{"id":29442,"date":"2024-02-27T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T09:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29442"},"modified":"2024-02-26T17:59:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T17:59:21","slug":"deathlok-the-living-nightmare-of-michael-collins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/02\/27\/deathlok-the-living-nightmare-of-michael-collins\/","title":{"rendered":"Deathlok: The Living Nightmare of Michael Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Dwayne McDuffie<\/strong>, Gregory Wright<\/strong>, Jackson Guice<\/strong>, Denys Cowan<\/strong>, Scott Williams<\/strong>, Rick Magyar<\/strong>, Kyle Baker<\/strong>, Mike DeCarlo & Friends<\/strong>, Paul Mounts<\/strong>, Brad Vancata<\/strong>, Richard Starkings<\/strong>, Joe Rosen<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-5988-9 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

As created by Rich Buckler and originally scripted by Doug Moench in 1974, Deathlok the Demolisher<\/strong> was an honourable soldier condemned to an horrific fate in a dystopian alternate future. It\u2019s his 50th<\/sup> anniversary this year and we\u2019ll get around to the time-tossed travails of Manning another day. This book is not about him.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect of a character who was designed as a bio-mechanised weapon, Deathlok<\/strong> is a complex concept with a lot of backstory and many later models. Most of that and those also belong in different reviews. Here we\u2019re concentrating on the most successful iteration of the cyborg: a black man enduring living hell, subjugation and slavery to merciless masters who fights for his dignity and liberty with everything he has left to him\u2026<\/p>\n

Bookshelf format limited series Deathlok<\/strong> #1-4 was first released July through October 1990, and its success prompted a cheaper newsprint reprint run – as Deathlok Special<\/strong> #1-4 – less than a year later. Tragic champion Michael Collins<\/em> sprang from this epic tale of deception and malfeasance into his own monthly series: 34 issues and 2 Annuals spanning July 1991 to April 1994, plus guest shots (across Marvel\u2019s US and UK branches) in the nineties.<\/p>\n

It begins in an 8-page prequel story from Marvel Comics Presents<\/strong> #62 (cover dated November 1990 but on sale in late summer) wherein Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright & Jackson \u201cButch\u201d Guice took Deathlok<\/strong> on a \u2018Test Run\u2019<\/em>. The vignette saw soldier Colonel John Kelly<\/em> – or at least his brain and assorted organic leftovers attached to a biomechanical body of intriguingly unknown origins – ruthlessly despatch a dozen mercenaries who had no idea what they were really facing; until a computer glitch ends the exercise and almost project leader Harlan Ryker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Kelly would later be eventually resurrected as cyborg antihero Siege<\/strong> but the failed test left the Cybertek Systems Inc. team (cybernetics division of Marvel\u2019s corporate villain organization Roxxon) in need of a new brain donor\u2026<\/p>\n

The story of this Deathlok really begins with the first solo issue as Dwayne McDuffie, (co-writer and colourist) Gregory Wright, Jackson Guice, Scott Williams & hard-pressed, overworked letterer Richard Starkings introduce readers to \u2018The Brains of the Outfit\u2019<\/em>. Cybertek is dirty. It uses subterfuge to achieve its ends. When programmer, engineer, pacifist and devoted family man Michael Collins discovers his innovations are going into advanced weapons systems and not medical equipment he rebels and quits, inadvertently making himself the next candidate for the organic wetware of Deathlok. The enigmatic war frame requires a human brain to operate, but it doesn\u2019t have to be alive\u2026<\/p>\n

Mere days after a tragic \u201caccident\u201d, good friend Harlan Ryker tries to comfort widow Tracy Collins<\/em> and Michael\u2019s son Nick<\/em>, even as a new Deathlok is unleashed in Amazon rainforest republic Estrella. Here, future Roxxon profits require a change of environment, a new dam and an end to eco-guerilla resistance. However, once again the onboard systems malfunction mid fire-fight and the presumed expired personality of Michael Collins takes control of the body whilst striking a d\u00e9tente with the murderously efficient semi-sentient programmed systems.<\/p>\n

In charge and very angry, Collins wants Ryker, Cybertek and Roxxon to pay, but cannot abandoned his principles. His first action is to institute a \u201cno-kill\u201d command in the super-soldier body he shares with a computer he must negotiate every action with. This does not hamper his combat efficiency in the slightest\u2026<\/p>\n

It proves a perfectly workable arrangement as Deathlok when he returns to the New Jersey Cybertek facility and violently confronts the \u201cfriends\u201d who betrayed him. Ryker and his team desperately launch their other project – a cybernetically-controlled all-terrain super-tank piloted by ruthless paraplegic co-worker and barely suppressed psychopath Ben Jacobs<\/em>. After wrecking the project, Deathlok flees but finds no solace. Now the embodiment of everything he loathes, he doesn\u2019t even know if he\u2019s truly still alive.<\/p>\n

An attempt to reach out to Tracy and Nick results in disaster and only anonymous contact with his boy via a computer game stays him from self-termination. Lost and alone, he decides to use his situation to help others\u2026<\/p>\n

Second issue \u2018Jesus Saves\u2019<\/em> sees Deathlok operating as vigilante in New York\u2019s Coney Island, defending the dregs of society – generally from themselves. After stopping a mugging he is befriended by the elderly victim Jesus who offers \u201cMike\u201d shelter. Elsewhere, the event at Cybertek has reached the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury<\/em> (the white one), but Ryker is more concerned by pressure his Roxxon superiors are exerting on him. In response to a deadly deadline, he commissions a mercenary \u201cfixer\u201d called Wajler<\/em> – AKA Mainframe<\/em> – to eradicate Deathlok whilst Ryker unctuously probes Tracy and Nick for possible intel and warns them that a rogue robot might be stalking them. Nick is not fooled\u2026<\/p>\n

Wracked by human memories and doubts, Deathlok uses the ability to access computer files and enter a communal cyber-scape to look for ways to stop Ryker, but his reaching out endangers his few remaining friends. It also makes him a target and Mainframe\u2019s mech-enhanced team zero in on Coney Island and explosively attack, uncaring of the innocent crowds enjoying themselves there. The resultant chaos makes headlines everywhere and as S.H.I.E.L.D. steps in Deathlok decides it\u2019s time to go back to Estrella and fix what he inadvertently started as a slave of Cybertek\u2026<\/p>\n

Artists Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar joined McDuffie & Wright, in #3 as \u2018Dam if He Don\u2019t\u2019<\/em> sees the cyborg hero subject to intense S.H.I.E.L.D. scrutiny even as Collins joins the remaining eco-guerillas in wrecking Roxxon\u2019s scheme to build a super dam and make the entire region easier to mine. Even after convincing the resistors he\u2019s on their side – this time – there\u2019s still an army of soldiers and regiment of giant robot ants controlled by revenge hungry Ben Jacobs to deal with.<\/p>\n

The unstoppable Deathlok\u2019s crusade is greatly assisted by a late-in-the-day alliance with Nick Fury, setting up a final face-off with Ryker, but the malign master manipulator has one last card to play and offers to reinsert Collins\u2019 brain in the body he removed it from and has been judiciously keeping alive \u201cjust in case\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

The clash of wills and Collins brief ethical \u201cwobble\u201d culminates in catastrophic combat that draws in naive Japanese ultra-nationalist\/part-time X-Man Sunfire<\/strong>, his cunningly controlling sensei Yoritomo<\/em> and a secret army of ninjas on \u2018Ryker\u2019s Island\u2019<\/em> (McDuffie & Wright, Cowan, Kyle Baker, Mike DeCarlo & Friends). Despite at first being pacified by Harlan\u2019s promises of restoring him alive to his family, Deathlok recovers his moral compass in time for S.H.I.E.L.D. to assist him in averting a nuclear armageddon Ryker thought he could profit from, but in the confusion everyone loses sight of Michal Collins\u2019 bottled body\u2026<\/p>\n

The least Fury can do is lie to Tracy and Nick for him: telling them the pacifist is on a secret mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. as Deathlok hides, facing an uncertain future as a hero in waiting\u2026<\/p>\n

With covers by Joe Jusko, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams, Cowan & Tom Smith, plus frontispiece\/inside cover art by Guice, an historical essay on \u2018Deathlok\u2019<\/em> by Peter Sanderson and covers for reprint series Deathlok Special<\/strong> #1-4 (Guice & Cowan), the origin of Marvel\u2019s most conflicted champion is a challenging but rewarding romp for older readers.
\n\u00a9 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright, Jackson Guice, Denys Cowan, Scott Williams, Rick Magyar, Kyle Baker, Mike DeCarlo & Friends, Paul Mounts, Brad Vancata, Richard Starkings, Joe Rosen & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-0-7851-5988-9 (HB\/Digital edition) As created by Rich Buckler and originally scripted by Doug Moench in 1974, Deathlok the Demolisher was an honourable soldier condemned … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Deathlok: The Living Nightmare of Michael Collins”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,337,255,79,174,219,107,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-deathlok","category-environmentalism","category-marvel-superheroes","category-nick-fury","category-s-h-i-e-l-d","category-science-fiction","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7ES","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29445,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442\/revisions\/29445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}