'She-Hulk' Brings a Darkly Hilarious Marvel Character Into the Mix
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There's a polygamy thing happening with the recurring men of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and it's pretty interesting. Only a couple weeks after Tim Roth's reformed villain (?) Emil Blonsky/The Abomination punched his ticket out of jail and straight toward a farm with his seven soulmates, the show now introduced us to another problematic man with a legal dilemma: Craig Hollis, who goes by Mr. Immortal, and has the odd behavioral pattern of...well, kind of killing himself every time he wants to end a marriage instead of just having a conversation. And the name kind of says it all—he's been alive a long time, and thus has racked up quite a few ex-wives, none of whom are happy with him.
While fans will have to wait at least another week for the Daredevil appearance that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law's previous episode, "Mean, Green, and Straight Poured into These Jeans," hinted at, they did get a fun B-plot where Mallory Book and Nikki sort out Mr. Immortal's whole dilemma at GLK&H while Jen (Tatiana Maslany) was busy using her out-of-office days while away at an old friend's wedding.
It's fun that the writers of She-Hulk know that fans don't just want to hear about the powers that someone like Mr. Immortal has—they want to see it in action. Sure, the guy's kind of slimy and is wearing a pretty snazzy suit, but we want to see what he means when he insinuates that he dies, but, well, not really. So how else does he exit his first scene than jumping right out the window, crashing into a car, and walking off without a scratch. Nikki speaks for the fans in this moment: at least we know how it works now.
By the end of the episode, Nikki and Mallory go through Mr. Immortal's relationship with each of his ex-wives, making sure each are properly compensated for their relative time spent with this colossal douchebag. It seems like he's a character Marvel probably just has earmarked for this single one-off She-Hulk appearance, but you may be surprised to learn that Mr. Immortal has a more than 30 year history in the Marvel Comics.
Who is Mr. Immortal in Marvel Comics?
Mr. Immortal was created by writer John Byrne, first appearing in July 1989's West Coast Avengers Vol. 2 #46, and, at least in the comics, he's a mutant. (That would put him into the same murky waters as Wanda Maximoff, as far as characters who have mutant origins in the Marvel Comics but don't necessarily have that distinction in the MCU). Mr. Immortal's origin is pretty grim—as a child, his mother died and before her death she asked the cosmic entity Deathurge to look after her son. Deathurge then was with Craig for a while, and he had constant patterns of dangerous behavior, like playing in traffic. Eventually, Deathurge tricked Craig into burning his own house down, which killed his father; he ended up in foster care, where he fell in love with his foster sister, who also ended up dying by suicide. (We told you—grim origin!)
Somewhere along the way, Deathurge stopped appearing, and Craig attempted suicide for the first time, learning then and there that he'd gained the power of immortality. Think Wolverine or Deadpool, but actually an even more potent form of the same power. Most of this is explained in GLA (Great Lakes Avengers) #1: Misassembled, which is a team spun-off from the West Coast Avengers. That book is also written by Dan Slott, whose She-Hulk run is largely the inspiration for the MCU's series. Other members of the Great Lakes Avengers include more superheroes you haven't heard of: Flatman, Doorman, Big Bertha, Dinah Soar and Leather Boy.
Their mentors, however, are Hawkeye and Mockingbird, whom MCU fans should be familiar with. Mr. Immortal and different forms of the Great Lakes Avengers have been showing up in Marvel Comics ever since, most recently in a passing reference in writer Al Ewing's acclaimed Immortal Hulk run.
Mr. Immortal is played by David Pasquesi in She-Hulk.
Craig Hollis/Mr. Immortal is played by the hilarious David Pasquesi in his live-action MCU debut in She-Hulk. If Pasquesi looks familiar, it's probably because he's been popping up in just about everything for decades.
Star Wars fans likely remember that face from his time as a thorn in the side of Boba Fett in The Book of Boba Fett as Mok Shaiz's Majordomo, which came out earlier this year. Fans of HBO's Veep will likely remember him as Selina Meyer's awful ex-husband, Andrew. He's also played a key role in shows like Lodge 49, At Home with Amy Sedaris and The Mob Doctor while showing up in shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Strangers with Candy and movies like Groundhog Day. Pasquesi is also a prominent player in the improv comedy scene, coming up in Chicago and also spending time in New York.
If you can believe it, though, She-Hulk wasn't supposed to be the live-action debut of Mr. Immortal. At one point, Marvel Television was going to create a live-action New Warriors team which would've been led by Mister Immortal—who would've been played by actor Derek Theler—and Squirrel Girl—who would've been played by Milana Vayntrub. This show actually shot a pilot, and was originally conceived to air on Freeform, but due to scheduling conflicts it then needed to find a new home—which it never did. And then, around the same time, the New Warriors pilot and Marvel Television effectively died.
Luckily, Marvel Studios found a way for Mr. Immortal to be—wait for it—immortalized in She-Hulk. Will he show up again? Who can say. But we'll always have Episode 6.
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