An Unlikely Ally for X-Force

Every week we use the powers of Marvel Unlimited to celebrate a major character's first appearance in the hallowed halls of the House of Ideas.

X-Force can't seem to catch a break these days. First, their mentor Cable got murdered by...a younger version of himself. And now they've been framed for the murder of the Transian president, as seen in this week's X-FORCE #2 by writer Ed Brisson and artist Dylan Burnett.

Luckily for them, though, now they have a couple new allies to work with. One of whom happens to be the aforementioned young Cable and the other is a cyborg killing machine from an alternate reality by the name of Deathlok!

There have been a couple versions of this figure, so let's parse out his history...

The very first Deathlok appeared in 1974's ASTONISHING TALES #25 thanks to Doug Moench and Rich Buckler. In that issue, readers met Deathlok the Demolisher—a reanimated military man named Luther Manning whose keen strategic mind had been preserved and paired with a computer operating system to create a death-dealing dynamo.

This reality had been plagued by wars to the point where the government felt a rneed to create super-soldiers more metal than bone who could stand up to the enemy better than a standard human. So "Project Alpha-Mech" was born, followed closely by Deathlok.

However, Manning eventually rejected his programming and his masters, breaking out on his own as he headlined ASTONISHING TALES until the series ended with issue #36. Since then, he's traveled to the modern day Marvel Universe and back to his own era more than a few times.

Since then, many people have been Deathlok. One of the more well known ones, Michael Collins, debuted in the four-issue limited DEATHLOK series in 1990 by Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright, and Jackson Guice.

This version, a professor, eschewed the first part of his nickname and dedicated himself to fulfilling his missions without killing anyone. Collins later starred in his own DEATHLOK series that ran for 34 issues between 1991 and 1994.

The version currently appearing in X-FORCE seems to be the one who premiered back in WOLVERINE WEAPON X #11-#15 by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney. Part of a whole squad of Roxxon-created Deathloks sent from the future to kill Captain America, this one consisted of a psychopathic person with a calm computer trying to keep control of the biological portion's murderous rage.

Between WEAPON X and X-FORCE, this Deathlok not only fought alongside the Uncanny X-Force squad, but also appeared as a guest speaker on future probabilities at the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning in WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN.

Now alongside young Cable and the members of X-Force, he's trying to figure out how a small country like Transia has been getting bigtime weapons that appear to be from the future. To see how that plays out, though, you'll have to keep reading X-FORCE every month!

Read these titles and more on Marvel Unlimited! Visit your local comic shop to read X-FORCE #2!