Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent

Dragon's Claws #5

by Simon Furman, Walter Simonson, Ferg Handley

Meet one of Marvel UK's biggest stars - the robot for hire known as Death's Head! Just don't call him a bounty hunter, yes? Join the android assassin in this pulse-pounding collection of his original adventures, from distant dimensions to the far future. Death's Head has his sights locked on an array of enemies - and will encounter familiar faces including the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, She- Hulk and Arno Stark, the ruthless Iron Man of the future!

But are you ready for Death's Head's mind-bending origin? For that matter, is he?!

Buy this book and stay healthy, yes?

Collects: Dragon's Claws #5; Death's Head #1-7, 9, 10; Death's Head: The Body in Question; Fantastic Four #338; The Sensational She-Hulk #24; What If? #54; Marvel Heroes #33; and material from Marvel Comics Presents #76.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

416 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2020

About the author

Simon Christopher Francis Furman is a British comic book writer who is best known for his work on Hasbro/Tomy's Transformers franchise, starting with writing Marvel's initial comic book to promote the toyline worldwide, as well as foundations for both Dreamwave Production's and IDW Publishing's takes on the Generation 1 minifranchise.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Yeah, I know we're all fed up of middle-aged men talking about the things they can't say, while saying them, but for a British comics fan of my generation, I worry this is close to apostasy: this collection of early Death's Head comics isn't great. Part of the problem is rights issues: Marvel can no longer reprint his original interactions with the Transformers or the Doctor, so instead the collection is obliged to start when the cheerfully murderous (but never for free!) mechanoid bounty hunter gets dropped off in the 8162AD of Dragon's Claws, a fairly generic dystopia (and also one which feels much nearer future than the date suggests) in which there's nobody terribly exciting for him to bounce off. OK, one gets a shock of recognition when an eighties comic gives us a bulky politician with stupid blond hair and a contempt for the electorate ("as far as I'm concerned, once he's voted, the average Resettlement citizen is expendable!"), but other than that too much of it feels like a third generation photocopy of Split Second or Hardware. Things do pick up a little once (in an issue omitted, because it featured the Doctor again) Death's Head ends up back in the 1980s, tangling with the Fantastic Four, before being bounced to 2020 for a confrontation with Arno Stark. That's the eighties Marvel dystopian vision of 2020, obviously, not the real one, which was much worse. And then just when things are picking up, the series halts, the collection instead moving on to the graphic novel The Body In Question, which answers the questions nobody was asking about Death's Head's origin, with a more painted-looking art style from Senior mirroring a swerve into the mystical and – even less welcome – hints of conscience and redemption for the lead. I still love the character, and I'd really like to read the old Transformers and Who stories again, but this doesn't scratch the itch at all. The collection is filled out with various crossovers and guest appearances (but ones within core Marvel properties, where the rights problems don't intrude), the main effect of which was to leave me very puzzled at a glimpse of Walt Simonson's FF run, which seems like one of those cases where a creator I love, and a title of which I'm fond, don't fit together at all well.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was happy to read writer Simon Furman's afterword since it summed up now I felt about this collection; the stories here are a mixed but fun bag but Death's Head is a great character. I'm another world he could have been Marvel's funny merc instead of Deadpool.

This is a good collection with a lot of bonus material but some stuff is sadly missing. It's totally understandable that they couldn't include DH's early appearances with Doctor Who and the Transformers, but it seems like a miss not to include his very first story (and it's not like they didn't have room - it's only a page long!). In the 90's Marvel republished these original stories as 'The Incomplete Death's Head' with new covers. It would have been nice to include those.

At $52 Canadian I don't know if it's worth that hefty price. At half off at a used book store? It's a good time, yes?

[Chris Halliday]

A fantastic collection of a brilliant character, yes?

Death's Head is perhaps the best character to come out of Marvel UK, and certainly the longest lived. This collection, while not complete due to his appearances with a character Marvel no longer have a license for, is as complete as it gets. Dive in, and enjoy the adventures of the galaxy's greatest bou...er, freelance peacekeeping agent!

[Scott Galloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice blast of nostalgia from Marvel UK.

A little disjointed in the last 3rd as it’s just a collection of Death’s Head appearances in other comics.

Still very good, yes?

[Derek Moreland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I can absolutely see why Death's Head has such a cult following. These comics are a blast, incredibly fun and dynamic with a jet-fueled rocket of storytelling pace.

I'm curious as to why the Desth's Head II mini was left out, though: if nothing else, it would have given more and better context to the What If? story that was included.

[Kelvin Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't judge this in an unbiased way because like all Marvel UK readers of a certain age, Death's Head is my favourite comic character. That said, I can see why #6 doesn't get collected often; that's not one of DH's finest moments in print.