History Comicbook / DeathsHead

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deaths_head_vol_1_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-Don't get mad -- kill something, yes?-] ]]
[[VerbalTic Describe Death's Head here, yes?]]

->"His name is Death's Head. He kills people for money. If you're one of his targets then that's all you're going to know about him; if you're thinking of hiring him then be warned -- he's expensive and he ''always'' collects on his debts!"

Death's Head is a robotic [[InsistentTerminology Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]] created by Creator/SimonFurman and Geoff Senior for the Creator/MarvelUK imprint of Creator/MarvelComics. He was originally intended as a minor throwaway character for the licensed ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Transformers]]'' series, but the creators decided that he had too much potential to limit him to a single story, leading to him appearing in a couple further stories before making the jump to the Marvel universe proper.

As the rights to any original characters created for Marvel's ''Transformers'' comics were owned by Creator/{{Hasbro}}, a one page Death's Head solo story, "High Noon Tex", was also created by Furman and artist Creator/BryanHitch before his first ''Transformers'' appearance. As per Furman, this AshcanCopy allowed Marvel to retain the rights. A version of this "High Noon Tex" story was subsequently published in several Marvel UK titles to help promote the launch of Death's Head's 1988 solo series.

Marvel cemented Death's Head as a mainstay of the UK imprint through a series of guest appearances in various Marvel UK titles. Firstly, in ''Transformers'', he was hired by various Transformers to assassinate members of the opposing faction. At the end of that story he fell into a time portal and a ''Doctor Who Magazine'' story revealed that he had crashed into [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]]'s TARDIS. The Doctor then shrank him to human size and dropped him on Earth in the year 8162, leading to a confrontation with the elite troubleshooters known as ''ComicBook/DragonsClaws''.

After all of this, the first ''Death's Head'' solo series was launched (in 1988) by Marvel UK, with a [[MrFixit tinkerer]] named Spratt rebuilding Death's Head, who then resumes work as a [[BountyHunter Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]], initially still in the year 8162 and based in North America. The series included another clash with Dragon's Claws and another encounter with The Doctor - this time leaving Death's Head in modern day New York and setting up clashes with the ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/IronMan 2020.

That series was followed by a Marvel UK graphic novel (''Death's Head: The Body In Question''), which was also serialised in the AnthologyComic ''Strip'', as well as a reprint compilation. At this point Death's Head also made a number of guest appearances in Marvel's American titles.

As part of the Marvel UK's 1992 expansion, Death's Head was redesigned and relaunched in a new series as ''ComicBook/DeathsHeadII'', a cyborg that assimilated the skills and knowledge of over a hundred of its victims. The final victim - and the only robot - was Death's Head, whose personality was uploaded along with his talents, prompting a HeelFaceTurn by the newly independent cyborg.

His destruction at the cyborg's hands initially seemed to mark the end of the ''original'' Death's Head's story, but his time travelling background still allowed writers to reintroduce him in new stories. In 2009 a relatively young Death's Head (not yet reduced to his usual human size) appeared in the S.W.O.R.D. mini-series penned by Creator/KieronGillen. In 2013, he reappeared as a supporting character during two arcs of Gillen's ''ComicBook/IronMan'' run, and again as an antagonist of Jeff Loveness' ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' run.

In 2014, he was one of the protagonists of the ''ComicBook/RevolutionaryWar'' event, which revisited many of the Marvel UK characters. His storyline saw him encountering his replacement and creating a paradox which allows both versions of Death's Head to exist in parallel.

In 2018, he showed up in the ''ComicBook/InfinityCountdown: ComicBook/{{Darkhawk}}'' mini-series and in 2019 he got a new limited series written by Creator/TiniHoward - his first solo title since 1988.

(Additionally, although it’s not part of Franchise/MarvelUniverse continuity, a 2011 issue of Marvel UK's ''Marvel Heroes'' younger readers series featured "Hulk vs. Death's Head," written by Ferg Handley and Simon Furman)

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!!Death's Head (the original, yes?) exhibits the following tropes:

[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Tropes common across several series]]
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Geoff Senior has compared him to DC's ComicBook/{{Lobo}}.
* ArchEnemy: Many, most notably Big Shot, who became AxeCrazy in his vendetta against Death's Head.
* BerserkButton: Death's Head hates it when people call him a BountyHunter. He insists on being called a "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent" yes?; people who call him a BountyHunter never do so twice.
* BlackComedy[=/=]DeadpanSnarker: Death's Head's preferred form of wit, usually delivered with a BondOneLiner after completing his latest assignment.
* BountyHunter: Death's Head, though [[BerserkButton he insists]] on being called a "[[InsistentTerminology Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]]". People don't make the mistake twice.
* CranialProcessingUnit: Death's Head can continue to control his body even after being decapitated. In ''Death's Head II'' issue #1, he gets "assimilated" by being stabbed in the head.
* {{Crossover}}: Going by the stories, Death's Head has encountered the Franchise/{{Transformers}}, [[Series/DoctorWho the Seventh Doctor]], as well as joining the mainstream Marvel universe (both present and future). Best to just chalk it up to the multiverse...
-->'''Geoff Senior:''' He really was the ultimate intergalactic, time and space hopping, hitch-hiker of the Marvel Universe playing a role kind of similar, in some respects, to Lobo in Creator/DCComics.
* DeathIsCheap: During an appearance in ComicBook/IronMan, he is stuck inside a self-destructing superweapon, and isn't shown making it out. He shows up in a different title a few months later, [[UnexplainedRecovery completely intact]].
* TheDogBitesBack: When he was hired by a group of rebels to assassinate an oppressive king, Death's Head discovers he was actually set up by the King and expected to die in an ambush. Death's Head proceeds to kill the palace guards and the King -- completing the original contract.
-->''Rule One: Always honor a contract but never trust a client!''
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: Death's Head isn't a BountyHunter, he's a ''freelance peacekeeping agent,'' [[VerbalTic yes]]?
* EqualOpportunityEvil: For a given value of evil ([[EvilPaysBetter bad guys tend to pay better]]), but he does not discriminate in who he goes after or who hires him.
-->''Rule Two: Make no concessions for age, size, or gender.''
* EverythingIsRacist: A RunningGag during his crossover with ComicBook/IronMan. He repeatedly accuses Tony Stark of being [[FantasticRacism prejudiced against robots.]]
* FantasticRacism: He's not fond of organic life. Upon learning that ComicBook/DarkHawk is actually a human piloting an android body:
-->'''Death's Head''': I assumed you were a superior mechanoid life-form. Instead, you're little more than a grim reminder of a fate worse than death, yes?
* [[BountyHunter Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]]
-->"Anyway, client's money is good, eh? Beyond that, I don't care who I kill. Who they are, what they've done, doesn't concern me."
* FutureMeScaresMe: Doesn't think too highly of his 'successor'.
* GoodCostumeSwitch: After being rebuilt by Spratt and the Chain Gang, Death's Head swaps his original green outfit to his better-known blue outfit seen today. But then again, he was never that heroic to begin with.
* GrandTheftMe: Forms part of his origin story.
* HeroicComedicSociopath: As a [[BountyHunter Freelance Peackeeping Agent]], Death's Head often falls into this role. He doesn't really care who his targets are as long as he gets paid, yet by various coincidences only the truly deserving end up dead.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Death's Head is willing to improvise weapons from whatever is at hand, including furniture, barbecue skewers, and doors. If the room isn't empty, he's armed.
-->"Skilled warrior is only out of ammo when room is empty, yes?"
* InsistentTerminology: "Freelance peacekeeping agent," yes? Not a mistake anyone will make twice if I can help it, right?
* {{Irony}}: One of [[BountyHunter Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]] Deaths Head's early cases is when he is hired by a group of rebels to assassinate an oppressive king. During the hit, Death's Head discovers he was actually set up by the King as part of an ongoing ruse to stop assassins before the ''real'' rebels can hire them. Peeved, Death's Head proceeds to kill all of the guards and the King -- completing the original contract.
* JumpingOutOfACake: Inverted in a scene from ''Death's Head'' first solo title. A big cake is brought into a mobster's birthday party, so of course he assumes a gunman is inside it. He has his goons 'cut' the cake by blowing it to bits with blaster fire. Only it really is just a cake, which ends up splattered all over him. He then sits down to a slice of birthday cake, which explodes when he sticks his fork in it. Deaths Head set the whole thing up.
* LawEnforcementInc: The self-described "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent" Death's Head.
-->"In the name of extreme profit, you are under arrest."
* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** Occurs in ''Death's Head'' #10, when an UpperClassTwit manipulates Death's Head and Iron Man 2020 to fight each other while he bets on the outcome.
** Occurs again in ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #338, when Death's Head is hired to investigate a temporal anomaly and runs into the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Thor.
** And in Kieron Gillen's ''ComicBook/IronMan'' run. First time was gladiatorial combat, second was because Death's Head was being controlled.
* {{Magitek}}: Death's Head was created with a mixture of technology and magic, originally intended as a replacement body for his creator.
* MindRape: Was on the receiving end of this from Unicron in ''Transformers'', and Rigellian Recorder 451 in ''Iron Man''.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: ''Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk'' gives him a mouth full of fangs, complete with a gold tooth.
* MrFixit: Death's Head's {{Sidekick}} Spratt is pretty competent with a toolbox, and rebuilt Death's Head after he was nearly destroyed by the Dragon's Claws, although not to the level of a GadgeteerGenius.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: This is Death's Head's primary motive; he considers revenge to be unprofitable, and selfless heroism to be a weakness. When he does perform "good" deeds, he'll justify it in terms of profit or reputation, such as taking down a rampaging mechanoid for free before a large crowd for the publicity.
-->''Rule Three: Never kill for free, but it pays to advertise!''
** This goes so far that when he was told he had to save his future self he ''refused'' at first because he doesn't do jobs for free. After a bit of convincing, he settled for doing it as "life insurance".
* RoboticPsychopath: He is severely lacking empathy, understanding of people and has terrible control over his impulses. In one ComicBook/WhatIf story he sacrifices the lives of several superheroes to stop a villain he cannot defeat while finding their selflessness baffling.
* RocketBoots: What he uses when he needs to move around the battlefield, or leave it.
* SamaritanSyndrome: Averted; on the rare occasions when Death's Head acts altruistically, he either has an ulterior motive or {{Lampshade}}s himself for "being soft".
-->"Universal peace sounds like a worthwhile endeavor, [[EvilPaysBetter but the bottom line is the bottom line. Daddy's got a tax bill]]."
** This point is hammered home at the end of ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' #54, after [[spoiler:sacrificing the ComicBook/FantasticFour and several other Marvel heroes in a fight to the death against Minion/Charnal]]:
--->"It's strange, this hero thing. Whole lives devoted completely to helping others. For no financial reward whatsoever. Struggling ceaselessly against impossible odds, risking almost certain death to help those in trouble. I... I just hope it's ''not catching,'' yes?"
* SecondLawMyAss: He obeys no organic, and likes very few of them.
* {{Sidekick}}: Spratt.
* SkullForAHead: Though it's more robotic and alien than most examples.
* SpinOff: From ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel UK''.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: [[InsistentTerminology Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent]] Death's Head turns most of his statements into questions by adding the word "yes" to the end, yes?
* SwissArmyAppendage[=/=]SwissArmyWeapon: Death's Head has several different weapons that he can swap his right hand with. His most common ones are a mace, an axe, a blaster, and several different types of missiles.
* TimeyWimeyBall: The first incarnation has made numerous appearances after Death's Head II came into being, including the two meeting (and fighting) each other. The chronology of the appearances from his perspective is anyone's guess. To quote Creator/KieronGillen: "If you can't bring back a time-traveling dimension-skipper, who can you bring back?"
* {{Transplant}}: When Creator/MarvelUK was publishing officially licensed ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comics and ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' as well as Marvel Universe comics, the character Death's Head, who originated in the ''Transformers'' continuity, was transferred into the Marvel Universe via an encounter with the Seventh Doctor in the ''DWM'' comic strip. (The middle installment explains why he shrinks from Transformer HumongousMecha size to humanoid size - the Doctor shot him with one of the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminators, a lethal ShrinkRay that the Master used to turn people into doll-sized corpses in old-school Doctor Who. Death's Head was badass enough that the 'eliminating' didn't take, but enough 'tissue compression' took place that he's now the size of the characters he'd now be interacting with.)
* UnexplainedRecovery: Death's Head surviving a collapsing superweapon in ''Iron Man'' wasn't adequately explained the next time he appeared in ''Revolutionary War'', though he mentioned something about "backups".
* VerbalTic: Death's Head often uses terse sentences, and ends most of his sentences with questions, and more frequently with "Yes?", "Right?" and "Eh?"
* WeCanRebuildHim: After being nearly destroyed by the Dragons Claws, Death's Head was taken in by the Chain Gang and rebuilt by Spratt.
* WhatIf: To address the personality change of Death's Head II, Simon Furman and Geoff Senior wrote ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' #54, "What If Death's Head I Had Lived?" In it, [[spoiler:Death's Head survives Minion's attack with an emergency teleportation device. He rebuilds his body into a larger, more heavily-armed form, then recruits various Marvel heroes in a HeroicSacrifice against Minion's OneWingedAngel form before destroying him personally.]] Simon Furman has said that writing the story was "deeply satisfying and cathartic".
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: He gets annoyed when organics treat intelligent robots like they are just unfeeling machines.
** During a TeamUp with [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] they discusses the rights of sentient robots and heroic ethics.
-->'''Death's Head:''' "You're not one of those guys who has a code against killing "except for robots"? I hate those Krypto-fascists."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The initial ''Transformers'' and ''Doctor Who'' stories]]
* AnArmAndALeg: Lost an arm to [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Galvatron]] at one point.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Death's Head is one of the few beings to ever walk away from a battle in the center of the mind with ''Unicron'', even after provoking him repeatedly.
* HumongousMecha: He started out as this in the ''Transformers'' stories, and was a similar size to those characters - but the Doctor (then in [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor his seventh incarnation]]) shrank him to human size.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The ''Death's Head'' (1988) series]]
* LosingYourHead: In their first encounter, ComicBook/IronMan 2020 decapitates Death's Head in battle. Annoyed, Death's Head used his headless body to beat up Iron Man and work off his aggression.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''The Body In Question'' graphic novel]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The ''Death's Head'' (2019) series]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Vee is Death's Head 5, but the last version introduced in previous comics was Death's Head 3.0. [[spoiler:Doctor Necker unleashes the previously unseen Death's Head IV on the original Death's Head in the final battle]].
[[/folder]]


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Exactly ''how'' Death's Head's rights remained with Marvel rather than being owned by ''Transformers'' owner Creator/{{Hasbro}}, as per the two companies' agreement that the rights to any original characters that first appeared in Marvel's ''Transformers'' comics instantly belonged to Hasbro, is unclear. A commonly-circulated story, corroborated by both Furman and artist Bryan Hitch and perpetuated by sources like Website/ThisVeryWiki, explains that Marvel had him first appear in the one-page story "High Noon Tex" in several Marvel UK comics ahead of his ''Transformers'' debut to circumvent the arrangement, but the strip was evidently drawn in 1988 (as per Hitch's signature, "Hitch '88", on the final panel), one full year after Death's Head first appeared in ''Transformers''.

Regardless of how Marvel managed to maintain the rights, the company would first cement Death's Head as a mainstay of the UK imprint through a series of guest appearances in various Marvel UK titles. Firstly, in ''Transformers'', he was hired by various Transformers to assassinate members of the opposing faction. At the end of that story he fell into a time portal and a ''Doctor Who Magazine'' story revealed that he had crashed into [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]]'s TARDIS. In defense, the Doctor shrank him to human size and dropped him on Earth in the year 8162, leading to a confrontation with the elite troubleshooters known as ''ComicBook/DragonsClaws''.

* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: ''Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk'' gives him a mouth full of fangs, complete with GoldTooth.

Exactly ''how'' Death's Head's rights remained with Marvel rather than being owned by ''Transformers'' owner Creator/{{Hasbro}}, as per the two companies' agreement that the rights to any original characters that first appeared in Marvel's ''Transformers'' comics instantly belonged to Hasbro, is unclear. A commonly-circulated story, perpetuated for a time even by Website/ThisVeryWiki, explains that Marvel had him first appear in the one-page story "High Noon Tex" in several Marvel UK comics ahead of his ''Transformers'' debut to circumvent the arrangement, but the strip was evidently drawn in 1988 (as per artist Bryan Hitch's signature, "Hitch '88", on the final panel), one full year after Death's Head first appeared in ''Transformers''.

Death's Head is a robotic [[InsistentTerminology Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]] created by Creator/SimonFurman and Geoff Senior for the Creator/MarvelUK imprint of Creator/MarvelComics. He was originally intended as a minor throwaway character for the licensed ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Transformers]]'' series, but the creators decided that he had too much potential to limit him to a single story.

As a consequence, he first appeared in the one-page story "High Noon Tex" in several Marvel UK comics, [[AshcanCopy ensuring that the character rights remained with Marvel]] rather than ''Transformers'' owner Creator/{{Hasbro}}.

Death's Head then made a series of guest appearances in other Marvel UK titles. Firstly, in ''Transformers'', he was hired by various Transformers to assassinate members of the opposing faction. At the end of that story he fell into a time portal and a ''Doctor Who Magazine'' story revealed that he had crashed into [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]]'s TARDIS. In defense, the Doctor shrank him to human size and dropped him on Earth in the year 8162, leading to a confrontation with the elite troubleshooters known as ''ComicBook/DragonsClaws''.

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Being a spacetime travelling assassin, Geoff Senior consider's him Marvel's equivalent to DC's ''ComicBook/{{Lobo}}''.

* {{Transplant}}: When Creator/MarvelUK was publishing officially licensed ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' comics and ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' as well as Marvel Universe comics, the character Death's Head, who originated in the ''Transformers'' continuity, was transferred into the Marvel Universe via an encounter with the Seventh Doctor in the ''DWM'' comic strip. (The middle installment explains why he shrinks from Transformer HumongousMecha size to humanoid size - the Doctor shot him with one of the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminators, a lethal ShrinkRay that the Master used as his WeaponOfChoice to turn people into doll-sized corpses in old-school Doctor Who. Death's Head was badass enough that the 'eliminating' didn't take, but enough 'tissue compression' took place that he's now the size of the characters he'd now be interacting with.)

* LosingYourHead: In their first encounter, ComicBook/IronMan 2020 decapitates Death's Head in battle. Annoyed, Death's Head used his headless body to beat up Iron Man and work off his aggression.

* AnArmAndALeg: Lost an arm to [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Galvatron]] at one point.

* {{Crossover}}: Going by the stories, Death's Head has encountered the Franchise/{{Transformers}}, [[Series/DoctorWho the Seventh Doctor]], and the mainstream Marvel universe (both present and future). Best to just chalk it up to the multiverse...

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Death's Head stands as one of the few beings to ever walk away from a battle in the center of the mind with ''Unicron'', even after provoking him repeatedly.

[[folder:The ''The Body In Question'' graphic novel]]

[[folder:The ''Death's Head'' (2019) series]]

* HumongousMecha: ''Death's Head'' started out as this until he fell into a time portal and crashed into [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]]'s TARDIS. In defense, the Doctor (then in [[Creator/SylvesterMcCoy his seventh incarnation]]) shrank him to human size and sent him off through time.

''Death's Head'' then made a series of guest appearances in other Marvel UK titles. Firstly, in ''Transformers UK'' #113 (May, 1987), he was contracted by various Transformers to assassinate members of the opposing faction. At the end of that story he fell into a time portal and a ''Doctor Who Magazine'' story revealed that he had crashed into [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]]'s TARDIS. In defense, the Doctor shrank him to human size and dropped him on Earth in 8162, leading to a confrontation with the elite troubleshooters known as ''ComicBook/DragonsClaws''.

After all of this, in 1988, the first ''Death's Head'' solo series was launched by Marvel UK, with a [[MrFixit tinkerer]] named Spratt rebuilding Death's Head, who then resumes work as a [[BountyHunter Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]], initially still in 8162 and based in North America. The series included another clash with Dragon's Claws and another encounter with The Doctor - this time leaving Death's Head in modern day New York and setting up clashes with the ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/IronMan 2020.

The series was followed by a Marvel UK graphic novel (''Death's Head: The Body In Question''), assorted stories in ''Strip'' magazine, and several reprint compilations.

Death's Head has been redesigned and spun off several times by Marvel UK, most notably as Death's Head II, [[ComicBook/DeathThree Death Wreck, and Death Metal]]. In 2005, Simon Furman returned to the character by creating Death's Head 3.0 for ''Amazing Fantasy''. In 2009 Death's Head I appeared in the S.W.O.R.D. mini-series penned by Kieron Gillen. In March 2011, issue #33 of Marvel UK's ''Marvel Heroes'' featured "Hulk vs. Death's Head," written by Ferg Handley and Simon Furman. In 2013, Death's Head I reappeared as a supporting character during two storylines of Kieron Gillen's ''ComicBook/IronMan'' run, and again as an antagonist of Jeff Loveness' ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' run. In 2018, he showed up in the ''ComicBook/InfinityCountdown: ComicBook/{{Darkhawk}}'' mini-series and in 2019 he got a limited series of his own.

Death's Head is a robot [[InsistentTerminology Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]] created by Creator/SimonFurman and Geoff Senior for the Creator/MarvelUK imprint of Creator/MarvelComics. He was originally intended as a minor throwaway character for the licensed ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Transformers]]'' series, but the creators decided that he had too much potential to limit him to a single story.