Issue(s): Marvel Spotlight #33
Cover Date: Apr 77
Title: "(Don't fear) the Reaper!"
Credits:
David Anthony Kraft - Writer
Rich Buckler & Mike Nasser - Penciler
Arvell Malcom Jones & Klaus Janson - Inker

Review/plot:
The art credits are a little vague. All four are just listed as "artists".

How do you like that? I bought this issue because it's the one where Deathlok sort-of comes back to the present day era, but it also turns out to be the first appearance of the Devil-Slayer.

Deathlok has been sent back in time by Godwulf.

He winds up in a hospital in the present day, but doesn't realize that's where he is at first.

Meanwhile, Eric Simon Payne, a former criminal assassin and then cultist that now is dedicated to preventing "xenogensis - the rebirth of the demon race", arrives at an airport from Jamaica.

He's got mystical powers that prevent people from seeing him in costume.

When he arrives at the hospital where his estranged wife works, he encounters Deathlok and assumes he is a demon. Deathlok likewise assumes Devil-Slayer is "some cannibal or mutie freak".

They battle for a while and then when Devil-Slayer realizes the fight is endangering civilians, he wraps himself up in his cloak and disappears.

It's kind of funny because then he just kind of sits in his pocket dimension waiting for Deathlok to follow him, which is apparently what a demon would do.

But of course Deathlok doesn't and couldn't. And in any event he's too rattled by the fact that Devil-Slayer's wife looks like his wife, Janice.

Devil-Slayer eventually brings Deathlok to the pocket dimension so they can fight some more and Devil-Slayer can show off his ability to pull in mystical weapons as needed.

But eventually they are able to communicate with each other and return to Earth, where they get to fight some real demons.

After the fight with the demons, they say goodbye, and Devil-Slayer walks away with his wife while Deathlok fades away. It's said he'll next appear in Marvel Two-In-One #27.

Meanwhile, the villain Hellinger rants and schemes in the year 1990.

One of the most engaging parts of a Deathlok book is his interaction with his computer, but unfortunately it is broken down in this issue, overwhelmed by the time travel, and unable to say much.

The title of this issue is a Blue Oyster Cult reference. Kraft will take the Blue Oyster Cult references to an absurd extreme in the Devil-Slayer's introduction to the Defenders in Defenders #58.

Devil-Slayer himself is a relatively minor character (although he does have a decent number of appearances) but his Shadow Cloak is a semi-significant Marvel artifact in its own right.

This is the last issue of Marvel Spotlight.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - First Devil-Slayer. Deathlok arrives in the present day.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place before Marvel Two-In-One #26, which is pushed back in publication time due to dependencies with the Fantastic Four series.

References:

• There are references to Deathlok's series, which are outside the scope of my project: Astonishing Tales #36, Astonishing Tales #37, and Astonishing Tales #33. As noted in the comments, there actually was no Astonishing Tales #37.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Cory Payne has a couple more appearances in Defenders 97 and 110.

Thanks Michael. Added them.

Maybe some pages were salvaged from an unfinished Buckler/Jones Devil-Slayer solo story?

This was actually supposed to be Astonishing Tales #37, but the book got cancelled first. The original cover is in the Complete Deathlok PB.

I didn't realize there wasn't an Astonishing Tales #37 when i listed the References for this issue. The reference to the (non-existent) #37 has Deathlok's computer saying that his logical unit is dysfunctional and the footnote says "Because of the detonation device which almost destroyed Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #37".

Much of the back-story that Devil-Slayer alludes to in this issue is actually taken from the one-and-only issue of Demon Hunter by Kraft & Buckler published by the short-lived Atlas Comics in 1975...

http://www.atlasarchives.com/comics/demonhunter01.html

Looks like all Janson inks to me! Arvell must have supplied pencils.