This really feels like a SyFy, CW pilot; Deathlok would not be in the budget.

And it predates the "You're a tracer" bit from Chasing Amy by a few years! From 1993, Deathlok Annual #2, featuring "Quarry" Written by Evan Skolnick, pencils by John Hebert, inks by Mark McKenna and Roy Richardson; "Air Strike" Written by Gregory Wright, pencils by Steven Butler, inks by Al Vey; and "One Day at a Time" Written by Gregory Wright, pencils by Kirk Jarvinen, inks by Sam DeLaRosa.

I had to look up if this issue had been polybagged with a trading card--ah, it was, although I didn't get it from this dollar bin copy!--because it makes a big deal about the intro of a new character. In this case, it's the armored Tracer; an electronics/weapons factory-owner turned bounty hunter. Surprisingly, it's not the economy's fault there, at least not entirely: Rick Bloom's dad had built the company, then was murdered, seemingly by a super-powered individual. This drove Rick to believe super types, heroes or villains, were a menace to regular people; and he started work on a program for custom 'tracers' to apprehend or execute superhumans, and bring the big bucks into his company and workers. We open with him running a test program against Spider-Man; but they hadn't quite licked all the variables on that one. Deathlok might not at first glance seem like an easier target, but the Ryker corporation had shared a lot of data on the cyborg, making it a safer bet. (Titania and Wizard were also potential targets, but not high-value enough; oddly, Wonder Man was as well. Maybe Wright was taking that book, or planning to?)

For his part, Michael Collins had settled into as domestic a life as he could, while living in a 900-pound killer cyborg, as he takes his son to the fair, and enjoys a pleasant family evening with his wife and baby daughter. His wife offers for him to stay the night, but Michael pretty obviously isn't that comfortable as Deathlok: he probably should've stayed, as his wife calls later, having taken the baby to the hospital with breathing trouble. Of course, that's when Tracer attacks; that's traditional. With his on-board computer knocked offline early, Deathlok's in bad shape, and forced to abandon his gun after a bad hit; but no big deal, nobody but him could fire it...unless they had all the operating specs and a ton of hardware. Uh-oh.

Tracer checks the downed cyborg's hands, which don't match prints left at the scene of his dad's murder; then plugs into Deathlok to see if it can be overridden. He's horrified to realize there was a man in there, not just programming; one that had been murdered and "they used his brain for memory storage!" Tracer is about to put one in the back of Deathlok's skull, not for vengeance now, but a mercy killing; but Deathlok fights to see his daughter again. Realizing he was in the wrong there, Tracer helps get Michael to the hospital, where his daughter has the croup; and sets up repairs for him later. Back at his factory, while Rick sees this as just a minor setback, his staff knows he's too soft-hearted for this biz; but he brushes them off, to run the Spider-Man simulation again. (He would later get that face-off in Spectacular Spider-Man #211, and it probably goes about as well!)

Also this issue: a Siege short, where the more military cyborg tries to help an old friend in the Gulf. Huh, Siege was a Vietnam vet? Okay. And, "One Day at a Time," a short day in the life of Deathlok with Jarvinen art: I don't know if he ever had a long run on anything, but I like his work.