M341--Mister Immortal

Mister Immortal
Real Name: Craig Hollis

First Appearance: The West Coast Avengers #46 (July 1989)

The rise of the New Avengers saw the rise of the copycat groups looking to make their own name for themselves as unaffiliated superhero teams.  This included the completely unsanctioned Great Lakes Avengers–later known simply as the “GLA” following a New Avengers filed subpoena.  Headquartered in an abandoned box factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the alliance was made up of the greatest superheroes in the Upper Midwest that a Craigslist ad could find, including one Craig Hollis.

His code name was Mister Immortal for his complete inability to die, his body resetting whenever he sustained a fatal injury.  Craig did not consider this a gift however, but a curse.  Death’s presence was a constant to him, even if it could not claim him; because it could claim everyone around him–his friends, his family, his neighbors, even his pets–like a tax on his own unwanted eternal life.  Whenever he perished himself, he saw her face, and could feel her hand on his shoulder whenever he closed his eyes.

Perhaps being a hero was Craig’s way of making up for the residual lives lost around him.

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Or maybe he’s just a little touched in the head from getting killed so many times and he’s actually just really unlucky.  It’s not really clear.  Most assume he’s just a mutant with a bizarre time traveling anti-death power he can’t control, his cells “resetting” after he dies… but he’s never been tested.

The Great Lakes Avengers are perhaps the ultimate joke characters in the Marvel universe.  Just a group of absolute washed up nobodies attempting (and usually failing) at being big time heroes.  I had thought about trying to tell a more serious story with them but decided that felt grossly out of character so I’m just… not.  For Mister Immortal himself I really wanted to emphasize just how messed up in the head a guy like him would be.  He’s also convinced that death kind of “reverberates” off of him but he might just be an unlucky guy who has gotten really paranoid, I don’t want to clarify that.  Does he actually see Death?  Who knows.  I also rethought his powers as more of a “time” power, rather than a traditional ultra healing factor.  Like whenever he dies his body hits the rewind button.  It just won’t let him die, for some reason.  Is he a mutant?  Homo supreme like in the comics?  Or is he actually cursed?  Who knows?

For the GLA I wanted them to look like absolute amateurs, so that really shines here with Craig.  Really wanted him to look like just an absolutely average nobody who decided to make a homemade superhero costume.  So it’s like a red and blue jumpsuit, but he hasn’t quite figured out how to fit the white “I” motifs into it so he’s using printer paper taped to his costume with electrical tape.  His suit is also torn, patched up, and ratty because he has a tendency to get killed in it and while he resets… his clothes do not.  I based his curly hair on Ralph Hinkley’s hair in the old “The Greatest American Hero” show from the eighties, thought it kind of fit as a nobody with powers. He's also designed to look kind of like a mix between Ralph's actor William Katt and Mister Immortal's own live action actor David Pasquesi, though I'm not sure how well this comes across.  His sweat and nervous expression sells him as a guy who’s probably about to get killed again and it ain’t gonna be pretty.