Mr. QUARTUCCIO
Mr. QUARTUCCIO
Real Name: Mr. Quartuccio (first name unrevealed;
see comments)
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-10014)
Occupation: Apparently the director of Roxxon's
Military Solutions division
Group Membership: Roxxon Military Solutions division
Affiliations: Theresa Devereaux and other Roxxon
agents;
formerly Mike Travers;
sought to commercialize Deathlok (Alphamech/Luther Manning/Mike Travers)
Enemies: Deathlok, Hellinger
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly Roxxon Campus, presumably in or near
Manhattan, New York
First Appearance: Deathlok IV#2 (February, 2010)
Powers/Abilities:
Quartuccio directed military operations, and he may have had some
experience in combat, military strategy, etc. However, he seemed most
concerned with profit.
History:
(Deathlok IV#1 - BTS) <In the not-too-distant future> -
With war functioning as a spectator sport and Earth dominated by Roxxon,
Lt. Mike Travers was a
somewhat reckless but highly efficient super-star soldier serving under
Captain Luther Manning in Roxxon's Rockers.
(Deathlok IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - After Travers and Manning both perished in battle, Roxxon altered footage to make it appear that Manning had sacrificed his life to save Travers, who was still injured.
(Deathlok IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - Planning to clone Travers, Roxxon also sought a stopgap to help capitalize on Travers' popularity and the marketing this allowed.
(Deathlok IV#2 - BTS) - Via his Alphamech
technology, Dr. Hellinger created a cyborg using portions of Manning
and Travers' corpses. When this failed to effectively simulate Travers,
it was re-commissioned as a soldier to serve inSaturday Night Battlezone
with the goal of marketing and merchandising to recoup the losses from
Travers' absence.
(Deathlok IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - The name "Deathlok"
tested-out with both the
general public tie-ins and the armament boys, while Hellinger's Alphamech
designation was considerably less effective.
Roxxon's Zinneman subsequently renamed the
Alphamech "Deathlok the Demolisher" and set up huge numbers of video
game, phone, fast food, action figure, Halloween costume, etc. tie-ins
to coincide with the launch of Deathlok on RBC (Roxxon
Broadcasting Company). Deathlok was outfitted with a number of
accessories to match products for the action figure.
(Deathlok IV#2) - Hellinger contested the name Deathlok, but Quartuccio told him to forget it, explaining the marketability of "Deathlok" and informing him that Alphamech "sucked." Other Roxxon representatives present agreed, noting that Alphamech was not sexy and that "you can't sell guns without sex."
Hellinger further argued that his creation's primary weapons were far more lethal than the accessories, Quartuccio instructed that the accessories were revenue streams and selling points to replace the income lost by Travers' absence: "You can't sell kids a quasar-encrypted link-up to an orbital R.O.G. launcher"...and Quartuccio's yes-men reiterated that such weapons were not sexy and that the kids needed something to play with. Quartuccio continued that they could not market "Mirage, Locust or Hellads" tech to their battlefield competitors.
Acknowledging this, Hellinger insisted that the point of the Alphamech unit was not to serve as a billboard but rather to dominate on <presumably "the field of battle">. However, Quartuccio interrupted Hellinger, advising him that the point of the Deathlok unit was to generate revenue to compensate for the ongoing absence of Mike Travers (which he knew that Hellinger had been tasked to remedy). Quartuccio then explained that no division of Roxxon had had their margin hit harder than military solutions, and so Hellinger's systems would be dormant, while Deathlok would employ the accessory armaments: "We will sell toys and gun and t-shirts. And I will get my #### division into profit again before my bonus shrinks and I have to kill someone!"
(Deathlok IV#2 - BTS) - Deathlok was introduced on
the next Saturday Night Battlezone as Roxxon's Rockers engaged the
Metrobank Nth
Command. Armed with a large automatic weapon, Deathlok was blasted out
of the air by a missile and then surrounded by enemy soldiers. Deathlok
subsequently deployed a satellite-based laser system,
which incinerated the soldiers around him.
(Deathlok IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - Deathlok slaughtered
the soldiers opposing him. 
(Deathlok IV#3) - Mr. Quartuccio insisted
Hellinger explain how, in a first trial, the Alphamech unit had
accessed a satellite-based weapon function, as those functions were to
have remained dormant along with any and all primary functions that
interfered with it using the "mother-####"
product it was out there to push. 
After Hellinger replied, "...simply put, Mr. Quartuccio, the Alphamech unit didn't like them," Quartuccio asked if he was telling him that his robot didn't like the 10 million dollars worth of high markup, market-tested ordinance they were depending on it to promote.
Hellinger interjected that the use of the word "robot" demonstrated Quartuccio's lack of understanding of the Alphamech, which was not a simple, programmable machine.
Furious, Quartuccio grabbed Hellinger by the neck and instructed Hellinger that it was a "#### billboard! A spokes model. If selling arms were an auto show, Deathlok would be the hot chick leaning her #### on the cars!"
When Hellinger asked Quartuccio's indulgence in
allowing him to demonstrate something, Quartuccio asked if he meant his
utter incompetence, but Hellinger instead grabbed Quartuccio's lower
forearm, crushing it with such force that blood ruptured through
several spots in his hand, and replied, "Cybernetic organisms." While
Quartuccio dropped to the ground in agony and tried to crawl away
before finally rolling on his back and apparently passing out,
Hellinger instructed him on how his hand was a mechanical device
integrated with an organic possessed of thought and personality;
similarly, Deathlok was not simply a machine but an entity in its own
right. He continued that when the Alphamech had found itself at risk
and with Roxxon's armaments not up to task, some remnant of
personality, an intersection of the neurological elements harvested to
run the unit, asserted themselves.
Devereaux then noted that Quartuccio, while feeble, was correct about the Deathlok's purpose, and she instructed Hellinger to lobotomize Deathlok if necessary so that he would serve his purpose of promoting Roxxon products by using their accessories.
Comments: Created by Charlie Huston and Lan Medina.
Quartuccio's fate is unrevealed.
Did he recover but perhaps
permanently lose the use of his right hand (or lose the hand altogether)?
Did he died from thrombosis an anaerobic infection from
the crush injury (along the lines of gangrene)?
Was he executed for his failings?
Did he die in one of Deathlok's later assaults on the
Roxxon campus?
The world may never know...
Mr. Quartuccio is an homage to Victorio
Quartuccio from the original Deathlok series in Astonishing Tales.
In that series,
Quartuccio was mysterious and undefined (although I think he was most
likely an alias of Hellinger, with being just an agent or pawn of
Hellinger next most likely).
In this series, Quartuccio was certainly not
Hellinger nor his agent or pawn...and his first name was not revealed.
While Victorio is a likely first name, some of the characters had
different names in this series, so who knows?
This profile was completed 08/26/2024, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mr. Quartuccio should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Deathlok
IV#2-3 (February-March, 2010) - Charlie Huston (writer), Lan Medina (art),
Sebastian Girner (assistant editor), Axel Alonso (executive editor)
First posted: 09/17/2026
Last updated: 08/26/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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