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!