Deathlok was before Robocop

I love the character of Deathlok and wish Marvel would make a film with the character.

I always loved this character. I particularly liked the ongoing internal dialogue he had with his computer. The tension between Manning’s emotion driven quest to reclaim his humanity vs the logic based pragmatism of his internal computer was a terrific idea. Set in an apocalyptic wasteland of 90’s America this comic was one of the early precursors of near-future sci-fi that later became popular. I agree that it’s initial run was uneven but I thought that the ideas it embodied were compelling.

Marvel should have made a story in which Deathlok gets an assignment from Roxxon and the Government, in which he has to pursue and capture Marvel's Machine Man, who is basically always running from the Gov.
Idk I just think it would be awesome to see Deathlok and Machine Man story.

Given the plot descriptions of those early issues and Buckler's apparent tailoring of narrative to fit what he wanted to draw, this books SCREAMS Image Comics, but around 20 years too soon.

I suppose Bloodshot owes something to him as well.

A good way to make Dethlok work is to embrace his obsolescence opposed to re-contextualizing his original "fear of technology" motif. He's an old model cyborg from a dead-end project to make a mechanical super-soldier, so why not have him operate as a vigilante facing off against more modern and technologically advanced threats? You can keep the post-apocalyptic setting by putting him in Cleveland or Detroit, too.

I never considered Deathlok a paranoid commentary on technology as much as I saw it as a profoundly American statement on the resilience of an individual for the sake of individuality's sake (regardless of suffering because what's more american than embodying a bloody battle for independence?) combined with a post-Vietnam distrust of military and country.
But I also only had a cursory understanding of him, being I was eight in 1990.
But, given the technophobic origins, I'd love to see him active on the Luddite subreddit in a day-in-the-life one shot...and I'm only half joking

0:34 Unfortunately, this is true of most characters in the Big 2, especially B-list and C-list characters. Constant reboots in the faintest hope that one of them will eventually catch on with readers.

Nice video, although I don’t know that I agree 100%.   The idea of having integrated artificial intelligent computerized cyborg enhancements, is probably more relevant now than ever before. The tension between the human motivations and machine optimization for outcomes, could be intelligently melted for some very good stories.

Until you showed the Luther Manning clone as a white man in this review, I had always thought he was unusual for being a black protagonist in the 70s. I hadn’t read any series since, and when I saw him as a black character in Agents of Shield, it just fit together. I’m surprised he was supposed to be white.

Another cyborg character I enjoyed greatly was Tailgunner Jo. That series is well worth examining, as it’s an unusual parental relationship, and parts of the story were echoed in Sandman’s Cuckoo arc.

He looks like Cyborg and Deadshot together

I would love to see Deathlok vs OMAC.

I have no doubt that the creators of RoboCop, especially the 2014 Reboot, drew a lot of inspiration from Deathlok's back story. I seriously hope that the 2020 - direct sequel to 1987 original which is being scribed by Neill Blomkamp -  will do the franchise justice and hopefully bring closure to the story of the character.

Thank you!

I learned about D.L. After reading Spider-Man Team_Up. I was left with the impression that he wasn’t a villain or a hero, he was only trying to dodge and hide from the kids who were in some kind of Zombie trance. I am still not sure if he is a hero or a villain. However, this was a great video about the character.

I think Deathlok would work well in 2024. Imagine Luther merged with an AI that increasingly gains more and more knowledge, threatening Luther with increased irrelevance. His self-preservational humanity would push back hard and make for interesting stories. Also, you know, guns and explosives and stuff.

Good channel, I subscribed.

I could have sworn there was a 90s or 80s made for TV movie using this character. Or something similar.

Thanks for this, other than his interesting look I knew nothing of this character.