the year 8162. Death's Head was subsequently hired to kill the Doctor, but was betrayed by his employer and did not complete the contract. The Doctor later claimed to be the 'unknown party' that originally stole Death's Head from his creators, Lupex and Pyra, and sent him into the Transformers Universe, hoping to shape his adventures for good. Big Shot – a rival bounty hunter from the year 8162. Tall, muscular, and with a cannon replacing his right arm, Big Shot was originally hired by a gangland boss, the Undertaker, to avenge the death of his Plague Dog creature. After a bitter defeat, Big Shot's enmity became personal. He was manipulated by Pyra and sent to 2020 to confront the mechanoid, where he almost succeeded in killing Death's Head. Death's Head II Publication History After the initial Death's Head stories ceased publication, the character was revamped for inclusion in Marvel UK's next wave of titles, where it became the company's biggest ever exported seller. There were plans in 1991 to bring back the original Death's Head, which would have featured the character on trial, facing the death penalty, and flashing back to how he'd got there. Early into production, the new editor Paul Neary scrapped it and commissioned Death's Head II instead, replacing the character with a new version created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Liam Sharp. In an Autumn 1992 interview with Comic World, Neary was dismissive about the original character and the aborted plan: "I didn't like the pages that had been produced—I didn't think there was much future in Transformers-style robots and I thought we could do an awful lot better." He produced some sample sketches of how he wanted the character to look, and Liam Sharp's take gave the project "a kickstart". Ironically, the success of Death's Head II meant Neary was ordered to create more titles and the easiest way was to reprint the original series ("The Incomplete Death's Head"); editor John Freeman had to talk him into it. Originally launched as a four-issue limited series, Death's Head II then became an ongoing series—and also featured in a number of team-up limited series designed to showcase new Marvel UK characters. One of these was Death3, teaming up Death's Head II with newly created "brothers", Death Metal and his prototype Death Wreck. The recurring character throughout this was Dr. Evelyn Necker, the scientist who creates