Deathlok (1990) 2

Deathlok (1990) 2
Aug 1990

Jesus Saves
By Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright, Jackson Guice, Scott Williams

Deathlok stops a mugging in process. Jesus, the would-be victim, is grateful. He’s a designer of props for an amusement park on Coney Island. He offers his rescuer, whom he dubs Mike, a place to stay.

Nick Fury contacts Burr, an executive at Roxxon. He suspects that the company is up to no good but lacks evidence. Burr has a chat with Ryker after his conversation with Fury is over. Burr wants the problems with Deathlok solved immediately. Ryker puts Wajler, an outside contractor on the job. Ryker goes to visit Tracy, Michael’s wife. He tells her that her husband is in a coma still. He also warns her that Deathlok, a robot that thinks it is Michael, might contact her. Her son overhears the conversation.

Mike has nightmares about the mission in Estrella. He decides he needs to do something about it. He connects to Roxxon’s network but the information he’s looking for isn’t stored there. He contacts Jim Dworman, the one person he feels he can trust at Roxxon. They meet at Coney Island. Deathlok explains what he needs.

Dworman goes back to the office. He doesn’t realize that he is being watched as he breaks in and retrieves the information. He sends it to Deathlok. Wajler locates Deathlok thanks to Dworman.

The second half of the book is an all out battle between Wajler and Deathlok. Wajler, who also goes by the code name of Mainframe, fights the Cyborg by proxy. He sends in human troops in battle armor and helicopters. Both kinds are armed to the teeth. When Mainframe isn’t getting the results he desires he takes over the battle suits and forces his men to fight the way he wants them to. He does the same with the helicopters.

A number of civilians, including Jesus, get caught and almost killed in the crossfire. The fight ends when Ryker orders Mainframe to withdraw because his forces are too indiscriminate. Mainframe sticks around and gets arrested by the police. Deathlok heads to Estrella in one of the copters that was used against him.

Not great. I can appreciate the larger picture but the details are a little too rushed for my taste. That includes the character moments. In general the characters seem s little too much like types, very two dimensional. I’m planning to read the rest of the story but I doubt that I will be any more impressed by it than I have been up to this point.