Popverse's top stories of the day

• Harley Quinn is making April Fools Day 2025 one to remember with a not-so-sweet-smelling DC comic book special
• Watch the D&D, Warhammer, Mega Man, and more anthology panel Secret Level from Prime Video, filmed at NYCC 2024
• Nintendo's long-time Mario voice actor reveals the secret behind voicing Mario's Dad in the movie (and how it goes back to his original audition decades ago)

---

What kind of birthday present do you get for an aggressive cyborg from the future? Well, you'd better get shopping - Marvel is preparing to celebrate Deathlok's 50th birthday.

Recently, Marvel Comics' executive editor Tom Brevoort announced that the company was working on a "Deathlok 50th anniversary project" for this year.

Originally planned to be named Cyborg, the character initially debuted as Deathlok the Demolisher before simply being known as Deathlok. Originally marketed as "the world's most offbeat superhero," Deathlok eventually segued into being less a 'superhero' and more a sci-fi soldier from the future, predating the Terminator, Cable, and various other characters with a similiar concept.

Deathlok's exact 50th birthdsy would be August 1, 2024, according to Marvel.com's listing of his first appearance: 1974's Astonishing Tales #25. The idea of a man brought back from the dead with 'Deathlok' technology has been something interwoven across the Marvel Universe over the years - with four major iterations of Deathlok across titles as varied as Fantastic Four, X-Force, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Iterations of the character have, of course, started in multiple short-lived ongoing Deathlok series.

Two iterations of Deathlok have appeared in the MCU, if you still count the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Angel alum J. August Richards played Mike Peterson, while the late Bill Paxton played John Garrett.

Marvel has not yet revealed details on their plans for the "Deathlok 50th anniversary project," so stay tuned for more.

---

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• With Daredevil, and spinoffs from Black Panther, What If, and more, Marvel Studios' 2025 Disney+ slate is bigger than ever, and that might be a big deal for the future
• If Kraven the Hunter flops, Sony's Spider-Man Universe could look for a Marvel-assisted reboot
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.