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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

Yeah, yeah, I'm running a bit late this week. Chalk it all up to a pretty hectic schedule (excuses, excuses!). Anyway, this week we'll be revisiting the 90's once again! Deathlok #1 - "The Wolf is at the Door" Original Release Date: July 1991 Writers: Dwayne McDuffie and Gregory Wright Penciler: Denys Cowan Inker: Mike Manley Letters: Ken Lopez Colorist: Gregory Wright Editor: Tom Brevoort Executive Editor: Bob Budiansky Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco The strange creature awakens at the behest of a man named Harlan Ryker. The mission? Kill. Warwolf is its code name and its target is Billy Hansen, the man who provided evidence to convict Ryker of treason. Unfortunately for Billy, the Warwolf is good at what it does; it finds Mr. Hansen sitting in his car in gridlocked traffic and it proceeds to rip the vehicle to shreds with Billy inside. In a neighborhood in New Jersey, we visit another strange being, who is spending his time perched in a tree watching, with enhanced vision, a woman and her son move about inside a home; his former home and his former family. In this man's mind, a voice speaks, but it does not mean he's crazy, no; it's quite a normal thing for him. You see, the voice is a computer and it is as much a part of him as his hands. It asks the man if he'd like to store the image of his family that he is currently seeing. The man responds, "No. There's no way I could ever forget what I lost when they made me into this." Pulling out a notebook, the man begins writing a letter to his wife, the woman in the home. This letter will not reach her until he is human again; that's his promise. In it he speaks of the life he had before the incident; the one of Michael Collins; the love he has for his wife, Tracy, and their son, Nick. This letter is not without a sour note as he admits the regret he had in not being as there for his family as he should have been. His job as a computer programmer at Cybertek was his life and it's all he spent his time on, unfortunately for his neglected family, but very fortunate for this his skills were able to help! He was using his skills to help develop software to control artificial limbs, which would be used to help people walk again! At least that's what he thought it was for. It turns out that his work was being used to develop a cyborg killing machine code-named 'Deathlok.' When reporting this discovery to his boss, Harlan Ryker, the man he believed to be a friend, Ryker showed his true colors by shooting him. When next he woke, he found that his brain had been put inside that very same cyborg he had been working on--he had become Deathlok! Ryker had never intended for Michael's consciousness to be transferred into the Deathlok body, but somehow it had been. Michael eventually regained control of this new body, but not before it had turned him into a murderer. Deathlok was, after all, a killing machine. Michael (and Billy Hansen with his evidence) had Ryker put away by foiling an illegal arms sale, but before Michael turned Ryker in, he learned that his original body was still around and that he could, in fact, has his mind restored to it! The only problem is finding it. With his tale told, Michael closes the notebook and leaves the community where he had once lived. In another part of New Jersey, at the main lab of Cybertek, we meet Jim Dworman. This man had risked everything to help his friend, Michael Collins, shut down the corrupt Cybertek company. The Roxxon Oil Corporation, which owns Cybertek, instead of firing Dworman, promoted him. For the past couple of months Dworman has been supervising the shutting down of the company. He has also been allowing his friend, Michael Collins to enter the Cybertek warehouses to search for his human body. This night is no different as Michael shows up at the main lab to meet Dworman. As the two move through the massive building, Michael's internal computer picks up on another life form in the building. Following the directions to the intruder, Michael stumbles upon Warwolf. The feral monster immediately and effortlessly slaps Deathlok through a wall. Recovering quickly, Michael consults the computer's digital voice in his mind and finds out that the Warwolf is a cyborg, much like himself, yet with the mind of a wolf. Up and at 'em, Deathlok attempts to get the creature's attention by shouting, which doesn't work. The computer reports that the Warwolf has destroyed the Cybertek database of computer records. Before his eyes, the monster retreats and, without hesitation, Deathlok pursues. Unfortunately the Warwolf is much too fast and our cybernetic hero can't keep up the pursuit. Instead he returns to inside the Cybertek building and to his friend, Jim Dworman. Michael asks Jim about the Warwolf and is told that the creature was built to be an assassin, but there's no telling what program it's running now. Michael shouts that it takes very little thought to figure out what it's up to and that it needs to be stopped--now! The computer detects two people entering the building, so he hides. It turns out that it is two NSA Agents, Baker and Able. Apparently something broke into their headquarters and destroyed every bit of information on the Ryker treason case. They tell Jim they are there to get any records he might have, but notice the debris and figure that there's not much they can get from him. Instead they opt to bring him in for questioning. The two drop one key idea: without the witnesses there would be no case against Ryker at all! Retreating to another part of the Cybertek building, Michael asks the computer to tap into the computer files of the court that is handling the Ryker case in order to get a list of all the witnesses. It turns out that most of them are being held in a maximum security prison. The only exception is William "Billy" Hansen! Michael puts in a call to the officer handling the case in order to see if Billy is still alive. Unfortunately, as Michael had guessed, Mr. Hansen is no longer alive. Later, Michael meets up with Dworman after the NSA questioning in order to gain access to a helicopter. It is Michael's plan to visit Ryker and make him turn off the Warowlf. Dworman asks, "How are you going to talk to Ryker? He's in prison." Our hero responds, "So am I. And the man who put me here isn't going to get away with it." In Danbury, Connecticut at a maximum security federal penitentiary, Harlan Ryker is relaxing in his bunk with little to no worries in the world; he knows that things are being taken care of outside of his cell and that soon he'll be free. Sitting up, before even seeing our hero with his eyes, Ryker admits aloud that Deathlok's stealth abilities are impressive. Deathlok, standing outside of the cell, asks Ryker if he had indeed programmed the Warwolf to eliminate all witnesses and evidence against him. Ryker smiles and speaks about how unfortunate for Deathlok that the police wouldn't accept his testimony, what with them not being able to determine if he was actually sentient or just a piece of hardware. As for eliminating the other witnesses... yeah that'd be convenient for him. As Deathlok bends the bars of the cell to gain entry, the prison alarms begin wailing. The computer tells Michael that the alarm is in response to a prison break-in. Michael tells the computer to plot the fastest course to the break-in and gets to moving. Turning a corner, Deathlok comes upon the Warwolf breaking into a cell with prison guards firing on him. With a powerful punch, our hero gets the monster's attention. The internal computer warns Michael that the Warwolf is charging its eye-lasers and he is able to move out of the way just as the deadly beams cut a hole in the wall behind him. Michael asks the computer how the Warwolf is able to see when it discharges its beams and the computer tells him that it cannot. With very little time to recover, the Warwolf slams into our cyborg hero, pushing both of them through a wall into a freefall to the courtyard below. Deathlok lands on top and proceeds to put quite a few punches into the Warwolf before it unleashes its eye-beams. Apparently upon impacting the ground, the Warwolf sustained quite a bit of damage and is unable to turn off its lasers. Deathlok takes this time to use the piece of tactical information about its lack of sight to put it down for the count! Putting a fresh clip into his pistol, Deathlok points and fires, putting multiple holes in the creature. The Warwolf collapses onto the floor, but the computer notes that it is still alive and that its organic wolf brain will die within six hours. Michael takes pity on the creature, because it was merely doing what it was built to do. He decides to not let it suffer those six hours, so he deactivates the "no killing" parameter in his software. Michael whispers, "Sorry, boy." and puts one final shot into the creature. Back at the tree in front of his home, Michael continues writing his letters to his wife. He writes about Dworman being able to recover enough information in Warwolf's systems to be able to pin Billy Hansen's death on Ryker. Unfortunately Warwolf destroyed all of Cybertek's database, which makes it incredibly hard for him to find his human body. With all of that said, Michael admits his sorrow over putting Warwolf down, because "as I pulled the trigger, just for an instant, I wished I had been in Warwolf's place." "...there's no one to put me out of my misery." That ends the first issue of the Michael Collins Deathlok (there was one previous to him that took place in the future) and damn it's a good book. This is one comic book that tends to get thrown in with the rest of Marvel's excess in the 90's and it just should be there. It's a sad, human tale that's pretty unique in its own way. At no point does this story feel like a big super hero cliché. You may have heard of at least one of the writers, Dwayne McDuffie (http://www.dwaynemcduffie.com/). A co-founder of Milestone Comics and co-creator of many of its characters, including the very popular Static, who has his own cartoon on Cartoon Network, Mr. McDuffie is no slouch in the world of comic books. Nor is he much of a slouch in the world of cartoons. Besides the aforementioned Static cartoon, Dwayne also writes for the fantastic Justice League Unlimited cartoon. Now, my personal favorite work of Mr. McDuffie is a book we'll probably cover here pretty soon is Marvel's Damage Control. That's some classic stuff right there! Artist Denys Cowan does some really good stuff in this book. There is a particularly amazing panel that takes place just before we see Deathlok shoot Warwolf: it's a side view of Deathlok's face that shows an amazing amount sadness. When you combine it with the powerful writing that goes on during the scene, you get something really special. While I'm at it, I have to toss props out to Mike Manley for his inking. While Denys may have drawn that scene, the inks are just as important to the image and the power that comes from it. Like a lot of the comics of the 90's, it's fairly hit and miss (though nowhere near how hit and miss the Moon Knight title became), but when it hits... it hits well! The internal dilemma of pacifist Michael Collins versus his killing machine body is something special and different. This version of Deathlok is the one I miss the most, but I figure he'll show up in Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up eventually! So yeah, this book isn't hard to come by, which is only a good thing for you $1 box shoppers (I'm one!). Buy it!