Eventually, the final convoluted story of Luther Manning was written; one which has been both praised as some of the greatest writing ever in comics and, at the same time, relished to the realm of absolute drek. Either way, Deathlok was no more.
But, in the early 90’s, Marvel brought him back. First in an underrated mini-series, then a regular series. Both caught the interests of dealers and fans, causing back issue prices to soar. But, as with most titles, the dollar rise led to a dollar decrease and soon ole’ DEATHLOK was back in the four-for-a-dollar bins.
But does Marvel learn? Guess not as they have resurrected him once again, as part of their much hyped M-TECH line(also including X-51, the former Machine Man, and WARLOCK, the former New Mutant). With a story by hot Marvel scribe Joe Casey and art by the highly under-rated Leonardo Manco(who was the ONLY reason to spend money to buy the recent Strange Tales series WEREWOLF BY NIGHT), the book is far from what its’ 90’s predecessors were.
The first issue, with a mind-blowing cover by Joe Quesada and Jae Lee, begins with the elite flying force of S.H.I.E.L.D. doing battle with a mechanized creature that talks(if you can call it that) in words with definitions. Not only is the creature doing a decent job of causing all sorts of havoc in Las Vegas, but it is also wiping out most of the attacking forces. The creature is an incomplete prototype developed by the Logarithmic Organic Kinetics department at S.H.I.E.L.D. With a body which began life as one of the organizations most covert agents, the creature is loose and running amok, waiting for someone to load something into the CPU.
Meanwhile, young Billy Bailey is playing in his backyard. But, not long after his father gets home, Billy starts having images flood his mind; images of a battle in Libya and Ninjas.
Billy’s mom chalks it up, as most parents would, as her son just having a bad dream caused by an over-active imagination. But Billy knows better and his newly discovered violent temper and athletic moves only get him in trouble on the school yard.
And then it hits him. Billy Bailey isn’t himself these days. He’s 37 year old Jack Truman: a covert agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, And he’s suddenly found himself living in the body of a first grader from Long Island.
If you think you MAY have heard the name Jack Truman before, go dig out your issues of CABLE. Go ahead...I’ll wait.
Okay...where were we. Oh yeah: Jack Truman. Jack Truman, otherwise known as Agent 18, basically met his demise in issue #62 of CABLE. ECTECHOP planned on using Jack as the basis for their new toy but, with a mind game Jack learned in Tibet, he bounced his mind into the body of D-Fleks Industry(a S.H.I.E.L.D. company) Ted Bailey-Billy’s dad, then into the boy’s. Now all he wants to do is get to Las Vegas and reunite himself with his newly armored body.
So Billy hitches a ride on dad’s car, breaks into D-Fleks, beats up a bunch of Fury’s finest and commandeers an air-car.
Meanwhile, the Deathlok machine is still tearing up Vegas and beating the living hell out of everyone, including the all powerful, truly subversive and slightly weird Zero Company that is hell bent on destroying S.H.I.E.L.D., Deathlok and anybody else in their way.
But then the cavalry arrives in the form of a slightly drunk Lieutenant Kelso and Billy, who has made his way from his air-car into another one-one fully loaded with all the weapons of the trade.
Jack meets his old self face to face and, using that good old Tibetan mind trick, pops his mind back inside the L.O.K. Casualties are high, Vegas is a mess and our hero(or is that anti-hero) communicates with his boss via Morse Code. The good guys have won, the bad guys have lost and Jack gets a one way ride back to S.H.I.E.L.D so they can finish what was previously started.
Oh yeah...there’s also this psychotic clown on the loose. But that’s for issue #4 and beyond.
All in all, this is one of the most innovative things Marvel has attempted in quite awhile. As expected, Joe Casey’s writing is sharp and cutting, filled with little inside jokes here and there(my favorite being early on in issue #1 when the Air-Cav moves in with Kelso shouting “THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!”) and enough little plot points to drive you batty for days. The whole concept of having a renegade synthetic creature running around with no direction and a whole lot of firepower is cool on the surface. Throw in the well-placed dictionary entries, and you’ve got a complicated mess which just rides the wave of reading pleasure.
Leonardo Manco’s art is straight out of the Tim Truman meets Tim Bradstreet school of comic drawing. With highly detailed facial expressions, wildly imaginative and equally impressive vehicles and weapons, you will find yourself completely sucked in to this tale. It’s like the original TERMINATOR movie without Arnold!
Do yourself the favor and pick this book up. To be honest, it’s the best of the M-Tech line and a far better android tale than most companies have told in recent years.