Carl Creel (Earth-1010)

{{Character Template
 * Title                  = Absorbing Man
 * Image                  = Absorbing Man A!.png
 * ImageSize              = 250px
 * RealName               = Carl Creel
 * CurrentAlias           = Absorbing man
 * Aliases                = The Crusher, "Crusher" Creel
 * Identity               = Public
 * Alignment              = Bad
 * Affiliation            = Hydra
 * Relatives              =
 * Universe               = Earth-1010
 * BaseOfOperations       = His trailer


 * Gender                 = Male
 * Height                 = 6'4"
 * Height2                = (Variable)
 * Weight                 = 270 lbs.
 * Weight2                = (Variable)
 * Eyes                   = Blue
 * Eyes2                  = (Variable)
 * Hair                   = Bald
 * UnusualFeatures        = His "armor" made out of materials he absorbed


 * Citizenship            = American
 * MaritalStatus          = Married
 * Occupation             = Professional criminal; former professional boxer
 * Education              = High school dropout


 * Quote                  = I ain't just Crusher Creel, an ordinary con anymore! I'm the Absorbing Man... the most dangerous guy in the world!!
 * Speaker                = Absorbing Man


 * Origin                 =
 * PlaceOfBirth           = New York City, New York
 * Creators               = Stan Lee; Jack Kirby
 * First                  = TBA


 * HistoryText            =

Early Life
Carl Creel has the ability to absorb the properties of any substance into himself and transform the molecules that make up his body into that substance. He used this ability to succeed as a boxer, nicknamed "the Crusher," hiding steel fists beneath his gloves. Early on in his boxing career, he fought the fateful match against Battlin' Jack Murdock, in which the latter was fixed to take a fall, but instead beat Creel in the fight.

S.H.I.E.L.D.
After a while, Creel gained the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D, who listed Creel on their Gifted Persons Index. S.H.I.E.L.D. deemed Creel too dangerous, and opted to have him eliminated rather than brought into their custody; however, the agent responsible for overlooking Creel's termination was John Garrett, who used the opportunity to fake Creel's death and recruit him into Hydra.

Sometime later, Creel's contact at Hydra ordered him to retrieve the Obelisk, a device the Strategic Scientific Reserve recovered from Hydra at the end of World War II and has been in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession ever since. To accomplish this, Creel killed a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent selling information on the device. The information revealed the location of the Obelisk, an army base which Creel was ordered to infiltrate. Creel got inside by attacking Brigadier General Glenn Talbot and his family, and letting the army take him into their custody.

Incarcerated within the facility, Creel absorbed the material that made up his cell into his body. When the soldiers guarding his cell went to investigate his apparent disappearance, Creel killed them and escaped. He then tried to retrieve the Obelisk, but found that Izzy Hartley, a mercenary employed by Director Phil Coulson of the newly reformed S.H.I.E.L.D, had already found it. Hartley tried to use the Obelisk against Creel, but the moment she grabbed the device it painfully paralyzed her hand so she couldn't let go of it. As Creel watched her writhing in pain, the rest of her team arrived and scared Creel away.

Later, as Hartley and her mercenaries Lance Hunter and Idaho were driving away from the base, Creel appeared in the street in front of them, absorbed the asphalt in the road into his body, and caused the car to crash into him and flip over. Hartley and Idaho were killed immediately, while Hunter watched helplessly from the car as Creel absorbed the rubber of the car's tire into his hand and took the Obelisk from Hartley's amputated hand.

Despite his precaution, the Obelisk was able to infect Creel, but was able to use his abilities to barely keep the infection under control. He made his way to a diner to hand over the Obelisk to his contact at Hydra, but he never showed up. While he was waiting, a waitress accidentally touched his arm, and was quickly overcome by the Obelisk's power. During the commotion, Creel hurried out of the diner while Melinda May, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent following him, hurried in to investigate. Creel made his way back to his trailer, where his contact informed him of the new location where he would hand over the device. However, his contact's refusal to help him control the Obelisk's infection only frustrated Creel. As Creel ended his call with Hydra, Raina appeared out of the shadows and offered to trade a rare mineral for the Obelisk. Creel refused, but took the substance anyway, calling it the price of doing business. The next day, Creel met up with his contact, who helped him overcome the Obelisk's infection. Before he could hand over the Obelisk, Lance Hunter ambushed them and fired at Creel's head. Creel turned his body into iron and deflected the bullet, and then chased Hunter into a nearby store. Just as Creel was about to kill him, Coulson sneaked up on him from behind and place a device on him that caused Creel to lose control of his abilities and turn to stone. The petrified Creel remained in S.H.I.E.L.D's custody until Coulson handed him back over to Talbot and the military, pointing out that since Carl could already turn into stone, his situation might not be permanent.

Eventually, Creel was taken out of captivity by HYDRA Agents.


 * Powers                 = Omni-morph Duplication:The Absorbing Man possesses the ability to bodily duplicate at will the physical properties of anything he touches or that touches him. This power extends to both animate and inanimate objects and certain forms of energy. The matter of the Absorbing Man's body magically a material and physiological change so that his body actually becomes composed of the matter or energy with which he is making contact. While he is in this altered state, he still possesses his sentience despite the fact that his brain is now composed of the same material as the rest of him. Among the more ordinary materials he has been transformed into include steel, stone, wood and glass. More unusual have been his transformations into water, fire, snow and silk. His most powerful transformations have been into energy-states such as cosmic, nuclear, thermal or light.

The Absorbing Man has learned through practice to only absorb the properties of objects that he wishes to absorb. Originally he could be tricked into absorbing the properties of objects that would render him relatively vulnerable. There appears to be no time limit to how long he can retain a given property. When he is rendered unconscious or in a coma, he retains the form which he last consciously assumed. There would also not appear to be a minimum amount of time he must retain one form before assuming another. He can even become more than one substance at once.

The Absorbing Man can also absorb specific properties relating to the form or mass of an object he touches. For example he can assume the height of a skyscraper or the spikes of a mace. He can also assimilate mystic properties of objects or beings.

The Absorbing Man can alter the molecular structure of his body, his clothes, and his wrecking ball to mimic the properties of any material he touches. This process also gives him enhanced strength, endurance, and in most cases, resistance to injury. If the object touched holds some form of energy, such as a battery or a blast furnace, Creel absorbs these properties as well. He also has limited shape-changing abilities when absorbing certain objects, such as forming hammer-like fists when touching a hammer or growing to enormous size when copying items of massive power or strength themselves.


 * Abilities              =
 * Strength               = When he is not absorbing the properties of anything, the Absorbing Man possesses the normal human strength of a man his age, height and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. Depending on what he absorbs and how long he can remain in contact with it, his strength can increase into the Class 100 range, allowing him to lift (press) over 100 tons.
 * Weaknesses             = *Automatic Absorption: Ironically, his own power is also his biggest weakness. Originally, Creel had little to no control of his power, and automatically absorbed any kind of matter and energy around him. As a result, there has been in numerous occasions where his adversaries had successfully tricked him into absorb random materials that makes him weaker or non-solid. He later learns how to absorb a specific material without absorb other materials by simply touch, and is even capable of absorb more than one material at once. However, there are limits by how much he can "ignore" matter around him, and will still absorb it if there's too much of it surrounding him.


 * Non-Solid Absorption: Though he can absorb almost all kinds of matter and energy, Creel has trouble in maintain a stable physical body if the material itself is not on solid state, and will likely fuse and dissipate with the material (Ex: If he absorbs helium or other gases, he will float and decompose in atmosphere).


 * Narcotic Absorbtion: Creel will automatically take on the properties of narcotics he takes, giving him an even greater high. However while in the state he is highly vulnerable as any user would be. While in a narcotic state Creel can and has been reduced to powder and sold to junkies. Those who take Creel while he is in this state will temporarily gain his powers and absorb the properties of whatever they are touching at the time, which since they don't get all of Creels powers has proven fatal.


 * Magic: though he can, and has, absorb any kind of supernatural and cosmic energy, Creel is not immune to spells and can be affect by it if the magic user is experienced enough (if anything, his absorption powers only makes the effect worse).


 * Equipment              =
 * Transportation         =
 * Weapons                = * Ball and Chain, which also possesses the same properties of transformation as his body, providing he is in contact with it.

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 * Notes                  =
 * Trivia                 = * During his fight with Talbot and May, Creel turned a chain railing into a ball and chain flail, the first version of his signature weapon.
 * While Coulson's team is discussing Creel, Isabel Hartley refers to him as an "absorbing man", a passing reference to his comic book alias.
 * Marvel                 =
 * Wikipedia              =
 * Links                  =