Vic Rattlehead

Trigger warning for references to torture, war, and abuse

From the Megadeth Material: Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!, Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?, So Far, So Good... So What!, Rust in Peace, The World Needs a Hero, Countdown to Extinction, Sudden Death, The System has Failed, United Abomination, Th1rt3en, Dystopia, Super Collider, The Sick The Dying....and the Dead!!, "Anarchy in the U.K.", "Built for War", "The Threat is Real", "Lying State", "Death from Within", "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due", "Psychotron", "Poisonous Shadows", and "Hangar 18" also the Comics Cryptic Writings of Megadeth and Megadeth Death by Design


Name: Vic Rattlehead
Age: Unknown, presumed mid 20s to early 30s
Eyes: Has no eyes
Hair: Has no hair
Height: 7 foot
Weight: 250+ due to cybernetics
Ethnicity: American originally
Birthday: June 20th, 1960
Gender: Male

Profession: Killer for Hire, defender of free speech and artistic expression. Previously, a drafted soldier and musician.

Vic drives and early 1970s Ford Maverick with the license plate "Chaos"



Distinguishing marks: Blackout goggles bolted to face, cups bolted over ears, mouth sewn shut, left side is skeletal. much of his right side is cybernetic.

Abilities: Expert swordsman with the katana, proficient with most weapons, driving, pilot helicopter/plane, inspire rebellion and artistic speech, cybernetics, robotics repair, control robotics through uplink, tactics, compassion, empathy. Able to conjure the voices of the dead as well as artistic endeavors to be understood, supernatural/mechanical healing and stamina. Can set people on fire with his mind, inflict people with disease, and force them to kill themselves and others (See the Sick, The Dying and The Dead video series)

Background:

Vic is an unknown soldier. Believed to be a young man drafted or forced into service and underwent some sort of ritual occult torture in which his skin was removed. This left him as a living being that appears dead and skeletal. There are references that compare Rattlehead to Frankenstein's Monster. (The Skull Beneath the Skin)
Prepare the patient's scalp
To peel away
Metal caps his ears
He'll hear not what we say
Solid steel visor
Riveted across his eyes
Iron staples close his jaws
So no one hears his cries

Vic is an embodiment of Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil. He was created to oppress speech and follow his creators blindly. He rebelled and turned on his creators to become a fighter of government oppression; particularly the censorship of art and artists. (Referenced in Hook in Mouth) Some songs, such as Set the World on Fire, suggest that Vic may also be fighting against a nuclear strike/nuclear holocaust via the Polaris system potentially.

Dawn Patrol: Description of Vic's world?
Thermal count is rising in perpetual writhing
The primordial ooze and the sanity they lose
Awakened in the morning to more air-pollution warnings
Still we sleepwalk off to work as our nervous systems jerk
Pretending not to notice how history has forbode us
With the greenhouse in effect our environment was wrecked
Now I can only laugh as I read our epitaph
We end our lives as moles in the dark of the dawn patrol


From Holy Wars.. The Punishment Due: Potentially Vic had a family that was murdered while he was away fighting.
Some people risk to employ me
Some people live to destroy me
Either way they die. They die
They killed my wife and my baby,
With hopes to enslave me
First mistake... last mistake
Paid by the alliance, to slay all the giants
Next mistake... no more mistakes!

From Rattlehead
"There's someone back in the shadows
You feel, though you can't see his eyes
He'll bash your head if you cross him
Ain't quite your average guy"

From Looking Down the Cross
Now before they take me and my blessed life
Now you'll know why death was summoned here tonight
I'll recall my perils they'll kill me in pride
No, I can't run away there's no place to hide
Though too much to live for I owe enough to die
Ask not for salvation my death shall mean their lives
Hatred and guilt the alter they've built, high priests of sin
Destiny, fate the wicked ones gate beckoning you in
....
And this was all you got so don these broken wings
Sands of time run out, bells of Hades ring
Is this a nightmare to un-hallow thy name
Smell of brimstone dancing in the flames
No help now as you fulfill his task
Chief of evil has got you by the ass
Set free to sit upon the throne
Just a dream, you're weeping all alone
Looking down the cross, speak no evil
I'm looking down the cross, speak no evil

From My Last Words
My life's on time but again my sense is late.
Feel a might unsteady but I still have to play.
Six to one's the odds and we have the highest stakes.
And once again I gamble with my very life today.
Highly polished metal, the oil makes it gleam.
Fill the terror chamber, your mind begins to scream.
Your life is like a trigger, never troubled till you're squeezed.
You crack a smile as you give the gun a squeeze.



His name is Victim Rattlehead which refers to his status of being victimized. Rattlehead refers to headbanging which may relate to who he was as a young man; a metalhead or a metal musician. Another possibility shown in the The Lying State relates to his compliance to an unknown musician, perhaps someone he knew or his own band or the idea that music is the purist form of freedom of speech. (He releases the same band from captivity in The Threat is Real and later on, in Dystopia the same band working with Vic.) Either way, there is a single musician who can direct and speak to Rattlehead, though his identity remains unknown to the government. Rattlehead is cautious when meeting with The Musician who directs him to sites of oppression and dissent where his strength may bring greater freedom.




Vic and the two versions of Cyborg. Vic is shown in various media working with Cyborg and collecting the pieces of her to rebuild her.

The newest Megadeth Album seems to have more of Vic in a Charon type position. NightStalkers from The Sick, The Dying...and the Dead!! This also shows Vic being created and some of his past. (Note this video has a lot of flashing, also TRIGGER WARNING for murder, including children.).

The Full The Sick, The Dying... and the Dead series which deals with Vic's history and creation
Chapter I: We'll Be Back-Vic's Military career
Chapter II: Night Stalkers - Vic being raised from the dead and turned into Rattlehead plus hunting down the people who killed his wife and child. Shows Vic manipulating others mind and setting them on fire with his mind
Chapter III: The Sick, The Dying... and the Dead -Vic hunting the higher ups that planned his death and that of his family. Shows him causing an ebola like disease in others as punishment. Potentially suggesting he is an agent of death.
Chapter IV: Life in Hell - Vic going to the graves of his wife and child and envisioning himself as still human. Hunted by Templar like knights that send Zombie like individuals at him. There may be multiple Vics made after the original or the various Vics are portions of Vic's personality or that there are various historic Vics made with the same black magic since some of them have older weapons and one is cybernetic. Shows Vic controlling ravens. (I take it as different forms of Vic throughout history; a pirate like Vic, Vic as he exists in the underworld or as Death, and Modern/Future Cybernetic Vic)
Chapter V: Killing Time -The stand of the three Vics against their enemies. Death Vic is reunitied with the ghost of his son and the woman that seems to represent the magic that created him.

An Artistic History of Rattlehead and more art here.