Delbert Frye (Earth-616)

Del Frye was a rich and popular, yet humble, college student living in the small town of Turango, Colorado. He was the star quarterback of a collegiate American football team. Since Del intended to become a professional player, his father, Dr. Frye, pressured him into taking a serum he had created based on Gamma radiation. Dr. Frye expected the serum to help Del improve his physique in order to prevent eventual injuries he expected his son to endure playing football. Unlike his father, who had also injected himself with the serum, Del suffered side-effects from the injection immediately. His eyes turned a deep green, and green blood began pouring from his mouth and eyes as he hallucinated about a Green Door and a being beyond it, before he collapsed dead.

Delbert Frye (Earth-616) from Immortal Hulk Vol 1 2 001 — Del Frye before his transformation

Dr. Frye covered up Del's death, and the town simply believed the boy died suddenly due to natural causes. Because of this, Del was given a standard burial at Green Peak Cemetery, and the distance between the casket and the ground was too shallow to contain the radiation emanating from the body. As mourners visited the grave, they were infected with gamma sickness, and began to die as well, spreading what the locals dubbed a "Chain of Grief." While drifting across the country, Bruce Banner learned of this regional illness. He visited Del's grave and identified the gamma radiation coming from it. Before confronting Dr. Frye, he called the E.P.A. to alert them of the situation. When Del's remains were unearthed, he emerged from his coffin, alive, but mutated with the appearance of a desiccated, glowing corpse.^[1]

Frye was stuck in a form of stasis and was forced to witness the experiment that transformed him over and over again.^[2] Frye was later taken by General Fortean's U.S. Hulk Operations for research into gamma mutation. Though Frye suffered greatly from his mutation, Fortean didn't see a need to relieve him of his suffering. Hulk Operations scientist Charlene McGowan experimented on Frye,^[3] but she felt remorse and wanted to find a way to relieve his suffering.^[4] After Bruce Banner took over Hulk Operations,^[5] the organization's scientists went to work trying to cure Frye, but they didn't have any luck. When the Leader enacted a plan against the Hulk, he took control of Frye through the Green Door. He used Del's body to wreak havoc at Shadow Base,^[6] killing several scientists in the process.^[7] The Leader used both Del and Rick Jones to corner Dr. McGowan in an attempt to entice her to join his side. She refused and used the base's translocator to split Rick's body in half. After both Rick and Del were freed from the Leader's grasp, the remains of Jones fused into Frye's body.

Richard Jones (Earth-616) and Delbert Frye (Earth-616) from Immortal Hulk Vol 1 41 001 — Merged with Rick Jones

The combined creature burrowed through the ground in a franzy until it reached the surface. They stumbled into Shaman and Gamma Flight's Puck and Doc Sasquatch, the latter being Doc Samson resurrected into Sasquatch's body.^[8] Although Shaman determined the two men couldn't be separated, he managed to ease their pain.^[9] Rick and Del joined Gamma Flight in intercepting the Hulk's fight against the Avengers, and they helped the Hulk and his allies evade the heroes.^[10] After parting ways with the Hulk, Gamma Flight went into hiding. The team resurfaced after a new gamma mutate codenamed Stockpile went on a rampage, leading to the discovery that a rogue government agency called Project Green Spring was experimenting with gamma on the townsfolk of Thomasville. During Gamma Flight's raid on Green Spring's facility, the Absorbing Man absorbed the properties of the Cathexis Ray and used his only charge to separate Del and Rick.^[11]

Attributes

Powers

Immortality: For all intents and purposes, like other Gamma mutates, Del Frye cannot permanently die. The exact nature of this ability is unknown; however, it is suggested that when he died, the Green Door opened and allowed him to "walk through" in order to successfully enable resurrection.^[1]

Enhanced Strength: Del displayed enough strength to crack concrete with a punch.^[12]

Enhanced Durability: Del survived a punch from Skaar with no visible damage.^[13]

Green Door: Del displayed the ability to open a Green Door through which he summoned several gamma monsters. Skaar compared these monsters to ghosts, as they are intangible and therefore unable to harm others.^[13]

Abilities

Frye is a collegiate level athlete.^[1]

Weaknesses

Trivia

Del Frye is based on the character Dell Frye from the The Incredible Hulk live-action series from the 1970s.
In the original script for Immortal Hulk #2, Del Frye was called Mark Hendricks, and his middle name was originally Allen.^[16]

Links and References

References

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_2-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Immortal Hulk #2

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_37-2] Immortal Hulk #37

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_6-3] Immortal Hulk #6

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_23-4] Immortal Hulk #23

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_24-5] Immortal Hulk #24

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_36-6] Immortal Hulk #36

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_38-7] Immortal Hulk #38

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_43-8] Immortal Hulk #43

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_45-9] Immortal Hulk #45

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_47-10] Immortal Hulk #47

[Gamma_Flight_Vol_1_#1-5-11] Gamma Flight #1–5

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_3-12] Immortal Hulk #3

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_4-13] 13.0 ^13.1 Immortal Hulk #4

[Gamma_Flight_Vol_1_1-14] 14.0 ^14.1 Gamma Flight #1

[Immortal_Hulk_Vol_1_5-15] Immortal Hulk #5

[Immortal_Hulk_Director's_Cut_Vol_1_2-16] Immortal Hulk Director's Cut #2

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Delbert Frye (Earth-616)

Contents

History