Death's Head - Freelance Peacekeeping Agent
Created | Updated Jun 19, 2003
The character
In the late 1980's, when British comics enjoyed something of a boom period, numerous new characters were introduced, but none so compelling as Death's Head.
DH is a time-travelling robotic bounty hunter, with a keen eye for business. Indeed, his main personality trait (according to himself) is that he cares only for the business end of things, and derives no enjoyment from his job. He even claims that he is not a bounty hunter at all, but rather a "freelance peace-keeping agent", finding the idea of being a bounty hunter somewhat seedy. He maintains an aloof and emotionally unattached outlook, although this is challenged by certain unruly "customers". DH has commented that his main rival, Big Shot, is such an annoying hindrance that he might just enjoy disposing of him. DH also has something of a soft spot for his sidekick Spratt, although he'd never admit it.
Death's Head's origins are shrouded in mystery. He always believed that he was built as a millionaire's plaything, but in one extraordinary adventure, DH encountered what appeared to be his parents. An extra-dimensional hunter called Lupex, whose powerful life essence continuously consumed his host body, built a robotic shell in order to permanently contain his energies. His wife, a sorceress called Pyra, became disgusted by Lupex's bodyswapping, and took a lover. Finding out, Lupex took over the body of Pyra's lover. In retaliation, Pyra created a personality for Lupex's robot shell, and let it loose. It became Death's Head. As neat as this appears to be, there are still unanswered questions about Death's Head's past.
Death's Head made his first comic appearance in the UK version of the Transformers comic, hired by the Autobots to find and subdue Galvatron, the maniacal Decepticon leader who went missing after Transformers: The Movie. He had a number of adventures in that comic, switching sides more than once, before playing a decisive role in defeating the evil Transformer "god" Unicron.
He was then flung into the Marvel Universe timestream, where he popped up occasionally in other comics in both the US and the UK. The first place he ended up was in the Doctor Who Magazine, where he encountered the Sylvester McCoy Doctor. The Doctor shrunk him down to human size (he was previously the size of the Transformers, which doesn't quite fit in with his origin, as Lupex is also human-sized) and put him back into the time stream. He turned up in the year 8162, where he was destroyed by the athlete/mercenary team Dragon's Claws. He was then rebuilt by the street urchin Spratt, who became his sidekick (much to DH's chagrin, but DH figured he owed Spratt something for the work, and having him around was cheaper than paying him). More adventures followed, including numerous meetings with the Fantastic Four who became uneasy allies with the robotic hunter.
Death's Head eventually encountered a robotic weapon called Minion, which had the ability to absorb the personality traits of its downed enemies. It apparently killed Death's Head, but in fact DH downloaded his entire personality into Minion, and with the help of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four overwrote Minion's own personality. Minion became Death's Head II, and proceeded to have similar time-hopping adventures around the Marvel Universe. As far as I am aware, he is still active today, although his last appearances were in the dimension-spanning Avengers Forever.
The comics
Death's Head is undoubtedly Marvel UK's most successful and well-loved character. Only the main stars of 2000ad, Dan Dare, and possibly Marshall Law could claim to be more popular British characters.
Death's Head II came about because the original series wasn't selling well enough in the US. However, it does seem to be the least favoured of the bounty hunter's incarnations, having none of the mannerisms and personality traits that made DH such fun to read about. It is notable that the original creators of Death's Head (Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch, Geoff Senior) had nothing to do with this series. Death's Head was such a popular and likable character that the revamp was perhaps doomed to failure, and many fans still hope for Furman to retcon DHII into oblivion and bring back the original. The recent release of graphic novels containing DH's appearances in the UK Transformers comics may spur this on.
Where are they now?
Simon Furman is currently writing for TV, contributing scripts for Dan Dare and X-Men: Evolution. He has not written for comics in a long time, but has recently launched his own webcomic, The Engine. He has also contributed to Dreamwave Production's resurrection of the Transformers franchise by writing Transformers: Armada and Transformers: The War Within for them. He also is writing Necrowar, a non-Transformers related comic, for them.
Geoff Senior, the purveyor of great "jagged" art, has more or less left comics. He does the occasional piece for Transformers conventions, and has recently provided covers to the Titan Books collections of the UK Transformers comic. He now works in advertising, producing storyboards, and his comics presence is much missed.
Bryan Hitch has done pretty well for himself, after landing some of the most high-profile gigs in US comics. He drew the first twelve issues of groundbreaking superhero series The Authority for Wildstorm, and is currently making Marvel's The Ultimates look absolutely spiffing. His art has eveolved a great deal from the Marvel UK days, so it'd be fascinating to see how he'd do Death's Head now.
In the late 1980's, when British comics enjoyed something of a boom period, numerous new characters were introduced, but none so compelling as Death's Head.
DH is a time-travelling robotic bounty hunter, with a keen eye for business. Indeed, his main personality trait (according to himself) is that he cares only for the business end of things, and derives no enjoyment from his job. He even claims that he is not a bounty hunter at all, but rather a "freelance peace-keeping agent", finding the idea of being a bounty hunter somewhat seedy. He maintains an aloof and emotionally unattached outlook, although this is challenged by certain unruly "customers". DH has commented that his main rival, Big Shot, is such an annoying hindrance that he might just enjoy disposing of him. DH also has something of a soft spot for his sidekick Spratt, although he'd never admit it.
Death's Head's origins are shrouded in mystery. He always believed that he was built as a millionaire's plaything, but in one extraordinary adventure, DH encountered what appeared to be his parents. An extra-dimensional hunter called Lupex, whose powerful life essence continuously consumed his host body, built a robotic shell in order to permanently contain his energies. His wife, a sorceress called Pyra, became disgusted by Lupex's bodyswapping, and took a lover. Finding out, Lupex took over the body of Pyra's lover. In retaliation, Pyra created a personality for Lupex's robot shell, and let it loose. It became Death's Head. As neat as this appears to be, there are still unanswered questions about Death's Head's past.
Death's Head made his first comic appearance in the UK version of the Transformers comic, hired by the Autobots to find and subdue Galvatron, the maniacal Decepticon leader who went missing after Transformers: The Movie. He had a number of adventures in that comic, switching sides more than once, before playing a decisive role in defeating the evil Transformer "god" Unicron.
He was then flung into the Marvel Universe timestream, where he popped up occasionally in other comics in both the US and the UK. The first place he ended up was in the Doctor Who Magazine, where he encountered the Sylvester McCoy Doctor. The Doctor shrunk him down to human size (he was previously the size of the Transformers, which doesn't quite fit in with his origin, as Lupex is also human-sized) and put him back into the time stream. He turned up in the year 8162, where he was destroyed by the athlete/mercenary team Dragon's Claws. He was then rebuilt by the street urchin Spratt, who became his sidekick (much to DH's chagrin, but DH figured he owed Spratt something for the work, and having him around was cheaper than paying him). More adventures followed, including numerous meetings with the Fantastic Four who became uneasy allies with the robotic hunter.
Death's Head eventually encountered a robotic weapon called Minion, which had the ability to absorb the personality traits of its downed enemies. It apparently killed Death's Head, but in fact DH downloaded his entire personality into Minion, and with the help of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four overwrote Minion's own personality. Minion became Death's Head II, and proceeded to have similar time-hopping adventures around the Marvel Universe. As far as I am aware, he is still active today, although his last appearances were in the dimension-spanning Avengers Forever.
The comics
Death's Head is undoubtedly Marvel UK's most successful and well-loved character. Only the main stars of 2000ad, Dan Dare, and possibly Marshall Law could claim to be more popular British characters.
Death's Head II came about because the original series wasn't selling well enough in the US. However, it does seem to be the least favoured of the bounty hunter's incarnations, having none of the mannerisms and personality traits that made DH such fun to read about. It is notable that the original creators of Death's Head (Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch, Geoff Senior) had nothing to do with this series. Death's Head was such a popular and likable character that the revamp was perhaps doomed to failure, and many fans still hope for Furman to retcon DHII into oblivion and bring back the original. The recent release of graphic novels containing DH's appearances in the UK Transformers comics may spur this on.
Where are they now?
Simon Furman is currently writing for TV, contributing scripts for Dan Dare and X-Men: Evolution. He has not written for comics in a long time, but has recently launched his own webcomic, The Engine. He has also contributed to Dreamwave Production's resurrection of the Transformers franchise by writing Transformers: Armada and Transformers: The War Within for them. He also is writing Necrowar, a non-Transformers related comic, for them.
Geoff Senior, the purveyor of great "jagged" art, has more or less left comics. He does the occasional piece for Transformers conventions, and has recently provided covers to the Titan Books collections of the UK Transformers comic. He now works in advertising, producing storyboards, and his comics presence is much missed.
Bryan Hitch has done pretty well for himself, after landing some of the most high-profile gigs in US comics. He drew the first twelve issues of groundbreaking superhero series The Authority for Wildstorm, and is currently making Marvel's The Ultimates look absolutely spiffing. His art has eveolved a great deal from the Marvel UK days, so it'd be fascinating to see how he'd do Death's Head now.
