Real Name:
Death MetalDEATH METAL
Real Name:
Death Metal
Identity/Class: Extra-temporal (Earth-8410) artificial creation/cyborg; hybrid of science and magic
Occupation: Warrior; death seeker
Affiliations: Argon (assimilated
personality);
Brassknuckles, Spirit (allies);
Formerly Charnel; Dr. Evelyn Necker
(creator); Death's Head and Death Wreck
Enemies: Alpha Flight,
Charnel, Genetix, Mys-Tech Techno-Wizards and Psycho-Warriors; Krista
Marwan;
Earth-9939 counterparts of Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Ghost
Rider/Noble Kale, Kingpin
Formerly the X-Saviours of Earth-9939;
Argon and his father
Known Relatives: Unidentified child by Krista
Marwan.
You could consider Dr. Evelyn Necker his mother, Charnel his
father, and Death Wreck and Death's Head his older brothers
Aliases: Deathbringer, Minion
Base of Operations: mobile across time, space, and dimensions; formerly Earth 2020; Earth-Charnel
First Appearance: Death3#1 (Marvel UK)(September, 1993)
Powers/Abilities:
Death Metal is immensely strong and powerful--his power source is
a combination of magical energy and the nuclear power produced by
his cold fusion cardiac device. Composed of a magical metal,
"Promethium," he is able to reshape his form as will,
forming any number and type of bladed and ballistic weapons. He
is possessed of at least Class 75-90 strength, and while he is
resistant to most forms of injury, he is able to reform his body
from almost any injury he does incur. Short of total
vaporization, he seems able to recover within seconds to minutes.
Like his precursor, Death's Head, Death Metal possesses a
"psiphon" device, enabling him to drain and absorb the
memories and personalities of others, to add to his own.
Death Metal's origins cause him to be "evil" by nature,
and his natural state is a berserk fury, prone to destruction and
slaughter. However, the assimilation of Argon's personality into
his own has given him a conscience. Realizing the danger that he
is, Death Metal seeks his own death. However, he is unable to
physically destroy himself, and escalation of a struggle with
others may submerge Argon's influence, causing him to return to
his murderous rage.
Height: 6'11" (variable)
Weight: 385 lbs.
Eyes: Silver
Hair: None
History:
(Death3#1-4) - Death Metal is the third in the Minion
series of robot/cyborg/etc., created by Dr. Evenlyn Necker, in an
alternate future. His first creation, Death Wreck, vanished
shortly after its creation in 2019, and his second creation,
Death's Head, rebelled and went off on its own.
<6/11/2021> - Death Wreck returned to Necker, and she tried
out her time travel device on it, sending it to an alternate
timeline of Earth-Charnel. It was immediately attacked by the
Spawn of Charnel, and when its time jump returned it to Necker's
lab, the arm of one of the Spawn of Charnel was brought back as
well. Intrigued by this new metal, which she dubbed
"Promethium" (my grubby Prometheus must have stolen
it from some cybernetic heaven), she decided to make a third
attempt to form a successful Minion.
<6/15/2021> - She succeeded in replicating the Promethium
(which she determined to be sentient).
<6/22/2021> - Necker articulated the Minion mainframe and
assembled the low-light intensifier optics.
<7/03/2021> - With the bodyverse systemics at optimal,
Necker introduced a cold-fusion cardiac reactor.
<7/09/2021> - Necker completed and activated Death Metal,
who promptly abandoned his programming and sought to follow the
call of his "father," Charnel. He then stole one of
Necker's time-displacement units and traveled to Earth-Charnel.
Death Metal, initially incapacitated by the
time travel, was found by that world's Octopus (Dr. Octopus) ,
who had his body brought to his master, Doom (Dr. Doom), hoping
to win his approval and become his chief lieutenant. This
generated a dispute with one of Doom's other agents, Fisk
(Kingpin), who sought that position for himself. However, Death
Metal revived and killed all three of them, effectively ending
the dispute. As Death Metal destroyed the base and left, he was
confronted by Ghost Rider, who recognized the scent of Charnel on
him and attacked. Death Metal shattered the Spirit of Vengeance,
temporarily destroying him/it.
He then sought out and joined forces with Charnel. Meanwhile, his
two "older brothers," Death's Head and Death Wreck, had
both arrived on Earth-Charnel by different means. Death's Head
had recently (you know how it goes, with two stories in
different era running in a parallel fashion...no? too bad!)
destoyed Charnel in the modern era, which had created a temporal
wave, which would wipe out the future incarnation of Charnel, and
the timeline of Earth-Charnel, in which he had conquered Earth.
The first two "Minions" joined forces with the last
surviving super-heroes of that era, the X-Saviours, to destroy
Charnel before he could travel back in time and prevent his past
defeat, and thus insure his continued existence (take the
advice from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged ME: Don't try to
think about it too much, just sit back, and enjoy).
Anyway, Death Metal joined the fight, alongside the Spawn of
Charnel, and took out the most powerful X-Saviour, the Hulk. He
then fought it out with his two older brothers, and defeated them
both. However, the reformed Ghost Rider then again confronted
him, and subjected him to his penance stare, which made him see
the evil of Charnel. Death Metal then joined forces with his two
brothers and attacked Charnel, and defeated him.
Death Metal: We found his weakness! He wasn't immune to three
indestructible cyborgs tearing the living crud out of him.
The temporal loop then caught up with them, seemingly erased the
timeline of Earth-Charnel, and sent the three brothers to
different dates and places.
(Death Metal#1, 2) - Death Metal arrived in
Toronto, Canada. He was initially dazed, but when a police
officer fired on him, it drove him back into a killing frenzy. As
Death Metal rampaged throught the city, a distant figure sent his
only son, Argon, to stop Death Metal. He realized that Argon had
no chance of being successful in overpowering the cyborg.
Instead, his father hoped that Death Metal would defeat Argon and
then assimilate his mind. His goal was for Argon's purity to
somehow dampen Death Metal's murderous fury. After a short and
savage battle, Argon was overpowered and assimilated.
As hoped, Argon's mind returned clarity back to Death Metal, who,
now aware of the monster he had become, began to seek his own
destruction. Soon enough, Alpha Flight arrived in response to the
carnage caused by Death Metal and attempted to subdue him. Death
Metal, with the conscience of Argon, sought to escalate the
struggle so that Alpha Flight might actually destroy him.
(Death Metal#2/Death Metal vs Genetix#1(fb)) - Madison Jeffries, Box, succeeded in injuring Death Metal, but only for a brief time. Death Metal's efforts to escalate the battle succeeded, but eventually his programming overcame Argon's conscience, and he returned to his state of frenzy. Only Aurora's soothing light proved the effective, restoring Death Metal's clarity and conscience. Upon regaining his mind, Death Metal teleported off Earth to prevent a similar recurrence.
(Death Metal vs Genetix#1, 2) - One week later,
Death Metal returned to Earth, this time seeking to father a
child that could slay him. To do this, he took cell samples from
the mutant Madison Jeffries, aka Box, who could manipulate
metals, plastics, etc. Death Metal then took a similar sample
from Vesper, who could mentally
control machinery and computers. DM combined the genetic material
of these two into a single sample of genetic material with which
it planned to father a child that could eventually destroy him.
Death Metal then implanted this material into a mutant, Krista
Marwan, who could successfully mother the child he sought. The
group Genetix arrived too late to stop him, but rescued Krista
from his clutches. Krista thought to end her own life, but Death
Metal again caught up with her and prepared to lobotomize her, so
that she could still mother the child, without resisting his
plans. Fortunately, Argon's persona surfaced within Death Metal,
long enough to stop him until Genetix could battle him once more.
DM's battle frenzy quickly returned as he fought the teens of
Genetix, but Krista calmed him when she decided to have the baby,
to give both it and Death Metal a sense of hope.
(Death Metal#3) - While Death Metal sought the
peace of solitude on a distant planet, Mys-Tech Techno-Wizard
Rathcoole sought to claim him as his own personal warrior. A
battle with Rathcoole's Psycho-Warriors nearly sent him into
another slaughter-frenzy, but he eventually faked his defeat,
hoping the Warriors' master could destroy him.
However, Spirit, a woman worshipping Death Metal, attacked and
fought off the Psycho-Warriors. Annoyed, Death Metal teleported
away to another planet, where he was assaulted by another man
seeking his own death, Brassknuckles.
(Death Metal#4) - Spirit followed Death Metal, and a short battle followed between three beings, each of whom wanted to die. However, Rathcoole and the rest of Techno-Wizards tracked and attempted to capture Death Metal, interrupting their battle. Death Metal provoked a battle with the Techno-Wizards, again hoping that they could destroy him. They were nearly successful, and Death Metal was sufficiently injured that he could have allowed himself to permanently discorporate. However, when he learned that the Techno-Wizards planned to exterminate the innocents of that planet, Death Metal forced himself to reform and fight off the Mys-Tech lords. Having found a purpose in life--the destruction of Mys-Tech, he took Spirit and Brassknuckles as allies and teleported away.
Comments: Created by Dan Abnett and Dell Barras.
Chronology is not my strong suit. However,
given that there seemed to be a pause b/t Death Metal#2 and #3;
that at the end of DM#4 he wasn't actively seeking his own death
any more; and that DM#1+2, and Death Metal vs Genetix#1+2 were
published simultaneously, it makes more sense to have DM vs
Genetix#1+2 occur during that pause. However, it's certainly
possible that he got P.O.'d at his two new buddies/worshippers,
Brassknuckles and Spirit, killed them both, and then felt guilty
and went back to Earth to seek his own death.
Moot point. Dorcas Farkas.
Earth 2020 would appear to be the common
timeline to such characters as Iron Man 2020, the Machine Man
limited series, the previous Death's Head (see clarifications),
and a few other Marvel UK series, such as Nikki Doyle: Wild
Thing. Because it is not unique to a single, primary character, I
refer to it by that time, like Earth 2099.
In addition, as yet, there's no reason to consider this part of
Marvel's sliding timescale, so I would consider the dates in the
history to accurate, and relevent to that timeline.
According to the story, Earth-Charnel was wiped out by the destruction of Charnel in the modern era. Typically, in the MU at least, this sort of thing creates a divergent timeline, rather than erasing one or the other. But, time travel stories always have some sort of artistic license.
All of the "liquid metal" characters seemed to pop up after the movie, "T2," and they all remind me of the T2000 Terminator. I'd guess that was their inspiration.
Death Metal received an entry in the All-New OHotMU Update#3.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Death Metal/Minion should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Death3#1-2 (September-October, 1993) - Dan Abnett (writer), Dell Barras (artist)
Death3#3 (November, 1993) - Dan Abnett (writer), Dell Barras (pencils), Ewan Smith (inks)
Death3#4 (December, 1993) - Dan Abnett (writer), Dell Barras (artist)
Death Metal vs Genetix#1-2 (December, 1993 - January, 1994) - Simon Furman (writer), Paco Diaz Luque (pencils), Robin Smith (inks)
Death Metal#1-4 (January-April, 1994) - Simon Furman (writer), John Royle (pencils), Robin Riggs (inks)
Last updated: 03/13/03
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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