Demolition-Man's History
Early Life
Dennis Dunphy was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. As a young man, he 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 professional football player. He agreed, and had his strength boosted, but with his new-found power, he could not safely compete against regular athletes.
Demolition Man
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 Inc. 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, however, and refused to betray his friends. Although he went through a harrowing two weeks of withdrawal, he freed himself from Power Brokers' control.
Captain America
Captain America (Steven 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. 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 exceeded his, and she threw him off a cliff, nearly killing him. After the encounter with Titania, Dunphy lost confidence in himself. Soon afterward, the Commission on Superhuman Activities arrested and interrogated him.
The Avengers
Upon his release, Dunphy found Rogers trying to reconstitute his team the Avengers, 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 U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.. Dunphy, still unsure of himself, waited in an Avengers Quinjet while Rogers and Battlestar investigated. When Rogers learned that U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. was about to trigger an electromagnetic pulse, he asked Dunphy to crash the Quinjet into the base. Before Dunphy could eject, two U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. 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.
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. Dunphy then discovered Zerotown, underground home of the Zero People, and became their protector.
Serf
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.
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.
Civil War
Dunphy sided against the Superhuman Registration Act during the Civil War, alongside Captain America. After the Civil War, he was listed as a potential recruit for the Initiative.
Dark Reign
During Dark Reign, he enlisted in the U.S. Army serving in Iraq He covertly operated as D-Man when he could, enlisting the help of his fellow soldiers.
Pie of the Tiger
At a picnic held by the Avengers he competed in a pie eating contest and beat the Thing, Noh-Varr, and the Valkyrie.
Danielle Cage
He was one of the many applicants for nanny to Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' daughter, Danielle Cage.
Revengers
Prior to War of the Serpent, D-Man joined Wonder Man's Revengers, a group dedicated to dismantling the Avengers, and successfully attacked the Avengers Mansion. He was defeated by the combined forces of the Avengers and New Avengers, and when he was interrogated, he posed as a pawn of the Grandmaster, wanting to get back the Infinity Gems for him, but that the Avengers never answered to him. It is unclear whether D-Man was aware that the Illuminati actually possessed the Gems at this time.
Scourge
Somehow, Dunphy escaped or was freed from prison, and was used by Henry Gyrich and Hydra to mind-control him to turn him into the new Scourge. Sharon Carter was forced to fatally shoot Dunphy during his encounter with Captain America.
Resurrection
Dunphy was revived by a boy wishing to summon a demon (and instead had D-Man resurrected). After visiting the Avengers Mansion, meeting with Jarvis and Rage, he had the best day of his life, just before being killed by the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. When the universe was brought back, Dennis started working for the new Captain America as a pilot, mechanic, technician, and field backup, and bought himself a battle armor to "finally look cool."
When the Hive's invaded Earth, they sent agents to force Symbiotes into bonding with superhumans, so then a Poison could assimilate both the Symbiote and its host. Together with Rage, D-Man oversaw the evacuation of Manhattan through the Manhattan Bridge. They were both attacked by a group of Poisons and bonded to symbiotes. Shortly afterwards, they were consumed by a Poison, resulting in their deaths.
Despite his apparent death, Dennis returned, having broken up with his boyfriend, Chris, and apparently having lost his powers. He assisted Lockjaw in saving Lockjaw's siblings from Annihilus. He ultimately adopted one of Lockjaw's brothers as his own pet.
Ravencroft
Dennis was then hired as security guard at Ravencroft Institute. After convincing the Punisher, who had been imprisoned in Ravencroft, to calm down and drop his weapon, Dennis helped John Jameson to defend himself from Mr. Hyde, but was accidentally stabbed by Hyde in the chest. When the Unwanted took over the asylum, the injured Dennis and the rest of the staff were locked in a cell. One of the Unwanted thought to make a blood transfusion with their vampiric blood, but Misty Knight refused to let them even touch him. The leader of the Unwanted, Bud Adams, tried to make John Jameson tell him where he hid the Journal of Jonas Ravencroft and offered to heal Dunphy by making him a vampire in exchange for Jameson's cooperation. When the asylum was retaken, Dunphy was healed by Adams.
