The Absorbing Man

Real Name: Carl "Crusher" Creel

First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery #114 (For more information on the Absorbing Man, check out Eric Gillette's page here and a tip of the hat to Eric for help!)

First Appearance in Hulk Comic: The Incredible Hulk #125

Origin: Journey Into Mystery #114

Powers/Abilities: The Absorbing Man possesses the ability to take on the properties, and height, width, etc. of anything he may come in contact with...Metal, Glass, Stone, and so on...He can re-assemble himself over time if broken up...His strength level varies on the property that he takes on, so he can be nearly as strong as the Hulk...."Crusher" also has a Ball & Chain that has the same properties of transformation as he does and uses that as a weapon.

Artist Representation Gallery

Origin: Crusher, a former prison inmate, is a creation of Loki, the Norse god of mischief...The source of his powers are magical in nature and derived from a potion composed of rare Asgardian herbs which were added to Creel's drinking water...Creel was granted his great powers in exchange for trying to defeat Thor.


GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY

The Incredible Hulk #125: General Talbot hears that a comet appeared out of nowhere and is heading towards Earth. The comet is radioactive and they fear that if the comet engulfs the Earth, that all life will be killed. Bruce wakes up after having been the Hulk and hears on the radio about the oncoming comet. The announcer also mentions about plans to send a nuclear warhead on a missle to destroy the comet. Bruce goes to the base and volunteers to man a rocket to take a nuclear warhead into space. Bruce takes off in the rocket and manages to jettison the warhead in the comet and destroy it. When the rocket comes out of the comet, the Absorbing Man is attached to the outside, hanging on. The Absorbing Man had been cast into space previously by Odin and was drifting until the comet came along. He became one with the comet and guided it to Earth. While coming in for a landing, Bruce sees the Absorbing Man in the rear monitor and starts to turn into the Hulk. The Absorbing Man uses his ball and chain to destroy the pilot cabin but the Hulk is already present. They fight on the rocket as it crashes to the ground. The Hulk is surprised to see the Absorbing Man alive after that crash. The Hulk throws the rocket engine at Creel and he absorbs the heat radiating from it. Creel heats the ground making the Hulk sink. The Hulk dives into the soft ground and comes up beneath Creel and throws him into a mountain side. He becomes stone and goes hand to hand with the Hulk and starts to absorb the Hulk's power. Standing over the Hulk and using the Hulk's power, he holds a huge rock over him. The Hulk reverts back to Bruce causing Creel to revert to human also. Bruce jumps out of the way while Creel changes to rock to save his life but he's too small in rock form to hold up the huge bolder above him. He crumbles as it falls upon him.

The Incredible Hulk #208: One of the Hulk's battles causes a pipe to leak on a large cardboard box in a jail cell. The box gets wet and crumbles, allowing the occupant, The Absorbing Man, to escape. He turns to stone and breaks out of prison. Just before Creel is about to get into a confrontation with the police, Creel is transported away. Three figures in the shadows wisked Creel away to offer him a deal to kill the Hulk. Creel agrees to it.

The Incredible Hulk #209: The three figures in the shadow transport the Absorbing Man back to the city so he can follow Bruce. Bruce gets a job on a construction site and that is where Creel attacks. Creel tells Bruce to change into the Hulk but Bruce pretends to not know what he is talking about. Creel forces Bruce to fall off the building. Bruce changes into the Hulk before he hits the ground and the two fight in the building. Creel turns into concrete and has the Hulk on the robes until the Hulk hits the floor, causing the building to collapse. During the fall, Creel boasts that he will just grab ahold of something and survive the fall. He reaches out and the first thing he touches is glass and he breaks to pieces as he hits the ground. The Hulk easily survives the fall.

The Incredible Hulk #261: The Hulk swims to the deserted Easter Island and collapses, reverting back to Bruce Banner. He is found by the Absorbing Man, who has lost his memory. During a fight with the Avengers, he fell in the ocean and took on the properties of water. He drifted apart and by the time he pulled himself back together when he reached Easter Island, he had lost his mind. Creel picks up the unconscious Bruce to take him back to his hideout because he thinks "they" are out to get him. While walking down a slope, Bruce wakes up and causes both of them to tumble down. Creel changes into stone and forces Bruce to crawl into a hole so that they can hide from "them." They go to a hidden cave underground. When Creel falls asleep, Bruce crawls through another hole to escape. Before he can get out, Creel grabs him from behind while crawling and says that he will stay there until Bruce starves. Bruce turns into the Hulk and jars Creels memories back. During the battle, Creel starts to absorb all parts of the island, including earth, grass, stone, the volcanic core. The Hulk launches the Absorbing Man into the ocean and the shock of having lost again, causes the Absorbing Man to causes his mind to shut down and basically form an island.

The Incredible Hulk #347: Anthony Gold, a gangster from New York, hires the Absorbing Man to take care of Joe Fixit, who trashed Gold and his men.

The Incredible Hulk #348: Creel tells Gold that it will cost him a million dollars to take care of Joe Fixit for him. Creel goes to the casino where Joe Fixit works and proceeds to trash it. The Hulk comes down and punches Creel and hurts him, which surprises him. Creel hits the Hulk with his ball and chain and is surprised again to see that he is alive. At the same time, the Hulk is trying to prevent from turning into Bruce because it was during the day. The Hulk leaps away and that's when Creel realizes he has been fighting the Hulk. The Hulk jumps to Hoover Dam and the two fight there. Creel finally touches the Hulk's skin and aborbs his power. What Creel doesn't know is that the sun hurts the "grey" version of the Hulk. While the Absorbing Man wonders why his skin is burning, the Hulk jumps at him and they fall down into the dam control room. The Absorbing Man lands in the generator and absorbs the properties of electricity and starts to bring down the Hulk. The Hulk tricks the Absorbing Man to swinging his ball into the water, which shorts him out. Weakened, he absorbs the properties of concrete when the Hulk walks towards him. The Hulk breaks the Absorbing Man into pieces and throws him into the river.

The Incredible Hulk #456: The Absorbing Man attacks Rick Jones and Janis while they are driving through New Orleans. He destroys their car and tells them they are lucky that he is there just to talk to them. He tells them that the Hulk has gotten involved with Apocalypse and that Apocalypse is messing with his minds to create a new dangerous Hulk to send after people. The Absorbing Man and his friends figure Rick can get through to the Hulk. They get on a plane with Creel to find the Hulk. While on the plane, Creel talks to his associates, the New World Order, to give them an update. They land in Egypt and are driving in a jeep when a pyramid is nearly dropped on them. Creel turns into stone and goes up against the new Hulk, now called War. Creel grabs the Hulk's sword and tries to absorb that but it is too much and the Absorbing Man breaks into pieces.

The Incredible Hulk #457: Rick gathers all the pieces of the Absorbing Man together in the shape of a man. Creel comes back to life and takes Janis's staff, absorbing it's powers. Right before the Hulk is about to behead the Juggernaut, Creel comes crashing down on him. They fight and the Hulk embedes the sword into Creel's chest. The Hulk regains his mind when he hits Rick against the wall, severly injuring him. The Absorbing Man takes the sword out of himself and him and the Juggernaut take Rick to a hospital and the sword back to the New World Order to get paid.

The Incredible Hulk #55: Dr. Zhan is on a tv show explaining how his invention of the plasma containment beam is what enables them to keep the Absorbing Man captive. While wating for a subway, Judy is talking to her friend Pam when she suddenly jumps in front of the subway, killing herself. Back at the prison/lab where the Absorbing Man is bing kept, the people hear the news and realize it is their friend Judy, who works at the lab. Dr. Zhan doesn't think she jumped and asks if Judy was along with Creel at any point the day before. Later on in the prison, one of the female workers starting coming onto another worker unexpectedly, with her eyes glowing. When they get into a room, the man's eyes start to glow and he attacks the girl. In the city, Pam and Bruce Banner are walking around when gang memebers cause them trouble. Before Bruce can do anything, Pam's eyes glow and she beats the gang members up and then proceeds to kick Bruce in the face. Back in the lab, the guy doesn't know what happened as the woman is hitting him for attacking her. Dr. Zhan does a little research and shows Mr. Johnson, the director of the facility, that Creel's brain activity since he had been there had no peaks but during all the incidents, including Judy jumping to her death, Creel's brain activity spiked. Dr. Zhan suggests that putting Creel in a small confind area caused his mind to seek an escape and he is doing that by absorbing other people's minds. Mr. Johnson does not believe him. Dr. Zhan goes to where Creel is kept with a gun.

The Incredible Hulk #56: Bruce is waiting for a subway when Pam comes up behind him and pushes him in front of the subway but he turns into the Hulk just in time. Back at the prison, Dr. Zahn disengages the plasma shield so that he can shoot Creel so that he doesn't detroy any more lives but before he can pull the trigger, Creel starts to take control of his mind. Creel makes Dr. Zhan put the gun to his head and also reactivate the shield but then he makes Zhan shoot a guard who enters the room. When Bruce asks Pam about her blackouts, Bruce suddenly looks like Creel. Pam remembers that he was the person she saw on tv. In the prison, Creel takes over Mr. Johnson's mind and changes the footage to show Dr. Zhan "accidently" discharging his gun and killing the guard. Creel talks out of Johnson's body and says that he can learn alot from Zhan's mind and then abruptly leaves. Out in the city, Creel takes over the mind of a truck driver and tries to kill Pam on a bridge. Bruce saves her and takes the full brunt of the truck. When Pam goes to see, the Hulk steps out, possessed by Creel.

The Incredible Hulk #57: The Creel-controlled Hulk grabs Pam as police officers fire on him. Pam says she know who he is and that he will have a hard time trying to control both the Hulk and Bruce's mind. Creel doesn't feel worried about his abilities. Pam tries to get through to Bruce but before she can, a stray bullet hits her arm. This causes Bruce to regain control. Back at the prison, Dr. Zhan tries to convince Mr. Johnson that Creel had possession of his mind and that Creel is now out and dangerous. Mr. Johnson doesn't believe him. Bruce suddenly wakes up within him mind and Creel, who is still in his mind also, makes Bruce remember that when he regained control of his body that he turned back into Bruce Banner and jumped off the bridge and was actually drowning at that point. Bruce wakes up and makes it to the surface. So Creel actual saves Bruce's life but he only does it because he needs to use the Hulk. Bruce walks along the road and comes across a car on the side of the road. He finds two people dead in the car and then a little girl who reveals herself to be Creel and that he killed them. Bruce tells Creel that he will not get control of his body again. Creel says that if he doesn't come and help him, he will kill the little girl and it will be Bruce's fault. Just a Creel hands Bruce the bloody knife he used to kill the parents, the police arrive.

The Incredible Hulk #58: Bruce agrees to go with Creel as long as he stops the mind-switching games. Creel agrees. Bruce walks towards the police and tells them that if they allow him one call from one of their cars, that the will leave and that there will be no trouble. The police, knowing who they are dealing with, agree. Bruce calls Pam and tells her to warn the prison that they are heading their way. As everything is going well, Creel takes possession of a police officer's mind and shoots at Bruce, just grazing him. Bruce turns into the Hulk and takes care of the police. Creel notices that there is a point where Bruce loses control. Afterwards, the Hulk turns back into Bruce whereas he makes Creel tell him where they are going. Creel tells him that Bruce is going to help him break his physical body out of a nearby prison. Creel, still the little girl, leads Bruce onto a train to head to the prison. A girl seating next to them recognizes Bruce but before anything can happen, Pam comes onto the scene, pretending to be the mother. She had been following them.

The Incredible Hulk #59: Creel explains how Bruce is going to help him recover his body. Bruce asks why Creel doesn't just possess Johnson's mind and free himself. Creel explains that there are too many failsafes and the easiest way to get free is a weak spot at the top of the plasma shield. Creel tells Bruce that he wants the Hulk to dig down into the prison and free his body and then he will be on his way. Bruce agrees but without the Hulk. Bruce grabs a stone cross (the prison is buried below a cemetary) and uses some of the Hulk's strength and starts to dig. Bruce breaks through and gets into the sphere holding Creel's body and starts to beat it up. Johnson sees what's going on and drops the shield to stop Bruce but Creel was only faking it. Bruce turns into the Hukl and punches Creel who then starts to take on properties of objects in the room. Johnson finds Dr. Zhan, who was severely hurt in the escape process. Creel and the Hulk take the battle up to the cemetary. They continue to fight as Pam tries to find Dr. Zhan. She finds Johnson next to the just deceased Dr. Zhan. Johnson explains that Dr. Zhan was trying to tell him something before he died and after thinking about it, she figures it out. As the Hulk and Creel continue to fight, Pam goes in front of Creel and tells him he will never get out. She tells him that Zhan has back-up shields in place so that he will not be able to leave the area and that only Zhan knows how to get around them. Creel is convinced so traps Pam and Johnson so they can't do anything and then he goes to get into Dr. Zhan's mind. He gets into the doctors mind and is trapped inside the dead mind. Later, across the world away, a young couple welcomes their new baby, who has strangely glowing eyes.