With this ability, he takes on the codename Mr. Immortal. In his first outing as a superhero, trying to foil a bank robbery, Mr. Immortal is shot and left for dead. He decides that forming a team will allow him to apply his abilities more usefully. After placing an ad, he founds the Great Lakes Avengers, a regional offshoot of the Avengers based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Mr. Immortal as leader. Its other founding members include Flatman, Doorman, Big Bertha, Dinah Soar and Leather Boy. Although he is given to fits of rage upon regaining consciousness following otherwise-fatal injuries, his teammate and sometimes lover Dinah Soar can utter vocalizations that can calm him. On account of his immortality, he often engages in life-endangering stunts, and is invariably willing to take on the deadliest aspects of missions, which he does brazenly, at one point taunting an armed gunman by saying, "All you're threatening me with is death. And dying's what I do best!" It is also a cause for depression, in particular on occasions when someone close to him dies.