Biography - Part 3
Dennis received medical treatment and recovered, but they all remained in Commission lock-up as Cap didn’t even know about their predicament. After Vagabond got Sidewinder proper treatment, he teleported into the Commission’s holding facility to free Diamondback. Diamond and Vagabond vouched for Jack and Dennis, asking Sidewinder to teleport them to freedom as well. Nomad was all for the idea, but D-Man wanted to do what Cap would do, which was abide by the law and face his accusers. Nomad left with Diamondback and Sidewinder, but Vagabond actually stayed behind in support of D-Man. However, the Commission was operating with extra-legal discretion and denied Dennis the right to an attorney or reading his charges for days. [Captain America (1st series) #345-346] The Commission eventually released D-Man without explanation after finding other priorities. Dennis went looking for Cap and they met up at Avengers Mansion on Hydro-Base. While they were separated, Steve discovered the Avengers disbanded in his absence and was forced to assemble an emergency team to stop the High Evolutionary. This team quickly dispersed when the immediate threat was resolved, but the Captain was determined to reform the Avengers on a permanent basis. Steve was thrilled to see Dennis again and offered to make him the first recruit for his new Avengers team. Demolition Man was overwhelmed by the opportunity, but he did his best to keep his cool so Cap would be proud of him.
As they took stock on the abandoned Hydro-Base, Cap and D-Man had a sudden visitor. Battlestar arrived via helicopter with word that the new Captain America had failed in a serious mission. Cap’s old nemesis Flag-Smasher contacted the U.S. government and demanded the Captain’s presence at a research station at the North Pole in exchange for some hostages. The new Captain America went instead and was captured by Flag-Smasher, who sent Battlestar to bring him the REAL Captain. Together, they flew out to Ice Station Able where Flag-Smasher was under siege by his own ULTIMATUM troopers after he learned the Red Skull secretly funded his anti-nationalist forces. While Battlestar got the other Cap to medical treatment, D-Man and the Captain flew the Quinjet with Flag-Smasher to stop the doomsday device that ULTIMATUM had activated.
The Captain and Flag-Smasher fought their way into ULTIMATUM base, but determined the doomsday device was already active. Steve radioed Dennis and ordered him to put the Quinjet on a collision course for the main building before bailing out. As D-Man lined up his trajectory, though, some ULTIMATUM soldiers on rocket skis latched onto his hull. Dennis prepped his parachute, but decided the ULTIMATUM soldiers must be dealt with first, for fear they would stop the Quinjet’s final flight if left aboard. He found the two soldiers planting explosives out on the wings and lost precious time trying to deal with them. Demolition Man removed one explosive and was in the process of saving the life of an ULTIMATUM soldier caught tethered to the ship when the second bomb exploded. The Captain and Flag-Smasher exited the complex in time to see an explosion aboard the Quinjet moments before it crashed into the ULTIMATUM base. The device was destroyed on impact, but there was no sign of Demolition Man, Avenger. [Captain America (1st series) #349]
Captain America never gave up on the idea that Dennis somehow survived, and he once mounted an expedition to the North Pole in an effo
rt to find his lost friend. However, he failed to discover D-Man where he lay, frozen in a block of ice in suspended animation, like Cap himself once sat. [Captain America (1st series) #384] Dennis eventually thawed out and joined a remote tribe of Inuit when he crossed paths with them. Tragically, though, the intense submersion and a period of oxygen deprivation left D-Man with trauma and possibly brain damage. He experienced amnesia and no longer spoke a word to others. Even among his new tribe he remained inordinately passive and slow to respond to stimuli.
Once Flag-Smasher reclaimed control of ULTIMATUM, they reopened their base of operations in the Arctic. Passing ULTIMATUM ships stirred enough of Dennis’s memories for him to follow them to the anti-nationalists’ lair. Flag-Smasher recognized his captive and attempted to lure Captain America into a fight in exchange for his friend. Unfortunately, Cap and most of the Avengers were in deep space fighting the Kree-Shi’ar War and could not respond. The replacement Cap was now an Avenger named U.S. Agent, so he and Falcon stepped up from the reserves on hand to deal with Flag-Smasher. They rescued Dennis from ULTIMATUM’s clutches and brought him back to the States. [Captain America (1st series) #400-401]
Captain America was thrilled to see D-Man again, regardless of his condition. He arranged for Dennis to stay with him at Avengers Mansion, and for the team’s physician Doctor Keith Kincaid to give him a full physical. Dr. Kincaid diagnosed Dennis’s brain damage but was uncertain how to prescribe treatment to help him recover. In the meantime, the Avengers’ butler Jarvis looked after D-Man while Cap was off on missions. During a constitutional in Central Park with Cap’s friend Bernie Rosenthal, Dennis wandered off and went missing again. He was attacked by one of the Magus’ doppelgangers from the Infinity War who tackled him into the lagoon. The passive Dennis hardly responded to the drowning as the shock reminded him of his previous ordeal in the Arctic. [Captain America (1st series) #402-409]
Miraculously, Dennis survived the doppelganger’s assault by drifting into a subterranean tunnel and emerging in a deserted cavern. He stumbled into Zerotown, an enclave of homeless known as the Night People. Distrustful of surface dwellers, Brother Have-Not and Brother Wonderful subjected Dennis to torture when he refused to talk and explain how he found their encampment. [Captain America (1st series) #409-411] Brother Have-Not was a superhuman, able to drain the strength of others for himself, and he kept Dennis too weak to fight back even if he intended to. Still, Dennis finally took notice when a child called Jikjak came to his cage to ask for help. Brother Have-Not kept them imprisoned in Zerotown, using his strength to control the main entrance. Dennis made his first overt act since the Arctic Circle by breaking open his cage and offering his hand to the crying child. Brother Have-Not found Dennis and Jikjak trying to move the massive boulder blocking the exit, and he sapped Dennis’s strength for himself. Have-Not attempted to punish Jikjak for disobedience but Dennis not only reached out to stop the man, he found his voice to say, “Don’t.” Brother Have-Not tried to keep control of the situation by sapping Demolition Man’s strength while pleading their case as harmless cave dwellers who needed to forage for food. Once they reached the surface, though, Have-Not made it clear that “foraging” meant robbing people and stealing from stores. D-Man stood up to him again, forcing a fight between them as Brother Have-Not continued boosting his own strength off of Dennis and his other loyal followers. D-Man beat Have-Not and turned him over to the police, just as Jikjak arrived with Captain America as back-up. Dennis and Cap were reunited, and D-Man decided to dedicate himself to the Night People and being a better leader than their last representative. [Captain America (1st series) #418]
Dennis and Steve remained in touch, as “Brother D-Man” didn’t keep the Night People as isolated as before. They regularly got together to go jogging and catch up in the sunlight. [Captain America (1st series) #422] When Cap wanted allies for an assault on A.I.M. Island on Boca Caliente, he reached out to Dennis for support. D-Man respectfully declined due to his responsibilities to the Night People. Dennis thought the action of a super-hero had never truly fit him, but he was well suited as a simple protector of his community. [Captain America (1st series) #440]