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Quote1 In the name of extreme profit, you're under arrest. Quote2
Death's Head[src]

History

Death's Head was originally a robotic body intended to be used by a mage named Ty Rejutka Lupex, whose own body was beginning to fail him due to the massive energies he contained. Lupex however was double crossed by Pyra who made the body conscious and gave him his business-like attitude, and an unknown party stole the body.[2]

Freelance Peacekeeping Agent, the Transformers, and The Doctor

Death's Head would eventually surface as a bounty hunter, calling himself a "Freelance Peace Keeping Agent" though, in one possible future for the robotic race known as The Transformers of Earth-120185.[3] His contracts there would send him bouncing through time and lead him to play an instrumental role in the defeat of Unicron by Autobots. Escaping the aftermath of this battle through a time portal, he would encounter the time lord known as The Doctor. The Doctor would play a pretty nasty trick on the Peacekeeping Agent when he would shrink him down to about human size, and bounce him through time yet again, to 8162.[4]

Dragon's Claw and Death's Head

He would end up fighting the future British Game team known as Dragon's Claws, and it's in that time frame that he would be partly destroyed and re-built by Spratt who would become his 'partner'. (Something DH never really liked or admitted but begrudgingly tolerated.)[5]
Death's Head (Earth-TRN234) from Death's Head Vol 1 1 (Cover)

After being hired to kill The Doctor and instead saved by him from a bomb, he was ditched on the Four Freedoms Plaza building in 1989 [6] and was in turn transported by the Fantastic Four to 2020 [7], where he battled Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020 [1]. At the conclusion of his adventures, he discovered the story behind his creation as a new body for the mage Ty Rejutka Lupex, and after a fearsome battle killed him[2]

Time Variance Authority

Death's Head also worked briefly for the Time Variance Authority. For his first known job he was hired to investigate a time-bubble, encountering The Fantastic Four and Thor.[8] Later, he stole a time-bike from the TVA and attempted to steal a vase that She-Hulk needed as evidence.[9] At some point during his employment at the TVA, he he encountered The Doctor at a birthday party.[10][11]

Future Foundation

Much later, he was hired again by the TVA to kill the Future Foundation, as one of its members would have created a device which would have unleashed chaos on the timeline, the intervention of Spider-Man made it possible for the time-space to be safe once more. Death's Head was left away as he was thought to have vanished when the timeline was rewritten and traveled to space to continue his business as a bounty hunter.[12]

Death and Death's Head II

Death's Head would eventually be terminated by the A.I.M. Cyborg originally called 'Minion'. Minion was programmed by Dr. Evelyn Necker to assimilate 106 of history's greatest combatants to protect A.I.M. from a future threat, and Death's Head was the 105th one to be assimilated.[13] What no one counted on was that Death's Head's mechanoid nature meant his full consciousness was essentially downloaded into the Minion body causing the cyborg to become confused. When Minion went after Reed Richards as his 106th and final target, Reed scrambled his circuits with a device. Death's Head became the dominant personality and Minion became the new Death's Head. Minion then realized he could download the data he needed from Reed's computers instead of from Reed's mind and thus eliminated the need to kill him. He thanked Reed and went back into space-time.[14]

Charnel

The remains of the original Death's Head body would later be found by Spratt, and brought to the Baron von Strucker of that time frame hoping Strucker could repair Death's Head. Strucker had other ideas, and using magic he fused himself with the robotic remains and would become the entity known as Charnel.[15]

Adventures with other heroes

Death's Head battled Iron Man inside a Voldi arena, then helped him battle 451, and then 451 mind-controlled Death's Head into fighting Iron Man again.[16][17], He also encountered students from Cyclops' school.[18]

S.W.O.R.D.

Death's Head began taking in extraterrestrial life for the government organization known as S.W.O.R.D..[19]

Marvel Heroes

An early version of Death's Head was at one point hired by the D'Bari to fight Earth's champion, the Hulk, for the right to colonize Earth-9411. Given that Death's Head has been shown to be able to travel between realities as well as in time (having previously visited both Earth-8410 and Earth-5556 as well as Earth-616), it is unclear if this was that reality's own version of Death's Head or simply the mainstream Death's Head going where the money was. [20]

Attributes

Power Grid[24]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Master: Several Forms of Combat:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Warp:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Supersonic:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

  • As a mechanoid, Death's Head possessed:
    • Superhuman Strength
    • Superhuman Stamina
    • Superhuman Durability
    • Superhuman Agility
    • Superhuman Reflexes
  • At 30 feet in height, his strength was likely in the 100-ton range. However, after being shrank down to around 7 feet in height by The Doctor, his strength was reduced significantly to a possible maximum of 25 tons.

Abilities

  • Marksmanship: Death's Head is an outstanding marksman, having been able to knock out some of the Fantastic Four's roof defenses, and being able to hit the FF's rogue security system in the air.
  • Master Combatant: Death's Head is a very skillful combatant, being able to hold his own against several known fighters, such as the Hulk.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Rocket boots
  • Multi-use hand: Death's Head can switch his hand out for several attachments including, a blaster, a mace, a rocket, and a projectile spear simultaneously.

Weapons

  • Various firearms, multiple weapons in the form of switchable hands, a double-bladed battle axe and a mace.

Trivia

  • Although Death's Head's first full appearance is listed as Transformers (UK) #113, his actual first appearance was in a one-page strip by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior entitled High Noon Tex, which appeared simultaneously in several Marvel UK publications in 1987. This strip was published specifically in order to secure Marvel's ownership of the character, since if he had debuted in the licensed Transformers title, he would legally have belonged to Hasbro.
  • Death's Head's dream monster duplicate appeared on Nightmare's Realm.[21]
  • In S.W.O.R.D. Vol 1 and Iron Man Vol 5 Death's Head is shown at 30 feet tall. It is implied this is before he arrived in Earth-120185 not only due to his size but also because he appears to be unfamiliar with the term "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent" until the Beast suggests it. However, in both Incomplete Death's Head #1 and All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3 he is said to be enlarged at that height only when he arrived in Earth-120185. In The Incomplete Death's Head, this is easily explicable due to the inaccuracy of Hob's archive regarding Death's Head's early life, but the information given in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe explicitly conflicts with the aforementioned implications. Despite these inconsistencies, it has been confirmed by both Death's Head creator Simon Furman and the writer of S.W.O.R.D. and Iron Man Kieron Gillen that this is the original incarnation of Death's Head and not some alternative version. Gillen dismissed the apparent continuity complications, "Death’s Head is a dimension skipping time-travelling robot. He's probably a walking paradox several times over."[22]

See Also

Links and References

References

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