Abomination (comics)

The Abomination is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original and most known iteration is Emil Blonsky, who first appeared in Tales to Astonish #90 (April 1967) and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Gil Kane. He is one of the main enemies of the superhero Hulk.

Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books, the character has been featured in other Marvel-endorsed products such as arcade and video games, animated television series, merchandise such as action figures and trading cards. The Abomination made his cinematic debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Incredible Hulk (2008), portrayed by Tim Roth. In 2009, the Abomination was ranked as IGN's 54th-greatest comic book villain of all time.

Publication history
Stan Lee chose the name "the Abomination", which he realized belonged to no other character, before conceiving the character's background and appearance. Lee recalled that he simply told the artist Gil Kane to "make him bigger and stronger than the Hulk and we'll have a lot of fun with him."

Emil Blonsky first appeared in Tales to Astonish, and was introduced as a KGB agent and spy who became the Abomination after deliberately exposing himself to a greater quantity of the same gamma radiation that transformed Bruce Banner into his alter ego the Hulk, using a machine Banner was planning on using to commit suicide. In his first appearance, Blonsky became a large scaly humanoid even stronger than the Hulk. In accordance with Lee's wishes, the character defeated the Hulk in their first battle.

The character has been featured in a number of Marvel titles, gradually shifting from unthinking, savage brute, to master schemer, to tortured soul, and finally repentant villain and occasional defender of the weak before being killed in battle by Red Hulk.

Fictional character biography
Emil Blonsky was born in Zagreb (then part of Yugoslavia) and became a KGB agent who infiltrated an Air Force Base in New Mexico where Dr. Bruce Banner was experimenting with gamma rays. Blonsky triggers the event that turns Banner into the Hulk, and himself turns into a hideous lizard-like creature.

The Abomination reappears when summoned by a coven of witches to briefly battle the cosmic hero the Silver Surfer and summons Thor (via an absent Stranger's technology) to aid him in escaping the Stranger's laboratory world. Thor frees the Abomination and the other captives, but, on discovering they are all evil, uses his mystic hammer Mjolnir to time travel several hours into the past to undo his mistake. After defeating the Abomination and placing the Abomination in prison, Thor departs. When the Hulk is defeated by the alien Xeron the Star Slayer (who is in New York City hunting a giant creature called Klaatu) and brought aboard a space vessel, the Abomination is revealed to be First Mate of the alien crew. When the captain of the vessel directs Xeron and the crew to battle Klaatu in space, the Hulk and the Abomination are thrown from the vessel and battle until the pair are drawn into Earth's orbit and separated.

It is revealed in flashback that the Abomination entered into a coma on impacting with the Earth and is buried for two years. Revived by an off-course missile fired from Hulkbuster Base (under Ross's jurisdiction), the Abomination joins forces with General Ross to defeat the Hulk, but is battered into submission by an angered Hulk. The Abomination reappears with fellow Hulk foe the Rhino, and the pair activates a gamma bomb at the Hulkbuster base in an attempt to destroy the Hulk. The Hulk's companion of the time, Jim Wilson, deactivates the bomb and the Hulk tricks the villains during combat, forcing them to collide and knock each other unconscious. A comatose Abomination is eventually found by soldiers at Ross's direction and has a miniature bomb implanted in his skull, being told to fight and defeat the Hulk or be killed. The Abomination tricks the Hulk into an alliance and betrays Ross by attempting to ransom the captured Kennedy Space Center. The plan fails when the Hulk turns on the Abomination and the pair fight, with the Abomination being caught on a rocket when it explodes.

An illusion of the Abomination also appears with illusions of other Hulk foes when the Hulk (at the time possessing the intelligence of Banner, thanks to being made to a device called the Encephalo-Helmet) enters the brain of Colonel Glenn Talbot at microscopic size to excise a mental block placed in Talbot's mind by the Gremlin.

The Abomination eventually reappears as a servant of the entity the Galaxy Master, having been empowered with even greater strength. After another extended battle with the Hulk, the Hulk attacks and destroys the Galaxy Master, causing the Abomination to weaken and apparently become lost in space. When MODOK invades Hulkbuster Base, he colludes with General Ross to revive the Abomination, who was found in a block of ice above Earth and kept in cryogenic storage for further study. MODOK intends to use the Abomination against his superiors at A.I.M., while Ross wants to use him to destroy the Hulk. The Abomination, however, has become afraid of the Hulk as a result of their past battles and has to be mentally forced by MODOK to fight the Hulk. MODOK, however, is ousted by A.I.M., and a hesitant Abomination is beaten by the Hulk when he intervenes to save Banner's laboratory assistant. The Abomination refuses to rejoin the fight, and is disintegrated by MODOK.

During the Secret Wars II storyline, the Abomination is restored by the demon-lord Mephisto, who directs the Abomination and other villains against the cosmic entity the Beyonder as a member of the Legion Accursed.

The restoration is temporary, as a still-disembodied Abomination's atoms mingle with the disembodied atoms of the villain Tyrannus, who reintegrates the Abomination's body and places it under his mind's control. Tyrannus, as the Abomination, then comes into conflict with the Gray Hulk, and quickly defeats the weaker version of their foe. When the Hulk reverts to Banner, Tyrannus forces him to create a procedure that will remove Blonsky's mind, who is mentally fighting Tyrannus' mind for control of the Abomination's body. The process is successful and Blonksy is restored to a human form, free of Tyrannus, whose mind is still occupying the form of the Abomination. An enraged Gray Hulk defeats Tyrannus, who is placed into custody by the organization S.H.I.E.L.D.

After encounters against Avengers Wonder Man and Hawkeye, the Tyrannus-controlled Abomination reappears during the "Atlantis Attacks" storyline with the Deviant Ghaur freeing Tyrannus from the body of the Abomination by restoring Tyrannus' mind to a duplicate of his own body and placing Blonsky's mind within the Abomination's body once more. The process drives Blonksy insane, and he battles heroes Spider-Man and the She-Hulk, managing to knock both unconscious. The Abomination is eventually driven off when set on fire by the She-Hulk. The Abomination's mental faculties eventually return and the Abomination reappears in the "Countdown" storyline as a pawn of another Hulk foe, the Leader. The Abomination is sent to a toxic waste site to collect samples, and encounters the gray version of the Hulk again, who is outmatched and also weak due to being poisoned. The Hulk, however, throws the Abomination into toxic waste that partially dissolves and horribly scars the Abomination.

The Abomination temporarily teams with villains Titania and Gargantua and finds and stalks his former wife, Nadia (a famous ballet dancer). The Abomination captures her and after taking her into the New York City sewers, reveals his true identity. After a brief skirmish, the Hulk persuades the Abomination to free his wife.

The Abomination is also captured by the robot Sentinels, but is eventually freed by the X-Men.

After befriending a woman who finds her way into the sewers, the Abomination battles Namor during an attempt to save his kidnapped former wife. The Abomination retaliates against the NYPD when the Police Commissioner orders the sewers be cleared of all homeless, who the Abomination has placed under his protection. After killing several police officers, he is eventually driven away when confronted by the Hulk. The Abomination battles the mutant Nate Grey (who is searching the sewers for his lover and fellow mutant Threnody, who had been one of the homeless followers of the Abomination), who uses his mental abilities to trick the Abomination in thinking that he defeated Grey. He battles a delusional Hulk before encountering the Angel when the mutant visits the sewers in which he was once captured and maimed during the "Fall of the Mutants" storyline.

When Betty Ross dies in the title Hulk, Banner mistakenly thinks her proximity to the Hulk has induced a fatal case of radiation poisoning. Using a gamma device, a vindictive General Ross tracks what he believes to be the Hulk to a destroyed town, where the Abomination reveals he was the true culprit. Despite baiting a newly arrived Hulk, the Abomination is unable to force the Hulk to fight and departs.

The circumstances of Betty's death are eventually revealed: Blonksy's transformation into the Abomination apparently alienates his former wife Nadia, driving his hatred of Banner; Blonsky, deciding to deprive Banner of Betty in return, secretly poisons her with his radioactive blood. After hearing the Abomination's admission, Banner eventually discovers the truth and the Hulk defeats the Abomination in combat. Taken into custody by the military, Blonsky is forced to watch old home movies of him and his wife together (prior to his transformation) as punishment. Operatives from a secret organization "Home Base" eventually release the Abomination to battle the Hulk, and although able to taunt the Hulk about Betty's murder, he is defeated once again. This encounter is revealed to be a dream generated by longtime Doctor Strange foe Nightmare in an effort to torture the Hulk.

After a humorous encounter with the demigod Hercules, in which the Abomination is chosen as an adversary for the hero while he completes the modern version of the 12 Labours of Hercules, the Abomination is pardoned and employed by the U.S. government as a hit man against hostile foreign powers. The Abomination is also a conflicted opponent for the heroine the She-Hulk (currently employed by spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D.). The Abomination has a subtle but significant role in the World War Hulk storyline, being the source of gamma-irradiated DNA that allows the creation of an anti-Hulk response team.

The Abomination reappears after the events of World War Hulk, encountering a new foe called the Red Hulk. This new opponent savagely beats, shoots, and kills the Abomination. Later on, it is revealed that the Abomination's killer, the Red Hulk, is actually General Ross's gamma-powered alter ego; he killed Blonsky as an act of revenge for his deliberate gamma poisoning (and later death) of Ross's daughter Betty.

During the "Dark Reign" storyline, the Abomination is among the dead characters present at Zeus's trial. Abomination reappears in the court of Pluto, attacking the Olympian god when he loses power over the dead.

During the "Chaos War" storyline, the Abomination is among the dead characters in the Underworld that Pluto liberated in order to help defend the Underworld from Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Abomination fights the Hulk and his allies until Marlo Chandler taps into the Death essence within her to destroy his undead body.

A shadow organization (later revealed to be the Order of the Shield) bent on gaining control of the Hulk harvests biological material from a mortally wounded Bruce Banner. After Banner regains consciousness following the experiment and escapes as the Hulk, the organization uses this material to resurrect the Abomination under their control, leaving him "free of a mind or a conscience" and with an ability to seek out Banner/Hulk for retrieval. Hulk defeats the Abomination yet again with the aid of the Avengers. Iron Man uses technology taken from the Order of the Shield agents to teleport the Abomination into interplanetary space estimated to be "somewhere in the vicinity of Jupiter".

Tissue samples of the Abomination were later used by the U.S. Hulk Operations to graft to the corpse of Rick Jones that revives him as an Abomination/A-Bomb-like creature that Dr. Charlene McGowan calls Subject B.

After ripping Rick Jones from Subject B's body in a brutal battle, Hulk Operations Commanding Officer General Reginald Fortean teleport to Gamma FLight Headquarters in space, killing Sasquatch and temporarily killing Doctor Samson to retrieve the Subject B husk. Fortean then willingly fuses himself with the body.

Powers and abilities
The Abomination is similar to the Hulk in terms of strength, stamina, speed and durability, and the ability to regenerate. In contrast with the Hulk, he retains his intellect after transforming, and cannot change back into human form. He also possesses gills, enabling underwater breathing, and he can enter a state of suspended animation when bereft of oxygen for long periods. Initially, the Abomination is twice as strong as the Hulk, but unlike the Hulk his strength does not increase/decrease in proportion to level of anger, with the result that the Hulk is able to gain an advantage over the Abomination if the fight takes a sufficient amount of time for his anger to increase.

After being further empowered by Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Abomination is considerably larger than before, can project hellfire and is strong enough to rip off the shell of his successor A-Bomb (something which even the Red Hulk had previously been unable to do). After his second resurrection by the Illuminati-dubbed Order of the Shield, the cloned Abomination gains further augmentation through Banner's biological grafts. The Abomination gains the ability to track the Hulk anywhere in the world at will. Another feature is his ability to control his gamma radiation output in such a way that he can make it toxic to even the most resilient of individuals, including energy absorbers such as the Hulk, Captain Marvel and Sunspot.

Abominatrix
The Abominatrix is a female counterpart of the Abomination. Florence Sharples was the manager at Jasper Keaton's savings and loans company. She became the Abominatrix due to a failed medical experiment done by Jasper Keaton's medical facility and fought the She-Hulk.

Teen Abomination
The Teen Abomination is a 13-year-old boy who was exposed to gamma radiation and became a teenage version of the Abomination.

Reginald Fortean
As mentioned above, Reginald Fortean accidentally turned himself into another version of the Abomination when he came in contact with the husk of Subject B which was previously used on Rick Jones.

JLA/Avengers
The Abomination is among the villains enthralled by Krona to defend his stronghold. He is defeated by Superman.

Ultimate Marvel
The Ultimate Marvel equivalent of the Abomination appears as part of an international group. This version is a Chinese scientist named Dr. Chang Lam. Dr. Lam was working to create a more efficient version of the Hulk. When he believed his research was complete, he used the formula on himself. When he transformed into a dinosaur-like giant, he retained control of his permanently enhanced form because of his lack of mental disorders, serving with the Liberators. He battled with the Hulk, believing that his intact intellect would allow him to easily beat him, but ended up ultimately being killed in the duel.

The Ultimate iteration of Emil Blonsky (under "the Abomination" codename) is part of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos team and has the ability to Hulk out.

Abominations
The character also stars in the limited series Abominations, which continues plot points from the Future Imperfect storyline. A group of time-travelling assassins from the time of the villain the Maestro—sent by an alternate version of the Abomination called "Emil"—arrive in the present, intent on killing Betty-6, a futuristic version of Betty Ross who is pregnant with the Maestro's child. The Abomination provides shelter for Betty-6 and prevents the assassination.

Mutant X
In the Mutant X universe, the Abomination appears as a part of a group that opposed the Beyonder and died after.

Marvel Zombies
A zombified Abomination appears in Marvel Zombies: Dead Days. Thor kills him by destroying his head with Mjolnir during the battle between the surviving heroes and the zombie horde.

Television

 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appeared in The Incredible Hulk animated series, voiced by Richard Moll. He, alongside the Gargoyle and the Ogress, serves the Leader as one of his Gamma Warriors.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced by Steven Blum. He is a member of Doctor Doom's Lethal Legion and serves as the group's comic relief along with MODOK.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. In the short episode, "This Monster, This Hero", he is seen as an inmate of the Cube. In "Breakout (Part 1)", the Abomination and his fellow prisoners escape following the Cube's sudden power failure. He briefly engages the Hulk, who retreats with Doc Samson, enabling him, the Leader, and the Absorbing Man to gain control of the Cube. In the two-part episode "Gamma World", the Abomination assisted the Leader in a plot to turn everyone in the world into gamma monsters. However, the plan was foiled by the Avengers while the Hulk engaged the Abomination and threw him into a nearby desert. He is later approached by Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil. Throughout the episodes "Masters of Evil", "This Hostage Earth", and "Acts of Vengeance", the Abomination continues to work with them until they are eventually captured by the Avengers and remanded to Prison 42.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload, voiced again by Robin Atkin Downes.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., voiced again by Robin Atkin Downes.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, voiced Masaya Takatsuka in the Japanese version and again by Robin Atkin Downes in the English dub.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors episode "Contest of Champions" [Part 1], voiced again by Robin Atkin Downes. He, the Beetle, and the Executioner are used by the Grandmaster to obtain Spider-Man during his titular contest against the Collector.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in the Avengers Assemble episode "Seeing Double".

Film

 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 * Blonsky first appears in the film The Incredible Hulk, portrayed by Tim Roth, who also voices and provides motion capture for the Abomination. In the movie's storyline, Blonsky was a Russian-born British Royal Marine on loan to General Ross's Hulkbuster Unit. Wanting to relive his glory days, he volunteered to be injected with a sample of an imperfect super soldier serum. While it increased his physical capabilities to superhuman levels, it left Blonsky power-hungry and eventually drove him to seek out Dr. Samuel Sterns and force him to inject the former with Bruce Banner's blood. Blonsky is mutated into a monstrous "abomination", according to Sterns, and runs amok in New York's Harlem district before being defeated by the Hulk and handed over to General Ross.
 * Blonsky appears in the Marvel One-Shot short film The Consultant via archive footage. S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson meets with fellow agent Jasper Sitwell to discuss their director, Nick Fury, disagreeing with the World Security Council's attempts to exonerate Blonsky and put him on the Avengers Initiative and formulate a plan to help Fury. At Sitwell's urging, Coulson reluctantly sends in Tony Stark to sabotage the meeting with General Ross, as partially shown in The Incredible Hulk's pre-credits scene.
 * During an interview in December 2014, Roth revealed that he was offered to reprise his role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but plans fell through during pre-production.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United, voiced again by Robin Atkin Downes.

Video games

 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in the 1994 The Incredible Hulk video game. He serves as the boss of the first level and a mini-boss on all other levels.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears the final boss and an unlockable character in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, voiced by Ron Perlman. This iteration of Blonsky is an NSA agent given control of NSA branch, the Division, who seeks to use Banner's research to cure his wife Nadia's ovarian cancer. However, he is infected with a vial of Banner's DNA and exposed to gamma radiation, which transforms him into the Abomination. During the final battle near the Vault, the Abomination destroys a nearby dam with the intention of killing civilians, but is stopped by the Hulk. Refusing to give up, the Abomination smashes the dam apart and disappears in the oncoming flood, leaving his fate unknown.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appear in The Incredible Hulk, voiced again by Tim Roth. He serves as the final boss of the game as well as an alternate appearance for the Hulk.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss and an unlockable playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad, voiced again by Steve Blum.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss in Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet, voiced again by Steve Blum. He is available as an unlockable playable character through the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 exclusive DLC "Doom on the Loose".
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss and an unlockable playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, voiced again by Steve Blum.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss in Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat, voiced again by Steve Blum.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss in Avengers Initiative, voiced again by Steve Blum.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss and an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced again by Steve Blum. In the game's story, he is among the supervillains that help Doctor Doom obtain pieces of the Silver Surfer's board and joins forces with the Sandman to hold the Grand Central Terminal for ransom for one such piece. After being defeated by the Hulk, the Abomination is imprisoned at the Raft, but later escapes during the Brotherhood of Mutants' attack on the prison. He fights the Hulk again, but is ultimately defeated and re-incarcerated.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel's Avengers.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a playable character in Marvel: Future Fight.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears as a boss in the 2020 Marvel's Avengers video game, voiced by Jamieson Price. This version is a former Special Forces operative who was mutated into the Abomination by A.I.M., who experimented on him in an attempt to replicate the Hulk's powers. Blonsky began assisting A.I.M. with their operations whenever his skills were required and eventually became one of the organization's top operatives. He encounters Bruce Banner and Kamala Khan at a former S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, but is defeated by the Hulk. The Avengers also encounter the Abomination in a side-mission.

Toys

 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination is featured in the first series of the Hulk Classics line of action figures from Toy Biz.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination is featured in Marvel Legends Series 13.
 * An action figure based on the Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination's film appearance was released in May 2008.
 * The Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination appears in the stand-alone Marvel comics expansion of Heroscape.
 * In 2010, the Emil Blonsky version of the Abomination was the 61st figure released in the Marvel Select line of action figures.