Issue(s): Death Metal #1, Death Metal #2
Cover Date: Jan-Feb 94
Title: "Death urge!" / "Death wish" / "Death hunt"
Credits:
Simon Furman - Writer
John Royle - Penciler
Robin Riggs - Inker
Stuart Bartlett - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue starts with Death Metal out of control again, mindlessly slaughtering aliens on remote worlds.

Meanwhile, a warrior named Argon is sent by his father to fight Death Metal.

Also meanwhile, Death's Head II has taken a job retrieving a power suit for the Secret Empire as a way to stick it to AIM.

He's upset at AIM because he thinks that AIM of the future tried to replicate the process that created him to create Death Metal.

It wasn't really AIM that created Death Metal - it was Dr. Necker on her own - but Death's Head II isn't aware of that.

Rathcoole of Mys-Tech is observing Death's Head II, and when he hears mention of Death Metal and his origins (involving Charnel) he gets interested.

He therefore arranges for Death Metal to get teleported to Earth. Death Metal arrives in Toronto, and makes a scene with the local police. He's then attacked by Argon. It turns out that Argon's father didn't think Argon had a chance against Death Metal, but he was hoping that Metal would absorb Argon's pyche. And that is what happens, and it causes Death Metal to regain control of himself. But all of this has attracted the attention of Alpha Flight.

But Death Metal, now in control of himself, actually wants Alpha Flight to kill him. After Ghost Rider 2020 gave him a soul, he regrets all the killing that he's been doing and he wants himself stopped. But he knows he needs to put up a good fight so that they'll kill him.

While the other Alphans are fighting Death Metal, Puck investigates the body of Argon. While he's doing so, they are both teleported away.

They wind up somewhere with no oxygen and intense pressure. Puck passes out.

Meanwhile, Death Metal tries to prevent himself from initiating autorepairs, but he finds it increasingly difficult to not fight back, and soon loses control again.

Puck turns out to be at Argon's father's place. Argon gives Puck a hint about how to stop Death Metal, and sends him back to Earth. Puck tells Aurora to use her light powers to sooth Death Metal.

Death Metal teleports away, off Earth.

But Mys-Tech is still tracking him, and sends psycho-warriors after him.

Also in issue #1 is an entity called Abysss.

And in issue #2 there are three interludes showing additional characters.

It's nice to see Simon Furman, the current Alpha Flight writer, incorporating them into this series, even though they are little more than personality-free canon fodder. I do like Death Metal's motivation. We've had death wish characters before (e.g. Suicide in Ghost Rider) but as a main character it's something new, and it's arguably more admirable than a character like, say, Morbius, who knows that he goes on killing sprees but selfishly continually tries to cure himself even though the cures never work. But it's not like any of that is really explored in this story. It's a chaotic and mechanical plot, muddled with a deluge of additional generic characters that we have to keep track of.

The coordination between this book and Death Metal vs. Genetix is also annoying. That book will show a follow-up to the battle with Alpha Flight, including an expansion of the fight with a (relatively) critical development that isn't shown here, and then Death Metal following up on that development a week later. But these two issues end with Death Metal having teleported into space, which is where he'll be at the start of issue #3 when he is attacked by Mys-Tech's psycho-warriors. And the rest of issues #3-4 continue with no break and end with Death Metal teamed up with a couple of other characters and with having found a reason to go on living. So it seems weird that he's alone in Death Metal vs. Genetix and trying to kill himself again. The Appendix puts Death Metal vs. Genetix in the middle of this story, with the idea that he went back to Earth for those issues and then returned to space to get attacked by Mys-Tech. But the MCP goes the other way, placing all four issues of this before Death Metal vs. Genetix. Neither way is great, but i'm going to follow the Appendix since Death Metal's motivation seems like the bigger factor. The Appendix does try to be balanced and say that "it's certainly possible that [Death Metal] got PO'd at his two new buddies, Brassnuckles and Spirit, killed them both, and then felt guilty and went back to Earth to seek his own death". The problem with that is that Spirit will later appear in Annihilation: Ronan.

The bigger point, and the reason i mention all of this here instead of in the Considerations, is that you shouldn't have two books coming out at approximately the same time that point to each other and yet fail to manage the basic coordination between them. Get the story straight, guys.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This was published afterwards, but it takes place before Death Metal vs. Genetix #1-2. A flashback in Death Metal vs. Genetix #1 takes place in the middle of issue #2 here. Both stories take place before the end of Alpha Flight in Alpha Flight #128-130. See above regarding the placement of Death Metal vs. Genetix with regards to this series.

References:

• Death Metal previously appeared in Death³ #1-4, where he was created and where he was hit by Ghost Rider 2020's penance stare.
  
• Death's Head II was created by AIM 2020 in the original Death's Head II miniseries.
  
• The technique Aurora uses against Death Metal is the same as what she did in Alpha Flight #118 to subdue Thunderball.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I thought with a name like "Death Metal" I'd find some reference to Obituary, Cannibal Corpse etc.