Death's Head (comics): Difference between revisions
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In 1988, at the behest of editor [[Richard Starkings]], Marvel UK made a play for the American market. At the time, British comics were produced weekly, as anthology titles (hence the Transformers sharing their magazine with... well, everybody else on this wiki), and in a physically larger size than American format comics, which were monthly affairs focussing on a single character. Marvel UK planned to make its own American-style books, so that they could sit alongside the exotic imported U.S. comics in speciality shops... and, across the pond, share shelf space with the standard monthly periodicals on new comic book day rather than be sequestered in some other section. Death's Head was again singled out for his potential, but first he had to be divorced from his roots in a licensed series. From a fictional perspective, Death's Head left ''The Transformers'' diving through an exploding time portal in "The Legacy of Unicron!", before colliding with the [[TARDIS]] in the ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' story {{Tardis|The_Crossroads_of_Time_(comic_story)|"The Crossroads of Time",}} a misadventure that saw him reduced to human size by [[the Doctor]] and dropped off on Earth in the year 8162. Out of universe, Marvel published the ''Death's Head'' solo tale "[[High Noon Tex]]" in a surprisingly successful blag to claim legal ownership of the character. This all paved the way for Death's Head to put a guest appearance in Marvel UK's first U.S. format book, Furman and Senior's own {{Marvel|Dragon's_Claws_Vol_1|''Dragon's Claws''.}} {{Marvel|Death's_Head_Vol_1|Death's Head's own solo book}} was next to roll out, followed by other attempts to break America in the form of {{Marvel|Sleeze_Brothers_Vol_1|''The Sleeze Brothers''}} and {{Marvel|Knights_of_Pendragon_Vol_1|''Knights of Pendragon''.}} (Though not typically named alongside these titles, Marvel UK's {{Joe|Action_Force_Monthly|''Action Force Monthly''}} was also printed in the American format, and sold in the U.S. as ''[[Action Force (comic)|G.I. Joe: European Missions]]''.) If there was any doubt that Death's Head sold books, he was the main focus of the cover to anthology title {{Tardis|The_Marvel_Bumper_Comic|''The Marvel Bumper Comic''{{'}}s}} fifth issue, despite the {{Tardis|Meet_Death's_Head_(comic_story)|story within}} being one page with one panel.
Even though ''Death's Head'' received ringing endorsements from Marvel U.S., such as a letter of praise from {{Marvel|Stan_Lee|Stan Lee}}<ref>[https://x.com/SimonFurman3/status/1062264295201914880 Simon Furman posts Stan Lee's letter on
In the 1990s, Marvel UK appointed [[w:Paul Neary|Paul Neary]] as editor-in-chief and, to try and capitalise on the comic book speculator boom, Neary took a second stab at launching U.S. format books: [https://downthetubes.net/british-comics-reference/marvel-uks-genesis-92-looking-back-and-what-might-have-been/ "Genesis '92"]. The first out the door was {{Marvel|Death's_Head_II_Vol_1|''Death's Head II''}} by {{Marvel|Dan_Abnett|Dan Abnett}} and {{Marvel|Liam_Sharp|Liam Sharp,}} a four-issue mini-series telling the tale of how Death's Head was assimilated into
Death's Head II was the poster boy for this whole revamp, which makes the other part of this story quite odd... See, in the UK, several of these new series were serialised in ''[[
To cut a long story short, the adventures of Marvel UK's Death's Head ended when the bottom fell out of the comic book market in the 90s. Marvel UK culled its array of titles, it was bought by [[w:Panini Comics|Panini]], and its creatives found work elsewhere, including Marvel U.S. proper. It would take some time, but with the combined effort of the original creative team and Marvel UK fans, Death's Head would eventually resurface somewhere {{SITENAME}} fears to tread... the mainstream Marvel universe!
In 2005, Marvel readers took part in a poll to determine which character would take centre stage for a spell in the relaunched {{Marvel|Amazing_Fantasy_Vol_2|''Amazing Fantasy''.}} Death's Head smashed the vote with 49%, and one thing led to another and Furman was once again on board to write. This new iteration of the character was called {{Marvel|Death's_Head_3.0_(Earth-6216)|Death's Head 3.0,}} and he was initially relatively unconnected to Death's Heads. In 2009, some guy who grew up reading ''The Transformers'' by the name of {{Marvel|Kieron_Gillen|Kieron Gillen}} reintroduced the original Death's Head in the limited series {{Marvel|S.W.O.R.D._Vol_1|''S.W.O.R.D.'';}} standing at 30 feet tall, Death's Head was implied to be from a point in his timeline before he encountered the Transformers. Gillen also integrated Death's Head into {{Marvel|Iron_Man_Vol_5|his run on ''Iron Man''.}} In 2014, former Marvel UK staffers {{Marvel|Andy_Lanning|Andy Lanning}} and {{Marvel|Alan_Cowsill|Alan Cowsill}} joined forces to pen {{Marvel|Revolutionary_War_(Event)|''Revolutionary War'',}} a loose-end-tying crossover event integrating half a dozen "Genesis '92" books. The {{Marvel|Revolutionary_War:_Death's_Head_II_Vol_1_1|''Death's Head'' issue,}} drawn by some wag you might have heard of called {{TF|Nick_Roche|Nick Roche,}} saw a (human-sized) Death's Head pitted against/fighting alongside Death's Head II in a story that also more concretely brought Death's Head 3.0 into the fold. This laid the groundwork for 2019's {{Marvel|Death's_Head_Vol_2|''Death's Head'' miniseries}} by {{Marvel|Tini_Howard|Tini Howard}} and {{TF|Kei_Zama|Kei Zama,}} the first solo book for DH mark 1 since 1988, in which he teamed up with the {{Marvel|Young_Avengers_(Earth-616)|Young Avengers}} to fight Minion's creator {{Marvel|Evelyn_Necker_(Earth-616)|Dr Necker}} and her new {{Marvel|Death's_Head_VI_(Earth-616)|Death's Head 4.0,}} to liberate the latest model, {{Marvel|Death's_Head_V_(Earth-616)|"Vee".}}
From his inauspicious origin as a one-shot bit character to a cult favourite, the years have proven that you can't keep a good freelance peacekeeping agent down. Because as Gillen says, "if you can't bring back a time-travelling dimension-skipper, who ''can'' you bring back?"
==''Death's Head'' stories in TFUK==
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==''Death's Head'' reading orders==
These reading orders only cover Our Boy Death's Head, as seen in Marvel UK books.
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| scope="col" style="width: 50%;vertical-align:top" |<h3>Publication order</h3>
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