Showing posts with label Death's Head. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death's Head. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

"Hair."

This probably isn't supported anywhere, but I'm using Pavitr as a bit more of a foil: I don't think he's quite as wholesome or innocent as he might present himself, he might be the Eddie Haskell-type. If you're too young to remember Leave It to Beaver, or a great Toyfare character assassination of Biggs Darklighter; he's the shifty, rotten kid-next-door who sucks up to parents and authority figures to maintain a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth facade. That and he's aggressively competitive with comparable Spider-Men, like Miles. Any Spiders older, Pavitr probably pretends to listen but mocks them behind their backs as out-of-touch geezers. I bet a lot of Spider-Women see through him, though.

That's like maybe the most recent Miles Morales Spider-Man figure, and he feels short? Especially next to somebody we'll see later... 

 And, something I'm surprised I don't have an answer for right away: where did Nightcrawler learn to fence? Who taught him? Not every little detail needs to be explained with a ton of backstory, or as often used in comics, continuity patches: I'm pretty sure the Swordsman or Baron Zemo didn't teach Kurt. (If you remember Solo Avengers, they backfilled the new character Trickshot as Clint Barton's trainer before he was Hawkeye; because somebody thought it was suspect that the Swordsman trained Clint in archery.) But, he got pretty good if he just learned to fence from watching old pirate movies and waving sticks around in the woods. I think Kurt probably learned somewhat more formally in the circus; we'll leave it at that.

Oh, and this is annoying: I had this in my head for some time, because the "Saracen pig! Spartan dog! Turkish taffy!" is a Chris Claremont/Alan Davis bit from Excalibur #14, "Too Many Heroes,", but that's riffing on a bit from...ugh...Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? Ick!  
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Wednesday, July 08, 2026

"Cup."

I'm not a soccer fan, but it is fun to see some people having fun. (Even if FIFA is a racket!) 

I only read Miles's book here and there, but yeah, he can make swords now! In-continuity I think Colleen Wing is his trainer; but of course she has yet to get a figure--unless there was an MCU Iron Fist one? (There was, in a box set!) Miles is sadly probably too young to know the Thundercats--unless he liked the all-too-brief reboot from Cartoon Network a few years back. I'm also fairly certain he doesn't make swords appear with a 'pop!' either.

"Focused totality" is Psylocke's old phrase, often used as a shorthand recap before she shanked someone with her psychic knife. 

Kurt's had both the Soulsword and the 'Hopesword' inside of him. Where did his sword come from this time? Um...gotta go!  
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Wednesday, February 18, 2026

"Investigate."

Probably my personal favorite Fantastic Four run is the all-too-short Walt Simonson era, which guest-stars Thor and Iron Man for a few, until oops, they lose them in the time stream on their way home. (FF #341! Get it.) Reed seems to shrug it off, since on TV they see the guys, so they assume they made it home too, but he's wrong about something there...Anyway it was a long trip even if it took no relative time and everyone's tired, so they all hit the sack! Deal with them later...I feel like Reed probably tries to underline the seriousness of it, but Ben, and Johnny, and possibly even Sue, are all ridiculously blasé about time-travel; but Reed only has himself to blame there. (Sue might feign concern for Reed's benefit, but...) 

I believe Howard was a private investigator in his most recent series, if not elsewhere. And P.I.'s are supposed to be licensed and bonded, although that is mostly a Simpsons reference, going back to "Mr. Plow." Death's Head is right, though: I don't see anyone asking him for anything, if they can help it.  
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Wednesday, December 31, 2025

"The End" Week: Death's Head II #16!

I've said before, talking about Marvel UK; that there was an unfortunate stretch in the 90's, I think pre-bankruptcy, where the once expansive and all-encompassing Marvel universe was more siloed off, broken down into little subgroups like the X-books, the Spidey books, Marvel Edge or the Ghost Rider/magic type books, etc. The intent was to maybe keep some of the more popular guys from being used all willy-nilly, but it also seemed like if you wanted to use Spider-Man for a guest-spot then you had to go hat in hand down to his editorial office. I mention that because this feels like a silo that was closed off unnecessarily; or maybe a field left to go to seed. From 1994, Death's Head II #16, "Origin of the Species" Written by Dan Abnett, art by Henry Flint.
Death's Head II gets dragged to a distant, distant future, by the alien Chronozone: humanity had destroyed all other life in the universe, so he wanted DH II to go back to the late 19th century, and kill humanity while still in its proverbial cradle. DH II resists, and while freaking out a little over being so far in the future, alone; he discovers Chronozone's bone depository, which included his own skeleton! (Why Death's Head II has a skeleton...or horns for that matter...I couldn't say. Also, while some of the skeleton doesn't appear organic, that doesn't explain the serrated edges on his pelvis, which looks painful as heck, for him!)
Activating "syphon configuration," which resembles Dreadstar's sword to me, DH II sucks his own memories out of his skeleton, and realizes the truth: humanity wasn't the bad guy there, Chronozone and his race had tried to conquer the universe, and only those pesky humans stood up against them--those pesky humans, and Death's Head II. It ended with everyone dead, except Chronozone. With his past memories to guide him, DH II is able to beat Chronozone down, and force him to send him back: those memories would also prevent that future from ever coming to be, since he would make sure the humans weren't taken by surprise. Chronozone is left, crying and alone, the last living thing in his universe.
Holy--per the Wikipedia for Marvel UK, when Death's Head II was cancelled, "distributor Capital only sold 7,400 copies." (This copy in hand was, of course, from a dollar bin; and not so minty that I feel bad about putting it in the scanner.) One, of probably several errors of the period, was that while the X-Men and other Marvel characters guest-starred in most of the Marvel UK books, how often did Marvel UK characters get to guest in regular Marvel titles? Like maybe once: Motormouth and Killpower's guest spot in Incredible Hulk #409. (And that's largely because their original artist Gary Frank was the current Hulk artist!) This is why you need a proper Marvel Team-Up or even Marvel Comics Presents, to keep characters out there even if they can't carry their own title at the moment. Death's Head II and Dark Angel probably would be far better known today, if they had maybe got a reciprocal visit or crossover with proper X-books. A ball dropped, probably. Read more!

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

"Beams."

I'm positive Kurt's idea is from the Simpsons/Futurama crossover episode: in what passes for continuity, Bender is still in Homer's basement, going back to the 31st century the long way. I don't know if I've entirely figured out Death's Head's new career, but I might have an idea. Also, again like the third Doctor Who, whatever Mobius did to DH has him stuck in 2025: he can't steal or build a time machine, or at least that's what he thinks.  Read more!