By Jim Beard
Writer Charlie Huston helms an all-new take on a classic Marvel character in the seven-issue DEATHLOK limited series, beginning this November 4. Painting a grim portrait of a not-too-distant America, Huston's cyborg soldier melds machine and man into a warrior whose time has come: Deathlok the Demolisher.
"Deathlok is an anti-hero," Huston notes of the character. "Whether by his own fault or not, he has been corrupted. Heroes are pure. Anti-heroes are sullied. That's the essence of his appeal for me right there. I've always been drawn to the anti-heroes over the true blue types."
The original version of Deathlok debuted in 1974 and has marched through many incarnations over three-plus decades. Working from that foundation, Huston has crafted a new cyborg that owes much to his forbearer yet packs the punch of 21st century advancements.
"I'm very much a fan of the [Rich] Buckler/[Doug] Moench original Deathlok, so I was inevitably inspired by what they did in their ASTONISHING TALES run," Huston explains. "At first I was tempted to use their character and try to resolve the continuity issues so he could exist
within the Marvel Universe, but I tossed that out pretty quick. It would have been fun, but not true to the concept.
"Deathlok is a science fiction character; he belongs in a setting that complements his nature. Once I knew that was the track I wanted to follow I started thinking about modern warfare and how it might advance if certain trends were followed to an extreme end. Specifically I was thinking about military contractors and how they might evolve as corporate proxies fighting in the place of nations. Mercenary conglomerates."
As seen in the new DEATHLOK #1, this world chokes on the ills of society, which in turn produce the kind of super-soldier the story revolves around. It's not a pretty place, to be sure, and Huston's able to sum it up succinctly in two foreboding words:
"Corporate dystopia. It's hardly original, but it plays for this story. It's a world dominated by market forces, and those forces are the reason Deathlok is created.
"The trend toward military contractors that I mentioned previously is central to the story. The cultural dominance of professional sports. The cult of personality. Those are key elements in the plot, as well as fodder
for satire. Some of the technology [in the series] is based on stuff that's floating around these days at the conceptual level. DARPA projects that may or may not come to fruition at some point. Boondoggles like a Hafnium grenade. One of the greatest things about comics is that you can take an absurd or a failed notion and play it out as if it had come to pass."
Deathlok reflects his world and vice versa; it's the concept's 1970's beginnings that Huston sees as important to not only the character and his milieu but also the writer's own outlook on this current project.
"These days just about all the comic book heroes are stained or compromised in some fashion, but in the early 1970's you were just starting to see some of those darker tones. Deathlok was quite rare in that respect," he reminds. "I also loved what was essentially a split personality in the character. The man and the computer. There was just nothing at all typical about Deathlok And Rich Buckler's design is a classic."
In 2009, DEATHLOK benefits from another artistic marvel, Lan Medina. His recent work on FOOLKILLER makes him a choice Huston sees as the perfect fit for this limited series.
"Deathlok himself is where Lan nails it to the wall. Panel after panel, he draws a cool as hell Deathlok."
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