A few weeks ago I lost my mum. It was cancer, as it always seems to be these days. I was with her on Christmas Eve 2019 when she was given her diagnosis, when the doctor told her he couldn’t give her any timeframe other than to say it could be six-to-twelve months or it could be years. She passed away over four years later and lived her best life in that time, surrounded by friends and family, always so giving to everyone she loved.
Christmas 1980 and Summer 1984
I can still remember my mum rolling her eyes at some of the things she’d see in my OiNK comics and laughing over Christmas 1987 as I showed the cheeky front and back covers of the OiNK Book to every one of her friends that visited over the holidays. She always encouraged my reading. While she may have complained when another comic came along that I wanted to collect, later in life she said she’d always been so happy I was asking for comics instead of sweets every time we went to the shops.
My comics really helped my reading comprehension as a kid and mum encouraged me to read more and more, always filling my stocking every Christmas with books from The Railway Series and always happy (though she’d quibble to me at the time) to give me money to buy comics and computer magazines throughout my younger and teen years.
1990: I definitely got my love of Christmas from mum, and her Christmas dinners were the best!
In 1999, when I decided to forego a full-time job and go back to college to study media and writing she didn’t hesitate to back me, knowing that I was still trying to work out what I wanted to do with my life. Even if she didn’t always agree with decisions I made in that regard, the most important thing for my mum was that I was happy and following my heart. Every new job I tried she was right behind me. I was in my 40s before I realised what I wanted to do and my mum was still encouraging me.
I could wax lyrical with memory upon memory of growing up with my mum but where do you even begin choosing which ones to write about? Instead, I wanted to focus on those associated with my writing and thus this very website; how she was always there to help when times got hard, always there to check that I was still happy, always there to make sure I wasn’t giving up on my dreams, always there to spur me on and let me know she wanted me to succeed.
Enjoying Paris with mum in 2008 Mum with her family at my nephew’s birthday in 2015
It breaks my heart that it’s only now that things are developing the way I wanted them to, that she’ll never see what happens next. After talking to her so much about it over the years, the fact I won’t be able to share any of these things with my mum seems so unfair. Without her I’d have given up by now; I simply wouldn’t have been able to get to this stage without her help and support. I wish she was still here to share this with me.
While I’m sure my friends are right when they reassuringly tell me my mum was always proud of me, I feel her spirit is pushing me on and I’m working hard to make her proud of what I’ll achieve. I look at her photo in my living room from my cousin’s wedding in 2015 and I tell her what I’m finally working on and I know she’d be so happy. (This is the last photo taken of us together in fact. I always take photos of others but so rarely do I put myself in them! This has made me realise I have to correct that.)
Just you watch, mum!
My cousin Elaine’s wedding with mum and dad in 2015
If you’re lucky enough to still have your parents in this world with you make sure you phone them, visit them, and tell them you love them. You just never know when the last time will be the last time.
The first time K.I.T.T. (programmed for human preservation) faced off against the evil prototype K.A.R.R. (programmed for self-preservation) in season one of Knight Rider the paradox of “What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?” was brought up. As a huge fan of the show, when I opened this sixth issue of Marvel UK’s Death’s Head its inclusion as the opening of the editorial made me smile. The militia group Sudden Impact are promoted as equals to the Peacekeeping Agent, so while their cliffhanger last time felt lacking it’s made up for here.
They’re a clichéd lot though, with an overly shouty commander and a ragtag collection of men and women that look like they’ve walked straight out of an 80s action figures catalogue. You might also notice the art style is somewhat different to what we’re used to. That’s because this issue is pencilled by Liam Sharp (Judge Dredd, Batman, Spider-Man), inked by Paul Marshall (Mean Machine, Firekind, Sinister Dexter) and coloured by Louise Cassell (Doctor Who Classic Comics, Transformers, Captain Britain) alongside regular letterer Annie Halfacree and all under the auspices of editor Richard Starkings. The cover above is by the usual pairing of Bryan Hitch and Mark Farmer.
An army general arrives with some troops and confirms he’s there to hire Sudden Impact to tie up some unnamed loose end, which I initially thought would be Death’s Head. His men start to bad-mouth the mercenaries’ looks but Mayhem (their very original-named leader) gives them the go ahead to fight back. Physically. Soon the troops, who vastly outnumbered them, are all beaten but the general doesn’t care. He just agrees Mayhem’s team are the right people for the job.
We catch up with our anti-hero in a luxurious compound in the middle of nowhere, where he’s been hired to ensure a nervous government witness gets to trial. It’s a cushty job for once, so far involving nothing more than relaxing and watching TV. But we know a large team of maniacal, murderous mercenaries are on their way and it would appear he’s the last line of defence. Surely an impossible mission? It’s just as well he has Tom Cruise there too!
As writer Simon Furman describes it in the following panels, the attack is less a battle and more of a slaughter. Tom… I mean, Marshal Lek and his politicised police force are no match for Sudden Impact and the star witness begs Death’s Head to do something. So naturally he responds by telling him they’ll go and find the chess set! We’ll get back to that.
First we get the plot laid out for us as we meet Minister Carson, a corrupt official who has been selling parts of the US armed forces to foreign adversaries for substantial payments. The General we met earlier actually thinks this wouldn’t stop a lot of Americans from still voting for him. Given today’s climate and the blind followers of certain presidential candidates in that country this isn’t as far fetched as it once may have been.
Before we return to the action we catch a quick glimpse of Spratt back at their office. After not appearing at all last month and on one solitary page this time around it feels a bit like he’s taking a back seat after being promoted as Death’s Head’s partner in earlier issues. Such a shame. Here he’s reduced to trying to answer the phone while being attacked by their rescued vulture (see #5), only to discover someone on the line addressing Death’s Head as “my darling”.
That’s all we get of that particular storyline for this issue before we return to that chess set. Yep, he wasn’t kidding and he’s set it up in a secured safe room and ignores the fighting outside. Of course Lek isn’t too happy but you can’t fault Death’s Head’s logic below, and it’s nice to see him back to working to the letter of his contracts which was such an important rule in #1 and yet seemed to be broken or forgotten about last time.
With Lek’s small army taken out already and the mercenaries breaking through into the safe room, it all rests on the star of the comic to take down Sudden Impact one member at a time. What we’re treated to next are several pages of perfect 80s action, similar to how certain issues of Dragon’s Claws (also written by Simon) felt like 80s action movies translated directly to the page. What this means for this character is one exciting take down after another, each accompanied by a Schwarzenegger-like punchline.
With six now taken out already a disappointed Death’s Head laments about how they were meant to be unstoppable but yet it’s all a bit easy for him. Missile launchers, flame throwers, aerial attacks, stealth moves… nothing works and we see the team reduced to its final members over these pages. While it’s all great fun I can’t help but wonder would it have been more exciting if this had been one seemingly unstoppable mercenary rather than a group?
As it stands, Sudden Impact seem little more than cannon fodder, but if it had been Mayhem himself taking up all these pages with attempts to kill Death’s Head, relentlessly coming back for more, it may have felt more dramatic. However, it’s great fun and if there’s anything we’ve learned about the comic by this sixth issue it’s that fun is the main aim here, not drama.
So who cares if they’re cannon fodder? Who cares if it could’ve been more dramatic with one merc? With killer lines like “Buck stops here, yes?” this is so enjoyable and so reminiscent of the aforementioned Arnie and his over-the-top action flicks of the time that the only thing I’m unhappy with is the fact there are only four more issues to go. It’s a title that really stands out as something different, something only Marvel UK could’ve produced.
This is one of the best issues of Death’s Head yet for sheer fun value
We then get to briefly meet the senator whose witness is at the centre of all this violence and it appears our star isn’t exactly working for the good guys. Senator Letterman knows the only difference between Marshal Lek and terrorists are their uniforms and when he realises the extra law enforcement he ordered to escort him are handling a massive riot elsewhere in the city he demands they be called away.
The citizens can kill each other for all he cares, they’re all expendable as long as they’ve already voted for him, and the police aren’t the public’s, they’re his. Whether we see this horrible little squirt again or whether he’s just an example of the larger government I don’t know, but it does show that Death’s Head really is an anti-hero rather than an out-and-out goodie. He might do what’s morally right when the situation calls for it, but he’ll take a contract worth good money from anyone who can afford him. It makes for a more interesting character.
At the top of this review I mentioned a classic episode of Knight Rider and how excited I got with the editorial of this issue. Well, I can only imagine how excited I’d have been reading the page above (which ends the fight) without the foreknowledge of that introductory page. Also, on the penultimate page of the story the “conscientious objector” line from the cover is meant to be the final gag of the story. A shame both of these moments were somewhat spoiled already then.
But in a rare case for our main character, in this story he fails to do what he was hired to do. Beaten, Mayhem asks Death’s Head how many of his team has he killed. The tally stands at eight, to which Mayhem simply replies “Nine” before the building holding the witness explodes. Death’s Head had missed one. Lek laments, he believes Letterman will be taking a contract out on him next. As for Death’s Head’s response, it’s as typical as you’d expect from him.
As he simply packs up and leaves Lek with Mayhem I’ll admit I smiled. How very in-character. As per previous issues the final page is unrelated to the story and sets up a cliffhanger instead, this time involving a cigar-smoking horse(!) planning to kill Death’s Head. I’ll leave that for next month because we’ll need to read the next issue to make sense of that one, but for now we wrap up the first issue in the second half of the comic’s run (not that anyone knew this at the time).
It may not have had the most involving plot this month but that needn’t matter. I’m here for this character and this was a brilliant story for him. It gave him the perfect set up to unleash everything that made him so beloved by readers at the time (and still to this day). Full of action and comedy, this is one of the best issues of Death’s Head yet for sheer fun value. With four issues left I hope the momentum keeps up alongside some great stories. We’ll find out with #7’s review later this month on Monday 29th April 2024.
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