Back in May, we covered Astonishing Tales #25, featuring the premiere outing (and origin story) of Deathlok the Demolisher. Our main topic of discussion today is the third Deathlok story — but since this particular feature went in for serialized storytelling in a big way (not to mention doing more than a fair amount of jumping around in time, especially in the earliest episodes), we’ll first need to spend a bit of time and space recapping the major events of Astonishing Tales #26 (whose cover by primary creator Rich Buckler is shown at right) before moving on to the main event.
As discussed at some length in the aforementioned AT #25 post, later decades would find the question of just how much Buckler contributed to the creation of the Deathlok character, as well as to his earliest adventures, versus what the series’ first scripter, Doug Moench, brought to the enterprise, to be a matter of considerable contention; with that in mind, your humble blogger invites you to peruse the credits on the following splash page, where we find Buckler credited for “art/concept/plot”, while Moench gets a double nod for “script/plot”. This is in contrast to AT #25, where we were told Buckler had “conceived, plotted, & drawn” the work, while Moench had only “scripted” it.
We’ll also pause here to note the addition to the team of inker Pablo Marcos, and to call your attention to the story’s title, “The Enemy: Us!” — which seems more than likely to be a reference to Pogo creator Walt Kelly’s famous phrase from a 1970 Earth Day poster, “We have met the enemy and he is us” (itself a riff on Commodore Oliver Perry’s “We have met the enemy and they are ours”, written following the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812).
As you’ll hopefully recall, Astonishing Tales #25’s “A Cold Knight’s Frenzy” had begun in medias res, as we witnessed Deathlok shoot down two men as a killer-for-hire in the “present day” of the storyline; we then flashed back to learn how a mortally wounded U.S. soldier named Luther Manning was brought back to life (of a sort) as a cyborg, intended to serve thenceforth as a computer-controlled living weapon with no will of its own. But Manning’s personality had somehow reasserted itself, and he’d gone rogue, escaping the military complex where he was being held and setting out on a quest to restore his lost humanity through a brain transplant. Unfortunately, he’d been played; the two men he’d killed were actually enemies of Major Simon Ryker, the director of the cyborg-making “Project: Alpha-Mech” (as well as Manning’s old commanding officer), and the money he’d been promised for carrying out the hits was non-existent. Even the man who’d hired him, Julian Biggs, was a cyborg under Ryker’s control. The story ended with the revelation (to us readers, though not to Deathlok) that not only was Biggs a cyborg — so was Ryker himself.
“The Enemy: Us!” follows a similar structure to its immediate predecessor, as we’re dropped into the middle of an operation in which Deathlok is attempting to rescue his previously-unheard-of “buddy Mike” from enemies who, unsurprisingly turn out to be working for Maj. Ryker. In-between the scenes describing this op’s progress, flashbacks take us back to Deathlok’s original escape from Project: Alpha-Mech, elaborating on what we’d seen in the previous issue…
Commandeering the helicopter, Deathlok and Mike were able to escape their immediate peril. As they flew over the city, Deathlok marveled at the resiliency of his semi-artificial body, observing that he couldn’t hurt himself…
Deathlok attempted to track the helicopter carrying Mike Travers and his cannibalistic kidnappers, only to be decoyed to a meat-packing plant — the very location whose door he was kicking down on this issue’s opening splash page. Finally, after dispatching the remainder of Ryker’s assassins waiting for him at that site, Deathlok headed for the place where the last of those men had told him (with his dying breath, naturally) Mike was actually being held: the Statue of Liberty. And that’s where we’ll rejoin our protagonist, as, after setting his own helicopter to autopilot, he descends from it via rope-ladder…
And now we have an answer to the mystery of Deathlok’s “third personality” — the bloody-minded psychopath who rarely speaks in complete sentences, and whose dialogue is visually distinguished from “Luther Manning’s” primarily through the use of double-borders for its captions. Well, it’s a sort of an answer, at least; though, as we’ll see later in the post, “Both” turns out to be not quite the last word on the subject, after all.
Before proceeding on to this episode’s conclusion, I feel obliged to point out that Buckler and Moench seem to have made a major continuity gaffe with this episode, in that it’s virtually impossible to square the chronology established here with the “present day” events of Astonishing Tales #25. If Mike Travers was abducted almost immediately after his and Deathlok’s escape from the Project: Alpha-Mech facility, and Deathlok went in pursuit of him forthwith, when’s our favorite cyborg supposed to have had time not only to accept a murder-for-hire contract, but also to have executed said contract and even to have returned to the contractee to collect? (The “Deathlok the Demolisher” page at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe shoehorns the whole “contract” sequence in AT #25 into the time between Mike’s capture and Deathlok’s arrival at the meat-packing place at the beginning of AT #26; I suppose that technically works, but it’s hella awkward to say the least, given that it requires one to accept that Deathlok would just let his poor kidnapped buddy Mike go hang for an indefinite time while he went off to pursue his dream of earning cash for a brain transplant.)
Huh. A humanoid wolf. Seems a little redundant, given a Marvel Comics landscape that, in 1974, already included Man-Beast, Man-Wolf, and Werewolf by Night… though since War-Wolf is a cyborg, maybe that makes this new variation “original” enough to be OK?
Although, speaking of Man-Beast… as was pointed out by one of this blog’s frequent commenters, frednotfaith2, on another forum a couple of months back, Buckler’s design for War-Wolf is awfully reminiscent of Jack Kirby’s initial visualization of that earlier character, as may be confirmed by reference to Kirby and Vince Colletta’s cover for Thor #135 (Dec., 1966). Considering that Buckler was definitely perusing that very issue of the Thunder God’s title for other purposes around the same time that he’d have been working on Astonishing Tales #26, this seems unlikely to have been a coincidence. (Though to be completely fair, I should note that, as far as I can determine, none of the poses that Buckler puts War-Wolf into, either in this issue or the next, have been “borrowed” from Kirby’s drawings.)
In any event, we’ve come at last to the end of AT #26… so, after taking a quick scroll back to the top of this post to have another look at Buckler’s cover for the following issue, #27, we’ll proceed on to the story within…
As you can see, we once again have some changes in the series’ credits to note; with this issue, Rich Buckler assumes the duties of scripter as well as penciller (“art/story”), though Doug Moench is still credited as a co-potter. And Annette Kawecki — to whom Buckler would always credit in interviews with having designed the font originally used to hand-letter Deathlok’s “computer voice” — has departed, to be replaced by Desmond Jones.
Jones was someone Buckler knew from Detroit; along with Desmond’s brother Arvell, they had worked together on one of the earliest comic-book conventions, the Detroit Triple Fan Fair. But while Arvell would go on to a successful career as a comics artist, this lettering job on “Dead Reckoning!” appears to be Desmond’s one and only professional credit. To be honest, it’s tempting to say that that might have been for the best, as the lettering in this story is, unfortunately, of less than professional quality; on the other hand, being called in to perfectly replicate Kawecki’s computer-style font and get the “regular” block lettering right was hardly the easiest way for someone to get started in the business. Jones might very well have improved on the job, given more opportunities; but apparently he never had (or perhaps never wanted) the chance.
The first three pages of “Dead Reckoning!” are essentially a remake of the last three pages of “The Enemy: Us!”, presenting the same sequence of events but with different character poses, camera angles, and dialogue; it’s an interesting experiment, but perhaps an overly self-indulgent one, given that Buckler and co. only have 18 pages to work with for the entire issue.
In Astonishing Tales #25, we were told that the United States had been at war for years, but weren’t told who the enemy was. As of this panel, we still don’t know the answer to that question; but there’s at least a suggestion offered in Luther and Mike’s dialogue that there may not even be a real enemy at all (note the ironic quotation marks applied to Luther’s use of the word “war”).
In issue #26, we learned that Luther Manning was severely injured by an exploding mine just ten minutes after Mike Travers had saved him from a different one. Now, it appears that the whole incident was a result, not of actual combat, but a practice drill that the two soldiers were ordered by then-Captain Ryker to run without the appropriate gear. Just one more reason for Deathlok to really, really hate Simon Ryker…
Deathlok — or perhaps I should say Luther Manning — is hardly convinced that “destruction” wouldn’t be welcome at this point; and so he hardly resists the pounding that War-Wolf proceeds to give him. Meanwhile, his third, “sick” personality babbles excitedly at the prospect of imminent death (“…images flashing hundreds of skulls with endless rows of teeth, sockets yawning black holes promising holy death…”), and “‘Puter” continues to rationally search for some means of escape…
And that’s all she wrote, as far as War-Wolf is concerned. Too weakened to climb back up to the top of Lady Liberty to confront Ryker, Deathlok summons his still-airborne helicopter by remote control. Meanwhile, high above, his nemesis rants away…
(Just in case you’ve forgotten, Ryker’s girlfriend Nina had last been seen in the final panel of AT #25, where she’d walked in on him while a little hatch in the back of his noggin was open, revealing his cybernetic circuitry.)
And he’s right — as of this moment, Deathlok’s third, psychotic voice is gone for good. My guess is that Buckler nixed it, rather than Moench, but that’s only a guess.
Before the narrative moves on from the topic, however, we’re given the real explanation for where Mr. Sicko came from in the first place…
Per my earlier comment regarding War-Wolf’s debt to Jack Kirby’s Man-Beast, I imagine that at least some readers will be expecting me to ding Buckler for swiping the “crucified Deathlok” image in the full-page splash shown above from a certain famous 20th century painting… you know the one…
Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951) by Salvador Dali.
…but I’m not going to do that. As I previously noted in my Thor #228 post back in July, I don’t see this as being at all the same sort of thing as taking a relatively obscure old Jack Kirby Thor splash page and slightly reworking it to come up with a “new” “Rich Buckler” Thor splash page. Rather, it’s an homage to a well-known work of art that expects you to recognize its origins and to contemplate the similarities and differences; as such, it’s every bit as legitimate an artistic exercise as the separate takes on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper that Jim Starlin and Herb Trimpe had offered to Marvel’s readers earlier in the year, or Jim Mooney’s riff on Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, published during the same period. (That’s my story, anyhow, and I’m stickin’ to it.)
(Is it “Janice” or “Janis”? Based on usage throughout the rest of this issue [as well as in later ones], I think we’re safest in going with “Janice”.)
Our storytellers’ choice to have an interracial marriage be part of Deathlok’s backstory was a fairly daring one for 1974; it also seems to have created some confusion in Marvel’s offices. In an interview published in Comic Book Creator #20 (Summer, 2019), Rich Buckler recalled:
I remember one time when Roy [Thomas] stopped me in the hallway outside the production department. Roy asked me: “Rich, is Deathlok black?” He wasn’t being funny. I think someone had said something to him, and that made him wonder and ask me about it. So I told him: “No, Deathlok is not black. But his wife is.” Then I asked Roy what he thought of the series so far. He said there were a lot of things he couldn’t quite follow, but overall it was very different and very exciting.
And that’s how this episode, and this issue, ends… not with a tiny “Fin” banner, not with a “Next Issue” blurb… not even with a complete sentence (although I don’t think many readers, either then or now, would need help supplying Deathlok’s last, unspoken word). If you were reading this story in its original published form in September, 1974, the next thing your eye would fall on was the inside front cover’s full-page ad encouraging you to order a “Christmas card sample kit” from Cheerful House in White Plains, NY (“Do You Need Extra Money?”). Yep, that’s it for this one, Marvelite. See you in November!
Deathlok’s failed attempt at suicide is about as bleak a finale as any Marvel Comics story featuring an ongoing series protagonist had offered, up to this point in time — and probably would for some years after this, as well. Clearly, the saga of Deathlok the Demolisher would continue, whether its main character wanted it to or not; though whether Rich Buckler and his fellow storytellers would manage to come up with a reason for Luther Manning to want to go on would be a question for future issues… and also, of course, for future posts on this blog.
I didn’t collect this series when it was new, although I did get the following issue off the racks at the Navy Exchange and it recapped the last few pages of this issue (and I later got the other issues). Deathlok was a rather unusual series, a sort of mix of Tales of the Zombie and The Six-Millon Dollar Man with a touch of Sybil, with the multiple personalities within one body, all set in the not too distant future, now our past of over 30 years. I can understand why Buckler chose to place this in a future that wasn’t too far off, somewhere between the era of its time but before the setting of the War of the Worlds, and in a parallel world bereft of the super-characters of Marvel 1974 which would become even more full of supercharacters by the time period Deathlok was set in.
Regarding Janice, I admit my pre-teen self was somewhat confused as to Luther Manning’s race upon seeing that his wife is black. Up to that point in my life, I wasn’t aware of any bi-racial couples, certainly not in Utah wherein I’d spent the last few years, although in San Francisco, where we were about to move to in October 1974, I met at least one classmate who was the offspring of a bi-racial couple. Of course, now I have a black sister-in-law, the wife of my brother Donald; and since my parents divorced in 1983, my dad has been married to three Filipina and my brother Terry married to two, both of whom he me while we lived in Lemoore, CA, from 1976 – 1981. And, no, neither my dad nor brother were practicing polygamy! Anyhow, back to the comic, once I did figure out that Luther had been white, I just thought, “ok, that’s unusual but no big deal” sort of like I felt when I first met people who were entirely open about being gay (and who didn’t match up with the common stereotypes about gay people of the 1980s). That people of varying skin tones or of the same sex could love one another was something I found easy to accept, even while I knew many others who found both abhorrent.
Back to the story again, seems clear that Janice & Mike, both believing Luther to be dead, took comfort with one another. Understandable that Luther’s popping up at the apartment and looking much more like a walking corpse than, say, Lee Majors, was very unsettling and horrifying to Janice. Also, Luther coming to the realization that he was essentially an animated corpse with much of the remnants of his body replaced by mechanical parts, and recognizing he could never go back to the life he once had, would want to try to kill himself, and then be further agonized to find out that the programming of the mechanical parts of his body would not allow him to do so! The series thus present another hybrid — sci-fi futuristic fantasy with psychological melodrama.
Ryker is much more difficult for me to suss. Thus far, seems too much of a standard villain with no noticeable redeeming qualities. Warwolf struck me as a bit like an unleashed rabid dog, albeit one Luther was mis-led to believe had been his best friend and was therefore loathe to use lethal force on — at least until Ryker informed him that his old buddy had died Not sure what the rational behind that revelation was but Ryker appears to enjoy playing mind games with people.
A very intriguing series, Alan, and glad you kept up with it 50 years ago to bring up for discussion in what then seemed an incredibly distant future! But here we are.
Yes Ryker’s definitely in the “write a dog into this series and I’ll kick it!” category of black hats. Which explains the reveal — sheer gloating.
This is one of those books where my memories far exceed the reality of the book itself. The art was fine. Not earth-shattering, but a solid journeyman performance by someone at the beginning of his career. The story? I can easily believe Moench didn’t write this because on his worst day, he could do better than this with both hands tied behind his back. The plot of the story is solid, but the execution of the script itself is clunky and hard to follow. To answer your questions about when Deathlok was able to work that murder for hire into the framework of his first three issues Alan, we have to look at the time it took for Luther to track down Mike at Ryker’s secret base. From the way the story is told on the page, the length of time involved was fairly short; they land the helicopter, Mike is kidnapped, Deathlok gets detoured to the meat-packing plant and from there makes his way to the Statue of Liberty, all of which could have been done in a day, probably four or five hours, even. You know what couldn’t have been done in four or five hours? The amount of work it would have taken to transform poor Mike into War Wolf. I know, I know, Ryker tells us in a villain monologue that War Wolf wasn’t really Mike at all, but Deathlok is supposed to believe it was, which means it’s been weeks, if not months, since Ryker kidnapped Mike from that helipad. This gives Deathlok more than enough time for his “murder-for-hire” adventure, but if that much unaccounted-for time has taken place, then it’s the author’s responsibility to let us know that, so we can more easily understand his story. I know, I’m nitpicking. Funny, that’s what people say when I discuss the same issues in the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. Still, a story has to make sense and follow the rules of logic and world-building established by the creator (and by the comic book company who hired him), and this story doesn’t fully do that.
Are Luther and his wife the first example of a mixed-race couple in a Marvel book? I have no idea, but it’s an interesting historical note if it is. The whole scene with Janice/Janis was predictable as hell from the first panel, and the reveal of Luther’s never-before mentioned son was fully expected and another example of Buckler’s sloppy writing.
I won’t say anything too specific about that lettering job, except to say I can understand why Desmond Jones wasn’t invited back.
Thanks for the rundown, Alan. I’d love to say this book was a pleasure to re-visit, but in this case maybe the past should have stayed in the past.
That’s a very good point about the implausibility of how quickly Mike is (supposedly) remade into War-Wolf. I wonder if the plot originally did build in a longer period of time between Mike’s capture and Deathlok’s rescue attempt, but that detail got lost by the time Moench was scripting the thing.
Seems like one of those hardly uncommon instances among writers who haven’t quite perfected their craft of wanting to get from point A to point H in their story but are in such a rush to do so that they neglect to think about, nevermind adequately explain, how the characters got there. Sometimes it’s pretty glaring, although if I’m otherwise taken in enough by the story itself I can gloss over the nonsensical parts or roll my eyes and keep on going. Like in the first All New, All Different X-Men story in the regular title, where they’re flying off to confront Count Nefaria and their plane is blasted out of existence but they’re magically unhurt but falling from a great distance in the sky and being able to talk to each other without any problems. Reading that about 49 years ago, the absurdity of those aspects escaped me but now they tend to stand out much more. From the dialogue in this story it’s hard to make out what the true origin of Warwolf was – well aside from Buckler thinking it was a cool idea for a new baddie to sic on Deathlok. Ryker seemed to contradict himself several times, perhaps intentionally reinforcing his thorough untrustworthiness. Or maybe Buckler just hadn’t given much deep thought to various aspects of his story. But there were enough other interesting elements that it didn’t bug me too much.
I feel that Klaus Janson would have been a better inker for this series
Janson inked the cover of Deathlok’s first appearance in Astonishing Tales #25, and also helped out some (uncredited) on the interiors. He’d return to the feature to ink AT #31, then #33-35.
I have recently been rereading the Luthor Manning / Deathlok arc before reading the new installment that was just released for its 50th anniversary. I remember well when Astonishing Tales 25 first came out. I was 14 and had never seen anything like it. For me, Deathlok was a highlight for that time period, with the first issue having a cinematic quality that was not quite sustained in subsequent issues. Klaus Jansen’s inking in some of the issues was super, hinting at his later excellent work with Frank Miller on Daredevil. Sadly, rereading the Deathlok series now, I see flaws in the writing that I did not think about at the time. The central role played by Ryker / Deathlok / Hellinger for the *entire world* of the time seems kind of forced. But when the Deathlok series was first published, I thought it was great, and I eagerly awaited each issue.Thanks for writing this super blog. I’m glad I’m not the only one looking back at these 50 year old comic books!
I remember assuming Deathlok was black because his dead face looked non-white. Interesting to discover I was wrong.
But then, as Deathlok, he was zombie deadman gray! While on the road 20 years, ago, stopped at a hotel in Tennessee, I was flipping through the channels on tv and came across a program with doctors doing some sort of procedure on someone whose flesh was entirely gray — took me a few minutes to realize I wasn’t watching some sort of drama but an actual televised autopsy.
After writing a long, research filled post and having WordPress tell me I was logged in, then when posting the comment saying I was no longer logged in, and upon checking being told I was indeed logged in, I’m done posting her, much as I’ve enjoyed the blog and all of you guys, particular Alan. But I’ve had so many bug and design problems with trying to post her I just can’t stand it any more. Best wishes, John PS – After closing and logging in, again, when I attempted to post this the site told me to log in. Fuck this nonsense
WP does this to me occasionally. I would recommend a fix if I had one but the solution seems random (log in twice! Log out, then log in! Etc.).
Thanks but I’m just too weary of this to try and deal with it any more. I can’t tolerate garbage design
I’m very sorry, John, and I wish I had some idea how to fix this — but to echo frasersherman, the causes as well as the workarounds seem to be completely random. I check the comments spam folder at least once a day (more often when there’s been a new post) and was hoping your original long comment might have lodged there, but no luck. Anyway, many thanks for trying, and for your past contributions. We’ll miss you around here.
Thanks Alan – hate to go but this just pisses me off so regularly I just had to do myself a favour and not deal with it anymore.Best wishes to you all
I have similar issues, John. Even though the welcome banner across the top of the page welcomes me to the blog and verifies that I’m signed in, I’m still asked to sign in after writing my post. I’ve just found that when it asks for my email address again to just give it, and usually my message posts just fine. Sometimes, I’m asked to log in again (ridiculous, I know) and I’m almost always asked to re-subscribe, and then asked to confirm my email address (I re-sub, but have stopped confirming. It doesn’t help). Good luck, man. If you decide to stick it out, know that you are not alone. PS: Looking below the “reply box,” I already see that Wp is asking me to please provide my email…again. SIGH
…and, indeed, Don’s comment originally went into the “Spam” folder. Again, no idea why. I know this is a general WordPress problem, based on my own experience on other blogs. They must be aware of it… I’d like to think that they’re working on a fix, but who knows.
I haven’t had that problem here but it happens to me every so often on Tom Brevoort’s blog.
Same here… and usually after I’ve “liked” the post already, so why should I need to log in again to comment?
Update — I’ve posted a query about the problem to the WP.com Support forum. Everyone please cross your fingers. 🙂
I liked this book but stopped reading it after this issue, I forget why . . . .