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Deathlok Reading Order, Marvel’s Deadly Cyborgs

Not to be confused with DC’s Deadshot or Deathstroke, Deathlok is a Marvel Comics character. In fact, it’s the codename of more than one character. The First one was created by cartoonist Rich Buckler in Astonishing Tales #25 (he plotted and pencilled it, Doug Moench wrote the script and suggested the name), in 1974, the same year as The Punisher and Wolverine. Marvel was into violent warriors at the time and The Six Million Dollar Man TV Show had popularized the concept of a cyborg just a few months earlier.

Known at first as Deathlok the Demolisher, Luther Manning was an American soldier who was killed and subsequently brought back to life by Simon Ryker who transformed him into a cyborg. This takes place in a dystopian future: 1990. He escaped Ryker’s control and fought against him, up until the end of his Astonishing Tales run when he was sent back in time to the regular Marvel timeline. This was only the beginning for him as he got to meet other Marvel heroes, and eventually went back to his timeline.

Manning was just the first. Through the years, Michael Collins, Jack Truman, Rebecca Ryker, Henry Hayes, and Jemma Simmons used the “Deathlok” identity. They mostly followed the same route, dead humans reanimated as cyborgs.

Deathlok Comics Reading Order

I. Luther Manning is Deathlok the Demolisher

The first stories introducing Luther Manning have been collected in two formats–hardcover and paperback–but the two books are virtually the same. Those books are not collecting ALL of the apparitions of Deathlok during the 1970s and 1980s, but they are the best of what is available and comprehensible.

II. Enter Michael Collins, The New Deathlok

The second Deathlok was introduced in 1990 in a 4-part miniseries coming from writer Dwayne McDuffie, artist Gregory Wright, and Jackson Guice. Named Michael Collins, he was a professor from Philadelphia working for the Roxxon cybernetics corporation Cybertek. He discovered the work of Harlan Ryker who had used the body of Colonel John Kelly, a veteran of the Vietnam War (and technically the real Deathlok II), to build a new Deathlok. Once transformed, Kelly rebelled and his brain was destroyed. Ryker replaced it with Collins’s.

After the first Deathlok miniseries, the character appeared got his own ongoing series. For now, only the first 15 issues and the first annual have been collected.

During that time, Michael Collins crossed the path of other Marvel heroes like Spider-Man (after Deathlok #7) in:

Deathlok (1991) #16 is part of the Infinity War crossover event.

After issue #25, Deathlok joined the fight during the Maximum Carnage crossover.

  • Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Maximum Carnage
    Collects Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #378-380, Web of Spider-Man (1985) #101-103, Spider-Man (1990) #35-37, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #201-203, Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes (1993) one-shot, material from Spider-Man Unlimited (1993) #1-2.
Deathlok (1991) #1

Deathlok (1991) #28 & #29 are part of the Infinity Crusade crossover event. In the b story in issue #29, Luther Manning is making his comeback. His story continues in Deathlok (1991) #31-34.

Once the Deathlok series concluded, Michael Collins still appeared as Deathlok a few times. Notably in Daredevil #321-323, War Machine (1994) #1-3, Secret Defenders (1993) #22-25, Spider-Man: Power of Terror, and finally Daredevil #335-337.

Michael Collins disappeared for years, but eventually made a comeback during the mid-2000s.

III. Jack Truman: Agent of Deathlok

First appearing in Cable #59 (1998) by Joe Casey and Jose Ladronn, Jack Truman was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent tracking Cable. When his mission fails, the consequences are grave, for him, as his brain is transferred into a Deathlok Body (but not the traditional design). As such, and after some adventures, he resumed his work as a spy. All his stories are collected in one book:

IV. Michael Collins’s Comeback

In 2006, Dwayne McDuffie wrote a 6-part miniseries titled Beyond! in which he brought back Michael Collins who teams up with Spider-Man and other characters who were supposedly kidnapped by the cosmic entity known as The Beyonder. A follow-up to this story was written in the Fantastic Four series.

Marvel Knights’s Deathlok (2009)

V. Time-Displaced Deathlok: Paradise X & Marvel Knights

Not in the continuity of the main Marvel Continuity, the “Earth X” stories still include an in-continuity Deathlok as, during the Paradise X storyline, Luther Manning is recruited from his regular timeline. Due to the whole continuity thing, you don’t have to read this at that point, you can read it when you desire to do so. It is positioned at that point in the Deathlok reading order because of the original year of publication.

  • Paradise X Vol. 1
    Collects Paradise X #0-5, Paradise X: Xen, Paradise X: Heralds #1-3
  • Paradise X Vol. 2
    Collects Paradise X #6-12, Paradise X: Ragnarok, Paradise X: Devils, Paradise X: A, Paradise X: X

Another not-in-continuity story is a Marvel Knights mini-series from writer Charlie Huston and artist Lan Medina (Foolkiller): “In the not-too-distant future, war is a spectator sport, warriors die hard and live fast, and living larger than anyone is super-soldier Lieutenant Mike Travers. That is, until Travers hotdogs it on the battlefield and gets himself and his C.O. Luther Manning blown to bits. The show must go on. Enter: Deathlok the Demolisher!”

VI. Her comes Deathlok Prime

Everything starts with Deathloks from the Future going back in time to prevent that future from ever happening. One Deathlok will eventually find his human part and join Wolverine. Then, he reappeared in Uncanny X-Force for another story about a nightmarish future. This Deathlok Prime stuck around to fight with the X-Force team. He finally reconnects with Wolverine.

Once again, Luther Manning made a short return with an Original Sin tie-in that put him with other time-displaced heroes.

A female teenage version of Deathlok called Death Locket was introduced in Avengers Arena #1 by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker. Her real name was Rebecca Ryker and she later became one of the main characters in Avengers Undercover.

VII. Henry Hayes, The mind-controlled Deathlok

Talking about the Original Sin event, this one introduced a new Deathlok. Created by Nathan Edmondson and Mike Perkins in the anthology book Original Sins #1, Henry Hayes was working at Doctors Without Borders when he lost a leg. Treated by the company Biotek, he received a prosthesis, but he was then put under mind control and started to work as a killer.

As the story progresses, Michael Collins is brought in to help and Henry finally learns about what he has become.

Once the Deathlok ended, Henry Hayes joined the 2016 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series by Marc Guggenheim–inspired by the ABC TV Show. In it, Hayes has to help a new Deathlok, Jemma Simmons.

After that, Henry Hayes reappeared during a few issues tied to the Absolute Carnage event, in the Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors miniseries.

VIII. The many short returns of the other Deathloks

After Henry Hayes, Deathlok Prime resurfaced in 2019, joining Ed Brisson’s X-Force:

In 2023, it’s Michael Collins who made another comeback in the Black Panther series by Eve Ewing and Christopher Allen:

Then, in Marvel’s Voices: Legends (2024) #1, Michael has a short story that changes notably his dire situation.

Will there be more to come? Probably!

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