Death's Head

Death's Head
Cover for Death's Head #1. Art by Bryan Hitch & Mark Farmer.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Transformers UK #113 (May 16, 1987)
Created by	Simon Furman Geoff Senior
In-story information
Abilities	Robotic strength, speed, durability, agility, reflexes, and vision Expert tracker

Death's Head is a fictional character appearing in British comics and American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as a robotic bounty hunter (or rather, as he calls himself, a "freelance peace-keeping agent"). The character was created by writer Simon Furman and artist Geoff Senior for the company's Marvel UK imprint. Furman decided to use Death's Head in his Transformers stories, but believed that characters appearing in Transformers "were prone to be absorbed into that title's catchall copyright" (allowing Hasbro to contest their ownership) and led to a one-page strip titled "High Noon Tex" (which was subsequently published in various Marvel UK titles) being hastily created to establish Marvel's ownership of the character. Furman has stated that he chose the name Death's Head for the character while unaware of the "Nazi-connotations of the name".

The character was later redesigned and relaunched as Death's Head II, acting as one of the flagship characters for Marvel UK's 1990s expansion. This version of Death's Head also inspired two spin-off characters, Death Wreck and Death Metal, each of which starred in its own limited series.

Later, in 2005, fans used a poll on Marvel's website to vote for the character's return. This led to a third version of Death's Head, Death's Head 3.0, created by original Death's Head writer Simon Furman. Simon Furman said in 2011 that the character was still popular because “he’ll never change or compromise or grow or repent or agonise like most comic book characters. He’s this unchanging, uncompromising rock that other characters bounce off. But you still kind of love him. Weird.”

Death's Head was originally created as a "throwaway character" for use in the UK Transformers comic, a bounty hunter who would feature in a single story-arc and then, according to writer Simon Furman, would "be discarded down the line (probably at the end of the first story arc)".