Horror Comics come to "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Deathlok the Demolisher will be appearing in the February 4th episode of ABC's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D", Marvel TV head and series executive producer Jeph Loeb confirmed Thursday.

In the original comics from the 1970's (Marvel's golden era of horror/superhero mash-ups), Deathlok was the reanimated corpse (via cybernetic technology) of a soldier; sort of a Six Million Dollar Man by way of Frankenstein. Running through each version of the character (Deathlok has had several titles, both limited and ongoing) is the theme of a dead man brought back to life though technology, and how much of his humanity remains intact.

It's unclear how much of the character's horror roots will be in the TV series, since he's being played by a previously introduced character that was seriously injured, but didn't seem to die. Also unclear is how much the TV version will look like a reanimated corpse vs. a guy with bionic parts (ala DC's Cyborg).

Here's hoping more faithful versions of Marvel's horror characters make it to the small screen in the near future...