DEATH HAND

Real Name: Simon Bretnor

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Mercenary, assassin

Group Membership: Former member of MI-6

Affiliations: Cat (Shen Kuei), Jade Claw (Suwan), Midnight Sun (M'Nai), Razor-Fist (Douglas Scott), Shadow-Stalker, Shockwave (Lancaster Sneed), Spider-Bandit, Black Jack Tarr, Tiger-Claw, Topaz (Cynthia Rossini), others;
creator of Brynocki;
former employee of the communists governments of the Chinese and the Soviets;
former lover of Pavane and Leiko Wu

Enemies: Domino (Neena Thurman), Clive Reston, MI-6, Shang-Chi, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Black Jack Tarr, Carlton Velcro, Leiko Wu

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Mordillo the Majestic

Base of Operations: Presumably mobile;
   formerly Mordillo Island, East China Sea

First Appearance: Master of Kung Fu I#33 (October, 1975); (skeleton) Master of Kung Fu I#73; (Death Hand) Domino III#4 (September, 2018)

Powers/Abilities: None. Mordillo was insane, but possessed great inventive genius. He designed a wide variety of advanced weapons, specializing in robot versions of people or animals. Mordillo Island was stocked full of these. He often sent robots to act as assassins in his place. He also was trained in espionage, and armed and unarmed combat.

He used the Death-Hand, a glove able to fire bursts of flame, compressed air, etc. He also used the Solar Chute, which was a sub-orbital ship which could cause focal destruction of the ozone layer, and then focus the solar energy of the sun into a devastating weapon.

History:
(Master of Kung Fu I#33 (fb) - BTS) - In the relatively recent past, the man who would become Mordillo was an agent of the british intelligence organization MI-6, serving alongside Clive Reston and Leiko Wu, among others. At the time, he was the lover of Leiko Wu, after she left Reston for him. At some point, his sanity began to slip away from him, and he developed the identity of the assassin Mordillo. Mordillo established an island base, and performed all of his transactions from that remote location, so that no one ever saw his face. None knew that Bretnor was Mordillo.

   Mordillo was hired to assassinate Carlton Velcro, but before he could do so, Velcro died in a conflict against Shang-Chi and several agents of MI-6. Furious that he had lost the million dollars that that assassination would have gotten him, Mordillo decided to take revenge against Chi. In addition, he succeeded in stealing the Solar Chute from MI-6's Project: Ultra-Violet. He needed certain information hidden within the mind of Leiko by MI-6 in order to finely focus and control the Chute.

(Master of Kung Fu I#33) - Mordillo sent 3 robot assassins after Clive Reston, who alongside Shang-Chi and Black Jack Tarr, succeeded in defeating them. Tarr and Reston recognized them as Mordillo's handywork, and the bullets, each of which had "My Fair Lady" carved on them, identified him definitively. Sir Denis Smith, head of MI-6, revealed that Bretnor was missing following an exchange on the Tower Bridge, that left another agent, Norris Putnam, dead. Mordillo sent Leiko a letter signed by Bretnor, claiming to fear for his life at the hands of Mordillo, and asking her to meet him in private. Meanwhile, he sent his agents to destroy Tower Bridge, where Putnam had left a clue to Mordillo's identity. Shang-Chi and the agents of MI-6 saved the bridge and defeated Mordillo's agents, and then successfully found the clue, which revealed Bretnor to be Mordillo. However, this information was too late to save Leiko, who had been captured by Mordillo and brought to his Island.

(Master of Kung Fu I#34) - Mordillo sought to force Leiko to reveal her knowledge of the Solar Chute, but she couldn't even if she wanted to because it implanted via post-hypnotic suggestion, and she had no conscious knowledge of it. Putnam's clue also disclosed the location of Mordillo Island, and Shang-Chi and Reston flew out to rescue Leiko and stop Mordillo. He was ready for them and attacked them with various robots. When they reached him, he had placed Leiko in a deathtrap and attacked them with his Death-Hand.

(Master of Kung Fu I#35) - Tarr joined Shang-Chi and Reston and fought off Mordillo, who fled and took off in the Solar Chute. Even without the focusing information, the Chute was still a deadly device, acting more like a shotgun, than a laser. Shang-Chi managed to grab hold of the Chute as it took off, and grappled with Mordillo aboard it. As the Chute indiscriminantly incinerated the surface of Mordillo Island, Reston and Tarr took Leiko below the surface for safety. Shang-Chi overpowered Mordillo, who then leapt off the Chute, directly into the path of its rays, and was burnt to death, leaving only bleached bones. Mordillo's robot servant, Brynocki, vowed to continue to serve him

(Master of Kung Fu I#73-75) - Brynocki entered a brief alliance with Shockwave against Shang-Chi and the agents of MI-6, keeping Mordillo's skeleton by him the whole time.

(Master of Kung Fu I#119) - Brynocki sent the Ultra-Men, a group of robot assassins, to kill Leiko Wu. He pretended that Mordillo's skeleton was giving him a series of orders.

(Rom#47) - Brynocki brought Mordillo's skeleton along with him as he succeeded in driving off Rom and Starshine (Brandy Clark), who had briefly stopped on Mordillo Island. Brynocki lost the skeleton when he inadvertently set it down in quicksand.

(Moon Knight/Master of Kung Fu Special Edition) - Brynocki used his technology to make it appear as if the skeleton Mordillo was giving orders to a group of brainwashed youths serving him in the Golden Dawn. The youths fought off his control after learning that Mordillo had not overcome death, but was just being manipulated by Brynocki. Brynocki, after being defeated, set his auto-destruct sequence, blowing apart its own body, as well as the skeleton of Mordillo.

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

BTS - Simon Bretnor got better and changed his name to Death Hand.

(Domino III#5 (fb) - BTS) - Topaz (Cynthia Rossini) hired former enemies of Shang-Chi, including Cat, Death Hand, Jade Claw, Midnight Sun, Razor-Fist, Shadow-Stalker, Shockwave, Spider-Bandit, Black Jack Tarr, Tiger-Claw and others. They had orders not to kill Domino, but to hurt her by killing Shang-Chi.

(Domino III#4) - They all surrounded Shang-Chi and Domino at the Jett Club in Hong Kong where Shang-Chi had gone out for a dance with Domino.

(Domino III#5) - Domino aided Shang-Chi against Death Hand and his allies. They soon charged all at Domino, but Death Hand and a few others stopped fighting when they saw the others injured during the fight due to Domino's bad luck powers.

Comments: Created by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy.

I'll do a separate profile on Mordillo Island eventually...not for awhile

Supplemental information courtesy of Omar Karindu:
Mordillo is almost certainly a Marvel Universe version of Chriostopher Lee's character Scaramanga from "the Man with the Golden Gun," a James Bond film from the 70s.  Clive Reston, in the Master of Kung Fu
series, was always hinted to be Bond's illegitemate son, and Reston refers to Mordillo as a past enemy of his father's.  Scaramanga also had a private island, was a fmaous assassin who wrote on his bullets -- in his case, he wrote his victims' names, rather than clues as Mordillo does -- and had a diminutive (human) sidekick who acted as his maitre'd and aide, and tried to avenge his master after Bond plugged him. I do hope this doesn't mean Mordillo had a third nipple, though.

As to his name, there's a famous (in South America, anyway) cartoonist named Mordillo, well-known for his fairy tale illustrations and fanciful art. Mordillo, in Master of Kung Fu seems to draw a lot of inspiration from fairy tales as well, as seen in his use of robot elves and the like.
Mordillo the cartoonist info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Mordillo

Profile by Snood. Update by Markus Raymond (Domino).

Clarifications:
Mordillo aka. Death Hand has no known connection to:

Death-Hand

The Death-Hand was a glove able to fire bursts of flame, compressed air, etc.

--Master of Kung Fu I#35 (Master of Kung Fu I#35-36, Domino III#4-5

Solar Chute

The Solar Chute was a sub-orbital ship which could cause focal destruction of the ozone layer, and then focus the solar energy of the sun into a devastating weapon.

--Master of Kung Fu I#35 (Master of Kung Fu I#35-36

images:
Domino III#6, Domino's Notes (main)
Master of Kung Fu I#34, p5, pan7 (head shot)
Master of Kung Fu I#34, p19, pan10 (Death-Hand glove)
Master of Kung Fu I#35, p2, pan4 (firing energy bolts)
Master of Kung Fu I#34, p14, pan1 (Solar-Chute)
Master of Kung Fu I#119, p1 (skeleton)

Appearances:
Master of Kung Fu I#33 (October, 1975) - Doug Moench (writer), Paul Gulacy (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), Len Wein (editor)
Master of Kung Fu I#34-35 (November-December, 1975) - Doug Moench (writer), Paul Gulacy (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Master of Kung Fu I#73-75 (February-April, 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Mike Zeck (pencils), Bruce Patterson (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Master of Kung Fu I#119 (December, 1982) - Doug Moench (writer), Mark Silvestri (pencils), Kevin Dzubin (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Rom#47 (October, 1983) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Ian Akin & Brian Garvey (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Moon Knight/Master of Kung Special Edition#1 (October, 1992) - Doug Moench (writer), Art Nichols (pencils), Chris Ivy (inks), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Domino III#4-5 (September-October, 2018) - Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeón (artist), Chris Robinson (editor)

First Posted: 09/20/2001
Last updated: 11/30/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters