Death's Head (G1)
| This article is about the |
- Death's Head is a
bounty hunterfreelance peacekeeping agent from the Marvel Comics portion of the Generation 1 continuity family, yes?
Hrn. Death's Head is the name. I'm a "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent". Some call me a "bounty hunter," but never twice, yes? Handsome, resourceful, deadly—all words used to describe me. Modest too, eh? In the past I've been accused of ending statements as questions.[1] Never could understand why, right?
Learned a long time ago that if a mechanoid is to survive in this life, you've got to respect the economy. Money is everything. Still, it's also nice to enjoy one's job, yes? Use a wide range of weapons, most of which (unlike my plasma rifle) I can use in place of my right hand. Missiles, titanium shott blaster—but sometimes it's just more satisfying to use a good old-fashioned axe, hrn?
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel UK
First got involved with the Transformers on Elpasos, around Earthdate 2007, yes? Mission 531, according to my log. Was just picking up some oil when I noticed a bounty on the head of some mechanoid named Galvatron. Bartender filled me in on the details. An Autobot named Rodimus Prime[2] had put a 10,000-Shanix reward on the Decepticon's head. Lot of money, hrm? So I settled my account with the bar and went after the two Decepticons most likely to know Galvatron's whereabouts—his lieutenants, Cyclonus and Scourge.
Scourge quickly learned he shouldn't call me a bounty hunter, thanks to my plasma rifle.
Cyclonus decided he'd rather talk and told me where to find Galvatron. Wasn't long before I was using the Decepticon leader's time travel platform to transport myself to 1987, eh? Time jump-displaced some Autobot to limbo during the mass exchange. Also had to destroy his companion. Didn't want any witnesses at that stage, right? Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!
Information is always the first key to a mission. Knew when Galvatron was, needed to find out where. Who better than the local Decepticons? Gambled they'd be keeping track of a... hrn... loose cannon. Ambushed Soundwave and beat the information out of him—had to down his pet bird in the process. Good times, yes?
Should have known it wouldn't last, right?
When I found Galvatron, he was in the throes of battle with Rodimus Prime. Hrn, hate it when a client decides he can do the job himself, eh? Usually means they don't intend to pay. Bad form, if you ask me. Allowed my annoyance with Prime to distract me—that let Galvatron blast me with his particle cannon. Sloppy. Had to retreat and make repairs. Cost me some precious time. Hunters
Still, some things never change—when I returned, Galvatron and Prime were at it again.[3] Luckily Prime wasn't doing very well, so I finally had my chance against Galvatron, eh? Had better fights. Lost a very nice mace, then an arm to which I was particularly attached. Then Wreck-Gar triggered a time jump, sending us all back to 2007, all except Galvatron. Turned out the Decepticon leader had prepared for such an eventuality and rigged his time jump trigger device so he couldn't be sent back forcibly.
Typical, yes? Would have simply extracted my lost fee from Rodimus Prime's hide then and there, if not for the garrison of Autobots waiting for us at the other end of the time jump. Fire on High!
Next time I dealt with the Transformers, I was working out of Scarvix. Some stinky little peon named Blot walked into my office with an offer. Name couldn't have suited him better, eh? Still, his offer was enticing—10,000 Shanix to kill Rodimus Prime. Jumped at the chance. Revenge doesn't pay the bills, but it's a satisfying fringe benefit, yes?
Decepticons gave me free passage to Cybertron and pointed me in the right direction. What I didn't know at the time was that Decepticon commander Shockwave was using me, right? I attacked Prime in one of his trenches and was moments from the killing blow, when the ground collapsed underneath us. Ended up in the sewers, yes? Hrn, worse than that, lost my trusty axe in the fall. Frustrating, right?
Still, titanium shott blaster would have done just as well, except moments before I could kill Prime, I was shot in the back by Scourge. Told you Shockwave was using me, eh? He tricked Cyclonus and Scourge into going after Prime too, hoping I'd eliminate them as well. And for free!
Shield took the brunt of the blow. Still, Prime got away in the process. Pursued him up a ladder, only to find he'd led me straight into Autobase, eh? Hate how he always does that. On the other hand, got to love his business acumen. Rather than throw me out, he sent me off with 10,000 Shanix in advance and a contract to kill Cyclonus and Scourge.[4] Headhunt
Caught up with Cyclonus and Scourge New Year's Day, Earth Year 2008. Hrn. The events that followed were not pleasant, right? So much killing, for absolutely no profit.
Junk was under the thrall of a giant head calling itself Unicron. The Junkions were busy trying to build their planet into Unicron's new body. Worse still, Unicron put Cyclonus, Scourge and myself under his thrall. Stopped me completing my contract, huh? Yes, those were unpleasant times. Unicron used me to kill the Decepticon leader at the time, Shockwave, and put Cyclonus and Scourge in charge as the new leaders of the Decepticons. Distasteful work, killing without profit. Especially against a foe who deserved better, right?
Unicron was playing all the angles—had Cyclonus and Scourge start a campaign against the Autobots that neither side could win, huh? Even had the Junkions build a giant time portal so he'd be able to fetch Galvatron from the past to tie up that loose end.
The mental power of Unicron was incredible, yes? Once I was back on Junk, I was forced to fight Wreck-Gar. Have no particular liking for the Junkion—he's cost me my fee in the past—but I defied Unicron and allowed Wreck-Gar to escape. Punishment followed...but still, it was a small victory, eh?
Also realised a weakness in Unicron's control: The mind link he used to control me was a two-way street. Destroyed a couple of his Junkion stooges, forcing him to punish me and establish the link. This allowed an attack on the astral plane, psychically assaulting him. At the time, I thought that would even the odds. After all, he's just a big robot, right?
Hrn.
Sometimes even I can be a little bit wrong, yes?
Unicron's mind was unfathomable. Impossible to describe it—an infinite swirling miasma of...hrn, I'm not a poet, I'm a hired killer, right? Suffice to say, trying to comprehend him on the astral plane, let alone battle him, was beyond even my abilities. Unicron revealed the reason for it, too—turns out he was a dark god of chaos bent on destroying the entire universe. Some vendetta with the Transformers' planet or something. Which is why he's afraid of the Matrix, eh? No, I don't understand it either, and I was in Unicron's mind.
Still, the net result is that when Rodimus Prime attacked, we joined forces. Used the mindlink to let Prime attack Unicron directly—and shortly after that, I discovered that Wreck-Gar had planted enough explosives under Unicron to destroy him. Dark god or not, I knew he was finished. So did he, so he recalled Cyclonus and Scourge from Cybertron, and I saw a chance to complete my most recent contract, yes?
Only problem was that the explosives started a little sooner than expected, so I grabbed Cyclonus and Scourge and dived through the time portal with them. Kill them another time, hrn? Too bad it didn't work out that way. No idea what happened to Cyclonus and Scourge, but I ended up careening through the time vortex. Inconvenient, yes? The Legacy of Unicron!
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Getting blown through time portal not a pleasant experience, right? Spent some time ricocheting around the multiverse; ran into the Transformers again when I had a stop-over in another universe and bumped into Impactor. Think I made an impression on him, yes? Impactor's Autopedia article
Merchandise
Heroclix
Apparently, there is a game called Heroclix out there, yes? A recent set themed around Iron Man has finally had the sense to include me as a figure. Not bad, eh?
Notes
Transformers notes
Ahhh, my time with the Transformers, eh? Here's a few juicy tidbits about my relationship with them.
- Turns out I was the centre of a difference between the Transformers reality chronicled by Marvel US and the reality chronicled by Marvel UK. Hrn. Alternate realities can be a pain. There was an Autobot who was always destined to die and be reborn as a mechanoid named Goldbug. In one reality, he was killed by some human team called G.I. Joe. In the much more interesting timeline I was a part of, it was I who killed him. Clearly, this was the superior timeline, in that case, right?
- When fighting Transformers, I recommend a swift strike to the neural cluster, eh? Weakest spot on any mechanoid from Cybertron.[5]
- When I killed Shockwave, I did a thorough job. Even if I wasn't getting paid, huh? Transformers' brains are the key to their life—at least in the timeline I visited. Shockwave's was particularly large for a Transformer, but I still crushed it between thumb and forefinger, yes?
- Including Shockwave, killed only five Transformers in all my dealings with them, eh?
- Only ever got paid once by any Transformer, and I never finished that contract. Hrn. Dealing with them was a nightmare, right?
External notes
Hrm. What else to tell you about myself? So much of it has nothing to do with the Transformers, right? That's why I've separated it off into this additional segment.
- Was years later, give or take—it's tricky to judge actually when there's so much time travel involved—that I discovered my origin. Turns out I was originally built as a new body for some other-dimensional wizard named Lupex, right? His consort, Pyra, gave me a personality, so I'd kill Lupex. Parents. Typical, eh?
- Unicron's time gate left me flying through the time vortex where I bumped, quite literally, into a miscreant being calling itself the Doctor. Had a few encounters with him: First he shrank me to human size, then he transported me to 8162 in a timeline without Transformers. Not all bad, right? More frustrating when he later dumped me on the roof of the Baxter Building.
- The Fantastic Four were just the first super heroes I met, eh? Iron Man 2020, She-Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, even the original Iron Man. Met 'em all, no? Though according to this Kieron Gillen chap, I actually met some of them before I went to the Transformers' universe.[6] Why didn't I recognise them later, you ask? Can't remember everyone I beat up, yes? Be here all day.
- Hrn. Then there's the matter of that possible future (well, relatively speaking for a time traveller such as myself, right?) where I take over the body of the AIM-created monstrosity Minion, becoming the cyborg some have dubbed Death's Head II. Let's...not talk of that further, eh?
- There's another possible future where I kill Minion and don't die myself. Much prefer that one, right?[7]
- As to the comic books which have chronicled my exploits, nearly all my tales had been recounted by Simon Furman, until his untimely death,[8] and the first artist to draw me was Geoff Senior. Marvel liked me so much that they published a one-page story about me (drawn by some fleshling named Bryan Hitch) in various Marvel mags to prevent Hasbro from securing the rights to my adventures. Have to admire that kind of mercenary cunning, right?
- There's reportedly a third creature called Death's Head out there. Hrn, they were a legion of alien robots that bothered the Incredible Hulk on the planet Sakaar. On an alternate future Earth, one of these robots was bonded to a synthetic duplicate of the sentient energy-force known as the Uni-Power—he was Death's Head 3.0. Reportedly, he also understood the importance of freelance peacekeeping, yes? Apparently, his adventures were also penned by the fleshling known as Furman.
- Made a big impression on Transformers readers who became writers, you know? That Gillen says “if Impactor was our Jean Grey, Death's Head was our Wolverine”. (Obviously better than him, not all that weird hair, right?) That's why I just keep coming back, yes? [9]
External links
- Death's Head(s) at Marvel Database
- Death's Head at the Doctor Who wiki
- Death's Head I and II info at the Marvel Universe Appendix
Footnotes
- ↑ This happened in an interview with Death's Head and Simon Furman(!) in issue 13 of Strip Magazine. (As in "Comic Strip Magazine"—sheesh, get your minds out of the gutter.)
- ↑ Death's Head never met Optimus Prime, so Rodimus Prime is his Prime.
- ↑ Though Ultra Magnus and Death's Head were both big players in this ongoing arc, they never met. Instead, every time DH saw Galvatron, he was fighting Rodimus Prime. The closest Magnus and DH came to meeting was when the Freelance Peacekeeping Agent passed by Magnus' unconscious body during his initial retreat.
- ↑ This is the only time that Death's Head actually made any money in his dealings with the Transformers.
- ↑ Death's Head tried to deliver just such a blow to Galvatron, only to have his mace blasted to atoms before he could do it.
- ↑ In Gillen's S.W.O.R.D. in 2009, we meet a Death's Head who is still Transformer-sized and picks up the term "freelance peacekeeper" from Hank McCoy.
- ↑ In What If? Volume 2, issue 54. The last Death's Head collaboration between Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, his creators. This is also the only Death's Head appearance where he uses his face tusks in battle.
- ↑ Remember that interview we told you about? When both Furman and the interviewer stopped listening to DH, he killed Simon Furman, effectively ending the interview. We can only assume that the Simon Furman seen since that time is actually some sort of clone or facsimile construct.
- ↑ Newsarama: "DEATH’S HEAD Is Cool, Yes? Marvel’s UK Import Poised for Push", and as well as the X-Men comparison, Gillen adds "Who didn't love Death's Head? He was great."
