THE ABOMINATION (Emil Blonsky)
Created By: Stan Lee & Gil Kane
First Appearance: Tales to Astonish #90 (April 1967)
Role: The Hulk's Mirror Image Villain
Group Affiliations: The KGB
PL 12 (217)
STRENGTH 16 STAMINA 14 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2
Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+8)
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Spy) 6 (+8)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 13 (+15)
Investigation 4 (+6)
Perception 2 (+4)
Stealth 4 (+4)
Technology 2 (+4)
Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Daze (Intimidation), Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Fascinate (Intimidation), Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Grab, Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Startle
Powers:
"The Strongest One There Is"
Power Lifting 5 (50,000 tons) [5]
Leaping 11 (4 miles) [11]
Protection 2 (Extras: Impervious 15) [17]
Immunity 12 (Heat, Cold, Radiation, Pressure, Poison, Disease, Drowning, Radiation Damage) [12]
Features 1: Goings into Suspended Animation if Thrown Into Unliveable Conditions [1]
Regeneration 6 (Feats: Regrowth) [7]
"Natural Size" Growth 2 (Str & Sta +2, +2 Mass, +1 Intimidation, -1 Dodge/Parry, -2 Stealth) -- (10 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [5]
"Super-Strength Feats"
"Thunderclap" Dazzle Hearing 12 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Touch Range, Distracting) (24) -- [29]
- AE: "Groundstrike" Affliction 12 (Dodge; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 120ft. Burst +3) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Instant Recovery, Limited to Ground) Linked to Damage 12 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (Flaws: Limited to Objects) (22)
- AE: "Groundstrike Line" Affliction 12 (Dodge; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 120ft. Line +3) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Instant Recovery, Limited to Ground) Linked to Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (Flaws: Limited to Objects) (22)
- AE: "Shockwave" Damage 12 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Both Grounded) (24)
- AE: "Super-Breath" Move Object 12 (Extras: Area- 120ft. Cone +2) (Flaws: Limited to One Direction) (24)
- AE: Penetrating Strength Damage 13 (13)
Unarmed +8 (+16 Damage, DC 31)
Assorted Strength Feats +12 Area (+12 Damage/Affliction, DC 27/22)
Initiative +4
Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +16 (+8 Impervious), Fortitude +15, Will +6
Complications:
Responsibility (Nadia, Ex-Wife)- Nadia is a famous ballet dancer who was once married to Blonsky. He frequently gets obsessed over her, or tries to protect her.
Prejudice (Monster)- Blonsky cannot take human form, and is permanently stuck as a gigantic monster. He can not pass even remotely for a human being.
Enemy (The Hulk)
Total: Abilities: 72 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 19 / Powers: 87 / Defenses: 18 (217)
-Rather than the Leader, it's this guy who's ended up being Hulk's most recurring foe by the simple virtue of... well, that age-old rule in comics that states "Every single hero shall have an evil version of himself out there, to show what would happen if he ever went bad. And also for him to have bad-ass fight scenes with, since they're so equal". A Russian secret agent who deliberately exposed himself to a Gamma Bomb, he was lucky enough to not die, but happened to turn into a gigantic green monster dude with funny lips, who's gone on to threaten The Hulk countless times. This pretty much makes him an uber-jobber with a 2-100 record against the big guy (as well as making him a jobber to every single OTHER Hulk-enemy that comes down the pike COUGHredhulkCOUGH), but he's enough of a threat to challenge any other Marvel hero as well.
-Stan Lee admits to creating the guy only after realizing that no other characters was called "The Abomination"- coming up with every other aspect of the character after the name had been chosen. In his debut, Blonsky defeats the Hulk, but Banner himself comes into play, draining Abomination's Gamma Radiation, allowing his Hulk form to defeat him. Immediately afterwards, he is taken away by The Stranger for further study (I get the impression that Stan always wanted to do more with that guy, but he never became a big star)- Blonsky only reappears to fight the Silver Surfer. Eventually, he becomes a recurring foe of the Hulk, facing him repeatedly over the years. By this point, his "Stronger Than The Hulk" aspect becomes filtered down- instead, he merely STARTS OFF stronger than the Hulk, whose "The Madder He Gets..." power eventually lets him get the inevitable victory. Essentially, Blonsky starts off winning, but the Hulk will always pull out the victory in the end.
-His stories are frequent, but pretty same-y. At one point he beat the Gray Hulk, however, and eventually got turned human after swapping places with Tyrannus. Alas, this is short-lived, temporarily going insane, then becoming a pawn of The Leader. He encounters the X-Men, Namor and Nate Grey in the '90s. He's also revealed to be the reason that Betty Banner died of radiation poisoning- he murdered her in order to deprive the Hulk of Betty, the same way Abomination was of his ex-wife. After a few dozen more stories, he has an unfortunate encounter with the new Red Hulk- in order to "Put The Rookie Over", to use the wrestling parlance, The Abomination jobs and jobs HARD- Red Hulk effortlessly beats the piss out of him, then SHOOTS HIM IN THE HEAD, executing the villain. About as obvious and transparent a trick as you can use to make your new character look good ("Hey! Look at how good our new guy is! See? He totally killed that old villain!"), and the fans didn't take to it in the slightest. Granted, there wasn't much left to DO with this guy, and some time on the shelf can benefit him and let him regain some credibility (which, after a hundred-odd losses to the Hulk, had to have been damaged). He has recently reappeared, but not gotten up to much.
-Ultimately, this character always has trouble- a Mirror Image Villain is only worthy so long as he has credibility- as the Hulk is a very "fight-oriented" character and Blonsky has the same kind of powers, their battles always end in fisticuffs, with the Hulk victorious. Eventually, it can be hard to take a guy like this seriously, because all he does is fail. Really, Marvel would be better off "shopping him around" like they do with The Juggernaut- have him curbstomp a few established heroes in OTHER books, reminding the fans that while this guy can't take The Hulk, he can sure as hell take anyone ELSE if he needs to- though really, none of this would be a problem if Marvel would stop Power-Geeking the Hulk out so much, and let him take a frickin' loss once in a while.
-A big nasty bastard, The Abomination is a PL 12 monster who's a notch above even the Hulk in overall strength until Banner starts to Rage (an Uncontrolled attribute), meaning that Blonsky often has the upper hand in the early parts of their fights. He's mostly the same as the Hulk stat-wise (but lacks the "Rage" boosts), gaining Gills, Suspended Animation, as well as the skills of a Soviet Spy who doesn't become the king of all morons in his giant green form.