelmed Minion's programming, and they became the gestalt lifeform that called itself Death's Head II. Death's Head II was partnered with Tuck, an artificial human from the pseudo-medieval planet of Lionheart, where humans had outlawed advanced technology and waged war against androids and cyborgs. Death's Head II encountered many more Marvel characters, including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Cable, and crossed over with almost every Marvel UK character who was published at the time.
Death's Head II was created by artist Liam Sharp and primarily scripted by Dan Abnett.
The original Death's Head was only ever seen again in flashbacks or within Death's Head II's gestalt mind. However, a coda to the original Death's Head could be found in the Simon Furman-penned issue of What If, issue #54 which was entitled "What If Death's Head I Had Lived?"
The original 10 issue series was reprinted, completely this time, in a 12 issue mini series featuring new covers and an additional short story featuring Death's Head II replaying his memories.
Death's Head II titles included the 4 issue introductory mini series, a 16 issue 'ongoing' run, and Death's Head II Gold, a second mini series that only got as far as issue 1 (although issue 0 features as a flip cover on ongoing issue 15).
Death's Head's exploits ultimately came to end with the (second) demise of Marvel UK's in house creative team, and aside from a cameo in Avengers Forever, he has not been featured in a Marvel comic since.
[edit] Death's Head 3.0
The third version of Death's Head was introduced in a five-part storyline within the pages of Marvel's anthology series Amazing Fantasy, beginning in #16 (December 2005). Written by Death's Head creator Simon Furman and drawn by James Raiz, the story is set 100 years in the future and does not appear to be directly linked to the previous Death's Head stories.
Advanced Idea Mechanics are set to make peace with the UN and become a legitimate non-terrorist organisation. Hardliner AIM Senior Scientist Patricia Goddard has decided to stop the peace treaty and force AIM back underground by assassinating the UN Secretary-General, using a mysterious alien cyborg in AIM's possession codenamed Death's Head. Powered and given intelligence by an artificial variant on the Uni-Power, the cyborg is sent out in to the field with preprogrammed objectives, but the clash between its murderous inclinations and an instinctive desire to help people leave it unsure what side it wants to be on.
The final panel of the Death's Head 3.0 story concludes with an image of the cyborg with mouth horns, alluding to the original Death's Head. It is mentioned as now operating as a deniable troubleshooter for the GEIST organisation (Global Enforcement/Intelligence Symposium Taskforce), carrying out operations they can't be officially involved in for political reasons.
[edit] Collections and reprints
- The Life and Times of Death's Head
- The Body in Question
- The Incomplete Death's Head (Reprint)
- Death's Head Volume 1, collecting High Noon Tex, Doctor Who Magazine #135, Dragon's Claws #5 and Death's Head #1-7 (paperback, ISBN 1-905239-34-3). Published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK Limited.
- Death's Head 3.0: Unnatural Selection, collecting Amazing Fantasy #16-20 (paperback, ISBN 0-7851-2108-0)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Furman, Simon (2006). "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent Open For Business (or how Death's Head came to be)", Death's Head Volume 1, Panini Publishing, ISBN 1-905239-34-3
- ^ a b c www.newsarama.com -PANICCIA ON DEATH'S HEAD 3.0 & AMFAN THINGS TO COME
- ^ a b www.comixfan.com -SIMON FURMAN: TRANSFORMING DEATH'S HEAD INTO ANNIHILATION
[edit] External links
- Death's Head I at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
- Death's Head II at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
