Character Spotlight: Del Frye

I'm a big fan of The Immortal Hulk. I've never read it, I don't know much about it, but I still dig it. Why? Because after 40 years, there's a series that's finally introducing things from The Incredible Hulk television show into the comics.

This is crazy to me, and here's why: until, say, 2012's The Avengers, if you mentioned the Hulk, the average person would assume you were talking about the tv show (Yes, I'm aware The Avengers comes after two solo movies, and no, I didn't misspeak). The Hulk was Lou Ferrigno, his alter ego was David Banner, his catchphrase was "Don't make me angry...", and he was always on the run. End of story. The Incredible Hulk movie even arguably drew more inspiration from the show than the comics, going so far as to recreate the original experiment as shown in the show's opening credits each week. Yet, despite being a cultural touchstone and one of the most well-known comic book adaptations, it never made an impact on the comics...until now.

The first issue of Immortal Hulk, if you recall, introduced Jackie McGee, and in issue #2 (July 2018), the series brings over a much more minor character: Del Frye.

Del is the son of Dr. Frye, a scientist who was overcome with grief when his wife died. Seeing the Hulk as someone who couldn't die, he became intent on using gamma radiation to create a serum to prevent death. He tested the serum on Del, a football player and therefore prone to injury, but the serum didn't work and Del died. Del's body irradiated anyone who visited his grave and anyone they came into contact with, creating what came to be known as "the Chain of Grief". In addition, Dr. Frye became irradiated as well, and he turned into a creature not dissimilar to Batman Beyond's Blight.

This isn't quite how it happened on tv. Dell Frye - this version has two L's - first appeared in the Incredible Hulk episode "The First", a 2-part episode that aired during the show's fourth season in March 1981.

This version was the assistant of a doctor named Jeffrey Clive. He was dying from a rare blood disease, so Dr. Clive built a gamma ray chamber to try to cure him. As you can see in the picture above, it did not go according to plan. Dr. Clive managed to cure him, but Dell was still dying and getting worse, so in a strange turn of events, he kept trying to find a way to turn back into the creature - quite the opposite from the Hulk! Once Banner learns about a creature like himself who's been around longer than him, he goes to investigate and they agree to help each other: Banner will help Frye become the creature and Frye will help cure Banner. It doesn't work out, however, as Frye gets shot by police by the end of the episode and the Hulk has to escape.

Thanks to friend of the blog Thomas Parks for telling me about this one!

Flashback Friday: Serpentino

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Serpentino!

This is going to be a quick one, but sometimes you gotta take what you can get.

Back in the 70s, ads in comic books would sometimes be presented as a comics page itself. The most famous of these were Hostess, and you can check out a . . . host . . . of examples at seanbaby.com. Here's just one.

But they were created for other products, too, and one such ad for a Rubik's Cube kind of puzzle called the Magic Snake appeared in Marvel Team-Up #126 (December 1982). In the ad, Hulk fights a new villain named Serpentino, who is then distracted from the fight by a Magic Snake puzzle.

Serpentino WAS included in the Marvel Universe eventually, but don't be surprised if you've never heard of him. His only appearance was in a text feature in New Avengers Most Wanted Files (October 2005) that said he's remained in prison since his initial capture.

But hey, it still counts!

Character Spotlight: Jackie McGee

I've been hanging onto this one for months because I wanted to wait until her actual debut to write it up (side note: I'm writing this June 15), but I've been waiting for years to get the chance to include it.

I don't think it can be overstated how important the Incredible Hulk tv series (1978) is to the public consciousness of the character. Until the recent Avengers movies and Thor: Ragnarok, it's what people think of when they think of the Hulk. And yes, I do realize that doesn't take his two solo movies into account. Neither did the public. When people hear the Hulk, they don't think of those movies or his animated series or, for the most part, even the comics - to them, the Hulk is Lou Ferrigno, "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry", and the Lonely Man theme.

It's surprising, then, how little impact that series has had on the comics. It's impacted the franchise as a whole, of course; both movies make reference to it and The Incredible Hulk (2008) specifically is basically a giant love letter to it, but the comics seem to keep it at arm's length. I can't even be completely certain I've seen a "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" reference, although I'm sure they exist.

If you know where I can find one, be sure to let me know!

It's particularly surprising because Bruce - excuse me, "David" - Banner isn't the only main character in the show. The only major recurring antagonist is reporter for the National Register named Jack McGee, who's convinced the Hulk is a threat and that exposing him will make him famous. That's a great villain for the Hulk and a different kind of threat than the military or supervillains. And yet, he has never appeared.

You know where this is going.

In June 2018, a new series called The Immortal Hulk debuted. The goal of the book was to bring the Hulk back to its horror roots. The Hulk was created from the idea, "What if Frankenstein and his monster were Jekyll & Hyde?" The series has come along way since then, going to the future in the 90s, going to space in the 00s, and this decade replacing him with a teenager, not to mention all the stories in between. Those weren't bad directions, and this new/old direction wasn't even necessarily treated as a course correction, but more of a "hey, we haven't done that in a while." With that in mind, the Hulk is now an immortal vengeance monster that once again comes out at night as he did originally. And since Bruce Banner is technically dead but the Hulk definitely is not, they might get into some undead stuff as well.

With all that being said, the first issue of the new series introduces us to Jackie McGee. She's a black woman instead of a white man, and she seems to work for the National Inquisitor instead of the National Register; regardless, she's hot on the trail of the Hulk, trying to find out what he's doing and how he can be back considering Banner is dead.

Is she in it for the fame like her counterpart, or does she have more altruistic reasons? Only time will tell.

Hulk vs Thor

Changes are inevitable in adaptations. And sometimes, even when a specific story is adapted, the changes made to the story can sometimes be adapted back into a different story. 

Planet Hulk is a perfect example.

"Planet Hulk" was a 2006 storyline in which the Illuminati (an organization of Marvel bigwigs that have their noses in everything) exiled the Hulk to space, where he landed on the planet Sakaar and was forced into gladiatorial combat. Most notably, he had to fight the Silver Surfer.

When Planet Hulk was turned into an animated movie (2010), Silver Surfer was replaced with Beta Ray Bill, who is essentially an alien Thor. (In case you're unfamiliar with Beta Ray Bill, the short version is that he took over as Thor briefly, then Odin gave him his own hammer called Stormbreaker).

"Planet Hulk" was also a large part of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). In this case, Hulk fought actual Thor.

This scene in particular made a huge splash with fans, particularly because of a line Thor says where he's excited Hulk shows up ("Yes! I know him! He's a friend from work."), which was suggested by a fan during a set visit.

So when Incredible Hulk #711 (December 2017) decided to revisit Sakaar's gladiatorial games - no doubt to coincide with the movie, which came out in November - they had the new Hulk (Amadeus Cho) fight Odinson (an unworthy Thor). Except they twisted it a bit by reversing the roles - they even give Hulk the "friends" line!

What's most interesting is that Greg Pak wrote both the original Planet Hulk storyline and this one!

Marvel Characters Super Post!

Marvel isn't as crazy about canon immigrants as DC is.  This means that there are fewer of them, but it also means that the characters that do immigrate generally become popular and are used in the long-term.

Dazzler

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that Dazzler should be featured here.  But I'm going to do it anyway for the sake of completeness, and also because the story's interesting.  In the mid-1970s, Casablanca Records (the people behind KISS, the Village People, Parliament, and others) approached Marvel Comics with a cross-promotion idea that would feature a comic book character, a real-life singer, and a movie.  The character was changed several times in preliminary stages - going through such names as the Disco Queen and the Disco Dazzler - before Casablanca backed out of the deal altogether.  However, Marvel had already been promoting the character for several months and she had already premiered as The Dazzler in Uncanny X-Men #130 (February 1980), so Marvel decided to go ahead with their plans and released Dazzler #1 in March 1981.

HERBIE

Firestar

Ms. Lion

Videoman

 

Videoman first appeared in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode of the same name (1981) as a creation of Electro, and then later as an actual supervillain (1982), and later still as a superhero (1983).  He made the jump to comics in  Spider-Man Family Featuring Amazing Friends #1 (October 2006).

Orange Hulk

 Orange Hulk first appeared as an unlockable character in the video game Marvel Vs. Capcom (1998).  He later appeared as a member of the Black Legion in Uncanny X-Force #12 (July 2011).

The Spike

 Spyke, aka Evan Daniels, first appeared in the X-Men: Evolution episode "Speed and The Spyke" (2000); he was a student at Xavier's school and Storm's nephew.  He later made the transition to comics in the form of The Spike, aka Daran Elliot, a new member of X-Force (X-Force #121, December 2001).

X-23

Reptil

The Next Avengers

 The Next Avengers first appeared in the direct-to-dvd movie Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008).  They first appeared in comics in Avengers #1 (July 2010).

Whiplash (Anton Vanko)

 

This version of Whiplash was created for the movie Iron Man 2 (May 2010), where he is named Ivan Vanko, and is an amalgam of Whiplash and the first Crimson Dynamo (Anton Vanko).   The character was brought over to the mainstream Marvel Universe in the Iron Man vs. Whiplash miniseries (December 2009-March 2010) in anticipation of the film's release, and because the movie character was dissimilar to any other version of Whiplash in the comics. You can see on the right that he even resembles Mickey Rourke.  He has made several appearances since then, but sharing a name with Crimson Dynamo seems to be a coincidence in-universe.