With SDCC fast approaching, Alex Yarde thinks Deathlok is Marvel’s surprise spin off.
I’m always on the hunt for tidbits and chatter about upcoming Geek TV shows. Marvel’s Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. finished its first season a lot stronger than it had any right too, boosted by crossover events transpiring in Captain America: The Winter Soldier film and the HYDRA infiltration of SHIELD. DC/Warner Bros. upcoming TV adaptation of Gotham and The Flash, a spin-off of Arrow, are challenges that will not go unanswered by Marvel/Disney. I suspect an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off. Makes most sense it will be a Deathlok show.
First, J August Richards’ roster is strangely clear of new projects. Initially, he couldn’t stop talking about (Deathlok) when he was first announced. Now,there is zero chatter for season two. Second, as Mike/Deathlok said to Skye before leaving, the team has his hardware and software specs, they can spy on him any time and anywhere. They just need to ‘dial-in’ to his head. With S.H.I.E.L.D in such a shambles (the actual show and the current plotline), super humans in the general populace running about and Mike wanting to atone for all the terrible things he was forced to do. it smells like big Comic Con reveal to me!
Deathlok first appeared in Astonishing Tales #25 (Aug. 1974), created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench. Three Marvel characters have used the identity since then. The recurring theme among these characters is that a dead or near-dead human has been reanimated with cybernetic technology. Like Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop, Desthlok is a modern take on Shelly’s classic Frankenstein. Transformed into the cybernetic solider against his will, Mike Peterson (J. August Richards) must struggle to find the man in the machine…and he’s outfited with a high-tech eye that allows him to see through walls, super strength and increased speed courtesy of a cybernetic leg. The “Deathlok technology” concept is adapted for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having been developed as “Project Deathlok” by the Hydra-affiliated company Cybertek by Hydra sleeper and Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. John Garrett (Bill Paxton) serving as the project’s “Subject 0”. The show’s primary Deathlok is Mike Peterson (played by J. August Richards) introduced in the show’s pilot episode. Mike was an ordinary man who has been given superhuman strength and other attributes by a drug based on the “Extremis” super solider serum featured in Iron Man 3 and recreated by Project Centipede after being injured on the job. Peterson is fitted with further cybernetic enhancements after being caught in an exposion; Peterson is later named Deathlok as he aided Garrett, revealed to be the Clairvoyant who kidnapped his son.
After Agent Skye frees Peterson from the explosive implants used to control him, he subsequently turns on Garrett. Afterwards, Mike Peterson and Cousin’s team go their separate ways, though Peterson (planting seeds for the future) reminds Skye that she can track him through his implants.
Deathlok’s character, as embodied by J. August Richards, is PERFECT for his own spin-off. When we leave him at the season finale he refuses to be reunited with his son. He feels obligated to atone for crimes he was coerced into doing by Garrett and HYDRA. That his anti-heroic character has this moral baggage, a mission to right some wrongs in hopes of one day being able to face his son is the perfect opportunity for us to see this excellent “Whedony” African-American Actor lead a geek show. The loss of Almost Human brings the current total of Black male leads on TV Geek shows to zero. I’ve written about the lack of Black-leading men in television before and this seems a golden opportunity for Marvel/Disney to have a gritty crime procedural like DC’s excellent Arrow series, strengthen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and address a serious lack of diversity in the new Marvel Universe expansion.
What are your thoughts? Would you watch an Agents of SHIELD spin-off featuring August’s Deathlok?
Sound off below!
all art ~ ABC / Marvel
