Deathlok's History
Luther Manning enlisted in the army in the late 70's and rose through the ranks until he beacme a colonel. During war games in 1985, Manning was critically injured by the effects of a concussion mine. Mannings remains were salvaged by a collegue known as Major Simon Ryker for the use in the project: Alpa Mech, a covert operation to create cyborg super soldiers. Mannings brain, nervous system and still living tissue were transplanted into a synthetic body in an operation performed by Mahor Rykers brother Harlen Ryker (Also known as Hellinger), who for years had replaced his brothers missing limbs with synthetic parts, which were lost in altercation with Doctor Doom. After 5 years in stasis, Mannings body was reanimated as the cyborg Deathlok, so named because he was locked in a death-like state. Harlen Ryker eventually bacame a cyborg (Hellinger) also and began to contruct a cyborg army and design his own Alpha-Mech warriors.
Simon Ryker oversaw Deathloks training and early missions, but the cyborg eventually rebelled against his programing as his human memories returned. Escaping Rykers control Deathlok learned that he was legally dead and that his wife had since married his old friend Mike Travers. Despondant but incapable of suicide due to his internal programming Deathlok sought to ruin his former master. Having become a cyborg himselft after injuries obtained in the heroic age, Simon Ryker devoted himself to merging with the Omni-Computer which over saw the city of New York (On Earth-7484), becoming the powerful cyber space entity known as Savior Machine; however, Deathlok forced him out of the Omni-Computer with help from the CIA Agents, leaving Simon Ryker hopelessly incoherent from the rapid reversal he had suffered. The CIA tried to restore Deathlok to life by transferring his mind to a clone of Manning, but succeeded only in duplicating his memories in that body, leaving Deathlok essentially unchanged.
In the year 2011 of Earth-7484, Manning's computer had long since crashed and he would fight for his own survival. He would renname himself the Demolisher and be recruited by Timestream in exchange for having his past changed so that he never became Deathlok. Unknown to Manning was that Timestream was secretly a foreign monarch he had fought years prior. Timestream's plans threatened all existance, prompting the Time Variance Authority to send Godwulf to stop him. Time stream would recruit the Luther Manning of Earth-616, and Godwulf would recruit his own Deathlok's in the form of Siege and Earth-616's Deathlok, Michael Collins. Eventually Manning of Earth-7484 would learn the truth about Timestream, and would work together with Collins to destroy him. Unimpressed and disgusted with Godwulf, Deathlok-7484 would s teal one of his time gauntlets and travel to Earth-616. In this reality he would roam the sewers of Manhattan in relative solitude. He would however, briefly work with the Tunnel Dwellers society. He would ultimately be involved in a struggle between Daredevil, Blackwulf, the Tunnel Dwellers, and Peacekeeper against the Kingpin, Bushwacker, and the King of the Sewers. Following this battle, Manning would leave the scene to contemplate on his life.
At some point, Luther Manning would be recruited by X-51 of Earth-9997 to become a member of his Heralds. A group of super-humans from alternate realities. He had gathered them to warn alternate realities of the danger of the Celestials who reproduced by impregnating worlds and manipulating the DNA of the planets dominant species into being unwilling antibodies. Each member of the Heralds would be granted their fondest wish upon completion of their mission. As payment for her agreement to join the Heralds, Deathlok wished to become human again. He would be teamed with Wolverine of Earth-811, Iron Man 2020 of Earth-8410, Bloodstorm of Earth-1298, Spider-Girl of Earth-1122, Killraven of Earth-691 and Hyperion of Earth-1121. The team would be split into groups of two, with Deathlok joining Killraven, they would travel to Earth-1124, a world ruled by Satyrnin.
After fighting an army of Stayrnin's soldiers, the two heroes eventually surrendered and were taken to Satyrnin. Stayrnin was uninterested in the information the two had to provide, and was more interested in her attraction to Killraven. Killraven would stay behind while Deathlok (figuring he got a raw deal) would return back to Earth-9997.
Returning to Earth-9997, each member of the group having varying degrees of success, they arrived to find that the Watcher of Earth-9997 was being judged by his alternate reality counterparts. After a brief battle against the collective of Watchers (in which Killraven came to the rescue), they were beaten when X-51 had them all teleported to the surface of their own Earths, making them guilty of the same crimes that Watcher-9997 was guilty of.
After some time on Earth-9997, X-51 recovered a device that was used by Merlin to restore Captain Britain to life. He would use the device to create a new body for Luther Manning based on a DNA sample, he then intended to transplant Manning's brain in this new body. If X-51 succeed in doing this remains to be revealed.
Further, it is unknown when and where Manning was plucked from reality and brought to Earth-9997. Figuring for the success of the brain transplant, it is possible that Manning's trip to Earth-9997 has yet to happen in his personal chronology. However, Manning was taken at a point prior to X-51 knowing how to travel to alternate realities without creating a divergent reality, so it is entirely possible that when X-51 took Manning from whatever he originated, he created a divergent reality in the process. However, at this present time the logistics pertaining to these events have yet to be explained.
