Marvel UK, the British arm of comics publishing giant Marvel Comics, had a burst of furious activity from the mid 80s till the early 90s. Though the company mainly concerned itself with reprints of american Marvel comics, they also hired a few writers and artists to flesh out the reprints, and to make the stories revelant to a British audience. Occasionally these writers and artists were allowed to actually be creative, rather then just adapting the work of others. The most interesting of those creative efforts was the character of Death's Head. He is the only Marvel character to successfully cross the pond in the other direction.

The Character

DH is a time-travellingrobotic 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. To quote a line from Death's Head, 'Some people call me a bounty hunter, but never twice, yes?'

He maintains an aloof and emotionally unattached outlook, although this is challenged by certain unruly "customers". DH once commented that his main rival, Big Shot, was such an annoying hindrance that he might just enjoy disposing of him. DH also had something of a soft spot for his sidekick Spratt, although he'd never admit it.

One of the interesting gimmicks of Death's Head was his detachable right hand. It could, in times of need, be replaced with a blaster, or, for preference, an axe, which he would retrieve from its storage slot on his back. In one story, he walked into a room with his cloak draped around him with his right hand poking through it. When he shot everyone in the room it became evident that the right hand was already detached, and the blaster attachment was in its place, hidden behind the cloak.

The Origin

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, and not a few inconsistances.

The History

From tiny acorns mighty oaks do grow, and so it was with Death's Head. His first comic story was only one page long. Simon Furman and Bryan Hitch were kicking around ideas for a new bounty hunter character, and created the page-long story (Furman writing it,and Hitch drawing) in order to cement these ideas, and to have something to show to others in the company. Clearly, their ideas gained approval, and permission was given to wave DH into other established stories.

Death's Head's first 'continuity' appearance (this time drawn by Geoff Senior) was in the UK version of the Transformers comic. He was 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, being hired by both sides several times, 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 seventh incarnation of the Doctor¹. The Doctor shrunk him down to human size² 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 Claws³. 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 another run-in with Doctor Who, numerous meetings with the Fantastic Four who became uneasy allies with the robotic hunter. It was around this time that DH discovered this true origin, much to his amazement.

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. In this body his right arm was able to 'morph' into various weapon, as opposed to the detachable hand of the previous body.

However, it seems that Death's Head's character was changed by his movement to this new body⁴. He became less of a bounty hunter, and more like the standard Marvel adventurer type. During this time he was partnered by the techno-organic construct Tuck, from the planet Lionheart⁵. He also spawned a couple of short-lived spin-off characters, Death Wreck and Death Metal, whose bodies were both variations on the Minion robotic frame. Unfortunately, DH seems to in hiding at the moment - his last appearances were in the dimension-spanning Avengers Forever mini-series in 2000.

The Legacy

Death's Head is undoubtedly Marvel UK's most successful and well-loved character. Few British comics characters, such as the main stars of 2000AD, Dan Dare, Marshall Law, Tank Girl, Modesty Blaise, Andy Capp, or Dennis the Menace, could claim to be more popular.

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 retcon⁶ 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.

The Creators

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 Warren Ellis' groundbreaking superhero series The Authority for Wildstorm, and has also made Marvel's The Ultimates look absolutely spiffing. His art has evolved a great deal from the Marvel UK days, so it'd be fascinating to see how he'd do Death's Head now.