Marvel Need to Bring Back This Forgotten Classic to Change Their Multiverse for the Better

Marvel Comics has been in a slump lately, which is sad for fans of the venerable publisher. Over the years, the House of Ideas has lived up to that name, introducing readers to all kinds of great new ideas that have made them the home of the bestselling superheroes. Not all of them were exactly new, but Marvel was able to go in fun new directions with them. There are numerous great Marvel concepts out there that no one has thought about in years (Killraven fans, rise up!) and one of the best is Deathlok. Deathlok isn’t one characters, but a bunch of different ones, cybernatically enhanced and transformed into killing machines. It’s not exactly the most original idea in the world, but it’s one that Marvel has perfected over the years, and Deathlok has become one of the coolest examples of this.

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Debuting in the ’70s, when Marvel was creating more and more anti-hero characters, Deathlok seems like a hero that would have gotten huge in the grim and gritty ’80s and ’90s, but for some reason, Marvel has never been able to make the character work. Over the years, the concept has been used in some great books, but for some reason, Deathlok as a solo hero has never really worked long term. Marvel is in need of a shot in the arm right now and Deathlok may be just what the doctor ordered. Not only can you do a lot of very cool stories with the idea, but it can be revolutionary for the Marvel Multiverse as well, leading it in bold new directions.

Deathlok Is An Awesome Concept That Never Has Legs

Marvel was changing a lot in the ’70s, and Deathlok is a perfect example of that. The character represents a more hard-edged sci-fi mentality than we used to get from the House of Ideas. The character was created by Rick Buckler as a main character for a novel but he decided to bring him to the comics, creating a version that was basically an ugly version of the Six Million Dollar Man and Captain America combined, with a hint of post-apocalyptic storytelling thrown in. The original Deathlok was Luther Manning, a dead American soldier resurrected in the future with android technology.

Deathlok is a pretty common trope in sci-fi/superhero stories – the person turned into a weapon against their will, with an onboard computer programmed to help them accomplish their missions and keep them on task. While that’s a massive cliche in 2026, it wasn’t back in 1974. 1974 is one of those years in Marvel history that keeps turning up, one that presaged the publisher’s future with the introductions of Wolverine, Punisher, and the All-New, All-Different X-Men. Deathlok was entering a Marvel Universe primed for change and fit perfectly alongside the more violent heroes being introduced. Manning was sent back in time for his adventures, fighting alongside the heroes of this new Marvel Universe, before returning to the future and overthrowing the regime that created him.

This was in the years before Marvel went all-in on dystopian alternate Earths, so while Deathlok was somewhat novel at the time, he wasn’t exactly what was in vogue. The character went away, with Marvel trying to reintroduce him numerous times over the years. The next major Deathlok being Michael Collins, this one created in the present using tech created based on the future version. Collins would come and go, and Deathlok would become one of those mantles you could use whenever you wanted to have a big character reveal (my favorite so far is the one from Savage Avengers (Vol. 2), which makes Deathlok the last person you would ever expect) or needed a generic supersoldier for whatever reason.

Eventually, this idea was expanded on and we got the first Deathlok-controlled alternate Earths. On these worlds, Deathlok technology was usually used by evil corporation Roxxon to take over the world, infecting various heroes and sending them back in time to ensure that their future took place. This isn’t exactly a new idea, either, but it has led to some of the best Deathlok’s of them all, including Deathlok Prime, a pacifist hooked to a computer that loves to kill. Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) saw a Deathlok Earth created by Ultron, leading the team to the future to stop them (the David Pepose/Carlo Magno Savage Avengers is awesome and you need to read it if you haven’t). Now, Marvel doesn’t use its multiverse well in general and an argument can be made that we don’t need yet another future controlled by evil cyborgs. However, Deathlok and his future could be exactly what Marvel needs right now.

Deathlok is a simple idea, but that means that it’s also an easy one to do right. An evil cyborg future controlled by a heartless corporation is really hard to mess up and a time-traveling character sent back in time to ensure their future but becomes a hero is also a simple story that is easy to do right. It’s exactly what Marvel needs right now – just a cool little classic superhero story, nothing out to reinvent the wheel, that exists to give readers a fun story to escape to. You can make this Deathlok an all-new character or one we’ve seen before; both would work just fine.

However, the real fun of this is making another Deathlok-controlled future. The great thing about Deathlok is that it’s become a part of the background technology of the Marvel Universe; any villain willing to do the work could find and use it. This makes it a great catalyst for various alternate future stories. Look at the X-Men’s Sentinels; there are numerous futures that involves them in some way, to the extent that it’s gotten boring. You could slot Deathloks into that role like a snap. While you’re just replacing one with the other, it’s a new one, with its own rules to follow. It allows you tell different kinds of dystopian futures than just the plain old Sentinel ones. Bringing Deathlok back pays off in numerous ways, so it’s about time Marvel did the deed.

Deathlok came out in one of the biggest years in Marvel history and was tailor-made for the grim and gritty eras coming in the future. However, for some reason, the publisher was never able to make the shot with him, leading to the character dropping down into the C-list. However, it was a concept that was too good to ignore and it’s become one of those load-bearing structures of the Marvel Universe – you don’t see it, but it’s there for you when you need it. Right now, the House of Ideas could use something a little different and another try with Deathlok is exactly what the doctor ordered.

It’s the kind of simple idea that you put some good creators on and let them go to town wotj it. Deathlok has become a concept that you can basically use in any kind of story, giving you either new antagonists or a new hero who you can forge into whatever you want. It’s the kind of mantle that you can work with to create something fun and it can be used to shake up a sometimes staid Marvel Multiverse. Deathlok is an idea whose time has come again and maybe this time, it’ll actually stick.

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