"The End" Week: Marvel Spotlight #33!

The traditional "Marvel misunderstanding," where any two heroes first meeting has to be a brawl before they team up, stops making sense after a while: everybody ought to recognize Spider-Man, right? But these two getting into it seems pretty understandable: from 1977, Marvel Spotlight #33, "(Don't Fear) the Reaper!" Written by David Anthony Kraft, pencils by Rich Buckler, Mike Nasser, and Arvell Jones; inks by Klaus Janson.

The mysterious (and apparently, perpetually shirtless) Godwulf has cast the cyborg Deathlok out of their post-apocalyptic future of 1990, back to the present of 1976. There, Deathlok's about to have a run-in with the understandably paranoid Devil-Slayer: a former soldier turned hitman, sucked into a cult that had been trying to bring an ancient race of demons back to power. D-S turned on the cult for trying to deceive him, and struggled to use his new skills and weapons to stop them; and maybe get over his ex-wife Cory as well. He wanted to tell her goodbye, but meeting the confused Deathlok at her hospital, he assumes the cyborg is a demon. Cue four page fight, interrupted only by Deathlok thinking the horrified Cory was his own lost love, Janice.

His onboard computer not up to par yet, Deathlok still realizes he's in pre-apocalypse New York City. Eventually, Devil-Slayer and Deathlok realize even if they aren't on the same team, their fight is only mistaken identity; as the demons make a grab for Cory. Deathlok has to ask, are the demons immune to lasers? No? Too bad for them, then! Cory is saved, if moderately traumatized, and reunited with Devil-Slayer; and Deathlok disappears, for...

I had thought, or perhaps hoped, that Marvel would publish a cheap Essential Deathlok trade; and there is a Deathlok the Demolisher: the Complete Collection. It would have to be easier than trying to run down his appearances! Prior to this issue, he had last appeared in Astonishing Tales #36, the last issue of that series; and would next appear in Marvel Two-in-One #27, where Mentallo and the Fixer control Deathlok and try to use him to kill President Jimmy Carter. The first Deathlok appearance I would read would be Captain America #289, which isn't included in that collection even though the three prior issues are! In #289, Cap returns from Deathlok's horrible 1993 to 1983, to stop the Brand Corporation's Nth Project from murdering the world's superheroes and dooming the future. That seems kind of important, even if '1993' had been saved prior and Deathlok only appears in flashback here. Godwulf and bad guy Hellinger are kept quite close to their look from this issue, though.

In the interest of fairness, Devil-Slayer would next appear in Defenders #58.