Death's Head (Marvel)

[Sephiroth]

I had mentioned this guy in the Agents of Shield thread, and was surprised by how many others knew him. So I figured we could have an individual thread to help expose those unfortunate enough to not be familiar with him to one of Marvel's oft unrecognized but very unique characters. I consider him to be kind of a precursor to Deadpool: a bounty hunter, anti-hero character with a black sense of humor who sometimes broke the fourth wall. He also has one of the more unique histories of any Marvel character: started out as a robot bounty hunter in the Transformers comics of the 80's, somehow got crossed over into the "modern day" with the aid of The Doctor and TARDIS, got rebooted as a cyborg bounty hunter-who then gets rebooted by downloading himself into another cyborg, and more recently getting completely rewritten as a doomsday robot. I didn't see his title much when I was a kid, mainly because it was published mostly in the UK, but I do remember an issue of "What If?" where they proposed a scenario that retconned the idea of Death's Head becoming Death's Head II. I was amused to find out later that the character's original creator had been unhappy with that creative decision and found the chance to erase it to be "very gratifying." And while I have zero expectation of it happening, I would mark out huge if Death's Head somehow put in an appearance on Agent's of Shield.

[crashmatsbazz]

Death's Head II was one of my favourite comic book characters when i was growing up, Death3 was awesome as well.


Was he also in 2000AD or is my mind just making that up?

[Deleted]

Wow, I can honestly say I never knew about the Doctor Who connection. That's a damned impressive feat, connecting those 3 worlds....

Jan 20, 2015 9:42:42 GMT -5 crashmatsbazz said:

Was he also in 2000AD or is my mind just making that up?

The only Death's Head/2000AD connection that Google comes up with is an actual storyarc in the 2000AD comic called "Death's Head", but it's regarding another character entirely.

Death's Head (yes?) was a Marvel creation thru and thru (he was a Marvel UK attempt at 2000AD-ish comics - Dragons Claws, which DH interacted with, was another), while 2000AD is its own company.

[Grennel]

I read a few of his comics. Cool character design.

[Ryushinku]

I remember him, yes? Thanks to following the UK Transformers comic. Hired to killed Galvatron, as a bounty hun...freelance peacekeeping agent.

Never saw his change over to Death's Head II. Might have been better for my health, yes?

[Deleted]

I mentioned this in the other thread, but since this is a Deaths Head thread I'm going to recount the characters origins for those who are confused.

Deaths Head was created by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior to a bounty hunter in the UK Transformers comic, which was published by Marvel. However, Marvel wanted to own the character as opposed to Hasbro, so they made Furman and Senior do a short strip that appeared in various Marvel UK titles before his Transformers debut. Once Furman had written him out of Transformers, they used the Doctor Who comic they were publishing to have him cross realities and time as well as mass displacement to make him normal sized instead of Transformer sized. He then went on to appear in books like Fantastic Four and the UK version of X-Men. Recently he's seen a bit of a resurgence in the Marvel Universe due to writer Kieron Gillen being a huge fan of Simon Furman and the UK Transformers book.


And for the record I do love the character, yes?

[Duke Delicious]

Only comic involving him i ever read was
 

[FinalGwen]

Crossovers between Doctor Who and Marvel weren't that uncommon, although Death's Head is the most direct. But Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart did once encounter the Juggernaut in an X-Men comic, and Spider-Man was seen as part of the multiverse in one of Doctor Who Magazine's pivotal stories.

[Hurbster]

Ahhhh, Deaths Head and Motormouth.

I bought the comic, I stayed healthy, yes ?

[Sephiroth]

One thing I never quite figured out-since he was a Marvel UK character, was he supposed to have a British accent?

[Ryushinku]

In my head canon, I always figured he had a very low but rather emotionless voice. Quite monosyllabic and gruff. A bit Client Eastwood, without the accent. Maybe just me, I always hear Dredd along similar lines.

[Amazing Kitsune]

Jan 20, 2015 11:43:21 GMT -5 Duke Delicious said:

Only comic involving him i ever read was
 

Same.

[Talent Name]

I actually bought his action figure

[DragonMasterP]

Jan 20, 2015 12:16:21 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

One thing I never quite figured out-since he was a Marvel UK character, was he supposed to have a British accent?

Apparently he was based on a British politician, so it's very likely, yes?

[Sephiroth]

Jan 21, 2015 10:20:48 GMT -5 DragonMasterP said:

Jan 20, 2015 12:16:21 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

One thing I never quite figured out-since he was a Marvel UK character, was he supposed to have a British accent?

Apparently he was based on a British politician, so it's very likely, yes?

A murderous cyborg with no sense of loyalty and a biting sense of humor? Hrm, definitely sounds like a British politician.

[Joe Neglia]

Jan 20, 2015 9:42:42 GMT -5 crashmatsbazz said:

Death's Head II was one of my favourite comic book characters when i was growing up, Death3 was awesome as well.


Was he also in 2000AD or is my mind just making that up?

You're probably thinking of Dragon's Claw, the series he "re-debuted" in, or his run-ins with Iron Man 2020.

I love both versions of Death's Head. Wish they'd play up more the notion that since both are time-hoppers, even when they're "dead" they're still popping up all over the place.