Dunphy played college football, but no professional team would draft him after his college career ended. Without any better prospects, he accepted an offer from Power Brokers, Inc. to enhance his physical abilities. The treatments worked.

Place of Birth

Detroit, Michigan

Created by

Mike Carlin, Ron Wilson

First appearance

Thing #28
(October, 1985)

1 HistoryEdit
- 1.1 Civil War
- 1.2 Revengers
2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit
3 LinksEdit
- 3.1 Discover and Discuss
- 3.2 Footnotes

HistoryEdit

As a young man, Dennis Dunphy idolized superheroes. A successful college football player, he hoped to be recruited as a professional, but despite trying out for a number of teams, he was chosen by none. When he was approached by an agent of the Power Broker and offered the chance to undergo a process to increase his physical strength to superhuman levels, hoping this would increase his chances of being a profressional football player. He agreed, and had his strength boosted, but with his newfound power, he could not safely compete against regular athletes. The Power Broker offered him a place in the new Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation (UCWF), where he could use his augmented strength against other similarly augmented wrestlers. He fought with the Thing (Ben Grimm), among others, and called himself "Demolition Dunphy."

Unbeknownst to Dunphy, Power Brokers was a criminal organization. They supplied pills to their clients, purportedly to stabilize their metabolisms after the treatments, but in reality to keep them addicted to the pills and under their control. Grimm and Ms. Marvel (Sharon Ventura) (a fellow client of Power Brokers and UCWF wrestler) discovered that approximately half of Power Brokers' clients had come out of their treatments with brain damage or deformities. Power Brokers commanded some of their clients, including Dunphy, to capture Grimm and Ventura, and threatened to withhold their pills if they refused. Dunphy followed his conscience and refused to betray his friends. Although he went through a harrowing two weeks of withdrawal, he freed himself from Power Brokers' control.^[1]

Captain America (Steve Rogers) took an interest in Power Broker Inc. because of one of its clients, the Super-Patriot. Dunphy allied himself with Rogers, created a costume based on those of Daredevil and Wolverine, and captured Karl Malus, the head scientist. Soon afterward, Power Broker's agents captured Dunphy and put him through more treatments, which resulted in a heart attack.^[2] He was rescued by Captain America. While he was recovering from his heart attack, Dunphy operated Rogers's telephone hotline.

After John Walker supplanted Rogers as Captain America, Rogers became a costumed adventurer known as The Captain. Dunphy, Nomad (Jack Monroe), the Falcon, and Vagabond joined Rogers on several missions, going up against the Serpent Society, the Horseman of the Apocalypse Famine, and a group of superhuman criminals who had broken out of the prison for super villains known as the Vault. In the latter conflict, Demolition-Man tried to apprehend the villainess Titania. However, Titania's strength far exceeeded his, and she threw him off a cliff, nearly killing him. After the encounter with Titania, Dunphy lost confidence in himself.^[3] Soon afterward, the Commission on Superhuman Activities arrested and interrogated him.

Upon his release, Dunphy found Rogers trying to reconstitute his team the Avengers (Earth-616), and Dunphy joined the team on an informal basis. To help Battlestar, Dunphy and Rogers flew to the Arctic to rescue Battlestar's partner, US Agent (the former Super-Patriot), from ULTIMATUM. Dunphy, still unsure of himself, waited in an Avengers Quinjet while Rogers and Battlestar investigated. When Rogers learned that ULTIMATUM was about to trigger an electromagnetic pulse, he asked Dunphy to crash the Quinjet into the base. Before Dunphy could eject, two ULTIMATUM agents tried to plant bombs on the aircraft. One bomb went off. The Quinjet crashed into the base and stopped the pulse, but Dunphy sank into the ocean with the Quinjet wreckage and was presumed dead.^[4]

Dunphy miraculously survived the crash and lived with an Inuit tribe, but he lost his voice and much of his vitality. The Falcon and US Agent rescued him after he was kidnapped by ULTIMATUM. Rogers, with the help of other Avengers, nursed Dunphy back to health.^[5] Dunphy then discovered Zerotown, underground home of the Zero People, and became their protector.^[6]

During the Morgan Conquest, when Morgan le Fey reshaped reality to her liking, every living Avenger became an unwilling member of the Queen's Vengeance, her bodyguards. Dunphy took the name Serf.^[7]

Possibly as a delayed after-effect of the Power Broker treatments, Dunphy became schizophrenic. He believed that a voice was instructing him to collect the Infinity Gems. Instead he stole ordinary gems. Daredevil convinced Dunphy to get treatment for his illness.^[8]

Civil War

Dunphy sided against the Registration Act in the Civil War alongside Captain America.

Revengers

Dunphy joined the Revengers, a group founded by Wonder Man dedicated to dismantling the Avengers.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Dunphy possesses various superhuman physical attributes as a result of undergoing various treatments designed by the Power Broker to grant him superhuman powers including superhuman strength, endurance, and durability.

Superhuman Strength: Dunphy possesses superhuman strength, sufficient enough to enable him to lift up to 15 tons.

Superhuman Stamina: Dunphy's musculature produces considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. Dunphy can physically exert himself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before the build-up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him.

Superhuman Durability: The tissues of Dunphy's body are much harder and more resistant to physical injury than those of an ordinary human. Though it is possible to injure him, Dunphy has withstood high caliber bullets, impacts of tremendous force, falls from great heights, and exposure to great temperatures and pressures without injury.

Power Grid ^[9]

Abilities

His background in professional wrestling, as well as training from Captain America, make Dunphy an excellent hand-to-hand combatant.

Strength level

Dunphy has superhuman strength, enabling him to lift up to 15 tons.

Weaknesses

The process that granted Dunphy his superhuman powers has resulted in a dangerous heart condition that has plagued him on several occassions. dunphy has also been affected by shcizophrenia.