Death's Head Revisited (comic story)
Death's Head Revisited was written by Simon Furman and first released by Marvel UK as Death's Head in 1988. The original story had no connections to the DWU, but upon its collection in 1993's The Incomplete Death's Head the story was retroactively made valid as the narrative saw the story acting as part of a database created by Hob to document the life of Death's Head. Accordingly, only this 1993 reprint is considered valid while any other reprints remain invalid.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
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Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Hired by local rebels to kill their King, Death's Head breaks into the Royal Palace on Studduj to complete his assignment. However, he finds that the King himself had been the one to hire the hit on himself so that the rebels didn't have a chance and that he planned to trick and dispose of the assassin. Death's Head easily defeated the King's guards and, despite the King's attempts to cancel their contract, he executed the King.
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Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Death's Head states that his current mission "stank like the slime pits of Gargurus-Seven in mid-summer".
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This story is a reprint of Marvel UK Death's Head comic story Death's Head Revisited.
- There is no connection between this 1988 Death's Head story and Doctor Who Universe. Accordingly, this wiki did not consider this 1988 Death's Head story valid.
- The validity of the 1993 version printed in the second issue of The Incomplete Death's Head comic series is due to it being contained in-universe within the Death's Head Interactive Archive compiled by Hob on Maruthea. Accordingly, only this 1993 reprint can be referenced on in-universe pages. Other reprints remain invalid and cannot be used on in-universe pages.
- The framing device of The Incomplete Death's Head shifted the main focus of this story to the future. Whereas the invalid original 1989 version was set in 8162 with three separate flashbacks, the valid 1993 version was set on Maruthea with four flashbacks, the three original ones and a flashback to 8162. This shift necessitated changes to yellow captions and, at times provided more information:
- In the invalid version, Death's Head was repaired "beneath the surface of Greater Britain", whereas the valid reprint identified the place as an "underground laboratory". The change is significant as the original comic never clarified whether the rebuilding happened inside the Chaney Maximum Security Prison. The presence of a laboratory rules that possibility out. Additionally, an image of Tuck was inserted into the same frame to reinforce the fact that Death's Head was reprogrammed in addition to being rebuilt.
- Death's Head's reminiscences on Furik about killing his male creator, stealing his money and torching his mansion were accompanied with a caption (signed Tim) alerting the reader that these memories were "at odds with real events at this point", as depicted in the invalid Death's Head: The Body in Question in 1990.
- A speech balloon was added for Sabre specifying that five days passed between the first two 8162 flashbacks. An out-of-universe reference to an invalid Dragon's Claws story was replaced by a reference to its valid reprint. Finally, a caption reaffirming the identity of Spratt as the reprogrammer was added. This was significant because Spratt's looks undergo a drastic transormation from this to the next story and the Contractual Obligations Spratt claims to never have seen a hired killer before, in seeming contradiction to him reprogramming Death's Head here.
- The Scarvix flashback was supplied with an additional caption, "The scanners flicker and change once again, flashing furiously into life as they speed ever forwards through time to another memory." This can only be described as a production error as the idea of green-clad Death's Head on Scarvix happening after Spratt reprogrammed him in 8162 and gave hime a blue outfit does not seem to be possible continuitywise, nor compatible with the original invalid story where Scarvix was a flashback relative to 8162. However, this wiki only accepts the validity of the reprint, meaning that Death's Head was on Scarvix immediately after Styrakos, as per The Incomplete Death's Head and then again after concluding business in 8162 as per this story.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
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