Astonishing Tales #25

History

Rich Buckler conceived the Deathlok character roughly three years before the issue's August 1974 publication, initially intending to develop the concept as a novel; he eventually pitched it to Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who encouraged him to collaborate with writer Doug Moench to bring it to the comics page. Development briefly stalled when Marvel was pursuing the adaptation rights to the television series The Six Million Dollar Man, and once Charlton Comics secured those rights instead, Buckler deliberately designed Deathlok as a deliberate inversion of that sanitized hero — monstrous in appearance, hostile toward the technology bonded to him, and explicitly tragic rather than triumphant. The feature was originally announced for Marvel's Worlds Unknown anthology but landed in Astonishing Tales after that title folded following its Golden Voyage of Sinbad adaptation, where Deathlok replaced the 'It! The Living Colossus' strip that had occupied issues #21–24. The division of labor on the debut issue followed an unusual structure: Buckler supplied the concept, plot, and pencils while Moench scripted the dialogue, though only Buckler received a formal writing credit on the opening page.

Trivia · 10 facts

• First appearance and origin of Deathlok the Demolisher (Luther Manning), Marvel's earliest dystopian cyborg anti-hero, in the 15-page main story 'A Cold Knight's Frenzy.'
• First appearance of Major Simon Ryker, the villainous military architect of the Deathlok project and Manning's commanding officer, revealed in the issue's final pages to have made himself a cyborg as well.
• First appearance of Nina Ferry, Ryker's companion who witnesses his transformation in the issue's closing scene.
• The two-page backup humor strip — scripted by Doug Moench, penciled by George Pérez, and inked by Mike Esposito — is the first professionally published comic art by George Pérez, who would go on to define the visual style of The Avengers, New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Wonder Woman.
• The issue also contains a two-page in-universe text feature titled 'Mindlock… x3,' presenting a conversation between Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler, and Doug Moench alongside preliminary Deathlok character sketches by Buckler — a rare editorial window into the creation of a new character.
• Buckler conceived Deathlok as a deliberate inversion of both The Six Million Dollar Man and Captain America: where those figures embrace their augmentation, Manning is horrified by his, explicitly aligning the character with Frankenstein's monster as a literary touchstone.
• The issue's narrative establishes that the near-future war devastating America begins in 1983, a continuity detail later addressed in Captain America #287–289 when Marvel's publishing timeline caught up to that date.
• The main story was collected in Marvel Masterworks: Deathlok Vol. 1 (November 2009) and Deathlok the Demolisher: The Complete Collection (2014); the backup strip was also reprinted in the Deathlok 50th Anniversary Special #1 (November 2024).
• The issue includes Marvel Value Stamp #68, featuring Daimon Hellstrom (Son of Satan), and a house ad promoting Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 — the source of the Spider-Man and Human Torch/Johnny Storm catalog index entries, which do not appear in the issue's story content.
• Known variants include a 7-penny British price edition and a Mark Jewelers insert variant.

Cast · 10 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Astonishing Tales

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#2 1st appearance — Garokk

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#26 1st appearance — Mike Travers

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#27 1st appearance — Janice Manning

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#3 1st appearance — Zaladane

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#33 1st appearance — Hellinger

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#36 1st appearance — Godwulf

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#6 1st appearance — Mockingbird

Variants (1)