On more than one occasion I have discussed Rich Buckler on this blog. Each time, I made passing mention of Deathlok, the character he created at Marvel Comics, who debuted as an ongoing feature in Astonishing Tales #25, cover dated August 1974.
There is a reason why I keep citing Deathlok. He was the first major cyborg character in comic books. Buckler devised what is undoubtedly one of the most inventive, cutting-edge, influential series to have come out of Marvel in the 1970s. It has continued to influence numerous other creators, both in and out of the comic book field, to the present day. You can readily see the inspiration of Rich Buckler’s Deathlok stories in such films as Robocop, Escape from New York, and The Matrix.
Since I was born after Deathlok first made his debut, and I did not begin regularly following comic books until the late 1980s, my first exposure to the character of Deathlok was actually via a later incarnation. Dwayne McDuffie & Greg Wright introduced a new Deathlok, Michael Collins, in a four issue miniseries published in 1990. The Collins version of the character then went on to appear in an ongoing book that lasted 34 issues, which I followed on and off.
Unfortunately, at this time Marvel didn’t have any sort of major trade paperback program going, and so they passed up the opportunity to reprint the original Deathlok material. The only glimpse I got of these stories was in 1993, when Marvel published Deathlok Lives, which reprinted the three issue Captain America story arc that wrapped up the original Deathlok’s storyline a decade before.
Of course, if I could have, I would have purchased the back issues of Astonishing Tales and read those. But they were both difficult to locate and very expensive. So eventually I just put it on the back burner.
Fast forward to 2007. Issue #25 of Michael Eury’s superb magazine Back Issue, published by TwoMorrows, came out. It contained a fascinating in-depth interview with Rich Buckler about the origins of Deathlok, conducted by regular BI contributor Michael Aushenker. Reading that, I once again thought to myself that it really was long past time that Marvel reprinted those stories, because I really was interested in reading them. So, a mere two years later, when Marvel finally published their Marvel Masterworks: Deathlok hardcover, I grabbed it up. This collection contains the Astonishing Tales issues and a variety of other material, including the Captain America arc.
A variety of creators worked on the Deathlok stories. Rich Buckler is the main creator on the original Astonishing Tales material, turning in the majority of the plotting and pencil artwork. Doug Moench co-plots and scripts the early chapters, before Buckler takes over penning the dialogue in the middle segments. The latter issues are then scripted by Bill Mantlo. A number of talented artists contributed to the finished pencils & inking, among them Klaus Janson, Keith Pollard, Arvell Jones, and Pablo Marcos. The Captain America issues are by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck and John Beatty.
Set in the dystopian future year of 1990 (I’m sure that seemed far-off back in 1974) amidst the devastated ruins of Manhattan, the Deathlok series features the anti-hero Luther Manning. A soldier who violently died five years previously, Manning’s brain and remaining flesh have been bonded to a cyborg body code-named Deathlok. The undead cyborg Deathlok is a tormented, horrific figure. Snatched back from the abyss, his body a mix of cold metal and semi-decayed flesh, his consciousness cohabited by a logical computer, Luther Manning’s new existence is a living hell. Deathlok desperately seeks to break free of the military’s control, and gain revenge on the man who resurrected him as a cyborg, Major Simon Ryker.
The ruthless Ryker is obsessed with control. In Astonishing Tales #35, when Deathlok and Ryker finally come face to face, the later explains himself. Seeing the country falling into chaos after the destruction of Manhattan, Ryker now seeks to impose a new order.
In an exchange scripted by Bill Mantlo, Ryker justifies his actions to Deathlok, saying “It was for their own good! People need someone to watch over them!” To which Deathlok shouts back “So you elected yourself! Dictator and God all rolled into one! You’re mad, Riker! You’re insane!” The Major’s response to this is to say “I merely brought our society to a logical conclusion, along a path it had long ago chosen for itself: benevolent control by an impassionate military-industrial complex.”
It is explicitly stated that no one knows who actually bombed Manhattan. It could have been foreign terrorists, or a Communist power, or perhaps just some madman. Deathlok even alludes to the possibility that Ryker himself may have caused the disaster, to give him the opportunity to initiate his fascist policies.
Buckler’s plots are rather prescient, as they mirror real world events of the last twelve years. One could easily draw parallels to what happened after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Certain politicians used the tragedies as an occasion to pass controversial, perhaps even unconstitutional, laws such as The Patriot Act that greatly increased government power while curtailing civil liberties. And many in the populace were all too ready to embrace these measures, trading in their freedoms for the promise of order & security.
In terms of the quality of the writing, the Astonishing Tales issues do bounce around, with Deathlok wandering up & down devastated Manhattan, running into numerous enemies. Reading these issues, I get the feeling that Buckler was making it up as he went along. It doesn’t seem he had a detailed story arc planned out, just a loose idea of where he’d be heading. While this does lead to something of an unfocused overall story, I suspect that this did allow Buckler to be innovative and go off in new directions as the series progressed. It probably resulted in more spontaneity than if he had adhered to an iron-clad plot.
The strongest issues are undoubtedly the first few and the last few, namely the chapters that were scripted by Moench and Mantlo. The middle segments, where Buckler was fully in charge of both the artwork and the writing, do ramble somewhat. I think Buckler many have been over-extending himself. I believe that at this point it time he was also the regular penciler on Fantastic Four, so he was probably very busy. Once Mantlo comes aboard to take over the scripting, things really gain focus, and we get the riveting confrontation between Deathlok and Ryker.
The artwork by Buckler on these stories is incredible. He is an underrated artist, I think in part due to his drawing Fantastic Four in a very Jack Kirby-influenced style. This led some to incorrectly conclude that Buckler was incapable of drawing anything other than a Kirby pastiche. But if you look at Buckler’s art on Deathlok, you see some amazing, dynamic, innovative work. His layouts and storytelling are dramatic and unusual. Buckler’s character design for Deathlok was innovative. Likewise, his conception of Hellinger, the even more insane cyborg brother of Major Ryker, is horrific, with a metallic skull face and exposed brain.
In recent years, Buckler has found acclaim as a surrealist painter. Looking at the art in this volume, I can definitely see the roots of that. Especially notable is a surreal battle between Deathlok and Ryker within a computer network. Keep in mind this was written & drawn more than two decades before The Matrix came out, before the concepts of cyberspace and virtual reality became popular. In other words, this is experimental work by Buckler.
As I mentioned before, a number of different inkers worked on the Astonishing Tales issues over Buckler’s pencils. Klaus Janson’s inking probably works best, giving the art a gritty, atmospheric feel entirely appropriate for the grim settings. It especially suits the bizarre imagery of the cyberspace confrontation seen in issue #s 34 & 35.
The war between Deathlok and Ryker comes to a conclusion towards the end of the Astonishing Tales run. It is apparent that Buckler was setting up a new direction for the series, with Deathlok on course to come into conflict with Hellinger, and the introduction of Godwulf, a figure that Buckler seems to have intended to be across between Tarzan and Jesus.
Unfortunately, Astonishing Tales was cancelled with issue #36 in July 1976, and the contents of what would have been #37 didn’t see print until nearly a year later in Marvel Spotlight #33. After that, Deathlok fell into limbo, making only sporadic appearances in Marvel Two-In-One, in stories that did little to advance the character.
In wasn’t until 1983 that Deathlok was finally given proper closure. DeMatteis penned the arc in Captain America, which has Cap travel with Deathlok to his future. Along with Godwulf and a motley resistance group, they set out to thwart Hellinger’s plan to wipe out humanity and replace it with a race of logical cyborg beings. The story is illustrated with incredible flair and drama by Zeck & Beatty, one of my all-time favorite art teams on the Captain America title.
Yes, it would have been great to see how Buckler would have ended the saga of Deathlok. But at least DeMatteis does a bang-up job at this task. Aside from him apparently confusing Hellinger with his brother Major Ryker and some fiddling with Godwolf’s characterization, there is little to find fault with.
As Buckler himself charitably writes in his introduction to the Marvel Masterworks collection, “J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck did a fine job wrapping things up.” (And I’m happy that Buckler was given the opportunity to pen a brand-new introduction for this edition. It’s a very informative text piece.)
Reading the original stories by Bucker & friends, it seems pretty clear that initially Deathlok was not intended to be part of the regular Marvel universe. The Buckler-plotted issues are bereft of any references to Marvel continuity. Marvel Spotlight #33 does feature Devil-Slayer, a character who later joined the Defenders, but this was his first appearance, so that doesn’t prove anything. (Indeed, Devil-Slayer is actually a reboot of another character Buckler created, Demon Hunter, who had a very short lived existence at Atlas Comics the year before.)
Deathlok’s first proper meeting with “mainstream” Marvel is in Marvel Team-Up #46, written solely by Bill Mantlo, although Buckler did draw the cover. A time-traveling Spider-Man lands in the apocalyptic 1990. After the usual misunderstanding and fight, Spidey and Deathlok team up against a horde of eerie mutant children. That does give Deathlok’s world more of a horrific overtone, adding to the already established bands of roving cannibals populating devastated Manhattan. Besides, the art is by another underrated artist, the great Sal Buscema, another favorite of mine.
Whatever the case, by the 1980s, Deathlok was firmly entrenched in Marvel continuity. Various other creators took a crack at the character, with varying degrees of success. Buckler himself has expressed a desire to return to the original Luther Manning version. I’d love to see that, as Buckler is an even better artist now than he was in the 1970s. Regrettably, Marvel does not appear interested in taking Buckler up on his offer. This is a shame. Marvel did, however, ask him and Klaus Janson to draw a variant cover for the Deathlok the Demolisher miniseries published in 2010:
As you can see from viewing this piece, Buckler still does an incredible work. It is a real loss that Marvel seems unwilling to hire him to illustrate a full story for them.
At least we do finally have Buckler’s classic Deathlok stories collected together. The price tag on this volume, $64.99, is a bit steep, but it is definitely worth picking up for some truly distinctive, groundbreaking, and entertaining material. And hopefully at some point Marvel will print a soft cover black & white Essential Deathlok book. The material is likely to find a much bigger audience that way. That and I would like to have a cheaper volume to carry around. Re-reading the Marvel Masterworks edition at least once a year, it does get kind of beat up!
In My Not So Humble Opinion 
Awesome !
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