Pages

Saturday, 11 January 2020

TIME BOMB (1989-1990)

Death's Head burst onto the scene in Marvel UK's Transformers series, hunting Galvatron for a bounty (but don't call him a "bounty hunter", yes?). After discovering the origin of Unicron, Death's Head ended up in the timestream where he ran into the Galifreyan known as the Doctor who dumped him on Earth-5555. Despite getting a new body and reasserting the belief that revenge isn't profitable, the greatest 'Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent' of all time is about to gain the opportunity to get a little payback on the Doctor for his actions.

On top of that, Death's Head and his unwanted sidekick, Spratt, recently completed a job for crime boss Dead Cert by killing his rival's pet, Plague Dog. Incensed, the Undertaker has hired the mercenary Big Shot to kill Death's Head. Hoping to discredit his rival once again, Dead Cert has hired Short Fuse to kill Death's Head first...

MCG Note: 'Death's Head: The Body in Question' started off as a serial in the Marvel UK anthology series 'Strip' in issues 13-20. 'The Body in Question' was released in the US while the 'Strip' series was still running.
Previous events that directly impact this story:
Title Jump: When Death's Head's series is cancelled, the story jumps over to Strip Magazine or the Death's Head: Body in Question graphic novel - depending on which country you're in! 
  • Death's Head #7-10
  • Death's Head: The Body in Question
Death's Head #7
Death's Head's attempts to capture the shape-shifting criminal Photofit are ruined by Big Shot and Short Fuse's consistently contradictory efforts to kill him. Spratt accidentally discovers Photofit's attempt to leave the country by winning a game show's grand prize while Death's Head takes on Big Shot, directly. When Photofit shapeshifts to look like Death's Head, Short Fuse blows him up and accidentally takes himself and Big Shot out, too. Death's Head and Spratt walk away, unaware that Big Shot is still alive and looking for revenge...

Death's Head #8
Billionaire businessman and longtime-foe of the Doctor, Josiah W Dogbolter, hires Death's Head to kill the Galifreyan Timelord using a time-jumping jetpack. When the malfunctioning device finally brings him to the Doctor aboard the Tardis, they both realise the jetpack is a bomb, set to destroy them both. The Tardis takes them to Earth-5555 where DH returns the device to Dogbolter and his robotic manservant, Hob, then depart before it explodes. When Death's Head promises to kill the Doctor the next time they meet, the Timelord abandons him on Earth-616 on top of Four Freedoms Plaza, home of the Fantastic Four...
Death's Head #9
Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) is still working on the Fantastic Four's new security system when Death's Head sets it off. He enters the building to avoid being destroyed, only to be seen as an intruder by the FF. He helps them overcome their malevolent robot security AI and saves young Franklin Richards in a rare moment of humanity. Reed agrees to send DH back to 8162 until he realises Death's Head is a hired killer and tries to stop the time-machine's process, inadvertently sending him to the year 2020, instead. In the year 8162, Spratt is unaware that Death's Head has gone back in time and receives a phone call that appears to be from his bosses lover...?

Death's Head #10
The Iron Man of Earth-8410 (aka Arno Stark, aka the 'Iron Man of 2020') is hired to protect foreign emissaries from a gang of mercenaries, unaware that it's all part of a game run by Chance, one of a number of billionaire Dicemen. Having set himself up as a 'Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent' on Earth-8410 since his arrival, Death's Head is hired by Chance to clash with Iron Man, despite the rehiring combatants being against the Dicemen's rules. After Iron Man beheads Death's Head (but still takes a beating from his headless body), they realise they've been set up. Chance is murdered by his butler before the duo can discover the Dicemen's existence. Later, Death's Head's ship emerges from a time portal and crashes in front of him. A distressed Spratt exits the vehicle, pursued by Big Shot...
Death's Head: The Body in Question
In 2020, Death's Head kills the criminal Rabid Rogan in front of his girlfriend in order to claim a bounty, inciting her rage and making him question himself as being nothing more than a hunter. In 8162, Spratt meets Pyra, a magic-user who angrily claims to be Death's Head's wife. They're interrupted by Big Shot who Pyra decides to use to her advantage, sending Spratt, Big Shot and Death's Head's vulture back in time to find and hill DH. After the ship crashes on Earth-8410, Big Shot's attempts to kill Death's Head are interrupted by Pyra who intends killing him herself, only for Death's Head to be teleported away.

DH finds himself on a strange world, Styrakos, confronted by a being called Lupex who looks like a more aggressive version of himself. Lupex reveals he's a hunter who moves from body to body who created the 'Death's Head' body with his wife, Pyra, as a host form capable of holding his energies. Until the DH body was stolen. Lupex proceeds to hunt Death's Head across Styrakos to claim the body back. DH uses the world's fluctuating tech/magic zones against Lupex, beheading him in time to save his own life. Pyra transports Death's Head back to Earth-8410 where she reveals she betrayed Lupex and feigned anger to draw him out. Lupex learned she'd been having an affair, so she gave the 'Death's Head' body a mind of its own to use against Lupex. However, the body was stolen before she could use it and doesn't know who took it. With Lupex dead, she happily walks away.
Fantastic Four #338 (1990)
Death's Head runs into the Fantastic Four again at the Bubble at the Heart of Time on Earth-8810; despite his issues with them betraying him and sending him to Earth-8410, he helps them against the Council of Cross-Time Kangs during INTO THE TIME STREAM.

Doctor Who Magazine #173 (1991)
Death's Head raises his glass to the Doctor when he next sees him in a bar on the space-port Maruthea.

Death's Head II #1-4 (1992)
Death's Head becomes the target of AIM's Minion cyborg who kills and assimilates him, though Death's Head's personality scrambles his programming and gives him a persona of his own; Minion renames himself Death's Head (often referred to as Death's Head II) and gains a new sidekick called Tuck; Spratt is murdered by Baron Strucker the Fifth on Earth-8410; Baron Strucker is transformed into the creature Charnel using the remains of the original Death's Head and is then killed by Death's Head II.

Incomplete Death's Head #1-12 (1993)
It's revealed that the Doctor had numerous encounters with Death's Head and was trying to shape him into a better person without his awareness; Hob is revealed to be alive (and monstrous) and tries to kill the Doctor, Death's Head, Death's Head II and Tuck on Maruthea; Hob is destroyed by both Death's Heads; the Doctor erases the original Death's Head's memory of his battle with Hob and his meeting with his future self, revealing he had send Death's Head II to Maruthea to save his earlier counterpart from Hob.

Revolutionary War: Death's Head #1 (2014)
Death's Head meets his future self, Death's Head II, again during REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

Doctor Who Magazine #500 (2016)
The Doctor discovers Josiah W Dogbolter also survived the explosion and was still running Intra-Venus with Hob (presumably a new model); the Doctor brings Dogbolter to justice for killing his friend, Gus Goodman.
See how this story fits into the wider Marvel Universe continuity: 
Death's Head: Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent
Includes... 
Death's Head #7, 8-10
Death's Head: The Body in Question

Life and Times of Death's Head
Includes... 
Death's Head #7, 8-10

Death's Head vol.1 (Panini Comics)
Includes... 
Death's Head #7

Death's Head vol.2 (Panini Comics)
Includes... 
Death's Head #8-10
Death's Head: The Body in Question

Iron Man 2020
Includes... 
Death's Head #10

No comments:

Post a Comment

See a mistake or have a question or suggestion?
Feel free to leave a comment!