Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1994-03-01 00:05:30 |
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Death's Head II #16
Issue(s): Death's Head II #16
Cover Date: Mar 94
Title: "Origin of the species"
Credits:
Dan Abnett - Writer
Henry Flint - Penciler
Henry Flint - Inker
Stuart Bartlett - Editor
Review/plot:
This is the final issue of the Death's Head II series. But like with a lot of Marvel UK books, the end came unexpectedly (the UHBMCC says that the series was solicited through issue #18), so this is just a random adventure, not anything meant to be a conclusion to the series.
Death's Head II is pulled from the "distant past" by a donkey-man called Chronozone, who hates humans, because - he claims - humans have destroyed the universe.
In terms of what year it is, "if you can conceive of the year Sixty Thousand AD, we are three full turns of the entire galaxy after that". Chronozone's plan is to reprogram Death's Head and send him back to the last nineteenth century so that he'll wipe out humanity.
After much fighting, Death's Head II finds him in a room full of human remains, and also the remains of his own future self.
Death's Head II uses his ability to absorb personalities to absorb his own future self's memories, and he learns the truth: Chronozone exterminated humanity after he and his donkey-men race tried to conquer them..
Having absorbed his future self's memories, Death's Head II now knows how to beat Chronozone (which seems to be just punching him).
Death's Head II allows Chronozone to live in exchange for Chronozone agreeing to send DHII home. The process of doing so leaves Chronozone's ship depleted, leaving Chronozone stranded alone in the empty galaxy. Death's Head II says that he's going to use his future self's memories to warn humanity and prepare them for the coming of the donkey-men.
I guess it is canon that Death's Head II has all the memories of his future self going all the way to 60,000+ AD. Death's Head II doesn't have too many appearances after this, so it's not something that really has an opportunity to come up.
Dan Abnett writes Death's Head II engagingly enough, and there's nothing wrong with random sci fi stories, but the plot is still very thin, and the twist has no weight behind it. The twist might have made more impact the other way (i.e., Chronozone seems to just be an evil conqueror but in fact he's trying to stop humanity from destroying the galaxy) but even that would be a bit cliche at this point. Also, the villain's name is "Chronozone". Abnett also doesn't seem concerned about the long term implications of giving Death's Head II all his future memories.
This just isn't very good.
Quality Rating: D+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
"Abnett also doesn't seem concerned about the long term implications of giving Death's Head II all his future memories."
As with any future stories, who says that that future will come to pass? Almost every other "future" storyline has been changed simply because the character finds out about it and tries to prevent it. In other words, it's just a possible future.
That "What is this? A mausoleum?" panel... Wow. That just looks wrong. Is he really doing what it looks like he's doing?! Did he bring a change of trousers or does his outfit have a flap?
Sorry. I quite like Chronozone's giant mechanized swiss army knife arms but the story does seem sadly thin for the last issue of a comic with a character who sort of is but mostly isn't a character who was really popular here at one time.
