Rich Buckler's Deathlok the Demolisher for certain was in part inspired by Mary Shelly's infamous creation, the dead body of a man from disparate parts (in this case metal) and decaying flesh is brought back to life by a perverse scientific means and let loose upon the world. The story of Deathlok is how that man, Luther Manning, deals with the dark strange transformation. He has become wedded to a computer which yammers at him incessantly while losing his wife to his best friend. He's been dead five years, but it only feels like moments. Unlike Frankenstein though, the creator of Deathlok, a mad military scientist named Ryker is all too keen to look after his creation for grim purposes, hoping to create a killing machine. He does just that but loses control. The struggle for control between Manning and Ryker is what most of the Astonishing Tales issues are all about.
This struggle takes place in a dystopic 1990's (the near future when this comic came out, but alas the distant past for your reviewer). Deathlok was a story what the world might become if we allowed military might to rule the day, a world devastated by war, writhing with battling gangs of men seeking safety and men seeking other men for nourishment. It's a pretty grim future that Buckler and writer Doug Moench paint for in the Astonishing Tales debut.
The late Rich Buckler has always been one of my favorite artists. He was a massive talent who brought to any company who hired him a wide array of styles as well as his very own distinctive look. He's not aping Adams or Buscema or Kirby in the Deathlok series, he's fusing his influences into fresh whole which is at once eye-catching and in need of firm attention.
Doug Moench's scripts are complex as they try to showcase the incessant struggle in the mind of Deathlok between his Manning psyche and the computer which speaks to him relentlessly, a computer buried in his gut. He is a former man bristling with machine parts who nonetheless rejects that side of himself and so resorts sometimes to weapons of an earlier age.
The Deathlok character continued to meander though issues of Astonishing Tales, but the adventure became increasingly hard to fathom. The "Dreaded Deadline Doom" rose up more than a few times to squelch the momentum of the story and even talents liked the always underrated Bill Mantlo had a hard time finding footing.
By the time it was decided to move Deathlok beyond his personal war with Ryker and introduced new characters such as the robotic Hellinger and blonde primitive Godwulf, the die was cast. The series was on the way out, but not before it took a few turns back into time.
Despite the creation of a healthy Luther Manning clone, Deathlok was still presented as a tragic character almost beyond redemption. While in the then modern Marvel universe he teamed up with Buckler's other creation Devil-Slayer.
Before being captured and programmed to kill then President of the United States Jimmy Carter. As with many of the Bronze Age characters which saw the light of day in this fecund Marvel period he found his story getting snipped off in the pages of Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One.
Until in MTIO during the excellent "Saga of Project Phoenix" he was utterly destroyed. The end had come at last for Deathlok and he was at once at peace in a world in which contentment was never his to claim.
The J.M. DeMatties and Mike Zeck decided he deserved better and in an elegant time travel story brought Captain America into the near future with a reconstructed Deathlok and there he found not onl victory over his enemy Hellinger but a pice of soul gifted to him by his clone. He was, as much as he'd ever been a complete man with a mission again, one to save the world.
This volume also treats up to a nifty little glimpse back to Deathlok's sad old days when writer David Anthony Kraft and artist Michael Golden tell an untold tale of Deathlok's days of torment in the nads of Ryker's researchers. This story was tucked neatly inside an issue of Marvel Fanfare.
So, in spite of everything we see that Deathlok, at least when we see him last in this collection does find some measure of peace. That's more than Frankenstein's Monster was able to discover, so maybe the comparison between them is limited at best. Deathlok has outlived his creator Rich Buckler, and that's not nothing in this ephemeral world we live in.
Rip Off
I still recall picking up Astonishing Tales issue 25 and was blown away by Deathlok , possibly because I was the right age (13 years old) for this type of tale at this point but the character was a great new direction for Marvel at this time. This was probably the last time I felt such excitement for a new character \ storyline\ c comic. But I agree with you on that the story became a bit difficult to follow at some points but for me, those first 5 or so issues of Astonishing Tales were wonderful and were some of Marvels best comics at this time. Rich Buckler was a fantastic artist and creator and was certainly as you note NOT just an Adams, Buscema, Kirby swipe artist. I'm off to look out my copy of Astonishing Tales issue 25.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading! Rich Buckler was not given his due credit in my opinion, getting slapped aside as a swipe artist. Just because a singer can do a great cover song doesn't mean they can't do their own stuff, and that's the way I feel about Buckler.
DeleteHey Rip, thanks for being part of the Countdown to Halloween! Loving the comic history stuff, especially Marvel.
ReplyDeleteThe young writers of 70's Marvel expansion really seemed involved with their creations, with the intense (and dense) text and the adolescent-level anguish and agony. Self-indulgent as some of it was,it's a rare pleasure to read mainstream comics with this much personal commitment.
ReplyDeleteDeathlok's visual owes much to the villain in Gil Kane's "His Name is Savage" but the framework of the story was pretty much all his.
Oh and "torment in the nads of Ryker's researchers?" Torment in the Nads was the name of my high school garage band.
A writer who has come up repeatedly this month is Doug Moench. It always seems he wrote more than I thought he did, especially in Marvel's backwaters. Gerber got a lot of attention but Moench was possibly just as inventive and poor Bill Mantlo gets nowhere near enough credit for the good work he did. His story is a truly tragic one.
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