I'm on the Hunt, I'm After You.
Addendum 14: Death’s Head issues 1-10, Plus Doctor Who Magazine issue 135 and Dragon’s Claws Issue 5. 1988-1989.
Never kill for free, but it pays to advertise.
Note: As with the Dragon’s Claws Addendum, this is a reworked version of an older piece. Complete with more terrible scanning on my part.
Death’s Head is of course what Simon Furman is most famous for after Transformers, effectively the only other thing he’s written with any staying power (not Alpha Flight, and certainly not Necrowar), effectively it’s his one great stab at being known for something other than a licensed property.
The reason people remember Death’s Head and that he still pops up once every few years in a new comic (which is more than you can say for Dragon’s Claws) is largely down to the excellent basic character, which as we’ve seen is a fantastic sardonic fun anti-hero. But if he’s that good and made such an impression on so many young readers—including current Marvel superstar Kieron Gillen—why was his own comic so short lived, lasting less than a year?
Before we reach issue 1 though, there’s a matter of scale and location to deal with. Death’s Head was (as I’m sure you’ll have noticed) a Transformer sized character, so in order for him to interact with humans in his own comic some serious shrinkage needed to be done. As Furman could vaguely remember the Master in Doctor Who having a gun that shrunk things, and as the new Doctor Who Magazine comic editor Richard Starkins was keen to create crossovers with the wider Marvel Universe, a hasty meet up between the Time Lord and the mechanoid was arranged. Unfortunately the result in issue #135 of the Magazine, Crossroads of Time (presented in the trade as the colour version from The Incomplete Death’s Head that was in turn recycled from a DWM Collected Comics), is extremely disappointing. Rather than have Death’s Head just run into the Master, the story hinges on the Doctor himself carrying his arch foes most lethal weapon in his pocket and being happy to use it with intent to kill.
This act of attempted mechicide is the result of the Tardis and Death’s Head colliding in the space time vortex and the annoyed Death’s Head trying to hunt the Doctor down. The short page count means the hunt is almost over before it begins, and the Doctor pulling what’s basically a space gun out of his pocket is highly dubious, even if all it ultimately does is make Death’s Head human sized. It’s fair to say that, despite having written several strips for the Magazine at this point Furman never really got a handle on Doctor Who, so it’s somewhat of a relief when, the stories main function achieved, the Doctor just teleports Death’s Head to Earth in the year 8162. The only redeeming feature of the whole story is some typically wonderful Senior art.
8162 leads us to Dragon’s Claws, (a series previously talked about HERE) already five issues old at this point the launch title in the Marvel UK home grown range would be the last stepping stone on the way to Death’s Head. Materialising in the Pool region and attacked by one group of ex players in the Game who mistake him for a member of the Evil Dead we get a wonderfully drawn fight scene from Senior. This leads the Evil Dead themselves to hire Death’s Head to take out the Jones Boys gang as they try to steal some weaponry the Evil Dead have themselves stolen.
Never kill for free, but it pays to advertise.
Note: As with the Dragon’s Claws Addendum, this is a reworked version of an older piece. Complete with more terrible scanning on my part.
Death’s Head is of course what Simon Furman is most famous for after Transformers, effectively the only other thing he’s written with any staying power (not Alpha Flight, and certainly not Necrowar), effectively it’s his one great stab at being known for something other than a licensed property.
The reason people remember Death’s Head and that he still pops up once every few years in a new comic (which is more than you can say for Dragon’s Claws) is largely down to the excellent basic character, which as we’ve seen is a fantastic sardonic fun anti-hero. But if he’s that good and made such an impression on so many young readers—including current Marvel superstar Kieron Gillen—why was his own comic so short lived, lasting less than a year?
Before we reach issue 1 though, there’s a matter of scale and location to deal with. Death’s Head was (as I’m sure you’ll have noticed) a Transformer sized character, so in order for him to interact with humans in his own comic some serious shrinkage needed to be done. As Furman could vaguely remember the Master in Doctor Who having a gun that shrunk things, and as the new Doctor Who Magazine comic editor Richard Starkins was keen to create crossovers with the wider Marvel Universe, a hasty meet up between the Time Lord and the mechanoid was arranged. Unfortunately the result in issue #135 of the Magazine, Crossroads of Time (presented in the trade as the colour version from The Incomplete Death’s Head that was in turn recycled from a DWM Collected Comics), is extremely disappointing. Rather than have Death’s Head just run into the Master, the story hinges on the Doctor himself carrying his arch foes most lethal weapon in his pocket and being happy to use it with intent to kill.
This act of attempted mechicide is the result of the Tardis and Death’s Head colliding in the space time vortex and the annoyed Death’s Head trying to hunt the Doctor down. The short page count means the hunt is almost over before it begins, and the Doctor pulling what’s basically a space gun out of his pocket is highly dubious, even if all it ultimately does is make Death’s Head human sized. It’s fair to say that, despite having written several strips for the Magazine at this point Furman never really got a handle on Doctor Who, so it’s somewhat of a relief when, the stories main function achieved, the Doctor just teleports Death’s Head to Earth in the year 8162. The only redeeming feature of the whole story is some typically wonderful Senior art.
8162 leads us to Dragon’s Claws, (a series previously talked about HERE) already five issues old at this point the launch title in the Marvel UK home grown range would be the last stepping stone on the way to Death’s Head. Materialising in the Pool region and attacked by one group of ex players in the Game who mistake him for a member of the Evil Dead we get a wonderfully drawn fight scene from Senior. This leads the Evil Dead themselves to hire Death’s Head to take out the Jones Boys gang as they try to steal some weaponry the Evil Dead have themselves stolen.
As Dragon’s Claws have also been sent to stop the weapons theft this sets the stage for a top confrontation. Whilst Dragon himself is—as ever—a bit dull his square jawed heroism plays nicely off Death’s Head’s world weary cynicism and business sense. Unusually for crossover comic--which usually try hard not to make one party look weaker than the other--Death’s Head is decisively beaten when the Dragon’s blow up the building he’s in, leading to a nice Terminator homage with his battered body clawing its way out the wreckage before yet more heavy masonry falls on him (as the man himself says, “Repairs will cost me an arm and a leg, yes?”). This issue is a bit too steeped in the various ongoing Dragon’s Claws plots to be entirely satisfying out of context, but provides a enjoyable set up, at last, for the main Death’s Head comic and also allows the character’s new regular artist Bryan Hitch to perform a redesign on the character.
Though Hitch is as unhappy of his very early work on Death’s Head as he is Transformers, there’s lots of detailed, dynamic art that burst with energy, though very little of it plays to what would probably be considered his strengths nowadays. It’s not the great big widescreen movie art of The Ultimates but it’s still a wonder to behold. Sadly Hitch is also fairly notorious for being a slow worker, so he’ll only wind up drawing half of the ten issues. As a random aside, such is Hitch’s current fame when Marvel later attempted Death’s Head 3.0 they would rather cheekily claim he co-created the character in the publicity.
The first issue, Death’s Head Revisited, is a series of flashbacks linked by a framing device of the newly rebuilt and dormant Death’s Head recalling incidents from his past, basically the same gimmick Furman used for the 1986 Transformers Annual story Victory! It’s a good all round introduction to the character, his personal code and the sort of black humour the comic will take. A typical example sees him hired by some rebels to kill an evil King, then upon getting to the palace he finds the thing was a ruse to lure him into a trap before the real rebels could hire him. He deals with the waiting guards easily, and when the King desperately tries to cancel the contract he took out on his own life Death’s Head rather gleefully sees it through. The issue ends with Death’s Head awakening before his mysterious rebuilders (the main change basically being the green in his costume is now blue) and declaring himself open for business.
The problem with it as an opening issue is that it establishes the lead and the style of story but very little else about the format. We do meet his future sidekick Spratt for the first time, but as his amazing technical abilities (being able to rebuild an almost completely destroyed mysterious robot and improve on it) are never mentioned again it’s easy to forget it’s supposed to be the same character.
Issue 2, Contractual Obligations is yet more set up for the actual format of the comic. We learn Death’s Head has been rebuilt by a group of convicts whose prison collapsed in an earthquake years ago. Through the trauma of that and being subsequently trapped underground they’d all become extreme victims of agoraphobia, except for new inmate Scavenger, who as a result became the guy sent out to get them food and supplies. One day he didn’t come back, so in payment for his repairs Death’s Head agrees to work for them for a set time, and to return him from his new home in Dragon’s Claws. Yep, it’s another crossover, which Marvel love.
Though Hitch is as unhappy of his very early work on Death’s Head as he is Transformers, there’s lots of detailed, dynamic art that burst with energy, though very little of it plays to what would probably be considered his strengths nowadays. It’s not the great big widescreen movie art of The Ultimates but it’s still a wonder to behold. Sadly Hitch is also fairly notorious for being a slow worker, so he’ll only wind up drawing half of the ten issues. As a random aside, such is Hitch’s current fame when Marvel later attempted Death’s Head 3.0 they would rather cheekily claim he co-created the character in the publicity.
The first issue, Death’s Head Revisited, is a series of flashbacks linked by a framing device of the newly rebuilt and dormant Death’s Head recalling incidents from his past, basically the same gimmick Furman used for the 1986 Transformers Annual story Victory! It’s a good all round introduction to the character, his personal code and the sort of black humour the comic will take. A typical example sees him hired by some rebels to kill an evil King, then upon getting to the palace he finds the thing was a ruse to lure him into a trap before the real rebels could hire him. He deals with the waiting guards easily, and when the King desperately tries to cancel the contract he took out on his own life Death’s Head rather gleefully sees it through. The issue ends with Death’s Head awakening before his mysterious rebuilders (the main change basically being the green in his costume is now blue) and declaring himself open for business.
The problem with it as an opening issue is that it establishes the lead and the style of story but very little else about the format. We do meet his future sidekick Spratt for the first time, but as his amazing technical abilities (being able to rebuild an almost completely destroyed mysterious robot and improve on it) are never mentioned again it’s easy to forget it’s supposed to be the same character.
Issue 2, Contractual Obligations is yet more set up for the actual format of the comic. We learn Death’s Head has been rebuilt by a group of convicts whose prison collapsed in an earthquake years ago. Through the trauma of that and being subsequently trapped underground they’d all become extreme victims of agoraphobia, except for new inmate Scavenger, who as a result became the guy sent out to get them food and supplies. One day he didn’t come back, so in payment for his repairs Death’s Head agrees to work for them for a set time, and to return him from his new home in Dragon’s Claws. Yep, it’s another crossover, which Marvel love.
This is more typical of two different comics meeting, with both sides coming away just about equals. Though Death’s Head gets Scavenger and comes close to besting Dragon he ultimately decides his employers are so irritating and his respect for the one man to ever beat him so high he fudges the time his period of employment ends by claiming his chronometer must be out by a minute instead of delivering the killing blow. We then get a nice pay off to the agoraphobia plot with the lead convict getting shoved outside for the first time in years and suffering a nervous breakdown. This leave Spratt free to declare himself Death’s Head’s partner and follow him, much to the mechanoid’s chagrin.
There are a couple of major plot holes as it’s never explained how the agoraphobics were able to leave their sunken prison to grab Death’s Head’s body, nor why Spratt doesn’t suffer from the condition. But it’s still a well drawn fight issue that firmly established Death’s Head’s personal sense of honour.
The third issue (finally) gets us to the main location of the series, the Los Angeles Resettlement (which is effectively Mega City 1). High Stakes is basically about Spratt proving to both Death’s Head and us that he’s a worthwhile sidekick, first by foiling a terrorist highjack on the plane journey to America (which is played as a homage to the original Taking of Pelham 123 with colour named villains) and then distracting a Miami Vice escapee at the point he seems likely to kill Death’s Head. Spratt may convince Death’s Head of his worth, but it’s hard not to feel he’s just that little bit too dull for the comic, and tellingly he isn’t nearly as well remembered as his boss.
This is also the first issue to show up the main problem the title would have, because whilst Death’s Head himself is a funny, witty and larger than life character the bulk of his villains aren’t. The main bounty for this issue has a mullet, so it’s impossible to take him seriously as a threat. Finding people for Death’s Head to face off against is going to be a reoccurring problem, and for the most part he works best as a guest star in more firmly established heroes books because they already have strong and distinctive personas of their own.
Issue 4, Plague Dog has a split narrative. One half follows Spratt as he fends off a hungry monster that lives in their new office, whilst the second has Death’s Head taking on henchmen of the crime boss the Undertaker in order to draw out his main target, the Undertaker’s enforcer (self same hungry monster). As high farce it’s excellent, especially Death’s Head crashing a party with an exploding cake. This is the first issue without Hitch art, but luckily Lee Sullivan is more than up to the challenge, with some arresting images such as Death’s Head disguised as a waiter complete with curly blond wig. It also sets up what will be a slow burning arc plot with the Undertaker hiring deeply silly looking bounty hunter Big Shot to kill Death’s Head.
Issue 5, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!, sees a crossover with Doctor Who Magazine; but rather than the Doctor himself, Keepsake, a minor character from issue #140, comes to LA looking for the buried gold he double crossed his wife for. She’s a classic Chandleresque femme fatale who hires Death’s Head to get the gold, in exchange for half of it. This leads to some lovely double and triple crossing with Keepsake offering him half the gold as well to push her out a helicopter, resulting in a “That’s the half you promised me, and that’s the half your wife promised me, yes?” pay off gag. To rub salt in his wounds Keepsake’s pet vulture abandons him as well, following Death’s Head and meaning that, five issues in, the books format has reached its final form. And it has to be said the Eagle is more memorable than Spratt.
The sixth issue, Sudden Impact, is easily the most forgettable, a routine story of Death’s Head trying to protect a vital witness in a political court case from an insane super platoon of soldiers. They’re all dull and look stupid, but there is a nice twist at the end where Death’s Head fails to keep the witness alive and as such won’t kill the villain as he’s not going to get his fee anyway. The most noticeable thing about the issue is the last page, which sets up the next piece in the Big Shot storyline with Dead Cert (the crime lord who hired Death’s Head to kill the Plague Dog in the first place) getting bounty hunter Short Fuse to kill Death’s Head, as a way of thwarting the Undertaker’s plans.
This plays right into the seventh issue, Shot by Both Sides. This is a complete farce, with Death’s Head trying to capture Photofit, a shape shifting villain, whilst being confused at the way things keep exploding around him as the assassination attempts of the two bounty hunters cancel each other out repeatedly. Unfortunately for Photofit he decides to take the form of Death’s Head just as Short Fuse turns up with a bomb. Unfortunately for Short Fuse he’s a bit crap and winds up blowing himself up as well as the target, which also badly buggers up Big Shot who’s left limping off swearing revenge, with Death’s Head and Spratt none the wiser.
Though John Higgins and Liam Sharp did good work on #5 and 6 respectively it’s good to see Hitch back, and the scenes of Death’s Head’s booby trapped ship crashing through future Los Angeles gives him a chance to come close to the big visuals he’s now associated with.
There are a couple of major plot holes as it’s never explained how the agoraphobics were able to leave their sunken prison to grab Death’s Head’s body, nor why Spratt doesn’t suffer from the condition. But it’s still a well drawn fight issue that firmly established Death’s Head’s personal sense of honour.
The third issue (finally) gets us to the main location of the series, the Los Angeles Resettlement (which is effectively Mega City 1). High Stakes is basically about Spratt proving to both Death’s Head and us that he’s a worthwhile sidekick, first by foiling a terrorist highjack on the plane journey to America (which is played as a homage to the original Taking of Pelham 123 with colour named villains) and then distracting a Miami Vice escapee at the point he seems likely to kill Death’s Head. Spratt may convince Death’s Head of his worth, but it’s hard not to feel he’s just that little bit too dull for the comic, and tellingly he isn’t nearly as well remembered as his boss.
This is also the first issue to show up the main problem the title would have, because whilst Death’s Head himself is a funny, witty and larger than life character the bulk of his villains aren’t. The main bounty for this issue has a mullet, so it’s impossible to take him seriously as a threat. Finding people for Death’s Head to face off against is going to be a reoccurring problem, and for the most part he works best as a guest star in more firmly established heroes books because they already have strong and distinctive personas of their own.
Issue 4, Plague Dog has a split narrative. One half follows Spratt as he fends off a hungry monster that lives in their new office, whilst the second has Death’s Head taking on henchmen of the crime boss the Undertaker in order to draw out his main target, the Undertaker’s enforcer (self same hungry monster). As high farce it’s excellent, especially Death’s Head crashing a party with an exploding cake. This is the first issue without Hitch art, but luckily Lee Sullivan is more than up to the challenge, with some arresting images such as Death’s Head disguised as a waiter complete with curly blond wig. It also sets up what will be a slow burning arc plot with the Undertaker hiring deeply silly looking bounty hunter Big Shot to kill Death’s Head.
Issue 5, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!, sees a crossover with Doctor Who Magazine; but rather than the Doctor himself, Keepsake, a minor character from issue #140, comes to LA looking for the buried gold he double crossed his wife for. She’s a classic Chandleresque femme fatale who hires Death’s Head to get the gold, in exchange for half of it. This leads to some lovely double and triple crossing with Keepsake offering him half the gold as well to push her out a helicopter, resulting in a “That’s the half you promised me, and that’s the half your wife promised me, yes?” pay off gag. To rub salt in his wounds Keepsake’s pet vulture abandons him as well, following Death’s Head and meaning that, five issues in, the books format has reached its final form. And it has to be said the Eagle is more memorable than Spratt.
The sixth issue, Sudden Impact, is easily the most forgettable, a routine story of Death’s Head trying to protect a vital witness in a political court case from an insane super platoon of soldiers. They’re all dull and look stupid, but there is a nice twist at the end where Death’s Head fails to keep the witness alive and as such won’t kill the villain as he’s not going to get his fee anyway. The most noticeable thing about the issue is the last page, which sets up the next piece in the Big Shot storyline with Dead Cert (the crime lord who hired Death’s Head to kill the Plague Dog in the first place) getting bounty hunter Short Fuse to kill Death’s Head, as a way of thwarting the Undertaker’s plans.
This plays right into the seventh issue, Shot by Both Sides. This is a complete farce, with Death’s Head trying to capture Photofit, a shape shifting villain, whilst being confused at the way things keep exploding around him as the assassination attempts of the two bounty hunters cancel each other out repeatedly. Unfortunately for Photofit he decides to take the form of Death’s Head just as Short Fuse turns up with a bomb. Unfortunately for Short Fuse he’s a bit crap and winds up blowing himself up as well as the target, which also badly buggers up Big Shot who’s left limping off swearing revenge, with Death’s Head and Spratt none the wiser.
Though John Higgins and Liam Sharp did good work on #5 and 6 respectively it’s good to see Hitch back, and the scenes of Death’s Head’s booby trapped ship crashing through future Los Angeles gives him a chance to come close to the big visuals he’s now associated with.
Issue 8, Time Bomb! sees Furman busy on other projects (writing Transformers and doing general editing at Marvel), so Steve Parkhouse steps in to do a filler issue. Parkhouse will be a familiar name from Man of Iron, but is probably most famous for his lengthy run on Doctor Who Magazine. For his Death’s Head story he returns to familiar territory, bringing in not only the Doctor for a second face off with the character, but also the frog-like evil super businessman Josiah W. Dogbolter (basically Baron Greenback).
Dogbolter hires Death’s Head to both test his new time machine and hunt down and kill his old enemy the Doctor. Parkhouse’s writing usually contains a great deal of whimsy, and as the time machine repeatedly sends Death’s Head to the wrong time and place we get a couple of little comedy moments of him mucking up the timeline. We see his appearance in medieval times condemn a woman to death as a witch and then fighting a tank (“Mother?”) at the battle of the Somme.
When he does find the Doctor he’s performing in panto. This is again typical of Parkhouse who’d often have the Doctor spending lengthy amount of times living and interacting with humans between adventures. The resulting image of McCoy’s Doctor escaping from Death’s Head as the rear end of a pantomime horse is a highlight of the issue. However, Death’s Head soon corners him in the Tardis, though they are soon forced to team up when the Doctor realises the time machine strapped to Death’s Head’s back is also a massive bomb thanks to Dogbolter having double crossed him.
This then leads to a slapstick sequence with Dogbolter running to his bomb shelter as the Tardis lands on his roof, whilst the Doctor and Death’s Head try desperately to remove the time machine. They succeed of course, destroying the Dogbolter building in the process (as an aside, Dogbolter is only seen again in Doctor Who Magazine as a computer ghost, so he could well have been killed here). Overall Parkhouse acquits himself very well, with some nice art by Art Wetherell; even if his Sylvester McCoy likeness is a bit off. The story ends with a major sea change for the comic as Death’s Head is dumped by the Doctor on top of Four Freedoms Plaza in the present day.
This is hugely significant beyond the looming Fantastic Four crossover, because from now on, bar the odd framing sequence with Spratt; the world of 8162 is left behind for good. With Dragon’s Claws already ended Death’s Head was a little lonely in his far future so the decision seems to have been made to bring him closer to where he can interact with other Marvel heroes more easily. He won’t settle in the present, but he won’t be going so far ahead again either.
That’s getting ahead of us though, for now issue 9, Clobberin’ Time, is the first time a Marvel UK character interacts with some of their US counterparts. The story is the standard comic crossover one. First Death’s Head and the Fantastic Four fight, then they team up against a common foe, in this case the malfunctioning super computer building defence system. With Death’s Head's mechanoid nature meaning he doesn’t register on the computers heat sensors it’s up to him to rescue Mr Fantastic’s son Franklin and disable the system.
The obviousness of the plot doesn’t matter though, it’s just a excuse for Geoff Senior to strut his stunning stuff; the Thing and Death’s Head battering each other is some of the best art he ever did, and makes you wonder why he didn’t become a bigger superstar (though as he’s now rolling in big wads of cash from working in advertising I doubt it keeps him awake at night). The issue ends with a nice twist, as with everyone getting on famously and Reed Richards about to send Death’s Head back to his own time he’s shocked to hear Death’s Head mention that rather than being a super hero, he’s a merciless killer. This revelation causes Reed to stop the machine mid trip, leaving Death’s Head in 2020.
Though Death’s Head will spend most of his missions travelling through time from now, 2020 will remain his home base for virtually all of his remaining appearances. This date was chosen for a very specific reason. It’s still futuristic but it’s also a year where a couple of other Marvel heroes are already established. One, the Machine Man of 2020, would never get the chance to meet Death’s Head. But the other, Iron Man is the main guest star of the last issue, The Cast Iron Contract. The fact a couple of his prior appearances had been very popular back up strips in Transformers (whose readership would, let’s face it, be the bulk of people buying this comic), made this a smart move in terms of trying to revive interest in the series.
As per the crossover norm Death’s Head and the new Iron Man fight only to team up. Things do go a little differently in that Iron Man manages to rip his opponents head off, but this does little to slow Death’s Head down. The plot involves a mysterious group of gamblers called the Dicemen who first hire Stark to defend a group of Arab visitors to America from evil terrorists, and then hire Death’s Head to kill them. When they realise their employer was one and the same, and that they’re being watched by a camera, the two unite to trace the signal but all they find is a corpse and their money.
It’s a decent enough story, and the returning Hitch does excellent art work once more, but as the third crossover issue on the trot to have basically the same plot it starts to wear a bit thin. The most interesting stuff is actually the brief glimpses of 8162 where a worried Spratt keeps getting phone calls from a woman claiming to be Death’s head’s wife.
This leads into the issue, and the titles, last two pages. A clearly thrown together at the last second spoof of Rupert the Bear we get overtly cheerful captions accompanying panels of Death’s Head’s ship suddenly appearing in 2020 with Spratt, the vulture and bounty hunter Big Shot (last seen in #7) aboard, with the later out for revenge. Effectively the series ends on a cliff-hanger. As Dragon’s Claws managed a—albeit rushed—wrap-up this becomes the first notable sign of what will sadly become a Furman trope: The book cancelled in the middle of a storyline.
So why didn’t it work (putting aside the standard “No one could find the US size books in Smith’s” explanation)? The lack of decent villains is indeed a problem, you never at any point feel Death’s Head is in any particular danger except when he’s facing off against more famous Marvel characters. However, I think the main reason it failed to connect is simply because the book takes such a long time to settle on a format, which it then almost immediately abandons. It’s very hard to work out what this series is actually about, and though Death’s Head himself remains a great and interesting character the world around him isn’t rising to match his qualities.
That said, if you’re a fan of the British Transformers comic this is a must, it’s to all intents and purposes a full on spinoff and in many ways feels more like one than Headmasters did. Even if the overall style never clicks into place it’s still good fun and it’s easy to see why Death’s Head himself went onto be something of a cameo king (some of those future returns—including a certain graphic novel—we’ll discuss in due course). The ten issues and pretty much every pre-Gillen appearance are collected in two trades from Panini books. Buy them and stay healthy, yes?
Next week, who is after the Sparkler Mini-Bots and their famous vehicular modes?
ISSUE 191
1988
COMMENT
Dogbolter hires Death’s Head to both test his new time machine and hunt down and kill his old enemy the Doctor. Parkhouse’s writing usually contains a great deal of whimsy, and as the time machine repeatedly sends Death’s Head to the wrong time and place we get a couple of little comedy moments of him mucking up the timeline. We see his appearance in medieval times condemn a woman to death as a witch and then fighting a tank (“Mother?”) at the battle of the Somme.
When he does find the Doctor he’s performing in panto. This is again typical of Parkhouse who’d often have the Doctor spending lengthy amount of times living and interacting with humans between adventures. The resulting image of McCoy’s Doctor escaping from Death’s Head as the rear end of a pantomime horse is a highlight of the issue. However, Death’s Head soon corners him in the Tardis, though they are soon forced to team up when the Doctor realises the time machine strapped to Death’s Head’s back is also a massive bomb thanks to Dogbolter having double crossed him.
This then leads to a slapstick sequence with Dogbolter running to his bomb shelter as the Tardis lands on his roof, whilst the Doctor and Death’s Head try desperately to remove the time machine. They succeed of course, destroying the Dogbolter building in the process (as an aside, Dogbolter is only seen again in Doctor Who Magazine as a computer ghost, so he could well have been killed here). Overall Parkhouse acquits himself very well, with some nice art by Art Wetherell; even if his Sylvester McCoy likeness is a bit off. The story ends with a major sea change for the comic as Death’s Head is dumped by the Doctor on top of Four Freedoms Plaza in the present day.
This is hugely significant beyond the looming Fantastic Four crossover, because from now on, bar the odd framing sequence with Spratt; the world of 8162 is left behind for good. With Dragon’s Claws already ended Death’s Head was a little lonely in his far future so the decision seems to have been made to bring him closer to where he can interact with other Marvel heroes more easily. He won’t settle in the present, but he won’t be going so far ahead again either.
That’s getting ahead of us though, for now issue 9, Clobberin’ Time, is the first time a Marvel UK character interacts with some of their US counterparts. The story is the standard comic crossover one. First Death’s Head and the Fantastic Four fight, then they team up against a common foe, in this case the malfunctioning super computer building defence system. With Death’s Head's mechanoid nature meaning he doesn’t register on the computers heat sensors it’s up to him to rescue Mr Fantastic’s son Franklin and disable the system.
The obviousness of the plot doesn’t matter though, it’s just a excuse for Geoff Senior to strut his stunning stuff; the Thing and Death’s Head battering each other is some of the best art he ever did, and makes you wonder why he didn’t become a bigger superstar (though as he’s now rolling in big wads of cash from working in advertising I doubt it keeps him awake at night). The issue ends with a nice twist, as with everyone getting on famously and Reed Richards about to send Death’s Head back to his own time he’s shocked to hear Death’s Head mention that rather than being a super hero, he’s a merciless killer. This revelation causes Reed to stop the machine mid trip, leaving Death’s Head in 2020.
Though Death’s Head will spend most of his missions travelling through time from now, 2020 will remain his home base for virtually all of his remaining appearances. This date was chosen for a very specific reason. It’s still futuristic but it’s also a year where a couple of other Marvel heroes are already established. One, the Machine Man of 2020, would never get the chance to meet Death’s Head. But the other, Iron Man is the main guest star of the last issue, The Cast Iron Contract. The fact a couple of his prior appearances had been very popular back up strips in Transformers (whose readership would, let’s face it, be the bulk of people buying this comic), made this a smart move in terms of trying to revive interest in the series.
As per the crossover norm Death’s Head and the new Iron Man fight only to team up. Things do go a little differently in that Iron Man manages to rip his opponents head off, but this does little to slow Death’s Head down. The plot involves a mysterious group of gamblers called the Dicemen who first hire Stark to defend a group of Arab visitors to America from evil terrorists, and then hire Death’s Head to kill them. When they realise their employer was one and the same, and that they’re being watched by a camera, the two unite to trace the signal but all they find is a corpse and their money.
It’s a decent enough story, and the returning Hitch does excellent art work once more, but as the third crossover issue on the trot to have basically the same plot it starts to wear a bit thin. The most interesting stuff is actually the brief glimpses of 8162 where a worried Spratt keeps getting phone calls from a woman claiming to be Death’s head’s wife.
This leads into the issue, and the titles, last two pages. A clearly thrown together at the last second spoof of Rupert the Bear we get overtly cheerful captions accompanying panels of Death’s Head’s ship suddenly appearing in 2020 with Spratt, the vulture and bounty hunter Big Shot (last seen in #7) aboard, with the later out for revenge. Effectively the series ends on a cliff-hanger. As Dragon’s Claws managed a—albeit rushed—wrap-up this becomes the first notable sign of what will sadly become a Furman trope: The book cancelled in the middle of a storyline.
So why didn’t it work (putting aside the standard “No one could find the US size books in Smith’s” explanation)? The lack of decent villains is indeed a problem, you never at any point feel Death’s Head is in any particular danger except when he’s facing off against more famous Marvel characters. However, I think the main reason it failed to connect is simply because the book takes such a long time to settle on a format, which it then almost immediately abandons. It’s very hard to work out what this series is actually about, and though Death’s Head himself remains a great and interesting character the world around him isn’t rising to match his qualities.
That said, if you’re a fan of the British Transformers comic this is a must, it’s to all intents and purposes a full on spinoff and in many ways feels more like one than Headmasters did. Even if the overall style never clicks into place it’s still good fun and it’s easy to see why Death’s Head himself went onto be something of a cameo king (some of those future returns—including a certain graphic novel—we’ll discuss in due course). The ten issues and pretty much every pre-Gillen appearance are collected in two trades from Panini books. Buy them and stay healthy, yes?
Next week, who is after the Sparkler Mini-Bots and their famous vehicular modes?
ISSUE 191
1988
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