So, some of you may be asking, “Who the heck is Death’s Head?” Other, slightly more informed, asking “Why does he have a family tree, as Digi calls it?”
This is to answer those questions and more.
…
Death’s Head is a Marvel UK character. But he spawned a series of successions, and the incarnations of the Death’s Head family, as well as the history itself, is complicated. They time-jump constantly, re-write timelines, etc. This thread will be roughly in chronological order, and will detail the storylines as much as the feats and scans.
The thread will be organized as follows:
I. Death’s Head
II. Death’s Head II
III. Death Wreck
IV. Death Metal
V. Death’s Head 3.0
VI. Other Information (Bios and Info on related characters, timelines, etc.)
All scans are organized in (rough) chronological order.
The first 2 have (by far) the most appearances and feats, and they’re my favorites of the bunch.
The timeline changes, alternate histories, and various incarnations make all of this nearly impossible to fully understand. The characters all have convoluted histories. But I’ve done as good a job as possible piecing together the various aspects of it to make it understandable. For those interested just in feats, they’re here. For those who want more info, the various descriptions and bios will provide sufficient reading.
Origin This back story is told years later via a computer that had recorded Death’s Head’s entire life. DHII is watching it to learn about the original.
Death’s Head Feats & Battles: I try to go roughly in chronological order for each character. I will display the feats, but will often supplement the battle or scan with information on the story. These are primarily from his solo series and various other appearances.
Transformers, yes?
Let’s start with some of Death’s Head’s Transformers appearances. I have no idea if this would be considered Marvel canon or not, but he has essentially the same power set and skills as he does in the Marvel universe, only he’s enlarged to be the same size as the Transformers.
I’d like to give credit for these to the person who made the respect thread on the Hero Chat forums. http://herochat.com/phpBB2/viewtopi...asc&start=0
The Marvel stuff is all mine, but I borrowed these Transformers fights from that thread.
Basically, it’s a lot of Death’s Head whupping the hell out of Transformers. They’re afraid of him. Keep in mind, he was enlarged to Transformer-size for these fights. He got shrunk down before making the switch to Marvel.
Solo Series:
Following Dragon’s Claws, Death’s Head got his own series. It lasted about 12 issues, and he had plenty of cameos in other comics as well. He starts in the year 8162, and eventually ends up stranded in the early 90’s where he meets the Fantastic Four. Reed agrees to send him back to 8162, but tries to abort the time travel process when he learns that DH is a bounty hunter who kills people. The time jump is only partially successful, and it sends DH to the year 2020, where he would remain until his death at the hands of Death’s Head II (Minion).
Later in the same issue, he has what is probably his most impressive strength feat ever. The first panel is a speed/skill feat dodging multiple lasers, then he picks up a tank (at an end, not in the middle for more leverage) and effortlessly chucks it at a dude. This feat would need probably circa Class 25 strength to pull off in the manner he does. Beyond that, it’s mostly just speculation, but considering some of the people he fights (later on) I think that Class 25 would be a low-end estimate for him. http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=67ly3.jpg http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=68sy7.jpg http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=69gl6.jpg
Death’s Head: Body In Question
I don’t really know when this arc takes place, but it was sometime after his coming to 2020. It involves DH’s “parents” and their hunt for DH (who has since become entirely independent, stripping him of his original purpose).
Incomplete Death’s Head #12
Backstory:
The “Incomplete Death’s Head” series takes place years after the original DH has died. Death’s Head II (Minion) stumbles onto a data archives with the memories of the original DH and is going through it. Meanwhile another story is taking place that he (Minion) is oblivious to, putting his partner Tuck in danger.
Long story short, a time paradox (that would take way too long to explain) brings the original DH back for real in the final issue. Both Death’s Heads fight alongside one another against a mechanical beasty intent on DH’s death.
This was intended as a “sending off” party for DH, since his death came suddenly and left fans with very little closure for the character.
Shrugs off a blast from a guy named Lightmaster. Earlier, one of his blasts had knocked She-Hulk off her feet and several feet back. It’s been pointed out that the She-Hulk blast was with 2 hands, not 1. But still, it’s probably reasonable to assume his durability is at least on par with She-Hulk, possibly greater. http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?...blast1feem2.jpg
To do this, DHII was programmed to assimilate the “instincts” (skills, mannerisms, memories, etc.) of 106 of the deadliest people in the galaxy throughout time (AIM could time-jump). Among the people he assimilated were the original Death’s Head and the entire information cache of Reed Richards’ computer (616 universe, circa 1992). Thus, he has the combined combat skill of countless warriors, as well as Reed’s scientific knowledge and many others.
The personality of the original Death’s Head became the dominant personality when he was assimilated (due to his cyborg nature), thus the name “Death’s Head II”. Not all of the original’s personality traits survived, but the guiding instincts and thoughts are those of the original DH.
This is a personnel file on “The Minion Project” at A.I.M. It’s handy because it offers a quick description of the majority of DHII’s powers and abilities. http://img69.imageshack.us/my.php?image=00ja5.jpg
This is a (rather anti-climactic) fight between the two cyborgs, ending with a Minion victory. He then assimilates the original DH. Shortly after, Death’s Head would become the dominant personality in Minion due to his cyborg nature.
Backstory:
Much later into Death’s Head II’s solo series, he time travels back to the A.I.M. building where he was created. He’s trying to find out which human corpse was used to make him (i.e. the person he originally was).
Limited Series #2
Story:
He makes a time travel trip to 616, circa 1992 in an attempt to assimilate Reed Richards. He ends up downloading Reed’s computer database instead for his scientific knowledge, and Reed helps Death’s Head gain control of the Minion cyborg.
Limited Series #4
Story:
Various groups of heroes (Death’s Head included) gather to fight Charnel.
But first, a mix-up good guy fight. Here Wolverine breaks a claw on Death’s Head’s body.
Yeah. Suck it Wolverine fans.
Actually, this was an alternate universe Wolverine, so it may not have been full-strength adamantium, and it’s likely Charnel’s magics weakened it as well.
Still, fun stuff, and it shows us that his molybdenum arm isn’t much less durable than adamantium, and probably considerably stronger than, say, titanium: http://img249.imageshack.us/my.php?image=41mh1.jpg
This is both a good and bad feat. He’s fighting 616 Wolverine. Bad: Logan cuts his hand-weapon clean off. Good: he regrows it completely in about 4 panels. Keep in mind, his arm is made of a different substance than his body (liquid molybdenum) so it’s doubtful he could replicate this feat for his entire body. http://img264.imageshack.us/my.php?image=b1xo9.jpg http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=b2pi2.jpg
He’s basically immune to telepathy because of having 106 personalities within him. Here he shrugs off a psi-spike in the brain from Psylocke, saying toothpicks would hurt more. http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=b3zd5.jpg
Issue #3
DH’s arm can morph into a few different forms (laser cannon, cranial siphon, a blade configuration that is particularly sharp, etc.). Here he uses a variation off of the blade configuration and makes himself 2 blade-hands. It’s a total of about 8 claws on one hand. Cool stuff. http://img366.imageshack.us/my.php?image=c1ns0.jpg
Issue #5
Issue #4 was only skipped due to lack of worthwhile feats and storyline.
This feat is particularly sweet. He’s fighting an alien from the future with very advanced tech. His armor blocks DH’s attacks completely, and gives him superior strength/speed. But after about 2 pages of dialogue between the two (couldn’t be more than a minute or two) Death’s Head’s systems had analyzed the armors specs entirely. He alters his attacking frequency and bypasses the shields.
Please note, many of these limited issue runs take place (chronologically) during DH’s solo series. However, rather than attempt to place them each (and fail) I figured it would be easier to have them after the solo series stuff.
Regardless, these special appearances are again in roughly chronological order. I’ll give back story as needed.
Battle Tide I
Backstory:
The Battle Tide is a sentient entity that travels the cosmos looking for worlds to wreck. It is the embodiment of hate and evil, and thrives on violence and chaos. Death’s Head gets embroiled in a conflict to stop the Battle Tide, partnered with a lovable loser named Killpower.
Killpower:
There’s a few feats I include of him, but basically he’s a child in a man’s body. And that body happens to be roughly Hercules-level (mortal Herc) in strength and durability. He also has a “conceptual” knowledge of technology. He inherently has knowledge of whatever tech he works with. Basically a plot device, but kinda funny.
Death’s Head decides to channel the Battle Tide into himself, an immense feat by any standard. I have no idea how good a feat this is, because Killpower hooked up some special tech to DH to help him…but it was apparently something none of the others could do.
Backstory:
Die Cut is a personality inside Death’s Head that DH has to release into his original body because he needs Die Cut’s help. They end up fighting because Die Cut hates him, but they have to work together to survive. Basically, the series was an excuse to introduce a new character to Marvel UK. But some decent feats.
Backstory:
Cool story, low on feats. DH and some company from 616 join together to take out Mys-Tech, a cosmic organization that messes with entire timelines, and wants to replace 616 Earth with one of their own choosing so that they can control it.
Battle Tide II
I put Mys-Tech Wars between the two Battle Tide arcs to avoid confusion between them.
Backstory:
In the original Battle Tide (and the explosion at the end), one of DH’s personalities (Bezial) escapes and enters the Battle Tide. In this arc, he has taken control of Termegaira (the controlling host body of the Battle Tide) and the entire Tide.
Backstory: Chronologically, I think this is the most recent appearance of Death’s Head II (except for a cameo appearance in 1999’s “Avengers Forever”). It takes place some time after his solo series. At the beginning he is stranded on a planet with quite a bit of damage and a fading energy supply due to some tampering with his systems. Eventually, he gets re-powered, and begins to fight the leader of a world-destroying armada who has many duplicates of himself all linked via telepathy. It’s a semi-retcon of earlier DH material, as he finds out that many of his earlier villains are linked to this main bad guy’s schemes.
There was only one issue (it was long though…about 50 pages). The series, and DHII, was then cancelled.
Possibly his best strength feat ever! They had just crashed a spaceship into the bad guy’s mothership. DH then lifts the freaking ship and tosses it on some henchmen. Judging just by the sheer size of the thing, and it’s metal composition, this easily puts him in the 100-Ton range. http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gold4yy9.jpg
The Incomplete Death’s Head
Backstory:
Same feat as the original Death’s Head.
The “Incomplete Death’s Head” series takes place years after the original DH has died. Death’s Head II (Minion) stumbles onto a data archives with the memories of the original DH and is going through it. Meanwhile another story is taking place that he (Minion) is oblivious to, putting his partner Tuck in danger.
Long story short, a time paradox (that would take way too long to explain) brings the original DH back for real in the final issue. Both Death’s Heads fight alongside one another against a mechanical beasty intent on DH’s death.
Bio:http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/deathwre.htm Picture:http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/deathwre1.jpg Origin & Description: Death Wreck is, in short, a prototype for Death’s Head II (Minion). He was created shortly before Minion, though we don’t find that out until well into Minion’s run. He’s easily the least powerful of this bunch (the original DH included, by my estimation) but is the sort of lumbering dude that makes for humorous destruction.
I include him only for the sake of being thorough. He had a 4-issue solo series, but no real feats to speak of. Mostly failed attempts at humor and explosions. The lone fight is from the “Death3” story arc, where DHII, Death Wreck, and Death Metal all join together to kill Charnel.
Related Bios:
Earth 9939 (i.e. Earth Charnel) - http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/earthcharnel.htm
This gets confusing, so my apologies…it’s important to note that this Earth “never existed”. When DHII defeated Charnel in 1992 (the fight is partially shown in the DHII section) it sent a “temporal distortion wave” that was sent forward to erase the timeline in which Charnel ruled. The events of the “Death3” story arc are from that timeline, but the time wave hasn’t caught up to it yet….Charnel is seeking to travel back and re-establish himself before he was defeated.
So, what does this mean?
1. The few scans I show of DW are in a universe that is subsequently erased from the timestream.
2. DW himself, however, is from the 2020 universe, and thus survives the time wave (along with the rest of the family).
3. The bio tries to explain it too. And there’s some bits on Charnel in the DHII section (and a few more in the next section on Death Metal). Between all of it, hopefully this makes sense. If not, meh.
Dr. Evelyn Necker, experimenting again after failing to keep DHII in check, time traveled to Earth 9939 (Earth Charnel). She encountered some android warriors made from “living promethium”, the same enchanted metal that Charnel himself used as part of his natural armor. She took one, brought it back to 2020, and created Death Metal out of it. Death Metal remained loyal to Charnel until a Penance Stare from the Ghost Rider of Earth 9939 turned him good, after which he fought between his guilt over his sins and his inherently destructive programming.
Death Metal is clearly more powerful than his predecessors. Only Death’s Head 3.0 may rival him.
The rematch. GR uses his Penance Stare and makes DM feel remorse for all of his sins. DM is an entirely metal being, but because of its mystical nature, it’s said to be sentient. So I’m not sure if this is a “Penance Stare works on machines” feat for GR or not. http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=32ah6.jpg
This is a sweet scan that shows us just how much Death Metal can do simultaneously. He is frying one alien-thing with some sort of energy vision, stabbing another, choking another, and has two laser cannons growing out of his shoulders. All at the same time. http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=41mr9.jpg
Backstory:
The following is an extended fight with Alpha Flight. It’s important to note that, because of the Penance Stare, DM feels sorry for his sins. He wants to die, and tries to hold back so that Alpha Flight can destroy him. But despite this, he still wins handily.
The fight is actually from 2 different comics. The part vs. Box is from another comic, but it’s the same fight. When put together, it’s one seamless battle.
In this fight he displays a considerable amount of raw power (strength, energy, etc.) healing, and the fight with Box shows that any amount of metal manip. isn’t really enough to kill him unless he is disintegrated or somesuch. The mystical nature of his body protects him.
DH3.0 is an advanced mechanoid body powered by a replica of the Uni-Power. Yeah, that’s right. The Uni-Power. AIM studied the Uni-Power and gathered specs on it (more on this later, since it ties in with the 616 universe some) and created a replica of it. The replica created by AIM isn’t as powerful as the original, but it’s more than enough to provide an insanely impressive power source for the body.
The character revolves around the “imprisonment” of the inherently good Uni-Power, and its attempts to override its destructive and vindictive “body”. We don’t have a definite power level for it, but from what I’ve seen it’s probably the most powerful of the bunch except perhaps for Death Metal.
So far, he’s only had a 6-issue run in Amazing Fantasy. But there are plans for more (see attached interview with Simon Furman in the next post).
His power level is undetermined. He hasn’t displayed a ton of versatility beyond being really, really durable and strong. But his durability alone is greater than any other character here (though we’re not sure about healing) and until we see more of him it will be hard to get a full account of his limits.
Backstory:
This is from the limited (5 issue?) run on the Uni-Power recently. In it, the Uni-Power is not functioning properly, and enlists the aid of Hulk, Daredevil, X-23, Sue Richards, Gladiator, and Silver Surfer to figure the situation out and return to normal.
I include this briefly because I believe that it’s the link between the A.I.M. corporation, the Uni-Power, and Death’s Head 3.0. The scan I post is simply X-23 destroying a computer that was uploading information gathered on the Uni-Power. We learn later that it’s the AIM corporation that was uploading this information. Apparently, X-23 ends the threat, but not before it gains some information.
Add this to the fact that AIM created a rough duplicate of the Uni-Power to act as a power source for DH3.0 and I think you see the connection.
Where it gets tricky is realizing that this takes place in 616, but (presumably) DH3.0 is in the 2020 universe. But AIM time travels like Wolverine says “Bub” so it’s not really without a plausible explanation. http://img111.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uni1xj0.jpg
Chronology Tree (earliest to most recent):
Death’s Head I
Death Wreck
Death’s Head II
Death Metal
Death’s Head 3.0
…this is “in-continuity birth date”, rather than appearance date, since DHII’s first comic appearance predates Death Wreck in the real world. But Death Wreck was created prior to DHII in the comics.
Power Levels (weakest to most powerful):
Death Wreck
Death’s Head I
Death’s Head II
Death Metal
…by feats alone, Death Metal has it easily, and even DHII has more impressive feats than DH 3.0. But depending on the % of the Uni-Power’s total power that 3.0 has harnessed within him, he may have more potential than any of them.
Bonus Fight
This is a fun battle from a “What If?” comic (What If…? # 54). In this scenario, the original Death’s Head lives and Minion ends up becoming Charnel. The fight is between the two. And considering how powerful Minion is to begin with, and also how powerful Charnel is, it’s a great feat for Death’s Head (though not in continuity).
He only wins via plot device (Minion had assimilated 616 Reed Richards, and DH uses that to his advantage) but it’s still an amusing fight.
I actually think I have every (or nearly every) appearance of all of these people. I did my homework and spent a few months amassing everything so I’d be sure I wasn’t leaving anything out. There’s 1 or 2 issues here and there I couldn’t get my hands on, but in general this should be a fully comprehensive thread on everything having to do with the Death’s Head family tree.
You mean the time-and-dimension-hopping Doctor that shrinks Death's Head I down to size after his origin in Transformers?
IIRC, those scans are from "The Incomplete Death's Head" Issue #1, when it retells much of DH's story (even copying whole pages from his original series). I had never heard of The Doctor until I saw him there, and I honestly don't know where he and Death's Head had a history together (unless DH is just pissed that he brought him there). It's been a while since I read it, so I'd have to look it up from my collection to confirm the details. The whole explanation is a bit screwy, and I never wrapped my head fully around it, especially the weird meta-story taking place with Death's Head II at the same time as he watches the videos of DHI's history.
But I bought it as part of a collection on Ebay. If you're interested I can dig it up and send you along anything of note.
KMC Community Forums
Aug 19th, 2007 06:03 PM
