Astonishing Tales #25 & #26 (Marvel Comics)
Rich Buckler(w & a) & Doug Monech (script)
In the seventies Marvel branched out from it's core heroes with all-sorts of wild and wacky characters especially with the relaxation the Comics Code enforced on the industry since the fifties. Most of their efforts went in their various horror lines plus a certain barbarian often mentioned on this blog but one stood out for me, that of Deathlok, half human, half machine.
Starting in this issue and running through to #36 (except for #29 which was a Guardians of the Galaxy reprint) this was the tale of a dead man trying to regain his humanity and becoming an assassin first for his creator the US military or at least a rogue section of it under General Ryker.
I was lucky enough to pick up the first two issues (I have a couple of others buried somewhere) which tell of his origin and battle with Ryker.
Luther Manning (Deathlok) is reanimated in a post-apocalyptic future so this is not the main Marvel Universe though crossovers do take place with The Thing (from the Fantastic Four in MarvelTwo-In-One and later in Captain America.
There are other Deathlok's as I accidently discovered when picking up back issues but these are in the current MU and of no interest to me. I prefer the original which is (nearly) always the best. Pick up his adventures if you get the chance.
One of the best 70's Marvel concepts - the other being Killraven!
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