Luther Manning (Earth-616) (original) (raw)
LUTHER MANNING
(Reality-616; in the process of being edited)
Real Name: Luther Manning
Identity/Class: Human, mutated by temporal energy into a cyborg
Occupation: Warrior;
former soldier in the US Army
Affiliations: Pawn of Timestream (Henry Akai);
formerly allied with Deathlok the Demolisher (Luther Manning) of Earth-7484 and Timestream's Bangers (extra-temporal cyborgs);
limited relationship with Harlan Ryker and Simon Ryker;
former ally of Mike Travers
Enemies: Deathlok (Michael Collins), Deathlok the Demolisher, Godwulf
Known Relatives: Janice (wife);
he may or may not have had a son named Richard
Aliases: Deathlok; Manning-616 (for the purpose of clarification in this profile)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
apparently died within the Timestream;
formerly Fort Banning, Georgia;
possibly Philadelphia, PA
First Appearance: (Luther Manning) Deathlok II#25 (July, 1993);
(as Deathlok) Deathlok II#31 (January, 1994)
Powers/Abilities: Manning was trained in various military forms of strategy and armed and unarmed combat. He was sufficiently skilled to hit almost any moving target by listening to the sounds of movement.
Luther Manning smoked cigarettes, which would give him a characteristic odor and may have affected his endurance somewhat.
His body was remade into a near duplicate of the original form of Deathlok of the Demolisher of Earth-7484. As such he had superhuman strength (Class 10), enhanced human speed, stamina, durability, etc. His brain was most likely augmented by a computer which could allow him to perform complex maneuvers and actions with precision accuracy. He was also armed with an energy pistol, knives, and various other forms of weaponry.
Unlike the Demolisher, however, he was not dependent on the nutrient tube connected to his chest, and severing this tube caused him no significant harm.
History:
(Deathlok II#33 (fb) - BTS) - Colonel Luther Manning claimed to have done seven tours of duty in Viet Nam, one in el Salvador, Iran, and the Persian Gulf (see comments).
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(Deathlok II#25 (fb) -BTS) - Harlan Ryker offered Manning the chance to participate in Cybertek's syborg super-soldier (Deathlok project), but Manning declined.
(Deathlok II#25) - A year later...
(Deathlok II#25 (fb) - BTS) - Manning began having nightmares about Deathlok, allow he had no idea who that was. He even began seeing Deathlok's face in the mirror.
(Deathlok II#25) - Manning saw a psychologist (or psychiatrist?) at Fort Benning about his his nightmares
(Deathlok II#26) - Awakening from another nightmare, Manning felt that perhaps the shrink (slang for psychologist) was right and that he needed another breather. He wondered if what he was seeing in his dreams was the Deathlok cyborg, but he also noted that that was just Simon's brother Harlan's whacked out plan. He further considered that Ryker had found another patsy who was running around in "that tin can." But he wondered why he was dreaming about Deathlok...
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(Deathlok II#27) - Manning spent hours on the Fort Benning shooting range, trying to take his mind off of his nightmares, but he found that firing at stationary targets was no challenge.
The being Timestream suddenly appeared nearby, greeting Manning and telling him that he was not where he should be. Turning and aiming his weapon at Timestream, he told "Chuckles" that he was in a restricted area and insisted that he identify himself immediately.
Timestream identified himself and told Manning that he desired his services. Stating that he neither knew nor cared what Timestream was talking about, Manning advised him that he had three seconds to tell him how he had gotten into the base.
Putting his arms up to show he was not a threat, Timestream told Manning that he had made a mistake, as Manning was not Deathlok in this zone and that he had been displaced in time.
Acknowledging that he had turned down the Deathlok project a year ago, Manning asked what Timestream was talking about, and Timestream told him that he was to be Deathlok, but that reality had been altered and fate prevented.
Applying some sort of chronological energy into Manning, which rendered him unconscious, Timestream told him -- as he vanished back into the timestream -- that they must be allied: "Worry not, Luther Manning...set right in time things will be."
(Deathlok II#31 (fb) - BTS) - Timestream placed Manning within an internal time warp.
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(Deathlok II#29) - At Fort Benning, as Luther and Mike (presumably Travers) participated in a live ammo drill, Luther noted that he used to get a kick out of these "daredevil" routines but no longer and that he was putting in his resignation.
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As he continued that he had had an epiphany of sorts, a missile struck nearby and blew up.
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Manning advised Mike that he was just a little singed, but that Mike should stay back, as something was not right...
(Deathlok II#31 (fb) - BTS) - Over several weeks, the internal time warp Timestream had placed Luther in somehow shifted his form into a near replica of the original cyborg form of Manning's counterpart in Timestream's continuum (Earth-7484): Deathlok the Demolisher.
(Deathlok II#31) - During the transition, Manning had a dream of himself in Deathlok form confronting and killing the current Deathlok in his reality, Michael Collins.
As the transition neared completion, Timestream returned an explained what he had done to Luther. Recognizing him, Luther tried to resist, but Timestream inserted a program disk into the drive in Manning's distal forearm, ensuring his cooperation and noting, "Soon all time will be rectified!"
(Deathlok II#31 (fb) - BTS) - Timestream transported Manning-616 to his Timeskipper ship within the vortex of time, where he gathered alongside Timestream's Bangers, a group of alternate reality cyborgs and mercenaries, as well as the Demolisher-7484 (no longer going by the name "Deathlok"). The program disk apparently made Manning-616 believe that he was the younger self of the Demolisher.
(Deathlok II#31) - Timestream told Manning-616, the Bangers and the Demolisher of his plan to replace the realities that were a plague to them with a reality of their own. He reviewing how on Earth-616, Captain America had met with Deathlok-7484 and then prevented Roxxon's Operation Purge, and that they must prevent this -- by assassinating Captain America and the Luther Manning clonebefore they could encounter Deathlok-7484 -- in order to form their new reality (this was the divergence point from Earth-616 and Earth-7484).
Manning-616 asked why they could not just enter the timeline after Operation Purge had occurred and take over once the "Spandex Crew" was dead, but Timestream told him that that reality (7484) was tainted and heading uncontrollably toward oblivion and that they must generate a new matrix. When the Demolisher noted that he would not necessarily go along with any of this, Manning-616 argued that his becoming the Demolisher in the future was proof that they both got screwed twice (by becoming Deathlok and by toppling civilization in his alliance with Godwulf). Disregarding this information, the Demolisher punched Manning-616 back, leading the Bangers to surround him, but after Timestream stated that he could return the Demolisher to human form and erase his unpleasant memories (and then proved it be turning one of the Bangers cyborgs fully human), the Demolisher agreed to join the mission. 
Timestream transported himself, Manning-616, the Demolisher and a trio of Bangers to the past of Earth-616, at the point Captain America and the Luther Manning clone were arriving at the Brand Corporation's Long Island facility (410 Gannon Avenue, Long Island City, New York, circa Captain America I#286).
(Deathlok II#32) - Godwulf opened a portal through which he transported himself, Deathlok (Michael Collins) and Siege, who engaged the Demolisher, Manning-616 and the Bangers. Manning teamed up with the Demolisher against Collins, but was initially kicked back into one of the Bangers. Knowing the Brand facility would explode soon, Timestream led Manning-616, the Demolisher and the Bangers to depart.
Timestream transported his group to a bridge in the Bronx (see comments) and claimed that Manning-616 was a younger version of the Demolisher from before he had traveled back to Earth-616 to explain to the Demolisher why Manning did not remember details from this trip. After the Demolisher revealed where his past self would return to Earth-7484 with Captain America-616 (circa Captain America I#287; see comments), Siege arived and attacked them, and Timestream instructed Manning to proceed to that meeting place alone. Manning assured Timestream that he would stop them dead.
Collins and Godwulf were already at the subway station when Manning-616 arrived, and Collins initially thought that this was the younger Deathlok-7484, but Godwulf recognized him as Manning-616. As Manning-616 called out to Godwulf to call him "back" to his time, Collins tackled Manning-616, and the two fought long enough for Deathlok-7484 to arrive, followed by Captain America, and they were both transported to Earth-7484's future by the younger version of Godwulf, as had originally occurred.
Timestream then arrived with the Demolisher and his Bangers, and Collins attempted to trade Siege, who had been incapacitated by Manning and the Bangers. Losing his patiene, Timestream created a time vortex, but then Godwulf blasted Timestream, and the two groups were sent to two different parts of the Timestream, a physical nexus of all time and dimension.
(Deathlok II#33) -
(Deathlok II#34) -
Deathlok the Demolisher began to question Timestream's actions and the truthfulness of his promises, but Manning-616 continued to defend him. Godwulf's agents confronted them again, and Manning-616 fought Deathlok/Collins again. Manning badly injured Collins, despite Collins' form being more powerful, because Collins was a pacifist at heart, and was reluctant to using lethal force. Collins appealed to Manning's mind, allowing him to throw off Timestream's programming. Feeling that he was trapped in some horrible dream, Manning turned his own weapon on himself, blowing a hole in his head.
With his death, Manning reverted to his human form. Justice Peace, an agent of the Time Variance Authority, appeared and promised to take Manning's body back to Earth-616 and see that he got a proper burial.
Comments: Created by Gregory Wright and Kevin Kobasic.
Timestream duped Deathlok the Demolisher into believing that Manning-616 was actually his own past self.
At the time this story was published, Luther Manning was most likely have been active in the Vietnam War, but the sliding timescale makes that a topical reference. Manning could certainly have been stationed in Vietnam, just not during that war.
However, what makes the most sense is that a number of more recent stories ret-con these topical Vietnam references into being the Sin-Cong conflict.
Deathlok II#32 showed the Fordham Road station as the site in which the Luther Manning clone arrived on Earth-616 and which Deathlok and Captain America traveled to Earth-7484, but in the original stories it was clearly the 23rd Street Station in Manhattan. There is a discussion of the conflicting information in that sub-profile.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Luther Manning of Earth-616, should be distinguished from
- DEATHLOK the DEMOLISHER of Earth-7484 (Luther Manning) - the originator, not the imitator--Astonishing Tales I#25
- See the above profile for further clarifications
The Timestream, the physical nexus of all time and dimension, as seen in Deathlok II#32, should be differentiated from:
- Timestream of Earth-7484, Henry Akai--Deathlok II Annual#1
- The Crossroads of Time, the pocket realm from which the Time Guardian directs his temporal travels--Motormouth and Killpower#9
- The Crossroads, to which the Hulk was banished--Incredible Hulk II#300
- Crossroads of Infinity-- Fantastic Four I#413
- Limbo, and its various pocket realms--Avengers I#2
- No-Space, the pocket realm which contains the Refuge, which is the Time Guardian's ship--Dark Guard#1
- No-Time, where Mikhail Rasputin and Gene Nation lived--Storm#1
Images:
Deathlok II#26, pg. 14, panel 6 (human form, upper profile, with flag on jacket)
#27, pg. 6, panel 1 (human form, firing range);
pg. 7, panel 3 (zapped by Timestream);
#29, pg. 14, panel 1 (firing gun);
panel 2 (face);
panel 6 (metal glove/hand);
#31 cover (mostly full Deathlok form);
#32, pg. 15, panel 4 (running toward reader);
Appearances:
Deathlok II#25 (July, 1993) - Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Chris Wozniak (penciler; with Pete Garcia as penciling assistant), Brad Vancata, Al Vey & Greg Adams (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Deathlok II#26 (August, 1993) - Gregory Wright (writer), Kevin Kobasic (penciler), Bruce Patterson (inker; with Dave Ryan as inking assistant), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Deathlok II#27 (September, 1993) - Gregory Wright (writer), Kevin Kobasic (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Deathlok II#29 (November, 1993) - Gregory Wright (writer), Kevin Kobasic (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Deathlok II#31-33 (January-March, 1994) - Gregory Wright (writer), Kevin Kobasic (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Deathlok II#34 (April, 1994) - Gregory Wright (writer), Kevin Kobasic & Anthony Williams (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Last updated: 01/07/2003
Last updated: 04/11/2025
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