Deathlok #1

Deathlok wasn't in this, right? I didn't miss it? I guess this is a Marvel Knights book, which means it is out of continuity. The concept is pretty sound: what if war was treated like a football game? Charlie Huston has some great stuff in this, the standout being the announcers. They are so callous and obtuse that it is uncomfortable reading their dialogue. The callousness of society in this alternate future is just chilling. This one issue includes kill counts, doctors harvesting body parts from the living, fragging, and a ton of violent dismemberment and murder. So I guess it is a decent fit for the Deathlok concept, but really, I think I prefer the original take from the 80's issues of Captain America. Huston's Luther Manning is a decent guy, so decent I can't figure out how he got to be a part of the Roxxon Corp's band of mercs. It's hard to feel too bad for the guy when it seems he has signed off on the same brutality that eventually gets him put in the body of a cyborg.

I'm assuming Manning and his rival Mike Travers end up as battling cyborgs. Other than that, the real villain of this series may end up being the society as a whole.

Lan Medina does a nice job with the art. It is tough to balance out the running commentary with the art, but Medina makes it work. I will say I had a hard time determining who was who on the battlefield once combat started, but the dialogue kept things clear enough.

Fair