Marvel’s Deathlok, Explained

Marvel Comics has created and introduced several iconic heroes and villains over the years, with these characters becoming popular in the comics and outside media. Other Marvel heroes, including the cyborg known as Deathlok,are a bit more obscure. A gory example of a legacy character, the Deathlok mantle has been taken up by several individuals.

Now, the publisher is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Deathlok, who debuted during the more experimental days of the Bronze Age of Comics. Born from divergent ideas and meant to showcase a monstrous relationship with technology, Deathlok is one of Marvel’s premiere cyborgs. Though the character’s publication history has been a bit less consistent than some, he’s remained an ever-present and dark figure in various timelines of the Marvel Universe.

Deathlok Was Intended as a Novel Character

Deathlok creator Rich Buckler was a somewhat prominent comic book artist in the 1970s, but he didn’t intend to use the character within the medium. Instead, he planned to turn the concept into a novel before shifting the idea to comics.

Unfortunately, this was all delayed due to Marvel Comics trying to acquire the comic book rights to the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, which also featured a human cyborg. The book the show was based on was even called Cyborg,one of the first mainstream uses of the term. Marvel lost the rights to the show to rival publisher Charlton Comics, but the idea still inspired Buckler to create his own take that eventually became Deathlok.

The general concept was to do the exact opposite of the TV show: whereas the Six Million Dollar Man was handsome, Deathlok would be a grotesque and gruesome cyborg stripped of his humanity. Likewise, he was supposed to be treated as a somewhat tragic yet monstrous being. While technology gave him a new lease on life, he also despised it and what it had turned him into. Another point of reference and parallel was the iconic Frankenstein monster, whom Deathlok was very similar to.

Likewise, his initial adventures even referenced Mary Shelley’s book, making the thematic roots of this take on the “modern Prometheus” even more obvious. In many ways, he can also be seen as an inversion of the “man out of time” Captain America (which was intentional) and Iron Man, with the latter also blurring the line between humanity and technology.

The First Deathlok Was Reanimated In a Far-Flung Future

First Appearance: Astonishing Tales #25 by Rich Buckler

The original Deathlok was Luther Manning, who was initially a soldier from Detroit. Things took a turn for the worst when Manning was brutally injured, and upon waking up from his predicament – in the future, no less – he saw that his body had been converted into a cybernetic organism.

Luckily, this new cyborg body was useful in his harsh new time, with the US having fallen into a derelict state controlled by different military factions and militias. His new “Deathlok” body was the creation of Simon Ryker, from whom Manning finally escaped. Becoming a fierce enemy of Ryker’s, he fought many of his other creations, like the cybernetic War-Wolf. After numerous battles, including one in which Spider-Man was sent to his future, the original version of Deathlok was sent back in time.

Sent to the time and space of the 616 Marvel Universe, he fought with and alongside numerous characters. These included the obscure Devil-Slayer, as well as the much more mainstream Fantastic Four character The Thing and Nick Fury.

The Thing took Deathlok to be repaired, with the Roxxon Corporation also using the situation to create a robotic duplicate of Manning’s Deathlok form. This crescendoed into a later story in the second volume of Deathlok comics, with Deathlok and a mainstream universe equivalent of Luther Manning fighting against a group that included the Michael Collins Deathlok. Returning to his home time period, he eventually overthrows the wicked ruler that had taken over America and tries to find a new purpose for himself.

Michael Collins Was the Most Notable Deathlok

First Appearance: Deathlok #1 by Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright and Jackson Guice

The second Deathlok debuted in the first true Deathlok solo series, but he wasn’t the only new version of the concept. Michael Collins was a man working for the weapons division of Roxxon, but he was a staunch pacifist.

This put him at odds with his intended mission when he had his brain transferred into the body of another Deathlok cyborg: John Kelly. Unfortunately for Kelly, his brain was deemed detrimental to the cyborg body’s onboard systems, but Michael Collins was a perfect fit. It was so perfect that he could override many of the systems, initiating a “no-kill” rule amid his many armaments. This allowed him to escape being Roxxon’s living weapon and embark on his new life as a cyborg antihero.

After eventually revealing his cyborg status to his family, Michael Collins/Deathlok fought various mechanical threats while working alongside similar antihero and “gritty” characters. These included Nick Fury, the violent antihero The Punisher, and Misty Knight, who had her own cyborg arm. Due to his appearances in major classic crossovers such as “Maximum Carnage,” he’s perhaps the most mainstream incarnation of the character.

In that story, he worked alongside Iron Fist to help protect New Yorkers from the terror of the newly-formed “Carnage Family,” led by Cletus Kasady’s symbiote alter ego. While this hasn’t kept him around or made him into a major antihero in the present day, he’s still what many Marvel fans think of when it comes to the concept. His latest major appearance was the Beyond! miniseries, with numerous Deathloks being introduced since then.

Other Versions of Deathlok Have Come and Gone

There have been other takes on the Deathlok concept, though few of these have had the same longevity as the original incarnations. One was Jack Truman, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who was turned into a Deathlok cyborg. Not wanting this to be his fate, he used telepathy to transfer his mind and switch bodies with his rival, Larry Young. Young was unable to cope with his new body, however, and he was last seen discarded in a junkyard.

Project: Deathlok saw the concept used for mass-produced cyborg soldiers, with these troops essentially just zombies. Death Locket was a teenage girl who had become a Deathlok cyborg. She and several other teenage superhumans were forced to participate in Arcade’s death match at Avengers Arena. She was last seen prominently during the “War of the Realms” event, but she’s mostly been forgotten like other young heroes of her generation.

A new Deathlok debuted during “Original Sin,” with this incarnation being a man named Henry Hayes. Brainwashed and given false memories, his true origins were seemingly as a member of Doctors Without Borders who was grievously injured in a suicide bomber attack. Upgraded into a living weapon, he was sent on various missions for the Biotek company. Constantly having his memory wiped after these missions and unaware of his true nature.

Jemma Simmons became a new female version of Deathlok after being infected with a DNA virus. Her appearance remained mostly human, though cybernetic elements were apparent after a while. Her full transformation into Deathlok saved her life, but the character hasn’t been used much in years. The other most recent take on the concept was Deathlok shock troops seen in the “Iron Man 2020” event, created by a version of M.O.D.O.K. to defeat Ultimo. Sent into a quarry full of lava, these cyborgs were subsequently destroyed and have not been seen since.

Deathlok’s Powers and Abilities

The original Luther Manning version of Deathlok was rebuilt into an advanced but inhuman cyborg, with much of his organic body enhanced or replaced with robotic elements. These cybernetic enhancements greatly increased his strength, speed, reflexes, durability and other physical faculties. Likewise, his thoughts and memory were enhanced via his cybernetic brain upgrades, driven by an onboard computer. He later gained further updates to his body when he was briefly captured by the present-day S.H.I.E.L.D., with his new rocket boosters allowing him to leap great distances.

The Michael Collins Deathlok was even more advanced, with his physical strength and other attributes being even greater than those of Luther Manning. Likewise, Collins was already a computer expert and could have hacked into computer programs before being turned into Deathlok. After his cyborg upgrade, however, he can now interface with and override any computer system.

He can also house his consciousness into “The Net,” all while allowing his onboard AI to take over control of his body. This intelligence also guides his fighting maneuvers to compensate for his lack of combat experience. The other versions of Deathlok have similar abilities, as seen in Death Locket. She also possesses nanites that recreate her limbs with prosthetics, ensuring she can always rebuild her body.

Of course, the various alternate realities in the Marvel Universe have had their own takes on the concept. This includes the original version of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, with this briefly-seen incarnation being a take on Luther Manning. One universe seen in the world of Mutant X had Deathlok as a member of the Avengers. In the mainstream universe, whenever different takes on Deathlok team up with others, it’s largely as part of a “dark” team similar to the Thunderbolts or another group.

Part of the character’s lack of major success may be that he was meant to be in a different universe and thus feels easy to forget in the grand scheme of the Earth-616 superhero universe. Nevertheless, the character showcases a dark and tragic relationship with machinery that even Iron Man doesn’t explore, with many of those with the Deathlok name being an example of a man in an iron prison.