If there’s one thing that bugs me about Deathlok, Marvel Comics’ cyborg with a heart of gold, it is that freaky-ass nose of his.
Dude doesn’t even have a nose, he’s just got this pair of sucking air holes where his nose should be. I know he’s going for this whole zombie-cyborg look, but I just find the whole thing disturbing and hard to look at. At the risk of sounding shallow, I have a tough time rooting for a hero with a nose that would make Michael Jackson flinch in horror.
That’s just me, though. I'm a superficial turd.
Dude doesn’t even have a nose, he’s just got this pair of sucking air holes where his nose should be. I know he’s going for this whole zombie-cyborg look, but I just find the whole thing disturbing and hard to look at. At the risk of sounding shallow, I have a tough time rooting for a hero with a nose that would make Michael Jackson flinch in horror.
That’s just me, though. I'm a superficial turd.
Other people seem to have no problem with Deathlok – the character has been around since his first appearance as Deathlok the Demolisher in 1974’s Astonishing Tales #25 and has been featured in a number of comics, including this four-part 1990 mini-series Deathlok, by writer Dwayne McDuffie and assorted artists. There’s even a Deathlok film in development, slated for a 2008 release. Don’t hold your breath for that one. I don’t think the world is ready to watch a movie about a guy with no nose, no matter how many explosions there are in it.
The Deathlok featured in this series is version 2.0 of the character. The original Seventies Deathlok was a cyborg from the frightening futuristic world of… 1985. That’s right, the mid-Eighties, a dysotopian future of mutants, flying cars, sliding sidewalks, Big Brother, and talking farm animals. In the Deathlok mini-series, writer Dwayne McDuffie updates the character a bit but keeps the core character concept and the freakish pig nose recognizable.
The Deathlok featured in this series is version 2.0 of the character. The original Seventies Deathlok was a cyborg from the frightening futuristic world of… 1985. That’s right, the mid-Eighties, a dysotopian future of mutants, flying cars, sliding sidewalks, Big Brother, and talking farm animals. In the Deathlok mini-series, writer Dwayne McDuffie updates the character a bit but keeps the core character concept and the freakish pig nose recognizable.
Deathlok is about a pacifist computer programmer guy whose brain is dropped into a cybernetic killing machine by the guy’s boss. We have labor laws now to prevent employers from using your brain in cyborgs without written permission, but back in the Nineties, corporations could get away with shit like that. The peacenik brain overrides the lethal programming of the Deathlok cyborg and uses it as an instrument of justice –which just means he shoots a lot of people in the knee caps instead of the face.
The first issue, with Jackson Guice art, is the best installment of the mini-series and works as a “pilot” for the rest of the series. It establishes all the characters and the status quo for the story and actually gets you to sympathize with the principled guy stuck in the body of a killing machine, unable to be with his wife because he’s – choke! – a monster!
Hey Deathlok, Darkman called and he wants his sub-plot back when you're done using it.
Anyway, the first issue is definitely the strongest both in terms of art and story. Things start to slide a little in the second issue and totally go to hell by the fourth and final chapter. The story loses focus and the art goes from decent to just OK to Jesus God what is that? The rotating squad of inkers doesn’t help matters. They make Deathlok look different every other page. His freakish snout is the only constant.
Anyway, the first issue is definitely the strongest both in terms of art and story. Things start to slide a little in the second issue and totally go to hell by the fourth and final chapter. The story loses focus and the art goes from decent to just OK to Jesus God what is that? The rotating squad of inkers doesn’t help matters. They make Deathlok look different every other page. His freakish snout is the only constant.
As the series progresses, the story gets as wacky as the art. Deathlok fights these giant robot ants that look like they were designed on a budget:
You know, I bet you when Dwayne McDuffie was writing the script he probably thought the giant robot ants would turn out looking cool. From a design perspective, there are a lot of things an artist could do with robot ants. Sadly, the ants that actually show up in Deathlok look cheap and awkward, like something one would see in a low-budget BBC science fiction program.
I will cop to a hypocritical bias here: if the giant robot ants were created in the 70's by Jack Kirby or Carmine Infantino I would probably love them and gush about how cool and retro they were. I know; it's not fair.
Moving on: at one point in the series - I shit you not - Deathlok saves a young couple from being crushed by a giant falling hot dog. I can prove it, look:
OK to be fair, the hot dog is actually a huge billboard or prop or something that gets knocked over during a fight. I just had to include that panel because it looks so goddamn weird. Only in comics, folks.
Hot dogs and giant ants notwithstanding, by the final issue things have gotten out of hand – as evidenced by Deathlok #4’s horrendous cover. Behold:
Hot dogs and giant ants notwithstanding, by the final issue things have gotten out of hand – as evidenced by Deathlok #4’s horrendous cover. Behold:
It looks like a 12-year old drew that cover. In the back of a bumpy school bus. With his left hand. And his eyes closed. I guess Deathlok was finally victorious over his true enemy, Editorial Quality Control. I mean, am I wrong, or is that an awful cover? Everything but the logo sucks ass.
The Deathlok mini-series was popular enough to launch an ongoing series that lasted a couple of dozen issues, if memory serves. It was OK, I guess. I can't say I remember it very well.
You know, I wish Marvel had riffed on the original concept a little more and had launched a whole family of cyborg titles, all tailored to very specific micro-markets. Imagine the possibilities…
Deathwok – Asian chef Martin Yan turns into a cybercuisine killing machine. This Iron Chef will serve your ass to you with a nice plum sauce!
Deathrok – Megadeath front man Dave Mustaine – part man, part machine, all metal. With his cyber powers he hunts down all those mean kids who made fun of him for playing D&D in high school. Incidentally, the Megadeath song “Psychotron” is loosely based on the Deathlok character. I can't decide whether that is cool or kind of sad. I'll go with "cool."
Deathlog – A radioactive termite bites a normal cedar log, turning it into an inanimate assassin. Beware, evil! Deathlog will roll down stairs and crush your ass!
Deathjog – After running guru James Fixx ironically dies of a heart attack while jogging, a shadowy government agency merges his legs and respiratory system into the chassis of a killing machine to take on villains such as In-Line Hater and Shinsplint.
Deathblog - While writing a lengthy post about his intention to boycott Michael Bay's Transformers movie because it doesn't slavishly replicate the cartoon he watched as a kid, lightning strikes and merges a pizza-eating fanboy into his computer. Gifted with techno powers and an enormous sense of entitlement, Deathblog travels the Internet flaming all those who disagree with his petty, hypersensitive ranting.
Wait, you actually don't need superpowers to do that...
I was calm when you trash talked the Guardians and the Mandroids but I can't keep calm about your trash talking Deathlok. Why trash talk the coolest freaksuperhero since Metamorpho? What's the deal? You're blog used to be so cool; now it's all a bunch of criticism on people's outfits: "the Red Rockets are too bulky", "Deathlok's nose is freaky". I mean what's up with you, are you some sort of obsessive compulsive fashiongossipy metrosexual now?
ReplyDeleteWow. That was some bad art. But it really didn't matter who was drawing Deathlok; he always looked...um... kinda special.
ReplyDeleteI shudder to remember Deathklok in the early Nineties. Mostly because-like Wolverine and Ghost Rider-he seemed to be freakin' everywhere. It was as though Marvel decided that these guys were cool and were just going to keep shoving them down our throats until we agreed with them. Strange that they would then make Deathlok such a pansy though- even in the low point that was Maximum Carnage, Deathlok got his ass handed to him real easy like.
Thanks for dredging up bad Nineties memories Dave!
Lighten up, Dan, we're all friends here. Besides, I love the Rocket Red armor - go double check that post.
ReplyDeleteAh, I remember this mini-series. It was during the time I was dropping out of superhero books, especially Marvel. By the time they made Deathlok into a regular series, I couldn't muster up any interest.
ReplyDeleteAs for the cover you dissed, it's sad, because the art is by Denys Cowan, one of my favorite pencilers. But he's always been hit-or-miss, and it largely depends on his inker. The guy has what it takes to deliver the goods, so I'm going to say he was under a bad deadline crunch here.
Anyone remember Doctor Zero, part of the the old Shadowline line at Epic? Denys Cowan on pencils, inked by Bill "The Thrill" Sienkiewicz. Man, I loved that book.
Sorry, got off-topic there. To sum up: Deathlok's nose is freaky, rotating penciler/inkers is never a good idea, but issues 2 and 3 had great covers by Kent Williams and the aforementioned Bill Sienkiewicz.
Don't forget Deathdog! In the futuristic world of 1986, the giant hotdog seeks revenge on Deathlok who foiled his murder attempt.
ReplyDeleteHe has cybernetic hardware installed and becomes an unstoppable, half robot, half chicken/beef meat product killing machine!
And he seeks ultimate revenge on Deathlok!
Donne1....
ReplyDeleteDan, have you been reading the flame wars at Producer Don Murphy's board? Are you a user there? This whole Transformers fiasco has been hilarious to watch go down...
Deathhog Jim Bo Bill Bob Jim was out slopping the pigs, when Old Farmer Johnson came by and put his brain in a robotic assassin swine.
ReplyDeleteDave speaks the truth: the first issue of Deathlok was The Balls, the rest...not so much. Great setup, lame-ish story.
ReplyDeleteThen there was the pseudo-Deathlok knockoff that ran in Marvel Comics Presents, "Coldblood 7." Since the new Deathlok wasn't using the old D-Lok's origin anymore, they decided to recycle it for a new guy. CB7 stood out in my mind as one of the lamest stories Marvel ever published. Imagine a Golan-Globus Production of Deathlok, one of those straight-to-video sci-fi classics that run on the USA Network a lot. Then imagine the comic adaptation of that "movie." Ye gods.
Deathlok looks like the cybernetic 'Eddie' character from 80's Iron Maiden album covers.
ReplyDeleteIf the number of posters on the walls of my childhood bedroom are any indication of one's raw power, Eddie could rip through either or both Deathloks without breaking stride on his way to whatever city he was rocking that particular night.
ReplyDeleteAll of this mini-series and most of the regular book are sitting in a box upstairs right now. The regular series wasn't bad, but it was 90s Marvel: there was a multi-issue Punisher crossover before they left single digits. I remember it because I think of it everytime I see the phrase "Similar Machines". I think of two issues of Deathlok instead of whatever literary allusion Dwayne McDuffie was referring to. Which makes me feel like the kind of big fat nerd who ends a sentence with a preposition.
I think I collected the mini-series after picking up the first issue of the regular series, which meant my discovery of the art quality was a geometric progression of "You have to be fucking joking"s as I opened successive mylar bags with $3 and $4 price tags on them.
Does Jackson Guice use his real first name as the world's worst Alan Smithee? And was he Marvel's go-to guy for black characters during the 90s or did it just seem that waY?
Campbell, what would you say if they put flames on the Iron Man suit for the movie?
ReplyDeleteYou're a dumb cartoon!
...sob...
You know who else doesn't have a nose?
ReplyDeleteCourtney Crumrin.
I smell crossover!
part man, part machine, all metal
ReplyDeleteThat's the awesomist tagline I think I've ever heard.
Deathlok looks like the cybernetic 'Eddie' character from 80's Iron Maiden album covers.
ReplyDeleteBy default, Dave does not like Eddie from Iron Maiden, which means that by default, I don't like Dave. You're just pissing off everyone today, aren't you
Dave.
Eddie and I go way back. I saw Maiden (w/ Anthrax) in 1991 at the Seattle Arena and wept tears of joy when Bruce Dickinson chopped the head off of the giant Eddie-on-stilts with a broadsword. Now THAT is entertainment! MAIDEN 4EVA!!!
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention that Deathwok co-starred Andy Hallett as Krevlornswath.
ReplyDeleteIf Dave Mustaine got turned into a cyborg, the first people he'd hunt down and exterminate would be the other surviving founders of Metallica. The freakiest part of the Some Kind of Monster movie is seeing Mustaine whine and cry about getting kicked out of the band even though that was like 20 freaking years ago.
ReplyDeleteDeathlog will roll down stairs...
ReplyDeleteAwesome reference.
Wouldn't it be cool if they had Dethklok?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah.... DethKlok Metalocalypse - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Clock_Metalocalypse - the most metal 15 minutes every week.
Dave, you're right, Dethlok's nose is freaky and makes no sense. A missing leg, arm or eye is fine, but when it comes to noses that's just too far.
Some dudes beat me to the Eddie comparison, so this is all I got:
ReplyDeleteDeathtok: A notorious radio talk-show host moves from public airwaves to a subscription service in an atttempt to hasten the demise of public radio and to give the FCC the finger. He then is enhanced cybernetically to make him the most accurate and deadly player ever to participate in a game of anal ring toss.
Deathrok: After a series of mediocre movies, former professional wrestler, "The Rock," returns to the squared circle to regain the World Heavyweight Championship—but this time, he has a secret weapon: the cybernetic helmet formerly belonging to Glacier, the wrestler with the Mortal Kombat gimmick.
Deathdok: A cute, cuddly little animated dwarf is cybernetically enhanced and programmed to destroy all poisoned apples in Fantasyland.
And here's that Eddie link ... man, I wish I could have been the one to have posted that first ...
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/lpg/51237~Iron-Maiden-Somewhere-In-Time-Posters.jpg
&$@! yeah, Dave.
ReplyDeleteThat cover looks like the cheesy paintings they used on Atari 800 and Intellivision game boxes in the 80s, complete with the generic "Circuitry! High Tech! Future-y!" pattern in the background.
ReplyDeleteThose paintings were such cruel, cruel lies. The box art would have missiles and space ships and beautiful russian femspies with lugers, and then in the actual game you were an 8-pixel triangle that shot squares.
But you tell the kids today that, they won't believe you.
Well, it depends on what you mean by 'box.'
ReplyDeleteWait, that was terrible.
talking farm animals
ReplyDeleteWhat's your point?
Wow, Dan Quayle is a DICK
ReplyDeleteDethtock: A cybernetic dog-clock.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Dethlok's nose goes... You'd think with all the hardware they were grafting onto him, they could have grabbed some leftover sheetmetal and made him a nose.
Re: Dan Quayle's comments.
ReplyDeleteHalf of the coolness of being a superhero is having a flashy costume. The other half is being cool enough to pull off said costume.
For some reason, the Deathlock talk got me thinking of Machine Man and his limited series from the late 80's. A bunch of hover cycle riding punk rockers rescued him from a junk pile then they spend the next 3 issues fleeing from/ sticking it to the man. Kind of petered out by the end, but there was a cool image of Machine Man heaving the battered antagonist over his head.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of adding to the by-now mildly-nauseating list of spinoffs with a "Deathfog" extreme-pollution-control-measures type thing, but I think I'll just be proud and non-conformist and desist.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say that you have a great blog (production-line template notwithstanding). And your writing's phenomenal!
I was with you until you called the Transformers "dumb". He-Man was a dumb cartoon. Thundercats was a dumb cartoon. Transformers was not dumb. Infact as far as kid's cartoons went it was one of the smarter ones. And speaking as one of those fanboys, I can say we're not upset about Michael Bay and Don Murphy for not "slavishly replicateing" the old cartoon (nobody was doubt (everybody was expecting some changes), but for that hack Michael Bay turning it into a generic crappy sci-fi movie bearing little resemblence to the original movie, all while altering the characters beyond the point of recognition.
ReplyDeleteWould you be upset if someone made a Batman movie where Batman was turned into an aneroxic male balerina who dawns a black tutu and takes revenge on everybody who called him "gay" in highschool? And how about if they got a really bad writer/director team to make it? And then how would you feel if people kept dismissing your claims as mere fanboyism?
Skip, you make a good point, thanks. Regardless of how I personally feel about the Transformers, I certainly don't mean to denigrate fans of the show.
ReplyDeleteTell you what: I will revise the wording of my post and remove the word "dumb."
Why? I realized that I have come dangerously close to violating the Dave's Long Box mission statement by insulting people who dig Transformers.
You've given me something to think about. I think I'll do a whole post about the fanboy entitlement subject. That's bound to make me some new friends...
Dick or no, you have to appreciate Dan's high school yearbook grammar: you're blog, indeed.
ReplyDeleteYour the best! Stay cool!
Deathblog(e)
Thanks for being cool Dave. Other than that, I enjoyed the post, as usual. Of all the somewhat-popular-bloggers-who-post-humerous-articles-about-old-comics, you're one of them!
ReplyDeleteAn article about fanboy entitlement sounds like an interesting idea.
Transformers holds a special place in my heart. If it weren't for "Transformers: The Movie" (1986), I would never have learned the word "shit".
Sure, some of my fanboys might go over the top, but you can't blame them for being upset. After all, this movie would never have been made if there wasn't a large fanbase. They're the reason for the movie, so naturally they want to see some of the things that make them love Transformers.
Remember, fandom is in the eye of the beholder. After all, there are even people who think Hellboy is dumb.
PS: You can buy all 98 episodes of the original series on DVD for around $11.00. Good quality too. Watch them, and see if you feel the same way about Transformers.
Who's the big guy taking a dump in the background of the Issue 1 cover? Maybe he is "Deathlog"'s father....
ReplyDeleteIntergalactic John: you're thinking of the 1984 Machine Man miniseries, taking place in the then far flung future of 2020 written by Tom "I've never met a Stan Lee plot I couldn't swipe" DeFalco in one of his better efforts, actually. The art for the first three issues was Herb Trimpe on layouts and Barry Winsdor-Smith on finishes, with Windsor-Smith drawing all of issue #4. Machine Man beats the holy hell out of the Iron Man... OF 2020 in his first appearance.
ReplyDeleteI was with you until you called the Transformers "dumb". He-Man was a dumb cartoon. Thundercats was a dumb cartoon. Transformers was not dumb. Infact[sic] as far as kid's cartoons went it was one of the smarter ones. -- Skip Jordan
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty certain that this is a pot-kettle-black situation, Mr. Jordan. Not only is debating the superiority of one 30-minute animated commercial over another pretty questionable in the first place, but He-Man and/or Thundercat fans might be a tad peeved.
(Besides, everyone knows that He-Man rules.)
...all while altering the characters beyond the point of recognition. -- Skip Jordan
Transformers: The Movie accomplished this feat all by itself some 20-odd years ago, due to the rampant slaughter of the Robots In Disguise (not to mention the whole Galvatron thing).
Watch them, and see if you feel the same way about Transformers. -- Skip Jordan
Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
It's unrealistic to expect an adult to come late to any childhood favorite--cartoons, comics, movies, etc--and then suddenly embrace them.
If it wasn't a part of your youth, then there's no way to "experience the magic," as it were.
Deffinatly a different guy. I agree with you about his nose, it's freakishly... different. I gues I shoudn't really judge the art because i'm not much of an artist (drawing and such wise) myself, but alas, I am.. it does get worse, although it is better than anything I can do.
ReplyDeleteand I agree with that death dog idea, that would probably be, if not humourous, at least really fucked up.
TTWLAM,
ReplyDeleteIt was not my intention to start a debate about cartoons. It was my intention to start a debate about which cartoon was superior, just to defend Transformers and it's fans. I said fandom was relative, but Transformers was always a bit higher concept then other cartoons of the time (espically given the backstory in the movie and third season). I said fandom was relative, but there is no comparing Transformers to He-Man. Besides, everyone knows He-Man was gayer than springtime.
Transformers: The Movie took the characters to the Nth degree. It didn't change them, it showed them act as they would in more desperate times. What Michael Bay has done is change them so that they can fit into his big, dumb, stupid worldview.
I can pick up an old comic book or watch an old cartoon and appreciate it. Heck, I didn't get into Transformers until a couple of years ago when I first saw the movie.
(Mr. Dave, I apologize in advance for hogging your bandwidth. Tell me to hush up at any time.)
ReplyDelete--*--
"It was [not][sic] my intention to start a debate about which cartoon was superior...." -- Skip Jordan
Any time you lead in with, "X is dumb, Y is dumb, but Z--oh, my beloved Z!--isn't dumb!" kinda contradicts that.
Just sayin'.
"...there is no comparing Transformers to He-Man." -- Skip Jordan
Shrug.
I learned long ago that no one fandom obsession--especially of the retro, nostalgic, kid-oriented kind--is better than any other. Look hard enough, and you can find devotees who profess that, say, Turbo-Teen is unto the Second Coming of Christ himself.
"Transformers: The Movie took the characters to the Nth degree. It didn't change them, it showed them act as they would in more desperate times. -- Skip Jordan"
Double-shrug.
As a wee one fascinated by the Transformers, Transformers: The Movie felt like a kick in the proverbial junk.
To my kiddie sensibilities, the flick violated everything I had learned by watching the daily cartoon over the course of two years. According to the (American broadcast) original canon, Robots In Disguise simply did not die in battle--when they didn't shrug off injuries entirely, they just got welded by the ever-helpful Ratchet during the commercial break. And their robot forms were grounded in reality--I could look outside, and see cars, planes, heavy equipment, etc. (Ok, ok--forget the Dinobots.)
T: TM, however, scrapped all that and pulled "A Poochie"--it amped everything TO THE XTREME!!!
Not only were the Transformers massacred all willy-nilly...but the survivors became all "futuristic." The new 'bots and vehicles made Season 3 and beyond all but unrecognizable to this diehard fan.
Perhaps I was cynical beyond my years, but this rugrat viewed the entire thing as an exercise in bloodsport and rampant commercialism ("Quick--we're out of real vehicles! Make some up quick, 'cuz we need more toys!")
"I can pick up an old comic book or watch an old cartoon and appreciate it...Heck, I didn't get into Transformers until a couple of years ago when I first saw the movie. -- Skip Jordan
There's a difference between a newcomer "appreciating it," and the cliched-but-not-untrue fandom-style "APPRECIATING IT."
[Hippie Burnout Voice]So, regarding these Transformers, you're just a Johnny-come-lately, eh? Me, I was THERE, man! You CAN'T KNOW what the Transformers were REALLY like! You're just co-opting something that wasn't yours in the first place, and YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, MAN![/Hippie Burnout Voice]
Not to distract anybody from the "My 30-Minute Toy Commercial is better than Your 30-Minute Toy Commercial" debate by talking about Deathlok (at least the guy with a sense of humor won't be offended by me saying that, which I do appreciate), but that nose, or lack thereof, is indeed damn freaky. Kind of 'Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera' freaky, only with better teeth. You'd think Deathlok would always be sucking in dust and cat hair and crap, since ordinarily the nose acts as a filter. Not very efficient for a high-tech cyborg, besides being hard on the eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really bugged me about Deathlok had to do with the whole "Code Against Killing" thing. Not the fact that it existed, because in a Comics Code-approved book there wasn't much creative leeway as far as the use of violence. And to his credit, at least in my opinion, McDuffie used the constraints that he was writing under to make the character more three-dimensional, not to mention milking the irony of a killing machine that didn't kill for all it was worth.
But consider the fact that Deathlok was running around shooting mass numbers of people in the knees in order to avoid shooting them in the head. Getting shot in the knee is not only incredibly painful (at least according to Mr. White) but could quite possibly cripple a person for life. If there was a villain called the Maimer running around kneecapping people, heroes would be out trying to stop him and throw him in jail. But if Deathlok does it, we're supposed to think that it's noble. Not to mention the fact that there's going to be a certain percentage of motherfuckers who are going to keep trying to shoot back even after they've been shot. What does Deathlok do when he runs out of kneecaps? Shoot them in the elbows, so they can spend even more time in physical therapy?
Those are the kinds of moral and ethical contortions that the Comics Code forces writers into. And if they aren't prepared to deal with them, then they should just have Deathlok use a taser, sonic stunner, frammistat, or whatever to take people out harmlessly. It's a lot easier to achieve suspension of disbelief via comic book pseudo-science than by pretending that bullets don't have consequences for the people they hit.
Sadly, the ants that actually show up in Deathlok look cheap and awkward, like something one would see in a low-budget BBC science fiction program.
ReplyDeleteYou mean any BBC science fiction programme, surely.
And those, erm, ants look nothing like ants. What the hell was the artist thinking? However, talking of BBC shows, they do look a little like something that might appear on Robot Wars.
It's Deathlog, it's Deathlog,
ReplyDeleteit's big, it's heavy,it's wood!
It's better than bad, it's good!
Since I really don't feel like arguing in the comment section of someone else's blog, this will be my last post on the subject.
ReplyDeleteIf I had wanted to start an argument over which cartoon is superior, don't you think I would have made that the focus of my post? Don't you think I would have listed the reasons why?
The fans may have their opinions, but it is possible to objectively compare the materials.
Actually, the fact that I wasn't an original fan means that I can have an objective comparison without being blinded by some smug sense of nostalgia.
If you compare an episode of Transformers to an episode of He-Man, Thundercats, or any of the competition (except GI Joe, which came close), you will notice that Transformers not only had better animation, but the stories were more complex, and the dialog was better. Plus you can't top the characterizations on Starscream or Jazz. And if you put aside all that "half-hour toy commercial" stigma, you have a pretty enjoyable show that blew the competition out of the water.
The movie expanded upon what was established in the first two seasons, and became more Cybertron centered. This also lended to some pretty cool concept episodes in season three, such as the ones with Starscream's ghost. There was nothing radically different about the characterizations, and no radical concept changes, they were styalistically similar, and it certainly was not a complete retooling according to the wishes of some mad director. The only difference was that the show was more focused on the Cybertron-based Transformers. Any of the characters could have fit in with the season 1 and 2 group.
[Drill Sergeant voice]You think you know how it works, maggot?! You think you're the only one that gets it?! Well f*** you long hair! I saw the tapes, I know the story, I know how it went![/Drill Sergeant voice]
...WTF. See previous posts about going off on a tangential argument in the comments.
ReplyDeleteSo only the logo is cool? Only the logo has some sort of editorial quality control?
ReplyDeleteMr. Campbell, the logo is intended to convey the quality of Deathlok, emphasis on the Death or Deth if I feel like spelling it that way.
The logo is pink.
Nothing about that cover has escaped the carnage of awfulness.
Oh, and Deathlok's being reworked next year as Yaoi, I hear.
Max imprint, of course.
"Who's the big guy taking a dump in the background of the Issue 1 cover? Maybe he is "Deathlog"'s father...."
ReplyDeleteOh, that is so hilarious!!! Thanks.
Dave, how could you have missed that? Shame on you:)
"The thing that really bugged me about Deathlok had to do with the whole "Code Against Killing" thing. Not the fact that it existed, because in a Comics Code-approved book there wasn't much creative leeway as far as the use of violence. And to his credit, at least in my opinion, McDuffie used the constraints that he was writing under to make the character more three-dimensional, not to mention milking the irony of a killing machine that didn't kill for all it was worth."
ReplyDeleteIt does sort of go against his name, doesn't it? I guess 'Harmlok' and 'Hurtlok' just didn't have the same kick.
re: Deathlok's nose
ReplyDeleteWas flipping through this week's issue of Beyond (written by Dwayne McDuffie btw) and it appears Scott Kolins has given Michael/Deathlok his nose back.
Are you appeased?
I, for one, always really liked the guy.
Hey Deathlok, Darkman called and he wants his sub-plot back when you're done using it.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Robocop do it even earlier?
As the series progresses, the story gets as wacky as the art. Deathlok fights these giant robot ants that look like they were designed on a budget:
Those guys look like the Fantastic Four's cyborg ant buddy Annihilus. In fact, I think they're in the current Annihilation series.
Oh and the Windsor-Smith Machine Man mini was top class. As was the Mike Mignola Rocket Raccoon mini. And the Hercules Shags Around and Gets Drunk With Galactus one too. Marvel knew how to put together a cracking miniseries back in the 80's.
Dave, you never cease to amaze. I liked the other 'Death-ok' characters. That was pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteHere, I do not actually imagine it may work.
ReplyDeletecanned pumpkin | how to have sex | patents search
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