DEATHLOK

Real Name: Luther Manning

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-21052) human cyborg

Occupation: Protector;
   former soldier

Group Membership: Formerly National Pride Brewing Company

Affiliations: David;
   formerly Chief Bleeding Stump

Enemies: Chief Bleeding Stump, Lieutenant Dingler

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile across the U.S.A.

First Appearance: (advertised) Marvel Previews#3 (January 2004); (first intended actual appearance, unpublished) Deathlok: Detour#1 (January 2004)

Powers/Abilities: Deathlok possesses enhanced strength and durability, heightened senses, and a variety of heavy weapons. 

Height: Unrevealed - circa 6'8" (by estimation)
Weight: 2 tons
Eyes: (Organic) Blue (see comments); (artificial) red
Hair: None

History:
(Astonishing Tales#25-36) - Luther Manning was a soldier in a post-apocalyptic 1980s America who got badly injured and turned into a killer cyborg (see comments).

(Deathlok: Detour#1-4 (fb) - BTS) - Manning was eventually junked and forgotten.

(Marvel Previews#3) - It's the future. In the barren land formerly known as the USA, crime is the norm, justice is for sale, and security is a fully loaded magnum. And that's the GOOD news. See, some genius just got the bright idea to resuscitate the killer cyborg known as Deathlok...

(Deathlok: Detour#1-4) - Circa 2064 A.D. Canada had become the world super power, dominated in turn by the National Pride Brewing Company, that sells the world's most popular beer. Re-discovered in a weapons surplus buyout, Deathlok was purchased in a bottom-dollar sell-off of outdated American arms by a powerful politician called Chief Bleeding Stump, either the owner or somehow otherwise tied to NPBC. They refitted and revived Deathlok to use against their competitors, but when Deathlok came back online his human brain kicked in; having never wanted to be a killing machine, and definitely never wanted to be revived again, Manning craved a permanent death, but his onboard computer systems wouldn't permit him to kill himself. Making matters worse, Deathlok realized that if he ever let himself fall asleep the computer would take over his body and destroy the last of his humanity. Breaking free from NPBC, he decided the only way to get himself what he wanted was to throw himself headlong into the most dangerous, volatile situations possible and hope against hope someone or something would successfully end his misery. Since the U.S.A. had devolved into a wasteland whose surviving citizens had sectioned themselves into brutal, intolerant clans, Deathlok elected to go there, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in his wake.

   However, when Deathlok attempted to cross the Canadian border into the U.S. he clashed with the Canadian military, and inadvertently killed the mother and stepfather of David, a mentally and physically challenged boy. Feeling responsible for leaving the boy without a mother to protect him, knowing that on his own David had no hope of surviving, and seeing something of himself in the youth - both trapped through no fault of their own in bodies they couldn't control - Deathlok decided he would have to put off his own demise, to detour from his planned suicide, until he could find a safe place to leave David, but in a post-apocalyptic America that wasn't just difficult but damn near impossible.

Comments: Created by Daniel Way and Darick Robertson.

   "Think the Farrely Brothers directing the Road Warrior" said the solicit for Deathlok: Detour in Marvel Previews#3 in January 2004. A lost / cancelled project, the miniseries was planned from 2001 (it was the first thing Daniel Way wrote for Marvel) and announced at least as early as 2002 (given this article from June 2002 that mentions was announced "some time ago"), and apparently in 2003 further announcements stated it would be a five issue series, but by the time of it being listed in Marvel Previews#3 it had been whittled down to four issues. The first issue was due to be released that month, but was pulled mere weeks prior. Per artist Darick Robertson in an interview posted on Newsarama on 4th October 2003, "Issue #1 is complete and I've penciled all of #2 and #3, and I'm beginning inks on issue #2 while I start penciling Wolverine #12 and am waiting on the script for Deathlok #4." So by January of the subsequent year, three months later, it doesn't seem unreasonable that Robertson had probably at minimum finished penciling the final issue. Allegedly it was pulled because Marvel got cold feet at the last minute, reportedly a result of having just sold the rights to do a Deathlok movie. A planned Nick Fury movie to star George Clooney had allegedly fallen through because Clooney, eager to learn about the character before signing up, had his assistant pick up some Fury comics, but what they got hold of was Garth Ennis' crude and violent Fury MAX miniseries, prompting Clooney to bail on the film. According to Sean Howe's "Marvel: The Untold Story", Clooney had been especially upset by a sequence where Fury choked an enemy soldier with his own intestines. Not wanting a repeat of that experience, the planned Deathlok MAX miniseries, which was intended to be similarly hard-edged, was indefinitely shelved. For several years, at least up to December 2011 (when CBR approached Marvel for comments about the series' future), it wasn't officially cancelled, just waiting for a good time to launch.

   Per series editor Axel Alonso, "Deathlok's a peace-loving guy who's trapped in a car with a pyscho - only in this case, the 'car' is a cyborg, and the 'psycho' he's trapped with is a computer that's been wired for one purpose: to kill. What you've got is a buddy movie between a pacifist and a serial killer, which is kind of funny."

   Based on the assertion by Way in the aforementioned Newsarama article that this story featured "Luther Manning, the original"  and that the character is "Luther Manning, the first Deathlok," combined with the differing fate this Deathlok had compared to the actual original, I think that those of us who track such things (such as many of the Appendix writers, myself included) would take this to mean that this is a Deathlok who had the same history as the 7484 version up to a point (likely the end of his original series), but whose world then diverged thereafter. And as such his origin and early history is covered in those Astonishing Tales issues.

   Since he was originally the same as the original Deathlok his basic physical stats should be similar, but the art suggests this version, who had been upgraded with new bionics, is taller and a lot bulkier.

   The synopses of the unpublished series were cobbled together from information given in an interview in TwoMorrows' Back Issue#25 (p24 and 25, in the Deathlok: Beyond Buckler article), the CBR and Newsarama interviews mentioned above, and supplemented by the Marvel Previews#3 listing and an article on the now defunct Deathlok Lives website. The Newsarama article states that Detour takes place in 2064, but solicit art from 2002 claims it is 2032 (and also gives his weight as two tons - "In America in 2032 there's no safe place for a two ton cyborg to leave an orphan...or get some sleep."

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Deathlok has no known connections to:

David

Mentally and physically challenged (including needing to use a wheelchair to get around), David's mother and stepfather were accidentally slain by Deathlok while the cyborg was fighting the Canadian Armed Forces at the U.S./Canada border. Feeling responsible, Deathlok decided to care for David until he could find somewhere safe to leave the boy.

--Deathlok: Detour#1-4

images: (without ads)
Marvel Previews#3, p44, pan1 (main - also the intended cover for Deathlok: Detour#1)
Marvel Previews#3, p45, pan3 (color image, walking out of fire)
Marvel Previews#3, p45, pan2 (David headshot)
All other art from samples posted online at various points

Appearances:
Deathlok: Detour#1-4 (intended for January-March? 2004) - Daniel Way (writer), Darrick Robertson (art), Axel Alonso (editor)

First Posted: 09/01/2024
Last updated: 09/01/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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