Deathlok (1990) 1

Deathlok (1990) 1
Jul 1990

The Brains of the Outfit
By Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright, Jackson Guice, Scott Williams

Michael Collins, a computer programmer for Cybertek Systems, a division of Roxxon Oil Corporation, discovers that the project he is working on is a weapons system. He goes to Ryker, his boss, to complain. Ryker claims to be surprised even though he knew about the nature of the project.

The weapon system is the Deathlok project. The previous brain that was in the Deathlok body got fried. Presumably that was Luther Manning. Ryker needs a new brain. No one wants to volunteer. Ryker kills Collins when he comes talk to him and has his brain put in the body of Deathlok. The way it is explained the brain is just needed mostly as a memory storage device.

Deathlok is rented out to the dictator of the Federated Republic of Estrella, a small South American country in the Amazon rain forest. Collins wakes up while on this mission. He starts communicating with the computer that runs Deathlok’s body. Collins takes control of the body and manages to disobey some of the orders given to it by Ryker.

The body is shutdown and returned to Cybertek. Collins wakes up once again. He takes control and with some assistance from the computer he breaks free. He tries contacting Tracy and Nick, his wife and son. Ryker told them he was dead or in a coma. They don’t recognize him in the Deathlok body. He considers committing suicide and almost goes through with it.

He decides to try contacting his son one more time. He does it through one of the video games Nick plays. He decides after communicating with Nick that he wants to live. He wants to take a shot at being a hero.

The art does an excellent job of telling the story. It was a bit over scripted. There were lots of moments that should have told exclusively through visuals that also had dialogue which felt a little too heavy handed.

The story felt familiar, part terminator, part robocop, but I enjoyed reading it. I look forward to seeing where it goes next.

Notes

The original Deathlok came from an alternate future. The brain in his body belonged to Luther Manning. Most of the Luther Manning Deathlok adventures were published from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. He first appeared in Astonishing Tales (1970) 25 (Aug 1974). He appeared in all but one of the issues of that series from 25 - 35. Those stories took place on Earth 7484. Luther Manning subsequently showed up in Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, and Marvel Fanfare, and Captain America. I have a couple of those stories but it has been probably been over 15 years since I last read them and I don't recall much about them.

Roxxon Oil Corporation first appeared in Captain America 180 (Dec 1974).