Line #64 ComicBook/DeathsHeadII


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4	''Death's Head II'' is a comic published by the Creator/MarvelUK imprint of Creator/MarvelComics. It's written by Creator/DanAbnett and was initially illustrated by Creator/LiamSharp.
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6	It stars the eponymous Death's Head II, a LegacyCharacter replacing the original [[ComicBook/DeathsHeadMarvelComics Death's Head]] (who was a well established Marvel UK character).
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8	The initial 1992 ''Death's Head II'' [[ComicBook/DeathsHeadIITheWildHunt limited series]] (subtitled ''The Wild Hunt'') tells his origin story: he was originally a cyborg named Minion, created in 2020 by [[Characters/MarvelComicsAIM A.I.M.]] scientist Dr. Evelyn Necker. To protect A.I.M. from a psychically predicted threat, Minion was sent to assimilate the knowledge and skills of the 106 most deadly individuals in the galaxy, killing them in the process.
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10	Minion's penultimate target was the original Death's Head, whose robotic nature meant that when the cyborg absorbed him, his entire personality surfaced, not just his skills. Having attained free will, Minion adopted the Death's Head name, rebelled against A.I.M., recruited a new partner (Tuck) and discovered that the threat against them was a SelfFulfillingProphecy triggered by his own creation.
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12	The limited series was swiftly followed by a ''Death's Head II'' [[ComicBook/DeathsHeadII1992 ongoing series]], also written by Abnett and initially illustrated by Sharp. This was accompanied by another 12-issue limited series, ''The Incomplete Death's Head'', which reprinted key stories from the original Death's Head, using a new adventure for Deaths Head II and Tuck as a framing sequence to bind them together.
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14	A fourth series, the giant-sized quarterly ''Death's Head II Gold'', written and illustrated by Liam Sharp, was launched just before Marvel UK ceased publishing. Only one issue was released, although a shorter "Issue 0" prologue was also published as a back-up story within the main ''Death's Head II'' series.
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16	As well as his own series, Death’s Head II was billed as deuteragonist (alongside [[ComicBook/MotorMouthAndKillpower Killpower]]) of the two ''ComicBook/{{Battletide}}'' miniseries, is one of the leads of ''ComicBook/DeathThree'', a member of the ''ComicBook/DarkGuard'' team and one of the leads of the ''[[ComicBook/DieCut Death’s Head II & the Origin of Die-Cut]]'' miniseries.
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18	Another version of Death's Head, largely unrelated to it's predecessors, was introduced in the ''Amazing Fantasy'' series, billed as ''Death's Head 3.0''. This was less commercially successful and has made few appearances over the years.
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20	!!''Death's Head II'' comic appearances contain the following tropes:
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22	[[foldercontrol]]
23	[[folder:Tropes not specific to a particular series]]
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25	* ActionGirl: Tuck
26	* ArchEnemy: Charnel, the corpse of the original Death's Head possessed by Baron Strucker IV.
27	* ArcWelding: With the 3.0 versions. During ''Planet Hulk'', several 3.0 style Death's Heads were working for Hulk, and he brought them to Earth in ''World War Hulk''. A few months later, in the ''Nova'' tie-in for ''Secret Invasion'', they wound up in the care of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., and Doctor Evelyn Necker, who was later shown to be working on her own little secret project for AIM...
28	* AssimilationBackfire: As noted in the description, trying to assimilate the mind of the original Death's Head was what turned Minion into a new Death's Head.
29	** In the ''What If?'' story Death's Head escapes their initial encounter, and Minion proceeds to successfully kill and assimilate Reed Richards. After Strucker merges with Minion and becomes Charnel, Death's Head combats him by pushing him far enough to tap into all available resources, which includes the mind of Reed Richards. Because Reed's recorded mind also retained his morals and willpower, it manages to stall Charnel just long enough for Death's Head to finish him off.
30	** Death’s Head II is later on the wrong end of this with at least a couple of the previously absorbed personalities. The plot of the ''Battletide II'' series is kicked off by the assimilated sorcerer Bezial escaping, and the ''Death’s Head II & the Origin of Die-Cut'' series involves Czorn Yson regaining his individuality and escaping into a new body (although much of that tends towards TeethClenchedTeamwork after the initial shock).
31	* TheBusCameBack: After the end of his own series (and the collapse of the Marvel UK imprint), Death's Head II dropped into obscurity for a few years.
32	** An AlternateUniverse version gets a cameo in ''ComicBook/AvengersForever''
33	** He turns up in a ''Magik'' limited series.
34	** He gets another cameo in the finale of ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13''.
35	** Eventually, about 20 years after Marvel UK ceased publishing, he returns in a much more significant way as one of the leads of the ''ComicBook/RevolutionaryWar'' event.
36	* DeathByOriginStory: Death's Head is one of Minion's last victims, 'Subject 105', and his successor only develops full independence and an identity of his own after the AssimilationBackfire. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted when ''ComicBook/RevolutionaryWar'' plays with the TimeyWimeyBall and establishes that time can be rewritten, allowing both to exist in parallel.]]
37	* EnemyWithout: Two of his absorbed personalities, sorcerer Bezial and warrior-technologist Czorn Yson, manage to get out of his mind into new bodies. Both immediately try to kill him (although Yson, who becomes ComicBook/DieCut, eventually calls a truce).
38	* HeroicBuild: Not necessary heroic, but very stocky.
39	%%* InNameOnly: Most fans of the original Death's Head felt that Death's Head II was ''not'' the same character -- he was not written by the original writer, exhibited none of the mannerisms and personality quirks of the original, and ended up as a generic DarkerAndEdgier InvincibleHero. The backlash was so great that the ''original'' creators of Death's Head, Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, wrote ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' #54 for Marvel just to show ''their'' take on what should have happened instead.
40	* LegacyCharacter: He's the successor to the original Death's Head robot, who was DyingToBeReplaced.
41	* MindHive: Death's Head II initially contains 106 uploaded minds (and adds a couple more in later stories). Although he was only after the knowledge and skills, the entire mind of each target is there, but suppressed most of the time.
42	** The original Death's Head is the obvious exception, as his robotic nature leads to an AssimilationBackfire.
43	** Other personalities, such as Bezial and Czorn Yson, sometimes surface. And it seems that all personalities can perceive the outside world and mentally speak to the 'main' Death's Head II mind.
44	* ShapeshifterWeapon: Death's Head II's right arm can shapeshift into different weapons as needed.
45	* {{Sidekick}}: Tuck, an artificial human from the planet Lionheart.
46	* SplitPersonalityMerge: Death's Head II is the collected personalities and knowledge of the personalities he's assimilated, with the original Death's Head being the most dominant.
47	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Tuck.
48	* TimeyWimeyBall: As of the end of ''ComicBook/RevolutionaryWar'' Death’s Head and Death’s Head II have met, allied, and seem to be coexisting. This has implications for the original DeathByOriginStory and is very different to previous stories such as ComicBook/DeathThree, where changing history has erased future characters.
49	* TitleConfusion: The comics are ''Death's Head II'', to disambiguate them from the original Death's Head. But the character himself is simply named Death's Head in-universe.
50	* TookALevelInJerkass: His creator, Dr. Necker, during ''Revolutionary War''. In her appearances in ''Nova'', she'd been a surprisingly benevolent mad scientist (due in part to having the hots for Richard Rider). In Revolutionary War, she attacks both Death's Heads.
51	** {{Exaggerated\|Trope}} in the 2019 ''Death's Head'' miniseries, where she goes after original Death's Head (alongside the ComicBook/YoungAvengers), serving as the main antagonist for the series.
52	* WolverinePublicity: Death's Head II was ''very'' popular in the UK market for a while, with many, many guest appearances in other Marvel UK books.
53	[[/folder]]
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55	[[folder:''Death's Head II: The Wild Hunt'' (1992)]]
56	See [[ComicBook/DeathsHeadIITheWildHunt here]].
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59	[[folder:''Death's Head II'' (1992)]]
60	See [[ComicBook/DeathsHeadII1992 here]].
61	[[/folder]]
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63	[[folder:''The Incomplete Death's Head'']]
64	* CanonWelding: Building on the canon welding that’s already in some of the original ''ComicBook/DeathsHeadMarvelComics'' stories, the BigBad is Hob, a robot first introduced in ''Doctor Who Magazine''.
65	* ClipShow: Almost all of the series is made up of reprinted ''Death's Head'' stories (and a few related stories featuring supporting characters). Some are slightly altered or have a little TalkingHeads exposition added, but most are presented exactly as per the originals. Most issues only have one or two pages of new material as a framing device.
66	* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Some captions and art in the reprinted ''Death's Head'' stories are slightly amended when they reappear in this series.
67	* InsideAComputerSystem: After connecting to Maruthea’s computers to scan the archive, Death's Head II finds his mind forcibly sucked into the system.
68	* PlaceBeyondTime: Maruthea is described as "a unique world outside time-space", which is why Hob is using it to investigate and archive the original Death’s Head's complicated life.
69	* WritingAroundTrademarks: The summary of Death's Head's earliest appearances mentions that he was much larger at the time, and mentions his interactions with a race of similarly giant robots. It's very careful not to directly mention [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel The Transformers]], though.
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72	[[folder:''Death's Head II & the Origin of Die-Cut'']]
73	See [[ComicBook/DieCut here]]
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76	[[folder:''Death's Head II Gold'']]
77	* AbortedArc: The CutShort nature of the series leaves a number of these.
78	** We never find out why Death's Head sought out Psyphon, or what their true relationship is.
79	** Cicatrice escapes and the Ludites are never fully defeated.
80	** Cicatrice mentions a plan to ensure that Tuck couldn't aid Death's Head on Catspur, and is amazed when she appears - a NoteFromEd suggested that it would all be explained next issue, but that issue was never published.
81	* ApocalypseHow: Catspur suffers [[ApocalypseHow/Class4 planetary extinction]] due to explosions ravaging the surface of the planet - there are only two known humanoid survivors, Noon and Heron, and both are killed shortly thereafter. Death's Head still managed to run into something tentacled, vicious and subterranean - so some life remains, at least in the short term - but the world is laid waste, the ecology's ruined and most species are dead.
82	* BadHabits: Cicatrice's troops are disguised as Temploids, a benevolent religious sect of pacifist robots.
83	* BrainUploading: Heron's fate. She's the last survivor of her species, so when she's mortally wounded, Death's Head assimilates her to ensure they're not lost entirely.
84	* BrokenPedestal: Noon is a mentor and father-figure to Heron and she’s shocked to discover that he was a traitor.
85	* CallBack: Cicatrice is revealed as the unseen GreaterScopeVillain for the previous Lionheart stories. And Noon provided cyborg components to enable the Ludites to infiltrate the Hood's rebels, explaining how they were found and slain so easily way back in the original ''ComicBook/DeathsHeadIITheWildHunt'' series.
86	* {{Cliffhanger}}: Issue #1 ends with Tuck and Death's Head on Cicatrice's four mile long spaceship, which is losing power and atmosphere as its orbit decays and it falls towards Catspur.
87	* CutShort: Only one issue was ever published and the "Nechromachiad" arc was never finished.
88	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Cicatrice's troops impale a bound and unconscious Death's Head on a stalagmite-shaped rock formation, with the spike protruding from his chest and shoulder.
89	* MyFutureSelfAndMe: Implied and discussed. Psyphon doesn't remember being Death's Head II, but there's a definite resemblance - and Phaedra says that he's Death's Head's destiny.
90	* HiveMind: General Cicatrice is apparently a single being spread across multiple bodies.
91	* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: As soon as Death's Head is neutralised, Cicatrice's troops shoot their collaborator Noon as well.
92	* VillainRespect: Cicatrice is impressed by both Death's Head and Tuck, and directly tells them so.
93	[[/folder]]
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Context ComicBook / DeathsHeadII