Everybody Needs Somebody.
Addendum 18: Death’s Head: The Mopping Up of the Second Trade.
The Body in Question, The Sensational She-Hulk 24, Fantastic Four 338, Marvel Comics Presents 76, Doctor Who Magazine 173, What If… 54.
[Note, this is an adaptation of the end of a piece I originally wrote for the Comics Code website some years ago. Think of it as a Christmas bonus!]
Long times readers will remember my coverage of the original Death’s Head series, ten issues that attempted to ape the American format that failed on UK shelves for various reasons and ended on a cliffhanger.
Following the end of that though, the character enjoyed a couple of guest spots and he was still clearly seen as popular enough for there to be an effort to find a new way for the character to continue.
Which ultimately came to fruition thanks to another attempt by Marvel UK to move away from licensed content, this time by trying the 2000AD anthology SF comic with adult content format. Strip would only last 20 fortnightly issues, making it another failure in the attempts to branch out, but it gave an avenue for which the first Death’s Head graphic novel to be serialised in parallel to its printing at a point where entirely original trades were rare.
Written, of course, by Furman and drawn by the returning Geoff Senior, I’m going to be talking about the trade version as that’s what was reprinted by Panini. Perhaps surprisingly for a relaunch for the character it picks up directly from where his series ended, which may be one of the reasons it wasn’t a great success.
Things open with a new scene between the end of him meeting Iron Man and the last issue cliffhanger, which establishes who Death’s Head is and what he does with him hunting a bounty. This also introduces what will be the driving question of the story: Is Death’s Head really the professional businessman he pretends to be or does he enjoy the hunt and kill? If so how does that make him different to those he chases?
The Body in Question, The Sensational She-Hulk 24, Fantastic Four 338, Marvel Comics Presents 76, Doctor Who Magazine 173, What If… 54.
[Note, this is an adaptation of the end of a piece I originally wrote for the Comics Code website some years ago. Think of it as a Christmas bonus!]
Long times readers will remember my coverage of the original Death’s Head series, ten issues that attempted to ape the American format that failed on UK shelves for various reasons and ended on a cliffhanger.
Following the end of that though, the character enjoyed a couple of guest spots and he was still clearly seen as popular enough for there to be an effort to find a new way for the character to continue.
Which ultimately came to fruition thanks to another attempt by Marvel UK to move away from licensed content, this time by trying the 2000AD anthology SF comic with adult content format. Strip would only last 20 fortnightly issues, making it another failure in the attempts to branch out, but it gave an avenue for which the first Death’s Head graphic novel to be serialised in parallel to its printing at a point where entirely original trades were rare.
Written, of course, by Furman and drawn by the returning Geoff Senior, I’m going to be talking about the trade version as that’s what was reprinted by Panini. Perhaps surprisingly for a relaunch for the character it picks up directly from where his series ended, which may be one of the reasons it wasn’t a great success.
Things open with a new scene between the end of him meeting Iron Man and the last issue cliffhanger, which establishes who Death’s Head is and what he does with him hunting a bounty. This also introduces what will be the driving question of the story: Is Death’s Head really the professional businessman he pretends to be or does he enjoy the hunt and kill? If so how does that make him different to those he chases?
Intercut with this we get scenes set in 8162 of Spratt going to meet “Mrs” Death’s Head, only for Big Shot to intervene. With the discovery of Death’s Head not being in the present, the mysterious woman called Pyra creates a time portal that sends them all to 2020, which takes us back to where we came in.
Though Big Shot is unsurprisingly keen to kill Death’s Head he is stopped by Pyra who reveals she knows of his past. Before further explanations can be given though Death’s Head is zapped into an alternate dimension and confronted by his “father”, Ty Rejutka Lupex, a humanoid in armour that gives him a Death’s Headish look.
We then jump forward to a chase scene, with Death’s Head being pursued across the surreal landscape by Lupex, intercut with a scene of Lupex explaining his creation. Lupex has amazing powers, but they burn his body out quickly forcing him to steal new bodies of visitors and captives at a regular basis. Death’s Head was going to be a permanent form for him but his worthless aide Pyra stole it before he could enter the shell. As they fight, Death’s Head is forced to face his own nature and decide what sort of killer he is. Does he do what he does for good reasons and profit or is he a psychopath like his creator? Eventually he’s able to work out the rules of the world well enough to overpower and kill Lupex, which returns him to 2020.
Pyra explains that the reason she betrayed Lupex was that when he found she had a lover he deliberately picked him to be his next body. She reprogrammed Death’s Head to be a professional killer to spite him but did not steal the body, leaving one mystery remaining for the future. Spratt is surprised to see Death’s Head let her go, but he’s decided that it would be bad business, plus he rather admires his Mother.
The plot is to a certain extent slight, but the origin of Death’s Head is fascinating (even if it does contradict a couple of throwaway lines in the first issue) and the fully painted art is a career best for Senior, every page is stunning.
Because of the slightness of the story, lets talk about the rest of what was contained in the second Panini trade to wrap things up.
The next few stories are basically odds and sods. First up is a comedy She-Hulk story, Priceless (from issue 24) written by Furman and drawn by Bryan Hitch that has the two of them fighting over a priceless vase. There’s some good comedy (mostly the rubbish super villains, Plant Man can’t fight She-Hulk because there are no plants for him to control in the middle of the New York street), but the stories main legacy is introducing the Time Variance Authority, who’ll be responsible for his next few jaunts through time.
Though Big Shot is unsurprisingly keen to kill Death’s Head he is stopped by Pyra who reveals she knows of his past. Before further explanations can be given though Death’s Head is zapped into an alternate dimension and confronted by his “father”, Ty Rejutka Lupex, a humanoid in armour that gives him a Death’s Headish look.
We then jump forward to a chase scene, with Death’s Head being pursued across the surreal landscape by Lupex, intercut with a scene of Lupex explaining his creation. Lupex has amazing powers, but they burn his body out quickly forcing him to steal new bodies of visitors and captives at a regular basis. Death’s Head was going to be a permanent form for him but his worthless aide Pyra stole it before he could enter the shell. As they fight, Death’s Head is forced to face his own nature and decide what sort of killer he is. Does he do what he does for good reasons and profit or is he a psychopath like his creator? Eventually he’s able to work out the rules of the world well enough to overpower and kill Lupex, which returns him to 2020.
Pyra explains that the reason she betrayed Lupex was that when he found she had a lover he deliberately picked him to be his next body. She reprogrammed Death’s Head to be a professional killer to spite him but did not steal the body, leaving one mystery remaining for the future. Spratt is surprised to see Death’s Head let her go, but he’s decided that it would be bad business, plus he rather admires his Mother.
The plot is to a certain extent slight, but the origin of Death’s Head is fascinating (even if it does contradict a couple of throwaway lines in the first issue) and the fully painted art is a career best for Senior, every page is stunning.
Because of the slightness of the story, lets talk about the rest of what was contained in the second Panini trade to wrap things up.
The next few stories are basically odds and sods. First up is a comedy She-Hulk story, Priceless (from issue 24) written by Furman and drawn by Bryan Hitch that has the two of them fighting over a priceless vase. There’s some good comedy (mostly the rubbish super villains, Plant Man can’t fight She-Hulk because there are no plants for him to control in the middle of the New York street), but the stories main legacy is introducing the Time Variance Authority, who’ll be responsible for his next few jaunts through time.
Writer/artist Walt Simonson had taken something of a liking to the character (drawing the covers to both issue 9 and The Body in Question), and decided to include him as a guest star in issue 338 of The Fantastic Four, Kangs For the Memories!! Or: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner! Why he did this when he only shows up for a handful of pages in the middle of a time warp is unclear though. The issue is in the middle of an arc and as such means it makes little sense by itself, it has Kang working for Galactus to create a future time warp that the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Thor are all trying to stop...or something. Outside of context it’s basically gibberish. Death’s Head himself doesn’t sound right either; the language is more broken and fractured than usual, coming over as more Transformers cartoon Grimlock than anything else. Effectively this is here for completists sake.
The Deadliest Game from Marvel Comics Presents #76 is a short bit of fluff involving Death’s Head tracking a big game hunter, most noticeable for Bryan Hitch’s last work on the character. It’s also the last showing for 8162 and most importantly of all the last stand-alone solo adventure for the original version of the character. Despite all that it’s fairly forgettable despite a fun punchline where the hunter is crushed to death by an elephant like alien.
Party Animals from Doctor Who Magazine #173 is equally throwaway. Celebrating thirty years of Doctor Who it’s actually the last strip in the trade to have been published, and as such the last speaking role the original Death’s Head had for more than a decade. However, he’s only in about three pages and has a grand total of two lines so it’s not the grand farewell he deserved. He’s just one of numerous characters who’ve been in the strip over the years (though there’s a lot of non Who TV and comic characters in there as well, including Sapphire and Steel, Worf and Robot Archie) who turn up for a wild drunken party that winds up turning into a drunken fight when Beep the Meep drunkenly tries to kill the Doctor.
The reason for the out of order printing is to allow the collection to end on a high. Despite the failure of their initial effort in 1992 Marvel would again try to launch their own range of US style titles with Death’s Head at the forefront. Though Furman and Senior did some work towards this project (with Furman claiming Senior’s designs were typically stunning) a change in editors resulted in them coming off the book. Instead writer Dan Abnett and artist Liam Sharp would create Death’s Head II.
The back story is complicated, but basically in 2020 secret group A.I.M. create Minion, a machine capable of absorbing minds, to destroy a threat they’ve predicted heading their way called Charnal. Minion eventually absorbs and then kills Death’s Head, but his personality is too strong and (with the help of Reed Richards) he takes over the body, before destroying Charnal, a mad baron who possessed the corpse of Death’s Head. As is Marvel’s wont at the time there’s also lots and lots of other super hero’s from the present knocking about for a big fight. Death’s Head II initially did hugely well for Marvel UK and unwisely convinced them to launch lots and lots of titles at once. By 1994, and 16 issues, Death’s Head II was finished and Marvel UK were effectively destroyed by overreaching at a point when the UK comics industry was shrinking.
Furman was, unsurprisingly, annoyed at being taken off his character and unimpressed with the resultant reworking, and in late 1993 would get the chance to have some revenge via one of his other jobs as occasional writer of the What if… alternate timelines comic. Issue #74, What if… Death’s Head I Had Lived? Is a last arse-kicking hurrah for the character, and has a supremely simple premise. Instead of being killed and absorbed Death’s Head teleported away at the last second, making Minion move onto his next target, Reed Richards. Death’s Head gets repaired and redesigned (again), but has no interest in revenge until A.I.M. offer to pay him to take out Minion, who’s now been possessed by Charnal.
The Deadliest Game from Marvel Comics Presents #76 is a short bit of fluff involving Death’s Head tracking a big game hunter, most noticeable for Bryan Hitch’s last work on the character. It’s also the last showing for 8162 and most importantly of all the last stand-alone solo adventure for the original version of the character. Despite all that it’s fairly forgettable despite a fun punchline where the hunter is crushed to death by an elephant like alien.
Party Animals from Doctor Who Magazine #173 is equally throwaway. Celebrating thirty years of Doctor Who it’s actually the last strip in the trade to have been published, and as such the last speaking role the original Death’s Head had for more than a decade. However, he’s only in about three pages and has a grand total of two lines so it’s not the grand farewell he deserved. He’s just one of numerous characters who’ve been in the strip over the years (though there’s a lot of non Who TV and comic characters in there as well, including Sapphire and Steel, Worf and Robot Archie) who turn up for a wild drunken party that winds up turning into a drunken fight when Beep the Meep drunkenly tries to kill the Doctor.
The reason for the out of order printing is to allow the collection to end on a high. Despite the failure of their initial effort in 1992 Marvel would again try to launch their own range of US style titles with Death’s Head at the forefront. Though Furman and Senior did some work towards this project (with Furman claiming Senior’s designs were typically stunning) a change in editors resulted in them coming off the book. Instead writer Dan Abnett and artist Liam Sharp would create Death’s Head II.
The back story is complicated, but basically in 2020 secret group A.I.M. create Minion, a machine capable of absorbing minds, to destroy a threat they’ve predicted heading their way called Charnal. Minion eventually absorbs and then kills Death’s Head, but his personality is too strong and (with the help of Reed Richards) he takes over the body, before destroying Charnal, a mad baron who possessed the corpse of Death’s Head. As is Marvel’s wont at the time there’s also lots and lots of other super hero’s from the present knocking about for a big fight. Death’s Head II initially did hugely well for Marvel UK and unwisely convinced them to launch lots and lots of titles at once. By 1994, and 16 issues, Death’s Head II was finished and Marvel UK were effectively destroyed by overreaching at a point when the UK comics industry was shrinking.
Furman was, unsurprisingly, annoyed at being taken off his character and unimpressed with the resultant reworking, and in late 1993 would get the chance to have some revenge via one of his other jobs as occasional writer of the What if… alternate timelines comic. Issue #74, What if… Death’s Head I Had Lived? Is a last arse-kicking hurrah for the character, and has a supremely simple premise. Instead of being killed and absorbed Death’s Head teleported away at the last second, making Minion move onto his next target, Reed Richards. Death’s Head gets repaired and redesigned (again), but has no interest in revenge until A.I.M. offer to pay him to take out Minion, who’s now been possessed by Charnal.
One of the standards of the What if…comics are the writer taking an almost orgasmic glee in killing off characters that would normally be untouchable (at least in a permanent sense) in regular continuity. This is no exception so of course Death’s Head’s plan involves a time machine to go and collect Earth’s greatest heroes circa 1993, which are the now Fantastic 3, Namor, Captain America and War Machine. There’s a wonderful bit of business with Death’s Head convincing them he’s part of the 2020 Avengers (explaining Spratt with “As you can plainly see we’re down to rock bottom as far as membership goes!”) out to stop Minion/Charnal for purely altruistic reasons.
Death’s Head’s plan is pure cold-blooded genius as he has all the other heroes fight Minion so by the time he’s killed them he’ll be worn down. Geoff Senior excels at every death scene and as Minion’s gimmick is to turn people’s powers against them we get some great variety. He makes a force field in Sue Storms brain, has the Human Torch feel the heat of his flames, out techs War Machine by sticking two ejecting blades into his eyes, and out fights The Thing and Luke Cage. Furman obviously couldn’t think of anything specific for Namor so he just gets decapitated by Captain America’s shield (Cap himself is the victim of the page count and gets beaten off screen).
This then leaves the path clear for Death’s Head, who tricks Minion into accessing Reed Richards memories for the technical knowledge to beat him. Once Reed is reawakened he’s so shocked at what he sees he overpowers Minion’s mind and kills himself. The issue, and our last glimpse of Death’s Head, ends with him musing on the stupidity of the hero type, and he hopes it isn’t catching. It’s a fantastic send off for the character that ensures the trade ends well.
For a long time that seemed to be it for Death’s Head, bar the odd non-speaking cameo. But, after a truly abysmal attempt at a Death’s Heard 3, he’s had a minor renaissance in the last few years, mainly thanks to Transformers UK superfan Kieron Gillan (the Marvel writer, not Amy Pond. Sadly) putting him in just about everything, including the Iron Man comics that were coming out around the time of Iron Man 3. His appearance in a Guardians of the Galaxy comic that was ideal for repackaging as a special to tie into their second film put him back on British newsagents shelves for the first time in more than a quarter of a century as well.
Though perhaps he most notable return was as part of the Revolutionary War crossover event that saw Marvel revive a load of the UK characters (but sadly not Dragon’s Claws) and which saw the three Death’s Heads get their own issue, drawn by Nick Roach, before joining the other heroes for the finale. Technically it was a Death’s Head II comic, but Roach has cheerfully admitted he put lots of work into making the original look the best in their My Two Dads style team up. The series was a sales failure—likely because outside of Captain Britain and Death’s Head no one actually likes any of the other Marvel UK characters. However, it’s a good fun read and would provide a nice coda for the character if not for the fact it seems you can’t keep Death’s Head dead.
Next week, in the final Transformation of the year, Thunderwing Prime! Plus those Christmas Quiz results…
And if you’ve had any money for Christmas, why not treat yourself to one of the books based around this website? Or even one of my original short stories! All can be bought HERE.
ISSUE 293
1990
COMMENT
Death’s Head’s plan is pure cold-blooded genius as he has all the other heroes fight Minion so by the time he’s killed them he’ll be worn down. Geoff Senior excels at every death scene and as Minion’s gimmick is to turn people’s powers against them we get some great variety. He makes a force field in Sue Storms brain, has the Human Torch feel the heat of his flames, out techs War Machine by sticking two ejecting blades into his eyes, and out fights The Thing and Luke Cage. Furman obviously couldn’t think of anything specific for Namor so he just gets decapitated by Captain America’s shield (Cap himself is the victim of the page count and gets beaten off screen).
This then leaves the path clear for Death’s Head, who tricks Minion into accessing Reed Richards memories for the technical knowledge to beat him. Once Reed is reawakened he’s so shocked at what he sees he overpowers Minion’s mind and kills himself. The issue, and our last glimpse of Death’s Head, ends with him musing on the stupidity of the hero type, and he hopes it isn’t catching. It’s a fantastic send off for the character that ensures the trade ends well.
For a long time that seemed to be it for Death’s Head, bar the odd non-speaking cameo. But, after a truly abysmal attempt at a Death’s Heard 3, he’s had a minor renaissance in the last few years, mainly thanks to Transformers UK superfan Kieron Gillan (the Marvel writer, not Amy Pond. Sadly) putting him in just about everything, including the Iron Man comics that were coming out around the time of Iron Man 3. His appearance in a Guardians of the Galaxy comic that was ideal for repackaging as a special to tie into their second film put him back on British newsagents shelves for the first time in more than a quarter of a century as well.
Though perhaps he most notable return was as part of the Revolutionary War crossover event that saw Marvel revive a load of the UK characters (but sadly not Dragon’s Claws) and which saw the three Death’s Heads get their own issue, drawn by Nick Roach, before joining the other heroes for the finale. Technically it was a Death’s Head II comic, but Roach has cheerfully admitted he put lots of work into making the original look the best in their My Two Dads style team up. The series was a sales failure—likely because outside of Captain Britain and Death’s Head no one actually likes any of the other Marvel UK characters. However, it’s a good fun read and would provide a nice coda for the character if not for the fact it seems you can’t keep Death’s Head dead.
Next week, in the final Transformation of the year, Thunderwing Prime! Plus those Christmas Quiz results…
And if you’ve had any money for Christmas, why not treat yourself to one of the books based around this website? Or even one of my original short stories! All can be bought HERE.
ISSUE 293
1990
COMMENT
