Inclusion debates/Death's Head: The Body in Question
(User:Amorkuz gave me their blessing to make a new inclusion debate thread that adressed the Four Little Rules.)
Death's Head: The Body in Question, first published in Strip #13-20, functions as a continuation of Death's Head (1988) / The Incomplete Death's Head as well as an origin story for the titular Death's Head, a character iconic for appearing in Marvel, Transformers, and Doctor Who comics.
Given the obscurity of this story, here's a detailed summary/review if you need to familiarize yourself with it: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
As this community did for The Incomplete Death's Head, let's see if Death's Head: The Body in Question meets the requirements of this wiki's “Four Little Rules”:
| 1 | Only stories count. |
It is a story.
| 2 | A story that isn't commercially licensed by all of the relevant copyright holders doesn't count. |
It was licensed by relevant copyright holders, namely Marvel UK.
| 3 | A story must be officially released to be valid. |
It was officially released in 1990 and as a complete volume in 1991.
| 4 | If a story was intended to be set outside the DWU, then it's probably not allowed. But a community discussion will likely be needed to make a final determination. |
Ah, now this is where things get contentious; is this story set in the DWU? While Death's Head: The Body in Question is first and foremost a Death Head story, I propose that it is intended to be set in the DWU for two primary reasons:
- 1. Death's Head explicitly refers to the Doctor by name. (See image)
Here we see Death's Head recap the basics of his past stories. The Seventh Doctor sent him to the year 8162, where he was based for a few stories. When they reencountered thanks to Josiah W. Dogbolter, the Seventh Doctor left him on the Baxter Building in 1989. Reed Richards then sends Death's Head to 2020, where Death's Head (1988) end and Death's Head: The Body in Question begins.
(I found this to be a surprising name drop, given the Doctor was only referred to as a “feeble time traveler” in Watch Out – Dragon's Claws Here's Death's Head! (comic story) and Clobberin' Time! (comic story). The writers probably avoided the Doctor's name for simplity to not confused readers, but this story explicity connects itself to the DWU.)
- 2. The appearance of Keepsake's vulture. (See image)
While this unnamed animal only plays a bit role in its appearances, this vulture first appeared in Keepsake (comic story), a Seventh Doctor comic story from DWM 140. Keepsake, his vulture, and the medic Bahlia would later appear in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling! (comic story), a Doctor-less Death's Head story. The vulture joined Death's Head and appeared in two more Death's Head comics which then lead into Death's Head: The Body in Question.
(More information on Keepsake's vulture here.)
With an explicit namedrop of the Doctor as well as the appearance of a character that originated in the DWU and is explicitly meant to be the same character from a DWU story, I believe this is enough evidence in favor for Death's Head: The Body in Question to be set in the DWU, yes?
(At least I'm not arguing that Revolutionary War: Death's Head II (2014) is valid because the vulture is seen in a flashback in issue 1. I have no real case for that one.)
